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Florida Marlins president David Samson has no shortage of critics these days in Miami-Dade County. He can thank Deadspin.com for his troubles.

On Monday, August 23, Deadspin.com obtained the financial records of the Marlins covering the 2008-09 seasons, and the fallout was not pretty.

When the Marlins approached Miami-Dade County officials for financial help in constructing a new baseball facility, they contended that the Marlins only break even financially year after year, the centerpiece argument for obtaining local government funding.

In fact, documents show the Marlins could have covered a substantial amount of the new stadium’s construction themselves and still turned an annual operating profit.

Documents obtained by Deadspin.com revealed that the Marlins had an operating income of over $50 million in the last two fiscal years.

Further documents that were recently revealed have shown that the Marlins paid out a “management fee” of $5.4 million over that same two year period to a company called Double Play.

According to the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, Double Play is owned by both Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria and Samson, effectively paying themselves for the period shown.

Loria and Samson have been crying poverty to anyone who would listen over the course of the last several years. The leaked documents prove otherwise, and now both men are scrambling to explain to the public why they should be entrusted with their fans’ hard earned money to provide sound entertainment value.

You can follow Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.

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The Los Angeles Angels can’t get the Baltimore Orioles out of town fast enough. The Orioles are wishing they could stay for an extended period of time.

Orioles starting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie allowed just four hits over eight and 1/3 innings, and Matt Wieters supplied the only offense needed with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning, giving the Orioles a 1-0 victory and a sweep of the season series over the Angels for the first time in history.

The Angels’ offense was anemic all weekend long, scoring just one run and making Orioles’ starters all look like Cy Young candidates.

Angels starter Jered Weaver (11-10) certainly did his part, pitching eight innings, allowing only five hits and one run. Victimized once again by lack of run support, Weaver could only watch as Guthrie mowed down his teammates one by one.

Each Baltimore starter lasted at least eight innings, and Angel hitters managed only 16 hits throughout the three-game series.

Guthrie (8-13) was spectacular from the start, keeping Angel hitters off balance with an array of pitches. He escaped a jam in the bottom of the sixth. After allowing a walk to Jeff Mathis, Peter Bourjos sacrificed Mathis to second, and Reggie Willits reached on a bunt single, moving Mathis to third.

Guthrie worked out of it, getting Howie Kendrick to ground into a double play, ending the inning and the threat.

Guthrie started the ninth by retiring Peter Bourjos on a fly ball to left. Willits, who had the only success against Guthrie all afternoon, blooped a double into short right-center. Howie Kendrick followed with a single, moving Willits to third.

Guthrie’s afternoon was done, as Mike Gonzalez was called in to face Bobby Abreu. Abreu struck out, and manager Buck Showalter then called on new closer Koji Uehara to face Torii Hunter. Uehara got Hunter to fly out to right, and the sweep was on.

Uehara closed out his second game of the series, and the Orioles are now 16-11 for the month of August, giving them their only winning month since June, 2008, and their first winning August since 1997.

For the Angels, manager Mike Scioscia must now ponder what he’ll be doing in October, as the Angels appear destined to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

You can follow Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.

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Baltimore Orioles pitcher Kevin Millwood has suffered through a nightmarish season, yet he still takes the ball every fifth day and gives his best effort. On Saturday night, against the Los Angeles Angels, Millwood’s best effort turned into into his best start of the season.

Millwood scattered six hits over eight innings, and No. 9 hitter Josh Bell slammed a two-run homer, giving the Orioles a 5-0 victory over the suddenly punchless Angels.

Millwood (3-14), who earned his first victory in over two months, could have easily finished the game, having only thrown 110 pitches. Instead, at the request of O’s manager Buck Showalter, he gave way to Jimmy Johnson, who pitched a scoreless ninth. Johnson, who last pitched on April 30, was activated from the 60-day disabled list on Friday night after being sidelined due to inflammation in his right elbow.

“I know Kevin probably as well as anybody here, and I feel so good for him because I know how much he cares,” Showalter said.

“I think he could have finished that game. I mean, 110 pitches doesn’t come into play on a cool night. But it was a perfect spot for J.J. to get broken in a little bit, and I appreciate the professionalism of Kevin after I explained to him what we were trying to do.”

Millwood worked out of jams in both the fifth and seventh innings, when the Angels put runners on the corners. In the fifth, Milwood induced a double-play grounder to end it, and in the seventh, after Mike Napoli doubled and moved to third on an Erick Aybar single, Millwood retired both Bobby Wilson and Peter Bourjos on pop-ups to escape the threat.

Angels’ starter Scott Kazmir (8-12) was able to match Millwood through the first four innings, however in the fifth, after giving up an infield single to Cesar Izturis, Josh Bell smacked his third major league homer to break the scoreless tie.

The victory was the O’s fifth straight against the Angels this season, and they’ll have a chance to sweep the season series on Sunday afternoon, something neither team has done against each other in 50 years.

For the Angels, they can only scratch their heads and wonder.

You can follow Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.

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The Baltimore Orioles don’t have much to play for during the remainder of the 2010 regular season, except for the role of spoiler. They may have just crushed the playoff dreams for the Los Angeles Angels.

Brad Bergesen threw eight stellar innings and Luke Scott provided the lead run with a run scoring single in the sixth, giving the Orioles their fourth straight win over the Angels, 3-1.

Bergesen got off to what looked like a rocky start in the first, allowing back-to-back singles to Howie Kendrick and Alberto Callaspo, putting men on first and third. Bergesen then committed a rare balk, allowing Kendrick to score. Seemingly unrattled, Bergesen promptly struck out Hideki Matsui to end the threat, and the Angels never got another real chance.

Bergesen (6-9) was spectacular, allowing just four hits and one run, striking out four and walking none in eight innings. He gave way to Koji Uehera, who picked up his third save in as many chances.

The Angels were swept by the O’s in early August at Camden Yards, and their dominance over the Angels continued in Anaheim.

Rookie right-hander Trevor Bell (1-4) pitched seven innings, his longest stint of the season, giving up two runs and six hits while striking out three. Bell, making just his ninth start of the season, certainly pitched well enough to win, but Bergesen was just a bit better on this night.

The Angels’ loss, combined with the Texas Rangers’ victory over the Oakland Athletics earlier tonight, puts them 10 1/2 games behind the Rangers in the American League West. With just 33 games left to the regular season, the Halos’ hopes of playoff glory are slimmer than Tiger Woods’ wallet after his divorce.

You can follow Doug on Twitter, @desertdesperado.

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The month of August has not been kind to the Los Angeles Angels.

Heading into their weekend series with the Baltimore Orioles, the Angels are 10-12 for the month and losers of seven of their last 10 games.

Traditionally, August is the “make or break” month for teams who are still in contention for the postseason.

After the July 31 trade deadline, where contending teams look to bolster their rosters in order to improve their playoff chances, those same teams use August as the month to make their push and decide their fate.

After starting the month 6-4 and sweeping the Kansas City Royals in a three-game series, the Angels have since gone 4-8, failing to win any series and falling further back in the AL West standings to the division-leading Texas Rangers.

While a number of factors have contributed to their dismal month thus far, one that clearly sticks out is their bullpen.

With the fourth worst bullpen ERA in the American League at 4.29, Angels relievers have struggled. RP Francisco Rodriguez failed on two occasions to hold leads in the Orioles’ sweep of the Angels in early August, and normally reliable Kevin Jepsen failed to hold a lead in Boston on August 18.

In the early to mid 2000s, the Angels bullpen was the cream of the crop in the American League, with the best ERA out of the bullpen from 2002-04. Manager Mike Scioscia was masterful in pulling the right strings to protect late-inning leads and had the talent to pull it off.

Those days are apparently gone, as evidenced by the team’s current struggles.

Another major culprit has been the bottom of the Angels’ batting order. Combined, the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the lineup are hitting a paltry .211 for the season, a full .033 below the league average.

While these spots in the batting order in the American League are typically reserved for players less adept at the plate, fairly automatic outs are certainly not what the Angels had in mind for players manning these slots in the batting order.

For the Angels to have any hope of postseason glory in 2010, these two important aspects of their game must improve dramatically. If recent performance is used as an indicator, their hopes will turn into despair.

You can follow Doug on Twitter @desertdesperado.

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The sport of Major League Baseball has seen its share of gambling controversies, most notably, the scandal surrounding the 1919 World Series and the Chicago White Sox, famously known as the Black Sox Scandal.

However, not one scandal gained more notoriety than the allegations levied against Major League Baseball’s all-time hits leader, Pete Rose.

On August 23, 1989, through an agreement reached with then baseball commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, Pete Rose voluntarily accepted a lifetime suspension from the game of baseball.

Rose, at the time the manager of the Cincinnati Reds, had been reported to have been betting on baseball, and more specifically games in which the Reds were involved.

Rose was questioned in early 1989 by Giamatti, who was president of the National League at the time, and by current commissioner Peter Euberroth.

Later in the year, Euberroth stepped down as commissioner, and Giamatti was unanimously selected by MLB owners to replace him. During this time, lawyer John M. Dowd was retained to investigate the allegations against Rose.

In mid-August, the investigation was completed, and its findings submitted to commissioner Giamatti. In his report, Dowd concluded that Rose indeed had bet on baseball games, and had specifically on at least 50 Reds games in 1987, at a minimum of $10,000 per day.

On August 23rd, after several days of negotiations with commissioner Giamatti, Rose agreed to the lifetime ban. Ironically, eight days after the announcement, Giamatti suddenly died of a heart attack at his summer home in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. He was just 51 years old.

At the time, Rose had vehemently denied that he bet on baseball games. In 2004, fifteen years later, he finally revealed in his book, “My Prison Without Bars”, that he did bet on baseball.

Rose has applied for reinstatement several times, but the ban is still in place today. He has only been allowed back on the baseball field once, in 1999, when he was elected to the All-Century team, and he appeared with the team on the field at the All-Star game at Fenway Park.

Rose has arrogantly displayed his disdain for the decision on several occasions, setting up shop outside the confines of the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York during induction ceremonies, and at autograph signing sessions throughout the country.

Rose had his own radio talk show for years during the 1990’s, and his lifetime suspension was frequent fodder for Rose and his guests.

If Rose could have simply accepted the ban, worked to ingratiate himself positively with baseball owners and executives, and publicly admit his wrongdoings, his suspension likely would have been lifted.

Instead, Rose chose the tact of displaying complete arrogance and constant denials until fifteen years after the fact, and those acts alone have not only kept him out of baseball, but also kept him out of the place where he truly feels he belongs—the Hall of Fame.

Arrogance has never been a successful act of defense. Rose should have chosen the path of humility.

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Vin Scully is not ready to head out to pasture just quite yet.

Scully, now 82 years of age, announced on Sunday that he will return to the Los Angeles Dodger’s broadcast booth, a job that he has held since 1950.

Scully, after conferring with his wife, Sandy, and his five children, said, “My wife understood, God bless her,” Scully said. “She said, `You love it, do it,’ and so I love it and I’m going to do it.”

During Scully’s Hall of Fame broadcasting career, he has called three perfect games, 19 no-hitters, 12 All-Star games, and 25 World Series. Scully called the perfect game of Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, as well as Kirk Gibson’s dramatic pinch-hit home run in the first game of the 1988 World Series.

Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame broadcaster Marty Brennaman, who is in his 37th year broadcasting for the Reds, was in the radio booth next to Scully when the announcement became public.

Brennaman said, “There’s never been a better broadcaster in our profession than Vinny, and there never will be. He represents our fraternity better than anybody because he’s without ego, he’s nice to everybody and he’s always got a smile on his face.”

Scully calls all home Dodger games, and road games against NL and AL West teams only. He gave up traveling east of the Rockies years ago.

Scully has garnered more awards in sports broadcasting than many of his peers combined, and he does his job with a panache and flair unlike any other.

“We’re all known as play-by-play guys. Vinny’s not a play-by-play guy. Vinny’s a storyteller,” Brennaman said.

Doug can be reached on Twitter, @desertdesperado

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