Orioles Hire MacPhail As President

Thursday, June 21st 2007, 7:45 am

By: News On 6

BALTIMORE (AP) _ Andy MacPhail was hired Wednesday as president of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles, two days after the last-place team fired manager Sam Perlozzo.

MacPhail will oversee all baseball operations for the struggling club, which has not had a winning season since 1997. He said he believes owner Peter Angelos will allow him the independence he needs to run the team.

``If I didn't feel that way, I wouldn't be here,'' MacPhail said noting he outlined to Angelos where he thinks the boundaries of the owner's influence are.

MacPhail was president of the Chicago Cubs from 1994-2006, also serving as general manager from July 2000 to July 2002. He was general manager of the Minnesota Twins from 1985-94, helping the team win World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.

His father, Hall of Famer Lee MacPhail, was Orioles general manager from 1958-65 and also was GM of the New York Yankees and president of the American League. Andy's grandfather, Hall of Famer Larry MacPhail, brought night games to the major leagues while with the Cincinnati Reds in 1935 and was chief executive of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Yankees.

``As a kid, I loved the Orioles,'' Andy McPhail said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

MacPhail fills a post with the Orioles that had been vacant since Joe Foss resigned this year. Former Cubs catcher Joe Girardi, who knows MacPhail from their Chicago days, was interviewed Tuesday to become the Orioles' manager. The team was in the process of attempting to work out a deal with Girardi, a person familiar with the talks said, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks were ongoing.

``I'm very impressed with Joe,'' MacPhail said, adding that he doesn't have a time table for choosing a manager. He said reports that an offer had been made to Girardi were inaccurate.

MacPhail said he would spend the next five weeks before the trade deadline watching, reading and listening.

``What I'd like to do, what I'd like to achieve ... is to develop a team that has a character and an identity,'' MacPhail said. He said establishing identity is difficult, but achievable in the climate of modern baseball where players and free agents can quickly change a team's image.

Baltimore lost for the ninth consecutive time Tuesday, 12-6 to the San Diego Padres, its first game under interim manager Dave Trembley. The Orioles have finished with losing records in nine consecutive seasons, the longest such streak in franchise history.