FanHouse RickDempsey

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

Last week, the Orioles celebrated the 25th anniversary of their 1983 World Series title. That was the last time the once-proud franchise won a championship, in case you were wondering, and it's been a decade since they were relevant.

Eight days later GM Andy MacPhail did nothing at the trade deadline despite his club's grim chances in 2008. Closer George Sherrill is still an Oriole. So is second baseman Brian Roberts, first baseman Aubrey Huff, outfielder Jay Payton and starting pitcher Daniel Cabrera.

To an outsider it might look like the latest gaffe from a front office that has been as hapless as they come since the days of the Clinton administration. But spend a few days with the team at Camden Yards and you get an entirely different vibe.

MacPhail has overhauled the organization in such a way that there's very real hope for the very near future. In perfect concert, manager Dave Trembley has changed the clubhouse culture, stressing things like accountability, respect and appreciation. It's enough to make you see the light at the end of the tunnel, if nothing else.

Sheesh, I haven't heard that name since ... the last time. And it's been quite some time too. Despite being diagnosed with bone marrow cancer in 2003, Baylor says he's ready and eager to return to managing. And according to The Denver Post, Don Baylor could be a candidate for the Orioles job:

He might get [a chance] after emerging this week as a strong candidate for the Baltimore Orioles' managerial vacancy. Andy MacPhail, who oversaw Baylor's hiring in Chicago, is leading the search as Baltimore's new president. Joe Girardi turned down the job, leaving Dusty Baker, Davey Johnson, Rick Dempsey and Baylor as possible successors to Sam Perlozzo.

Baylor may not have made PostmanE's list of candidates which included Baker, Frank Robinson, Johnson, and interim manager Dave Trembley, but he sure is trying to establish himself as a candidate now. Baker has a cushy gig at ESPN, so he might not be as quick to leave as some people would think. Who knows about Johnson and Dempsey. From the sounds of things, they might not find a more eager candidate than Baylor. And really, how hard is it to manage the O's to a fourth or fifth place finish every year?

Previously at FanHouse:
So, What Do the Orioles Do Now?
Is Tom Kelly a Potential Orioles Manager?

Maybe the Orioles should consider broadcasting their games on television sans the broadcast booth because it seems that all their current broadcasters do is cause trouble.

First there was the incident in which play-by-play man Gary Thorne said that Doug Mirabelli told him Curt Schilling's bloody sock was just red paint--and it's not like Curt Schilling would ever say anything untrue--and now Rick Dempsey is in trouble for cracking wise about domestic violence during the Orioles loss to the Indians on Tuesday.

Dempsey isn't normally in the booth, but I guess Jim Palmer had a couple of underwear ads to shoot so he filled in on Tuesday. In the third inning, Thorne and Dempsey were joined by Jay Gibbon's wife Laura Giuliani.

Laura was in the booth to promote some charity work she's doing to help fight domestic violence. Well, with Gibbons struggling through a season long slump, Dempsey thought he'd come up with a good way to get him out of it.

His wife should choke him.

"Laura, will this kind of help Jay in the domestic violence area? If he doesn't start getting a few more hits, you might grab him around the neck and rough him up a little bit," Dempsey said, according to The Baltimore Sun. "[Is] this money going to go to help him a little bit with maybe some of the hospital bills or something like that?"

To that, Giuliani replied, "I don't know, Rick. I don't think I'm encouraging that. I'm definitely not ..."

"Not going there?" Dempsey interjected.

"Not going there," Giuliani replied.

"All right, I'll domestically violate him if he doesn't start getting some more hits," Dempsey said, according to The Sun.

Video of the exchange can be seen at Can't Stop The Bleeding.