Déjà vu with the Florida Marlins' Miguel Cabrera

This latest weighty news regarding Florida Marlins superstar Miguel Cabrera
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/sfl-spmarlins11feb11,0,5278583.story?coll=sfla-sports-front , and http://www.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/content/sports/epaper/2007/02/12/a3c_marlins_c_0212.html comes at a particularly bad time for a small-market team that is always life and death with home attendance, and uncomfortably reminds South Beach Hoosier of his time in Washington, D.C., when nearly every area sports team had more than their share of awful public P.R. that couldn't be succesfully spun away.

The two incidents that struck the most in my throat bach then concerned:
1.) Baltimore Orioles second baseman Robby Alomar's public fit about having to play in the Orioles' annual (show of goodwill) game at their then-AAA farm team, the Rochester Red Wings, and,
2.) perpetually troubled Washington Bullet/Wizard and later Heater Rod Strickland continually blowing-off Bullets/Wizards season-ticket holders at special events, multiple times, and not even showing up for the annual team picture.
When he wasn't driving drunk or without a license.
Yes, those were the days!

To paraphrase what Washington area baseball savant Phil Wood wisely opined on his then Saturday morning radio show on WTEM, a tradition with me, Alomar came to Baltimore thinking that because of his inarguable talent, he would get most of the "Cal treatment" from management folks at 'the Warehouse.'
When that didn't transpire and the amount of carte blanche that Cal Ripken enjoyed was not shared to the extent that Alomar believed he was entitled to -because there's only one Cal- Alomar got into the first in a series of funks, and began his long descent that led to his eventually jumping-the-shark.
(Phil's insight can now be found at http://www.examiner.com/Topic-By_Phil_Wood.html )

All-too-predictably, the Orioles acted surprised, as they later would when Orioles reliever Armando Benitez blew a gasket versus the Yankees in a beanball display that was the last of many incidents that called into question not the fitness of his arm, but rather his head.

"Ever hear of a sports psychologist?"
That's what I continually asked myself and my baseball-loving neighbors at Camden Yards in both Section 27, where from 1992-99, I had a 19-game season ticket plan for 4 seats with two friends, and from the center field bleachers, my favorite spot, where I'd usually attend another ten games per year with friends I invited.
If my neighbors knew it was all-too true, as I did, how come the Orioles (and now the Marlins) don't?
Why don't ballclubs EVER learn a lesson from these sorts of predictable squabbles, instead of continually trying to reinvent the wheel?

The following entry from a September 1999 Washington Post chat with ace baseball writer Richard Justice -now of the Houston Chronicle; columns at http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/sports/justice/home/ and his blog at
http://blogs.chron.com/sportsjustice/ -speaks volumes about the conflicting pressures that existed within the Orioles clubhouse at that time:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/chats/rjustice092899.htm

Baltimore, Md.: We know that Cal Ripken is a Hall of Famer. No one will dispute his contributions to the Orioles and the sport of baseball during his career. Yet, I have such conflicting emotions about him. In the final analysis, I think Ripken has harmed the Orioles -in terms of team chemistry and setting a double standard among the players- more than helped them over the course of his career. Am I being unfair to him? I'd like to hear your thoughts on the clique that he seems to lead and how it has affected the Orioles as a team in the last several years. Thanks.

Richard Justice: I've known Cal pretty well since 1984 and am constantly amazed at his discipline, toughness and all of that. I also don't believe the streak was hurtful to the team in any way, even though players like Raffy Palmeiro and Robby Alomar did seem to resent him. It does bother me that he was allowed to stay in a different hotel. Someone should have put a stop to that before it even started. Now, it's in his contract. I don't buy that he had to do it because he's so famous. Michael Jordan stayed where his teammates stayed. So did Nolan Ryan. So, you're not being unfair because there was a double-standard. With great players, there has to be a double-standard on some matters, but not one as basic as that.