Baltimore Orioles: Thoughts on Machado and Schoop missing FanFest

The Baltimore Orioles FanFest has come and gone, but the fallout has been slowly building regarding Jonathan Schoop and Manny Machado.

The pair were scheduled to be at the Baltimore Orioles event, but both decided not to attend at the last minute.

According to a report from Eduardo A. Encina with The Baltimore Sun, Machado had a reasonable excuse for the missing the event. But, Schoop did not.

"Encina wrote: “[Buck] Showalter said that in his eyes, Machado was not there for a legitimate personal reason, but that Schoop’s reason didn’t fit his standard.”"

All MLB teams hold a winter fan event and those events are designed to get fans excited for the upcoming season. All teams require the players on their rosters to attend the events and in many cases, the majority of players do. In fact, Adam Jones has attended all ten FanFests. This truly shows his dedication to his team and the fans.

Fan events can be memorable for the right reasons

As an Orioles fan living a long distance away, I was not able to attend FanFest. But, I have attended fan events at other stadiums since I live within a few hours of several MLB stadiums in the Midwest. The most recent event I attended was in Detroit in 2017. As a fan of baseball, I am well aware of the greats in the game and respect their level of play. At the Detroit TigerFest, I came face to face with Miguel Cabrera, J.D. Martinez, and Justin Verlander. In fact, my 13-year-old son got a high-five from Miggy himself. That is something he will never forget.

But, I also remember the players who were not in attendance, most notably Victor Martinez and Francisco Rodriguez. So, I understand the frustration of attending a busy event and not being able to see the top players.

The only time players should miss fan events

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Unless there are events like the births, deaths, or physical issues, players should do everything that they can to attend these important winter events. Baseball is a business and the fans are the customers. The most important customers.

Fans are more important than players think

When the players become “too big” to interact with fans, something is wrong. Players should want to interact with the fans. And, honestly, if Schoop and Machado were concerned about what fans would say regarding their futures with the team, they should remember that fans really don’t get much time in front of players. Plus, players have handlers with them to take care of unwanted situations.

If it is true that Schoop’s agent told him not to attend FanFest because he is arbitration, both men made a big mistake. Schoop will have a contract with the Orioles and he will still have to face the fans, 81 times in fact.

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Fans have long memories. Unfortunately, Schoop and his agent involved fans in their contract issue. That should not have happened. Orioles fans deserve better. Schoop and his agent should issue an apology to the fans and so should the Orioles front office for allowing this to happen.