We received this envelope today, just two days after posting this critique of ESPN's profile on Baltimore Orioles outfielder Luke Scott. Immediate thought: a terrible press release, for some reason sent via paper, or some kind of cease-and-desist letter for misrepresenting Cal Ripken's children's book a few months back. Who knows, right?
What we did not expect to find was an anonymous, creepily assembled letter informing us that the Orioles' statements regarding Scott's political views is (sic'd) "not really end of story...Maybe [the Orioles] should have the employees check their face book accounts."
The allegation: Nancy Ebel, wife of the O's assistant trainer Brian, is a member of a Facebook group with the title "DEAR LORD, THIS YEAR YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTOR, PATRICK SWAYZIE. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE ACTRESS, FARAH FAWCETT. YOU TOOK MY FAVORITE SINGER, MICHAEL JACKSON. I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, MY FAVORITE PRESIDENT IS BARACK OBAMA. AMEN"
The tipster includes a printed view of Nancy's personal Facebook page, which is helpful, because it took an entire 20 seconds to find it ourselves. But we appreciate the effort here: Real investigations require a paper trail, right? I mean, we're going to have this on file forever.
The evidence continues. Here. Is the group. That Nancy Ebel likes on Facebook. (Oh, it's here, too.)
Here you'll see the real heart of our mole's sleuthing: Nancy Ebel is Facebook friends with "fellow republican" Lark Macphail. That's right. Ebel and Macphail, wife of Orioles President of Baseball Operations Andy, are uniting to plot the ways in which the Republican wives of men employed by the Baltimore Orioles can comment on anti-Obama Facebook pages. Conspiracy theory, take flight.
But really, we love your tips. Thank you, anonymous Orioles employee. Feel free to mail us your paper trails at the address listed on the envelope above — or email us at firstname.lastname@example.org.