Texas Road Report - Part 2

“Are you guys going to the game?” The airport security worker took my ticket and driver’s license from my outstretched arm. He doesn’t make eye contact while asking the question, but must have caught a glimpse of my Orioles’ hat and t-shirt at some point.

“Yea, we are,” I answered excitedly.

From the time we decided to take this trip through the remainder of the following week, I always spoke about the trip with a sense of accomplishment, as if I expected a small round of applause or maybe a nice pat on the back for my show of dedication to Baltimore’s baseball team. This guy gave me neither.

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Texas Road Report - Part 1

Thursday, October 4, 2012 − 3:20 am

I went to sleep immediately after the Orioles 4–1 loss to the Rays that closed out the regular season.

Well, I tried to go to sleep. I slept for a few restless hours and then woke up at 2 am with a million questions on my mind.

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It is Not Supposed to be this Way . . .

I’ll tell you why the result of last night’s game bothered me. It did not bother me strictly because the Orioles lost. It did not bother me because the O’s lost a 2-1 lead with one out in the 9th inning. The fact that Jim Johnson gave up his second game-changing homerun in three games wasn’t even all that worrisome to me. No, what really got under my skin was the way the events played out – with Raul Ibanez hitting two homeruns after pinch hitting for Alex Rodriquez – seems so wrong, so unjust, and so unfair.

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Dylan Bundy, Expectations, and Minor League Baseball

Tim and I arrived at Prince George’s County Stadium on Wednesday night at about 6:30 PM. We decided to make the trip south to Bowie the day before. Wednesday night was going to be Game #1 the Eastern League (AA) playoffs, Orioles uber-prospect Dylan Bundy was scheduled to pitch, and five days without attending a live baseball game is just far too long. We walked into the stadium – the sun beginning to set over the left field wall. We reached the concourse and took survey of the situation. Tim was the first to speak up. “Where is everyone?”

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The 2012 Baltimore Orioles - A Lesson in Survival

Did you think of something he didn’t think of?

Crashing into horizons on the brink of – success!

Hurrah! Success which was survival gone too far!

- All Things that Go to Make Heaven and Earth, The New Pornographers

Yesterday – August 13, 2012 – the Baltimore Orioles had an off day on their schedule. No game was played, but there was still plenty of work to be done for an organization that has not had a dull moment since the first pitch of the season was thrown way back on April 6th. The day started with Troy Patton informing the club that he rolled his ankle on Sunday night and that he could potentially miss a few games or more. The team acted quickly by reacquiring left-hander JC Romero in exchange for non-prospect Carlos Rojas. The resigning of Romero is an unusual situation – the veteran left-hander signed a minor league contract with the Orioles earlier in the season, only to opt out when he was informed that the team would not be calling him up in the near future. Romero signed on with the Indians and was assigned to AAA Columbus, although the Orioles, Indians, and Romero all had an unofficial agreement that Romero would be allowed to return to the O’s (for a small amount of compensation) if the Orioles intended to add him to the 25 man roster. Romero was immediately added to the 25 man roster in place of Miguel Socolovich, who was designated for assignment the previous day. Steve Johnson was notified that he will be needed at Camden Yards today in case Patton is indeed DL-bound.

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Dare to be Excited

I haven’t post in a while but it hasn’t been out of lack of interest. First was vacation, then I was busy at work and . . . you get the idea. It is August 8th and the Baltimore Orioles sit at 8 games over .500 with a record of 59-51. In four months of baseball, we have already seen the following occur:

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"No Excuses . . ."

A huge pet peeve of mine is when people fail to make the distinction between an explanation and an excuse. An explanation is a reason why something happened. An excuse is an explanation with the added intention of absolving a person or persons from responsibility. My go-to story when discussing this subject is this – about ten years ago, Tim and I were on a Wiffle Ball team. I don’t want to go into the whole Wiffle Ball thing right now, but yes, it is a legit, competitive sport played by adults and our team, the Stompers, were quite good. During the 2003 summer our left-handed starter, Dan, injured his elbow and by doctor’s orders was not allowed to pitch until he had been cleared to do so. Our team was scheduled to play a tournament here in Maryland. Two of our five teammates, however, lived in Pennsylvania and since a low turnout was expected for the tournament, they opted not to make the trip. That left the team as just Dan, Tim, and myself – none of us who could pitch. We grabbed a friend and former teammate to help out with the pitching, but he hadn’t played in several years and was never much of a pitcher to begin with. Needless to say, without any pitchers we lost all three of our tournament games against what could only be labeled as “weak” competition.

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Silence can be golden

Silence. I first experienced the epic joy of silence at the September 19, 2010 Orioles vs Yankees game at Camden Yards. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the 9th, the Yankees had just brought in closer Mariano Rivera. The Yankees fans in attendance gave him a a rousing ovation. It was disgusting that a game at our home stadium had been taken over by 35,000 Yankees fans and made worse by the extremely loud reaction.

But then Luke Scott hit a solo home run to tie the game. After the Orioles fans had our celebration, the rest of the inning was pitched in a deafening silence, because the Yankees fans didn't know how to react. Their houlier than thou attitude had been crushed and they fell silent.

It was a terrific couple of minutes, made only better by a Ty Wigginton walk off double to send the Yankees fans home disappointed.

Silence can be amazing.

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