Orioles ‘will never leave’ Baltimore, team CEO says amid family legal battle

The legal battle between the Angelos brothers is far from over, but Orioles chairman and CEO John Angelos tried to set the record straight on Monday morning. 

The Orioles “will never leave” Baltimore, Angelos wrote in a statement posted to the team’s Twitter account, amid accusations from his brother, Louis, that he is planning on moving the team to Tennessee. 

“As long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over Inner Harbor, the Orioles will remain in Baltimore,” John Angelos wrote.

In a lawsuit filed last week, Louis Angelos alleged that his brother wants to relocate the franchise to Tennessee, where John Angelos lives with his wife, Margaret Valentine. Valentine is a country music singer-songwriter in Nashville. Georgia Angelos, their mother and the wife of longtime Orioles owner Peter Angelos, was also listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. 

“My mother was born and raised in Northeast Baltimore,” John Angelos wrote, “attended city public schools, and has worked with my father their entire lives to help the city, including by restoring the club to local ownership and preventing its relocation. For them, as for me, the Orioles will forever play at Oriole Park, and at no time ever have we contemplated anything different.”

Statement from Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos: pic.twitter.com/A1lqCcRRBm

— Baltimore Orioles (@Orioles) June 13, 2022

John Angelos also referenced how the Maryland General Assembly recently passed a bill allocating $1.2 billion into the Camden Yards Sports Complex, which includes Oriole Park. 

“Maryland is committed to keeping our team in this great state, and I am equally committed to keeping the Orioles at the heart of our state,” he wrote. 

“There is nothing uncertain about the future of the Baltimore Orioles,” John Angelos added. “I want to assure our Orioles players and coaches, our dedicated front office Senior Leadership Team and staff, and our devoted fans, trusted partners, elected, civic, and non-profit leaders, and our entire community, that the Orioles will never leave. From 33rd Street to Camden Yards, the Birds of Baltimore, the iconic team of Brooks, Earl, Jim, Frank, Cal, and Eddie, will forever remain in the only city that our family and our partnership group has called, or will ever call, home — the finest city and birthplace of our national anthem of which we are enduringly proud and to which we are forever committed.”