Peter Schmuck

Now that Orioles president Andy MacPhail has made it clear the club wants to sign Brian Roberts to a long-term extension, there’s just one more question and it has been hanging out there for much of the past year: Does Roberts really want to come back?

Though I think he really does, the situation is complicated enough that the relationship between Roberts and the front office could unravel all by itself.

[...]

The Orioles have a number of needs to fill this winter, and how they go about filling those needs has to depend in some measure on whether Roberts is going to stay or go. If he’s going to stay, MacPhail needs to move aggressively into the free agent market to fill gaping holes at shortstop and in the starting rotation. If Brian is going to leave, then the club can try to find a trade package that fills at least one of those holes while continuing to restock the player development system.

Roberts has been diplomatic about the situation, so it’s hard to tell just what he’s planning to do. He probably wants to see what the team is going to do this winter before fully committing himself to MacPhail’s rebuilding effort. And it’s fair to speculate that any interested free agent players will want to see what the Orioles do with Roberts before deciding whether they want to jump onboard.

WBAL.com

At least two boats were damaged by fire late Wednesday night in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Reports from the scene say that smoke and flames were visible in the 500 block of Harbor View Drive, with one boat sinking as another one described as a 30 foot yacht was fully in flame.

One person was taken to a hospital with apparent burns, and that person was not believed to be a firefighter.

Dan Rodricks

I mentioned Halsey Minor in my column the other day. He’s the wealthy investor with eyes on taking ownership of Pimlico and Laurel. On Oct. 17, he made a public overture to the directors of of MI Developments, the parent of Magna Entertainment Corp., which owns the Maryland tracks. Minor is willing to take on more than $220 million in loans Magna owes MID. He is opposed to the legalization of slots here and thinks he knows how to generate new business and revenue for the tracks without them. He seems to have big ideas and a genuine vision for a revival of the tracks. And he has the biz cred. “I have a deep personal interest in the horse racing industry and a long history of creating profitable business ventures,” he told MID. “I founded CNET, one of the Internet’s first companies to achieve profitability and a NASDAQ 100 designation, and also developed two other CNET spin-off ventures which became successful, publicly-traded entities. CNET was sold to CBS on June 30, 2008. I was also the founding and largest investor in salesforce.com, one of the most successful technology companies over the past eight years.”

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But bloggers called the Bug Boys flushed Minor out a bit last week.

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Alan Heitner, one of the bloggers on that site, says: “Mr. Minor found us. We put up a post saying, ‘If not slots, what is your plan?’ And he actually gave us an answer. This is the beauty of the Internet and blogging. Two dopey bloggers can be involved in generating real news.”

WTOP

The Frederick County Commissioners will seek a raise after the 2010 election, but it won’t be as high as one commissioner wanted.

Commissioner David Gray, who describes himself as unlikely to run for re-election in 2010, originally proposed a raise from the $45,000 current salary to $75,000.

He wanted to tie further increases to an index, like a cost of living index, so commissioners would not have to go through a political process to get them.

The commissioner salary is set by the Maryland General Assembly, and is available for the following term after a raise is approved.

Gray’s fellow commissioners argued against his proposal, saying state lawmakers would never approve such a big jump.

Instead, they decided Tuesday to request that the current commissioners’ salary be tied to the consumer price index, or to the salary of state lawmakers, which is set by an independent salary commission every four years.

Their deliberations took place as the commissioners started to whittle down a long list of priorities they will send to the county’s delegation of state lawmakers for the 2009 General Assembly session.

Gray was disappointed in their decision.

John Hammond at An die Musik Live
One Block Radius and the Ting Tings at Chameleon
Cockeysville Billies, Lawnchair and Whale Show at Ottobar
Pop Evil and Tesla at Rams Head Live!
Jah Works at The 8×10

(Info from Pollstar.com)