As the Baltimore Orioles played (and lost) their first playoff game a few miles away on Tuesday, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore for the first time acknowledged missteps in the state’s lease negotiations with the baseball team one year ago.

Speaking at The Baltimore Banner’s iMPACT Maryland event, Moore said that he didn’t do the best job explaining what it meant for the state and the baseball team to sign a memorandum of understanding — news that was flashed on the ballpark video board in the middle of a game.

Many fans thought that the announcement meant a lease had been inked, when in fact that did not come until months later. Some expressed frustration that the governor and the state had oversold what actually had been agreed to.

“I don’t think I did a good enough job articulating for people that the MOU is basically the pathway. … The terms of the deal are now established,” Moore said.

He added: “I wish I would have explained that better.”

Moore’s comments on the lease came in response to a question from interviewer Dean Baquet of The New York Times, who asked about tough decisions and if he had any regrets in his time in office.

Despite his self-critique of the Orioles deal, Moore said that he doesn’t regret any decisions he’s made, even bad ones, because they’re learning experiences.

“I learned from it, and I got better because of it,” Moore said.

Moore’s remarks came amid a wide-ranging, 30-minute conversation with Baquet that capped the daylong conference hosted by the news organization at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

Thoughts on Biden

The two also discussed President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race earlier this year, which came after Moore’s staunch defense and support of the Democratic president.

“I don’t do disloyalty,” Moore said. Publicly, Moore remained vocally in support of Biden’s candidacy all the way up until the president bowed out of the race on July 21.

But like many Americans, Moore watched the now-famous June 27 debate between Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump, when Biden struggled greatly. He, too, realized the incumbent president might be in political trouble.

Moore watched the debate while on a plane with his wife, Dawn Flythe Moore. The governor was returning to Maryland after speaking at a conference in Aspen, according to his schedule.

“I remember very early in the debate, in one of the first answers, I remember reaching over, grabbing my wife’s hand and saying: ‘Oh my God,’” Moore recalled. “It was hard to watch.”

Moore added: “It’s clear that Joe Biden is such a good man, and I have such a deep level of respect and admiration for him as a human being. And it just became clear at that point that it was going to be very difficult for him to articulate to the country that he could lead.”

Moore said he realized the race might be impossible for Biden to win when news broadcasts focused more on Biden’s bedtime than his policy announcements or Trump’s “crazy” statements.

“That’s not an election you can win,” Moore said.

Eventually, Moore said he shared his concerns with the president. “I don’t know what the pollsters are saying,” Moore said he told Biden. “But real people are concerned.”

Biden’s departure from the race was disappointing, Moore said, because he said he’s had a solid working relationship with the president. That partnership was strengthened when Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March.

Biden made an early-morning phone call to Moore promising support. And hours later, the president conducted a news conference and pledged that the federal government would pay for the cost of rebuilding the bridge.

The public may have seen the president’s actions that day, but there were so many other times that they couldn’t see the work Biden was doing behind the scenes, Moore said.

“I could not ask for a better partner inside this work,” Moore said. “I also know that 300 million-plus people in America didn’t see what I see.”

That said, Moore said he’s excited to have Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee. He’s glad the Democratic Party coalesced around her quickly.

Moore’s prediction for the general election: “I think Vice President Kamala Harris is the next president of the United States.”