BALTIMORE SUN: After the news broke that the Angelos family will sell the Baltimore Orioles, just six weeks after agreeing to a lease keeping the team in the city for at least 15 years, Maryland State Treasurer Dereck Davis said the state was misled.
Amid reports indicating the possibility of a sale, John Angelos, the team’s MLB control person, called Democratic Gov. Wes Moore in December to assure him he would not sell, according to a source familiar with the call. But Baltimore native and billionaire David Rubenstein has reached a $1.725 billion agreement to buy the team, along with an ownership group expected to include Oriole legend Cal Ripken Jr., sources familiar with the deal told The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday.
“We were lied to,” Davis said during Wednesday morning’s state Board of Public Works meeting in Annapolis.
Moore, who traveled with Angelos to spring training last year and appeared with him multiple times at Oriole Park, opened the meeting Wednesday by congratulating the new ownership group and thanking the Angelos family. As outlined in the lease agreement, which guarantees the Orioles remain in Baltimore for 15 years and potentially more than 30, the agreed-to lease carries over to the new ownership group.
“We are thrilled because being able to keep the Orioles in Baltimore for a long period of time was a key priority for this administration,” Moore said.
Elsewhere in Annapolis, state Senate President Bill Ferguson expressed optimism, too, saying there is “hope for the team ahead.”
