I was concerned when I got to Ft. Lauderdale Stadium last Friday and found that The Future of Orioles Baseball (a.k.a. Matt Wieters) wasn’t in the lineup. Had he already been sent down? Nope–just not in the lineup. Luckily, he came in in the later innings, and I got to see him get two walks. And I’m kind of amused that he has Kev Millar’s old number. I imagine I’m going to enjoy this #15 a bit more than the previous one. Maybe I’ll modify my Millar t-shirt into a Wieters one…
Anyway, it looks like he’s being sent down early next week, though. Then it’s just a countdown until his Camden Yards debut…
Brian may have betrayed our love by getting married, but he’s won me all over again by signing a long-term contract with the Orioles. We have him through 2013, hurrah! Now my numerous Roberts t-shirts and my awesome jersey won’t be obsolete.
Seriously, there’s a lot to be excited about. Roberts, Markakis, Jones, Pie, Wieters…how long until Opening Day?
One of the best things about going to Nats games is the racing presidents. Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt race around the field. It’s awesome. Anyway, the headed up north to New York and raced at an Islanders game. Yep, on ice skates. And it is classic. Teddy just can’t stand up. Hilarity ensues.
I admit I was pretty disappointed, if not terribly surprised, to see that Reserve Oriole Boyfriend Adam Loewen had signed a minor league deal with the Blue Jays. He had blown out his arm pitching, and since he had been a good hitter before, the O’s and he thought he could transition to a position player. A long shot, but couldn’t hurt. Anyway, because of the insane contract he had, he was out of options, so was put on the waiver wire. He passed through, but it seems that he and the O’s had basically come to an agreement about a minor league deal…and then he signed with the Blue Jays.
Not cool. I can kind of understand it–he’s Canadian, and the Jays are pretty much the national team. But the O’s invested a lot of money in him, and were going out on a bit of a limb for him here. I’m sure it was a very hard decision for Adam, but it still hurts. Though really, if you’re going to pursue an out-there thing like this, I can see how you might want to do it with the team you’ve been following all your life (and it sure seems like a lot of O’s fans are behind this; see Teixeira, Mark). Once I saw that there were teams interested in him when he was placed on waivers, I definitely saw this as a possibility. It still sucks a bit, though.
Ultimately, it’s doubtful that he’ll ever make the majors as a position player, so I don’t think it’ll really hurt the team that way, but it’s not cool. Even so, I can’t really bring myself to hate Adam for it.
So in the Rays-White Sox game just now, Willie Aybar was at bat. He either made contact with the ball, or the ball bounced off the catcher, but it wound up careening down the first base line, fair. So Aybar took off for first as Thornton, the White Sox pitcher, ran over to field the ball. They wound up basically colliding (which counted as a tag, so Aybar was out). But what was really nice was that as Aybar bounced away from the force of the collision, Thornton made a “You OK?” gesture. Then Aybar came over and fist-bumped him to show that they were cool. I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for bench-clearing brawls, but seeing stuff like this is just really nice. They’re both playing hard, but they’re both people. Just really nice to see.
One of the things I love about baseball is that it’s every day, and with so many games being played, lots of crazy stuff happens. So check out Jayson Stark’s column. Skip all the MVP, Cy Young, blah blah blah stuff, and go about halfway down–start with the top 5 injuries of the year (including Oriole Dennis Sarfate, who managed to injure himself by slamming his car door on himself in April, and not realizing he broke his clavicle–requiring surgery!–until September). After that, it’s just all awesomeness.
Dave and I spent Tuesday evening at Camden Yards for the double-header against the Rays. The O’s lost both, but it was super fun. We spent the 6.5 hours wandering around the stadium, trying to figure out where to get season tickets next year. In the middle of the second game, we wound up next to the bullpens.
So cool! There were some nice girls in front of us who had season tickets there who helped us identify relievers. And we were only a few rows in front of where Evan Longoria’s home run landed. You can actually see me in the video. I had a delayed reaction in running after it, so the annoying Rays fans behind us wound up with it. Ah well.
We were also not far behind the seat where Cal’s 278th home run hit (breaking the records for most home runs hit by a shortstop, at the time). Pretty!
All eyes are on Yankee Stadium tonight (well, all eyes that aren’t on the Emmys; how evil is this?), and it’s easy to see why. Brian Roberts, Aubrey Huff, and Nick Markakis could possibly be the first three teammates ever to have 50 doubles each! Isn’t that nuts? Brian already has 51 (a career high!), Aubrey has 48, and Nick has 47. Who knows where they’ll be after tonight?
No, seriously, I’ve been glued to ESPN for a good chunk of the evening watching the salutes to Yankee Stadium. I grew up going to games there; the last time I went was 4 years ago.
I remember going when I was little, bringing in food and cheering them on. I remember the great feeling as we left, listening to Frank singing. Mind you, these were the days when the Yankees sucked. They won that game in 1992 (if I recall, they lost maybe 1 game I actually attended), but went 76-86 for the season. (Of course, compared to how the O’s have done the last 10 years, that’s not too bad!) I didn’t go to another major league baseball stadium until, I think, 1993, when I saw a game at Camden Yards. To me, like so many others, Yankee Stadium was the stadium. It still is, much as I love Camden Yards. (Of course, to me, New York remains The City, must as I love others.)
But I couldn’t make it up this season, much less this weekend, so I decided to honor the occasion by visiting Babe Ruth’s birthplace in downtown Baltimore. (His dad owned a bar that stood around where shallow right field at Camden Yards now is.) It was neat going to the birthplace; it’s a nice museum and it’s just so cool seeing all of those Ruth items. I definitely recommend it. It was also neat that there were a fair number of people there.
And, of course, I had to swing by Camden Yards…
Here’s hoping the magic moves across the street.
I was thinking of going to one of the Bowie playoff games; I particularly wanted to see Matt Wieters play. (I totally should’ve gone to Thursday’s game; it sounds like an awesome one.) Anyway, I saw that the Baysox lost to the Aeros, which is a bummer, but then I noticed something in one of the notes on the Baysox homepage: “The Baysox left Bowie and headed to Akron for games three and four of the best-of-five game Division series. Cleveland Indians slugger Travis Hafner was waiting.”
Wait…Hafner was playing in a AA playoff game? That seems wrong. And it looks like I’m not the only one who thought so, according to Roch Kubatko. Just a completely classless move, particularly seeing how Hafner had been in AAA for three weeks.
Not cool, Akron. Cleveland, you deserve the pounding you’re getting tonight.
Last night, Brent, Katie, and I met up with a couple of friends from Gettysburg to catch the Nationals-Mets game. It was my first time at the new Nats Park, and it was a great time. Things seem to happen to me at Nats game (see 6/13/05 entry), and this was no exception. We snagged the $5 seats, which really do seem to be the best in the stadium. I mean, check out the view:
(You could see the field, too. But given the 12-0 outcome in the Mets favor, why bother looking there?) It was all very pretty, and I got a great half smoke from Ben’s Chili Bowl, but it seemed a bit…bland. No character. And everything had a sponsor. For example, want to spend time where a lot of Nats have been spending time lately? Here you go:
It was totally nuts. The concourse area in center field reminded me of the new football stadium in Philadelphia, so now I kind of want to check out the baseball stadium in the same complex.
Anyway, we met up with a friend of one of our Gburg friends, whose work had a box. So yeah, we spent a good chunk of the game in the luxury suite. Which was, obviously, really nice.
Brent and Katie seem to be enjoying it, anyway. The seats were super comfy, though the little ledge they provide to put food, etc., on dug into my legs a bit. But who am I to complain about free, swanky seats? Totally worth the $5 I spent.
I’ll probably still try to see some games there, but I certainly don’t feel the overwhelming need to get back there immediately. And, like RFK, it probably takes me about as long to Metro there as it does for me to drive to Camden Yards.
Best part? The President’s Race. For which they played “The Distance” by Cake, which I love. Also, when you walk in, they have the Presidents milling about. Awesome! Here I am with Tommy J.
That picture alone made it all worth it.
