Author Archive

Obama Gives Hope

8. November 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

Not only does Barak Obama give our country hope for better government and a feeling of unity, but he may even give hope to baseball fans. Look at this picture. Maybe all the people who are Ys and Red Sox fans because it’s popular will now become White Sox fans. I can live with that!

07obama_sox.jpg

Hope, hope, everywhere you turn! It’s a beautiful day!

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Off Season Again

3. November 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

This just in, the Phillies won the World Series. I should offer my congratulations, but I have to tell you, I’m a little disappointed.

I have yet to watch the last game, recorded and still occupying valuable hard disk space on the DVR. More accurately, it is the game my husband, wonderful human being that he is, recorded for me because I did not have a spare moment for time consuming activities like pressing the record button on the DVR remote. Somehow I learned of the WS outcome anyway.

What I did see of the World Series was disappointing. Where was Tampa? As we say here in the South, “Bless their hearts.” On the other hand, the Phillies have been waiting a long time for a win and I feel like this World Series absolves the Orioles of any further guilt or bad karma. Maybe this was the thing holding us back and now finally, we can get back to winning?

I wanted Tampa to win. I did. But, in the end, the most important thing and the only one that I really cared about was that the Red Sox make it nowhere near anything remotely named “world” or “series,” and thanks to Tampa, that most important objective was realized. Phew!

Now, there remains the vast winter emptiness ahead. Last year, I filled the time by reading the many wonderful Orioles bloggers (see links on left), Roch’s blog, and boring you, my dear victims. This year, I will not have any time to keep up with the trades (I can’t figure out how to subscribe to Roch’s feed at MASN anyway) as I will still be finishing up this semester when Opening Day rolls around. (Yes, the semester does end in December, I just have no idea how I will get everything done by then!)

This is my lead in to asking you a favor. If you learn of any talk of our George being sent to another team, you must give me advance warning. I realize my pleas to the Orioles organization will go ignored, but I will need time to mourn, time to beg one last time for a hatless George “Drink your milk” poster. Perhaps, if I find time, I can make my own “milk” poster. Anyone else want a copy?

Okay, okay, stop gagging. I promise I won’t spend the next four months posting exclusively about George, but you have to admit, such a preoccupation is a nice way to pass the time. Hey, we all have our niche and it’s better than obsessing over Orioles apparel, no?

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EXCELLENT!

20. October 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

Oh man, I am SO happy for Tampa Bay. Not as happy as I would be if it were the Orioles who just won the playoffs mind you, but about as happy as I can be for a team that isn’t the Orioles. There’s nothing better than winning at home too.

The Rays fans were so loud you couldn’t even hear the Red Sox fans.

What a great game!! Life is good and exactly as it should be. Order has been restored to the universe.

I wish I could be there. This time of year, the weather is so perfect. Man. Who signed me up for all these stupid classes and moved me to Charlotte…

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Favorite Commercials

19. October 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

While we’re waiting for Tampa Bay to finally finish off the Red Sox, I thought I’d share my favorite ads. You’ve probably already seen them, but I like them so much, I felt they were owed a little blog space anyway.

This one I first learned about from my friend Jeff, who one Monday morning excitedly rushed over my cube to say that he saw me in a commercial. If only the woman’s line had been last, the ad would have been perfect:

This one is my all-time favorite. My husband and I saw it for the first time together and when we burst out laughing simultaneously, I fell in love with my husband all over again. My husband didn’t just chuckle, he laughed as hard as I did. It signified to me that even though he still isn’t a baseball fan especially, he gets it. I mean how could he not after traveling with me all around this stinking country and still failing even once to get Cal’s autograph, but even so. I know now that we are of one mind and this is one less thing that I have to explain.

I foresee a long and passionate future. My husband is just there, so close to learning to talk to me about knuckle balls and sliders…”George who?”

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Unbelievable, Part 2

19. October 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

It was selfish of me to watch the game tonight. I know it was. I know that as soon as I take an interest in a team, it’s as good as giving them the kiss of death. Believe me, if I could bring myself to ever cheer for the Ys or the Red Sox, I would out of love for the Orioles, but some obstacles are just too big to overcome, and I, just too selfish.

I really cannot believe the outcome of tonight’s game. Really, that was not supposed to happen. The Rays had first all season. This is their pennant.

There was a time when I complained about fans throwing home run balls back onto the field. Tonight I realized that I don’t have any principles. I was like, “Yeah, that’s right” when whatshisRedSoxface hit a home run and it ended up back on the grass a minute later. “We reject your home run. Take it back.” Everything in life, as it turns out, is relative and situational.

After the game ended, the camera panned to a woman in the stands sitting all by herself crying. Haven’t all six of we Orioles fans been there. I am confident that the Rays will end up on top. If they don’t, I may be weeping right alongside that woman, not just out of empathy for the Rays, but for us, for the new level of obnoxious we’ll have to tolerate from the Sox fans next season. I cannot bear to think of it. I cannot.

Where is Tonya Harding’s boyfriend or Wayward O’s bus when you need it?

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Unbelievable

17. October 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

I think it’s me. I’m the bad luck charm or omen or whatever you call something that brings bad luck. Finally, I set aside time tonight to watch the Playoffs. Oh, how happy I was when the Red Sox were being shut out 7-0 in the 7th. The camera panned to the excited fans, trying to get a rally going, and I actually felt a little sympathy for them, thinking how crushed they were going to be leaving the game tonight after being blown away by Tampa. I know that feeling.

Still, lose the Red Sox must. It is their Karmic destiny as foretold in the ancient baseballic scrolls.

It seemed like a sure thing too. Just this morning I was arguing with some colleagues that no one can match Tampa’s pitching, healthy Beckett or no. Tampa is king. In the 7th inning, I was thinking, “Yup. I called that.”

Then, that damned Big Poppy…and next thing you knew the Rays looked like the Orioles out there.

I just can’t believe it.

Ugh! I freaking hate the Red Sox. Can you imagine what the fans will be like…I can’t say it. I just can’t.

I really can’t believe it. I’m sorry Tampa. It’s my fault. Everything I touch turns to dust. I am contrite. All I wanted was to see a playoff game and to watch as Tampa finished off the Sox tonight. Was that so wrong of me?

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Something to Do

9. October 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

I am in the process of learning Flash in one of my classes. I find that one learns best when one tries to perform a necessary and desired task rather than a canned one from a book that has no relevance in the real world. This is pretty rough and only a first draft: all I have time for at the moment, but I couldn’t resist sharing anyway. Hopefully my talent will develop over the semester. Suggestions are welcome.

I think I’ve found one way to stay out of trouble during the off-season.

SGG grins with evil delight at the possibilities…

oriolesmashesyhat.gif

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Last Homerun

22. September 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

Tonight will be the last time that the Yankees play in Yankee Stadium. It is only fitting that they are playing the Orioles, since the Yankees once were the Orioles. The first home run hit in Yankee Stadium was hit by Baltimore native, Babe Ruth (who I can’t resist mentioning lived in the same boarding house as my great-grandfather). Who will hit the last home run? I’m voting for an Oriole. How about Aubrey Huff or Luke Scott?

The last time I was at Yankee Stadium I was as a preteen. My next door neighbor, a gregarious and brilliant woman named Marilyn, acquired a few friends from regularly attending Spring Training. One of those friends was Elrod Hendricks. One day she had a wild hair and rung him up, “I think we want to see the game tonight.” “Okay,” Hendricks replied, “I’ll leave you tickets.”

That afternoon, Marilyn drove her twin daughters (my best friends) and I to New York, and despite miserable rush hour traffic, we managed to get to the game on time. I felt like a rock star. We sat in the Orioles family section, though I don’t think a single Oriole family member was in attendance that night. After the game, we went up to the broadcast booth and met John Miller in person. Did I mention that I felt like a rock star?

Compared to Memorial Stadium, the only other place I had ever watched baseball up until that point in my life, the stadium was enormous. Enormous! Even from the box seats, I felt miles away from the field. I didn’t enjoy the game itself. Every time a Yankee would steal a base, an animated graphic of a snail would zip across the big scoreboard. We saw that animation a lot. The Orioles lost that game. Badly.

Still, what a memory!

It’s a little sad to me that yet another bit of baseball history is being razed in favor of the fresh and new. Despite my feelings about that team in pinstripes, it does seem a shame to leave the ground where so many memories were created, even if the new stadium is just next door.

And that my friend, is as sentimental as I’m going to get about the Ys. I spelled out that name several times in this post already, I think that’s magnanimous enough for one night.

Go Aubrey, Go!!!!! Last run Orioles!!

Update: Fahey! &*#$!!!$&

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We’re Winning!

18. September 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

While we’re winning, I wanted to hurry up and capture this moment. The score is 6-0 in the 5th inning against Toronto. There are no outs. Maybe I shouldn’t admit this, but when we’re playing a team like Toronto, I feel bad if we win by too great a margin. If we’re playing the Ys or Red Sox, we could score 50 or 100 runs, hell we could score 500, and I would never feel anything but glee, utter unfettered, unrestrained glee. However, against anyone else, I just want to win. I don’t like to embarrass the other team.

Winning is nice after hearing the sad news that HBP will be out for the rest of the season. He’s my favorite Oriole and I’m sad I won’t get to see him again until April. Seriously. I don’t know when it happened, but he won me over. When I miss one of his outings, I’m bummed. I think it’s the variable reinforcement. An ex-boyfriend once kept me hooked using that same technique. Apparently, I’m very vulnerable to that sort of thing and am the kind of person who should never go near a slot machine. Anyway, with Danny, you never know what’s going to happen. I think I like the surprise of it. When he’s good, he’s so good. When he’s not, he’s hitting batters and that’s a special entertainment all its own, especially when he loads the bases that way. Either way, Danny is fun stuff and I’ve grown to love watching him.

Plus, I don’t know what it is, but lately I’ve been feeling unnaturally optimistic that HBP is going to bring it home for us next year. As someone who predicted a World Series for us this year though, you know to take everything I say with a grain of salt.

In the time it took to compose this post, the score is now 6-5. I’m over my pity for the Blue Jays. No, I don’t blame myself. If I were that powerful, what do you think the standings would look like right now?

Dammit!

Update: Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Final score 8-7 Toronto, after giving up the lead, getting it back, and then giving it up again. Oh well, at least we did our part to help Toronto hold onto the tie for 3rd. I think it’s obvious who, of the two choices, I want to finish 4th in the division standings.

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Comedians and Reflections

16. September 2008 by Orioles Fanatic.

If I were to ask you which Oriole has the best sense of humor, who might you pick? You might think the answer is the amiable and gregarious Kevin Millar, but you would be wrong. The correct answer of course, is George Sherrill. As part of my self-improvement plan, I have been trying to lighten up and appreciate his hilarious base-loading jokes. Yesterday, I was doing well. I was with him, laughing my head off as one after another took a base in the top of the ninth, the Orioles with a 7-0 lead after being crushed all weekend by the Twins. The Twins! It was all fun and games, and oh so hilarious until Sherrill blew Liz’s one and only shut out. You heard me right, Liz had pitched an eight inning shut out! In the end, the final score was 7-3. That sexy bald head isn’t enough to forgive everything, you know.

I originally planned to be in Baltimore this past weekend. Had I been there, I would have attended Saturday’s game and been very sad as the Orioles played dismally (aren’t you proud of me for not using the words “chipper” or “speedbump fodder” in that sentence?).

Seven years ago, I planned to spend this same weekend in Baltimore. I had Orioles tickets for a Saturday night game. The previous Tuesday, hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center, a field in Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon and baseball was halted while the United States collected itself again. When play resumed, I had a rain check for a game October 5, 2001. I drove eight hours, watched the Orioles, collected my “Thanks Cal” orange sign, and the next day, drove back to Charlotte as fast as I could so that my husband and I could watch Cal Ripken Jr.’s last game together on the television. If only I had originally planned to attend the Sunday game in 2001…That’s how it is with me and Cal. Always so close. So close, but yet so far… How my eyes adored him. Someone should put those words to music.

Enough of that.

I just discovered a baseball book written by Stephen Jay Gould. It might be total crap. I have no idea, I haven’t read it. However, it’s Stephen Jay Gould, so I’m guessing it will be brilliant.

Complaints about the Orioles pitching will resume tomorrow in their regularly scheduled time and place. I now return you to more productive uses of your time.

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