Stet Sports Blog

When Mike Mussina left the Baltimore Orioles for the New York Yankees in 2000, I wasn’t upset. The Evil Empire afforded more money and a better shot at a World Series title.

He never did get that World Series title, but he got his money and a few more wins and strikeouts to add to his Hall-of-Fame resume’.

Now that he has retired, most Orioles enthusiasts will tell you that it broke their hearts to see him leave. That he was a traitor to defect north for the money and the glitz that only New York can offer. But when you take emotion out of it, Mussina more of a visionary about his talent than any of us could have imagined. Known to be a calculating individual on and off the mound, Mussina knew the Orioles were on the verge of falling apart after the 2000 season.

He knew Cal Ripken Jr. only had a few good years left, that the front office would not be aggressive in pursuing quality free agents, and that his career would be spent in relative anonymity going forward. Mussina had the foresight to continue his career in a town where baseball is king, and took a chance at making it big in the Big Apple.

You can’t fault the guy for a risk, or the reward that he got out of it.

Given that the two phases of Mussina’s career were so balanced between the Orioles and the Yankees, it’s possible that a Hall of Fame induction will been an affair in pinstripes. The Yankees are baseball’s flagship team, their stretch of dominance in the late 90s was legendary, and the league won’t mind trumpeting a Yankee pitcher not named Roger Clemens.

And Orioles fans should be fine with that. They can rejoice in having seen one of the greatest pitchers in the last 20 years in their backyard, and can now add more flames to the fire they should be lighting under the O’s front office for letting him get away.

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