You have to feel bad when someone gets fired, but the way in which David Steele was let go from the Baltimore Sun was just downright evil. Steele, and others, were told via phone that they were being let go, but even worse while in the press box covering an Orioles game.

Well Steele has penned his first account of the events for Real Clear Sports, and here are some of the highlights, er lowlights....

Not long after that, around 2 p.m., one of the other writers pulled me aside: “Maese just sent a text saying he got laid off." It was a perfectly legible sentence, but it made no sense to anyone there. It’s the middle of the game, they just had layoffs yesterday, he’s a prominent columnist … huh? It wasn’t anything to joke about, but it didn’t sound true at all. But he had, for the moment, disappeared from his seat.

I went back to my seat and saw that there was a message on my cell from the office. I hadn’t turned the ringer back up after the manager’s pre-game press conference, so I hadn’t heard it. The message: call back as soon as you get this. Good, I thought, we’ll straighten out this business of who is writing for the next day. Which, technically, is what happened. Still, apparently, I was either completely clueless or in total denial, I’m still not sure which.

It didn’t matter. I called back and got the voice mail. At 2:34 p.m. (that time-stamp is kind of stuck in my head for the time being), the office called back. I went into a hallway behind the press box and answered it with something like, “Hey, what’s up?’’ Or “What’s going on?’’ Along those lines.

My editor greeted me, paused, took a deep breath. “David, I’m sorry you have to be told this way …"

I actually doubled over. It wasn’t a sharp pain, and it wasn’t like I was about to get sick. It was more like a knot in my stomach. I know I said, “Aw, shit,’’ but I don’t know how loud I said it, apparently not loudly enough for my editor to take note of it. The rest is a little fuzzy, something about just now getting the list and the union and not wanting me to hear it from someone else and getting paid through the end of May and severance and human resources and return your possessions to us and thank you for your hard work and professionalism and blah blah blah.

That is just the lowest of the low right there, and a chilling account of what went down. Growing up in that area, the Baltimore Sun has always been dysfunctional, but hearing something like this just signifies the end of the end. You would have thought that the way it was depicted on "The Wire" would have been the nail in the coffin, but gutting the Sports Department seems to be the final straw. There's really no other reason to read the thing.

Press Box Layoff: How the Baltimore Sun Fired Me (Real Clear Sports)

Leave it to the Orioles, right? Announcers, Fred Manfra and Joe Angel were calling yesterday's Spring Training game against the Mets, when rain interrupted the contest. The O's and Mets left the field for a bit, but came back once the drizzle had subsided. Unfortunately for those listening on 105.7FM in the Metro Baltimore area, Joe and Fred did not return.

In fact, the duo even called home and said the game had been cancelled. Via the NY Post's Mets Blog....

FORT LAUDERDALE -- This is a bit off topic, but too funny nonetheless:

The Orioles' flagship radio team of Joe Angel and Fred Manfra quietly left the stadium here today during a 90-minute rain delay and didn't come back for the final eight innings, telling their bosses at 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore that the game had been canceled.

"Yes, the rest of the game was not on the air back home and we don't know why," baffled Orioles PR rep Jeff Lentz said later. "We looked over during the game and they weren't there."

The thing I find most random about this, is how no one in Baltimore could A) figure out the game was still going on, and B) if they did, how no one could get in touch with them. It's not like this was in the ninth inning. The rain delay happened in the first for chrissakes! Too funny.

O's announcers up and leave (NY Post)

A little levity to ESPN's all-day fawning over Yankee Stadium, as commenter Bazooka Jones alerted us to earlier today, via the wonderful someecards.

Despite having family in the New York area, I'd never gone to the Stadium. (My family is full of Mets fans; I've been to Shea twice.) But, I understand the reverence everyone has for Yankee Stadium; it's obviously an integral part of baseball history. Too many great players and too many great moments in baseball, including 26 World Series banners, hang in that stadium.

And yet, MLB lets that history go out into the sunset with the Baltimore Orioles visiting. Yikes. Didn't they have a year to fix that after the initial schedule came out? Anyway, if you have Yankee Stadium stories, share them, and consider this another open thread, this one for the O's-Yanks Sunday night game -- if you can bear to deal with Joe Morgan tonight.

Sunday Night Footbal Live Blog coming in an hour....