Orioles Owner David Rubenstein's Recent Remarks Are Likely To Cost O's Fans The Most

David Rubenstein has quickly become a walking and talking parody of the modern MLB owner.

He gives off heavy Mr. Magoo vibes (google him, kids), making repeated statements that seem as is he is trying lampoon the entire conceit of franchise ownership, conveying a lack depth and understanding with his puzzling rhetoric. Whether it’s propping up a proven baseball failure as his top exec while whining about a non-existent injury crisis and yammering about winning “seven out of every 10 games” or the silly comments he made early in his tenure – from a gathering of the richest .00005% in the world at a summit in Davos, Switzerland about a non-existent salary cap - he really can’t stay out of his own way.

He doesn’t know when to talk – you know, explaining why you kept Mike Elias and his overmatched puppet sidekick in charge – and when to just receded into the background and hide, like he’s done from Orioles fans once he figured out he didn’t purchase a 100-win juggernaut that just needed a new scoreboard.

A guy who couldn’t stop throwing hats at paying customers early on when he thought he was riding a gravy train and had bobbleheads of himself made despite accomplishing nothing but sending the organization in reverse, keeps looking silly. He’s already written a book about franchise ownership that has led him to again speak in front of gatherings of the elite of the elite where he continues to come off as a caricature of a winning owner. Rubenstein continues to clown himself and this franchise with his aimless rambling (keeping contemptible baseball executives but firing The Oriole Bird).

But trust me, words carry meaning and words have consequences and don’t be surprised if his yapping about how much MLB owners are making, ahead of an impending lockout in pursuit of that salary cap, ends up costing Orioles fans most of all.

Numerous high-ranking baseball industry people, including some who have worked extensively in roles that had them going between MLB owner’s boxes and the league office, believe that Rubenstein’s recent remarks in Washington DC will absolutely carry an internal reprimand from the league office, and multiple people who have been intimately involved in the highest reaches of the game would not be surprised in Baltimore’s endless wait for an All Star Game stretches even further after Rubenstein’s latest verbal faux paus, remarking how MLB ownership is basically a cash cow at a time when his franchise is down over 500,000 in attendance from before he took over and has fallen nearly 40 games off the pace in the AL East the last two years.

The Worst Mistake A Billionaire Can Make

Jun 29, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Orioles owner David Rubenstein high fives fans during the seventh inning stretch against the Texas Rangers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports | USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect

Rubenstein whispering the quiet part out loud – in essence winking that franchise values always soar, and it’s impossible not to make out well as an owner even in trying economic times under the current collective bargaining agreement - is a very big deal. He has made himself one of the faces of this impending labor doom, whether he realized it or not.

“(Commissioner Rob) Manfred must have lost his mind when he read about it,” said one person who worked closely with Manfred at an ownership level. “It’s remarkably unfathomable on a number of levels that he would say that out loud … Sins like that do not go unpunished.”

What exactly did Rubenstein say earlier this month at an economic club meeting?

“A lot of my friends were buying teams, and I realized they’re making money. They’re making more money than I’m making in private equity. I thought I should look at it as a financial thing, but ultimately I bought the Orioles for a philanthropic purpose.

“I grew up in Baltimore, as people know. I didn’t think I’d done enough for Baltimore, so I bought the team to help revive the team a bit and ultimately revive Baltimore because Baltimore had some challenges.”

A private equity luminary – whose Carlyle Group was at the vanguard of a low-morality form of investing – said people were making more money owning sports teams than even he could achieve elsewhere. Sorry Birdland, that comes at a price.

“It’s about the dumbest thing he could possibly say at a time like this,” one person who was involved in running multiple front offices to me. “The union is going to weaponize his words throughout the entire negotiation, and who could blame them?”

The MLBPA began compiling quite the dossier on Rubenstein after his remarks in Davos – barely spending on payroll at the time and coming in as management hardliner already made him a potential target – and he is quite likely to factor into this acrimonious and public and potentially insipid negotiations at a degree that no one with his limited and losing resume within baseball ever should.

But, apparently, he just can’t help himself.

What’s It Mean For O’s Fans?

A view of the Baltimore Orioles playing against the New York Yankees in an empty stadium at Oriole Park at Camden Yards — July 29, 2020; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; A general view of the Baltimore Orioles playing against the New York Yankees in an empty stadium at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Todd Olszewski/Orioles Baseball/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network | USA TODAY Sports

Camden Yards, despite being the ballpark that perhaps saved baseball and ushered in a prevailing trend of throwback, urban, stylized stadiums, hasn’t hosted an All Star Game since 1993. Other cities have hosted it twice since then and Baltimore has been skipped over repeatedly and if you don’t think that’s because Peter Angelos went to war with the MLB office all the time, you are a fool. Pittsburgh has hosted twice since Baltimore last did and so have the hapless Rockies and so has Philadelphia. And Atlanta. And I could go on.

And if you don’t think that Angelos’ son, John, got deprived of a money-making weekend for years because of his repeated lawsuits with the Nationals and MLB over the ongoing MASN litigation, you must be cut off from all forms of information. That’s how sports leagues operate and how they strong arm, and everyone I broached about this topic was quick to point out that the easiest way to admonish Rubenstein – besides any fines or penalties behind closed doors – is to keep awarding All Star Games to other (less deserving) cities.

“That’s the easiest and most obvious way to punish him,” the first source said noted. “The Truist Club, when you assess an investment like that, which seems outsized for the market, you have to think that was done very much with an All-Star Game in mind.”

Indeed, hadn’t thought about that, but that blight – that somehow hasn’t cost Catie Griggs her job but wiped out the mascots - sits empty where a pristine press box once stood and there isn’t any appetite for A CEO playpen behind home plate among local corporations or businesses. But it’s the kind of creature comfort the other billionaires expect when they visit and especially at an event like All-Star weekend.

It’s always the fans who pay for mistakes the ownership class makes. Perhaps one day a sensible person will chair that position here, who pursues winning in a meaningful and consistent fashion. But not anytime soon, and lately whenever Rubenstein opens his mouth, he shows you just how far removed we are from that steward in charge.

Subscribe To "The Daily Flock" For No BS O's Content And Conversations:

Add us as a preferred source on Google