Orioles executive: Trump should apologize before throwing out a first pitch

A Baltimore Orioles executive says he'd prefer President Trump not throw out a first pitch at Camden Yards without first apologizing for statements that could be viewed as problematic "from a race, ethnicity, religious, gender, disability" standpoint.

John Angelos, son of owner Peter Angelos and the Orioles' executive vice president and chief operating officer, said on a Baltimore-based podcast that divisive rhetoric and actions during Trump's campaign and since his swearing-in require that the president re-double efforts to embrace all members of the community.

“Ultimately that decision is with the ownership group as to what major politicians and political figures and societal figures they want to invite,” Angelos said, per the Washington Post. "I know that the administration has taken a lot of criticism for its controversial positions; I think more so perhaps for statements made both during the campaign and since the administration came in concerning things that are considered to be problematic from a race, ethnicity, religious, gender, disability. People in those communities have been spoken about very negatively by a candidate and now president.

“You’re asking my personal opinion; I think it’s really incumbent upon any individual who leads the country to step away from those types of statements, to apologize for those statements and retract them. And then to turn the page, and then to move forward in embracing their community, all parts of that community. Until that happens, it wouldn’t be my preference to have the president come throw a pitch. But that’s up to the ownership as to what they would like to do there.”

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Peter Angelos has been a longtime donor to the Democratic Party; his son says he is neither a Republican or a Democrat, but he has not strayed from the political arena when it intersects with the Orioles, offering his thoughts on the death of Freddie Gray while in custody of the Baltimore Police Department, and endorsing the playing of Woody Guthrie's progressive anthem, This Land Is Your Land, at Friday night home games.

The Orioles - much like the Nationals down in Washington -  frequently host first pitches from the executive branch; Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama did the honors during President Obama's first term, and even the scheming Frank Underwood from House of Cards - then the vice president - did the honors on the Netflix series.

Before Trump climbs the Camden Yards mound, John Angelos would ask that the president retract or apologize for some of his more discomfiting remarks that run counter to the air of inclusion he'd prefer.

“And the first step to doing extremely well is for this person, this individual who is in the office of the presidency to retract all the outrageous things that have been said and simply do one thing: apologize,” Angelos said, according to the Post. “You don’t say those things about women, you don’t say those things about different ethnic groups, different national origins, people who are disabled, all that. And if you do say them, you’re a big enough person to withdraw them and apologize.

“And the other thing that needs to happen here is more corporate CEOs and people that want to be community leaders to act like Misty Copeland did and act like other athletes have done, right on back to Colin Kaepernick. They need to stand up and not normalize and not legitimize and not whitewash that kind of conduct. I wouldn’t accept that from a Democrat or a Republican or somebody from outer space."

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