Michael Olesker, The Examiner
2008-05-22 07:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Precisely 10 years ago, on the same Yankee Stadium turf where LaTroy Hawkins fired a fastball this week toward Luke Scott’s head, the Orioles’ Armando Benitez fired a fastball at Tino Martinez’s head. Benitez’s pitch signaled the beginning of the Lost Decade of Orioles baseball. But maybe Hawkins’ pitch hinted at the beginning of its end.

Remember that moment in May of ’98? There were the Orioles, coming off two triumphant seasons, unraveling in front of our eyes. Benitez, completely losing his composure in the midst of a New York rally, intentionally fired a fastball at the Yankees’ Martinez.

And all hell broke loose.

Both benches emptied. As several Yankees swarmed around Benitez, shoving him this way and that, Darryl Strawberry threw a sucker punch at the back of Benitez’s head. The Orioles’ Alan Mills, defying every tradition that baseball players don’t know how to fight, threw a right cross into Strawberry’s face. It took a long time to play baseball again — and the Orioles never did play it very well thereafter.

“I’ve never seen anything like that in 25 years,” said Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. “Benitez has no class.” This, from a man suspended from baseball twice for — well, no class.

So there we were Tuesday night, back at the same Yankee Stadium. In the top of the sixth inning, with the Yankees losing their composure in the midst of a 12-2 loss to the Orioles, Hawkins heaved his fastball toward Scott. In fact, two pitches in a row nearly plunked him. Scott hollered at Hawkins. Hawkins hollered back. Umpire Chuck Meriwether tossed Hawkins from the game. Both benches emptied.

It all seemed an eerie echo of exactly 10 years ago.

Except for this: Benitez’s pitch in ’98, and the awful brawl that followed, signaled the end of the last, brief era of winning Orioles baseball and helped set off the full plunge into a decade of defeat and depression. And it signaled the full arrival of Yankees domination.

But Hawkins’ pitch, in the midst of the Orioles’ big win, seemed the centerpiece of something else: The Yankees, currently last in the American League East, are becoming a ghost of their former selves.

And the Orioles, with their new faces and their new energy, are putting some old hauntings to rest.

The only one on the field who might have remembered that brawl from 10 years ago was gone by the time Hawkins tried to plunk Scott. That was Mike Mussina. He was an Oriole back in ’98, but he started for the Yankees on Tuesday night and was gone before the first inning ended, when these new O’s scored seven times.

Mussina is now 39 years old. He is surrounded by veterans who have won multiple World Series titles but, like Mussina, are now well into their twilight baseball years.

The man who beat Mussina is the Orioles’ Daniel Cabrera. Once, like Armando Benitez, he was accused of losing his composure too easily. But that was the old Cabrera. The new Cabrera throws fastballs over the plate. He is 26 years old and has five wins against one loss.

Then there’s the outfielder Scott. He arrived in the trade for Miguel Tejada. Scott is 29, and one at-bat after he finished ducking beanballs from Hawkins, he hit a home run that looked like a lunar shot and bounced off the upper deck.

Scott plays next to a kid named Adam Jones, who arrived in the trade for Eric Bedard. Jones is 24, and all he did Tuesday night was hit safely four times and drive in four runs. Jones plays next to Nick Markakis. He is 25, and even in the midst of a puzzling slump he is recognized as one of the top talents in the game.

Does all of this mean the Orioles march from here to the kind of decade-long success the Yankees have had? Of course not. In the short term, it means we should enjoy the unanticipated entertainment the Orioles have given us so far this year.

In the longer term, though, there seems real promise. The Yankees will always be tough, because they have money beyond counting. But the Orioles, who once called themselves “the best team money can’t buy,” have their own pluses: a manager who has patience and knows how to teach; a general manager who knows how to piece together a team; and a bunch of talented young players who look far more composed these days than the lordly team from New York.