Well, you may not believe me but these past few days, while mulling over ideas for my Baltimore Orioles column --stories somehow not related to the team's horrendously consistent poor play-- I thought it might be worth revisiting the Peter Angelos-Lee Mazzilli relationship. If there ever was one, that is. As cited in other newspapers, the Orioles owner has been unusually and conspicuously silent all season regarding Mazzilli's future with the ballclub, mysteriously even while the team was riding high atop the AL East division. But today, with shoes having dropped all over the team of late, Angelos ended that lack of noise by firing Mazzilli a day after Baltimore suffered its eighth straight loss, 16th of the past 18. Now, I am as much a critic as anyone of Baltimore's antagonistic owner. Calling the man abrasive, for example, or adverserial would be to coat the salty businessman with pounds of sugar. He has often, in fact, been downright offensive in his attitudes, opinions and practices. But this time around, it's sad to say, I think he has made the right choice. I like Lee Mazzilli. I think at many times throughout the season his cool, Torre-styled temperament served him and the team he ran nicely. He has shown poise and maturity in trying to guide his team through countlress hardships and difficulties, and is overall well-respected. He may have made some errors of judgment with the bullpen, or with managerial moves from time to time. These were blemishes, however, on an otherwise smooth surface. Now the surface has lost its luster; the ground has gotten significantly rocky. So, no, I don't think anybody needs any extra blemishes right now. Baltimore held the division lead for a long time this year. In a year, however, that gave us the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees at their worst (at the same time, mind you), the Orioles have still managed to fall to 10 1/2 games back of the AL East lead. They have not been winning much of late. In fact, had you turned on the TV for SportsCenter highlights only five days of the week for the past two months, you might have been deceived into thinking the team had not won a game at all since late May. And in the process certain things have come to light. This is a team that has many bright spots. I can think of a large handful of players and personnel who need not go anywhere for the coming years. But this team's weaknesses have been exposed in the ugliest possible way --both by greater and lesser teams, but mostly by their own doing. Pitching is the most unsightly eyesore, naturally. Some people feel pervesely vindicated by the fact they had been calling that one since before the season began. And they were right. It was a pipe dream to imagine that the young, or soft-tossing pitching staff could continue to hold this team together, especially later in the season when stronger minds and stronger arms always prevail. Injuries played their part in this team's disintegration, to be sure. But as anyone may have noticed, the Orioles' real plummet has occurred after the "life-saving" returns of Javy Lopez, Luis Matos, and Erik Bedard, to name a few. This is, when all is said and done, an example of a less-than-great ballclub displaying its lack of greatness with inarguable conviction and certainty. I think we all get the point. In fact, the Orioles horrible slump has been so demonstrative as to actually drag their preoccupied owner away from the courtrooms and back into the clubhouse, where he occasionally should at least poke his head. Which brings us back to the present day. How much is the manager responsible for his team's successes and failures? Well, a lot. We all know the game begins and ends with the players. Of course. And this says nothing of the unresolved contracts/ futures of front-office leaders Jim Beattie and Mike Flanagan. But when it comes down to it, a team's play is either confirmation or condemnation of he who coaches them to do their job. In this case, heads just have to roll, and we've seen them rolling before much earlier on than this time. Some may think it desperate to axe the manager simply because the team has been failing to win. But that is what it takes sometimes to change the results. Perhaps this team needs someone a little less taciturn, a little less reserved and complacent, a little more Earl Weaver, or Ozzie Guillen. Well, maybe not Ozzie Guillen. Bottom line is a Miguel Tejada leadership has not proved to be enough to hold this frazzled team together by its split ends. Maybe Peter Angelos --who no doubt has figured this out because people will eventually stop paying to see games once more-- maybe he knows this. And, while it most certainly will not save the season we are in-- maybe this time the man is right on point.