Grand Theft Ripken

I’ve lived without HBO for the past decade, so I’m just now watching “The Wire” on DVD. Great show, as everyone has said, even if it does cause people to get a really skewed impression of Baltimore, which is an underrated city in my experience. Of course, there is crime there:

The full-sized statue of Cal Ripken Jr.’s No. 8 in front of the Camden Yards baseball stadium was stolen overnight, and Baltimore police said they have arrested four males in the case. City police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the statue has been recovered, though many details, including whether it was damaged, were not immediately available.

Though the police aren’t releasing names of the suspects, this smells like something Bubbles would do. Omar never would have gotten caught.

BTW, if this inspires a bunch of comments, please be sensitive with the spoilers: I’m only 10 episodes into the first season.


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ChuckO
14 years ago

Omar never would have stolen it. He would have blown away the guys who stole it and taken it from them. Coincidentally, I never saw The Wire while it was on TV and am watching it on DVD. I’ve just finished season two.

Rob²
14 years ago

Gene pushes Finney out of the tree.

Randy
14 years ago

I can’t believe they got caught. It seems like it would be very easy to hide a local hero’s giant statue in a dorm room, or under a bed, and tell no one about it.

Travis M. Nelson
14 years ago

If they were going to steal something in front of Camden Yards, they should have taken the Babe Ruth statue. 

For one thing, he never played for Baltimore.  You don’t see a statue of Ted Williams in front of Petco park, do you? 

And for another, the glove attached to his belt is for the left hand, even though Ruth threw lefty.  Apparently the sculptor wanted to borrow an authentic glove from Cooperstown to use as a model, but they wouldn’t surrender one of Ruth’s actual gloves, but they gave him one from the same era. 

For the wrong hand, though they failed to either notice or mention that. 

And he copied it exactly. 

Oops.

Alex
14 years ago

“I’m only 10 episodes into the first season.”

oh man, you have a LOT to look forward to.

Bill @ the daily something
14 years ago

I just watched the sixth episode of the first season this morning. Pretty good stuff.

Ben
14 years ago

lucky you. i just finished the last episode of the last season last night. now i have a sad.

prop joe would’ve bought it back at ten on the dollar.

Alex K
14 years ago

I just finished the series for the third time a couple weeks ago.  I could watch the first season on repeat.  It’s about to get VERY interesting Craig.

Eric J
14 years ago

What Alex K said.  10 episodes into the first season, you still don’t have a full sense for how great the show ends up being.

Babe Ruth actually did play for Baltimore – just not in the majors.

Motherscratcher
14 years ago

I can’t wait for you to get to the scene with the giant octopus.  I don’t want to spoil anything, but Jack Elam (in his final role) fighting that octopus is going to totally blow your mind.

Levi Stahl
14 years ago

I don’t know: I gotta go with the Riddler on this one. A giant number 8? Doesn’t that seem like something a Batman villain would be willing to travel to Charm City to pick up?

Alex K
14 years ago

I finished the series for the third time a couple weeks ago.  The show is about to hook you if it hasn’t already. 

And no, I don’t have a life.  Watch baseball and The Wire, that’s about all I do.

Alex K
14 years ago

Ummm, that first comment said it didn’t post, then I went away and retyped something kinda similar and BOOM there is was.

John_Michael
14 years ago

According to Baltimore sports radio (105.7 FM), the culprits got caught b/c the police saw the big 8 in the back of a pickup truck. 

Craig, this will make more sense when you get to the 2nd to last season of The Wire which focuses on Baltimore’s inner city schools.

Daniel
14 years ago

It was about episode 10 of the first season that I literally watched from the edge of my seat.  The rest of the season is riveting.  My wife and I are just about to start season 3.

And best scene so far (no spoilers here) is where Lt. Daniels takes off his shirt in season 2.  I’m married with two kids, so take that for what it’s worth, but my jaw hit the floor when that happened.

Greg Simons
14 years ago

Piggy dies.

George shoots Lenny.

I’ve never seen “The Wire,” but I’ve watched the DVDs of “Sports Night” a couple times through.  Y’know to tie this back to baseball and sports and such…

Salvatone
14 years ago

I don’t know about Bubbles… wouldn’t have been easy to re-sell. Bubbles isn’t a thug, he’s just trying to scratch out a living.

This kind of idiotic crime says Ziggy Sobotka to me.

Alex K
14 years ago

It is a total Ziggy crime.  Craig, however, hasn’t met him yet. 

Bubbles would really only take it if it was wasting away in an vacant lot.

Steve Silver
14 years ago

Craig-

Remember the entire episode of “Homicide: Life on the Street” that was centered around a murder at Camden Yards?

Craig Calcaterra
14 years ago

That was the Robin Williams episode, Steve.  Maybe the last time Robin Williams actually acted.

Jorge Says No!
14 years ago

The Wire is absolutely fantastic stuff.

Stealing Ripken’s statue…not so much.

The Rabbit
14 years ago

By sheer luck, I happened to catch Robin Williams in a 2008 episode of “Law & Order: SVU”. He was incredible in the entire episode but particularly the courtroom scene where he represents himself.

TomG
14 years ago

“Bubbles isn’t a thug, he’s just trying to scratch out a living.”

I don’t know, he was in on plotting the big dirty.

Oh, wait, wrong show.

varmintito
14 years ago

To everybody swooning over season one (and it was pretty great), just wait until season four.  It is by far the best story telling I have ever seen on TV.

And no doubt, stealing the Ripken statue is a Ziggy move.