Category Archives: Baltimore Orioles

“Let’s All Go To The Lobby”

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Do you remember how they used to have intermissions when you went to the movies?

Yeh, me neither. But, I’m told they did.

What a brilliant idea!

And, what a wonderful way to spend an intermission – head out to the lobby for something popcorn-y or chocolate-y or chewy or sweet.

Why can’t I get daily intermissions like that?

Don’t we all need a break in our day? Don’t we all need to head out to the lobby for a treat?

Here’s where sports excel. Extremely civilized break time.

Baseball’s Seventh-Inning Stretch … sure, a bit paltry. But, a nice idea. Love “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” (almost as much as I love the “Let’s All Go To The Lobby” jingle). 

But … here’s a random aside, as long as we’re talking baseball.

I may bleed Orange & Black for the Orioles, but I can’t think of a more miserable way of spending my seventh-inning stretch – my delicious break time – then standing around while they play “Thank God I’m a Country Boy”. (I am, for the record, neither “country” nor “boy”, so I’m not sure why they insist I sing it at every game.) 

And, while we’re on the topic of baseball’s seventh-inning stretch, rumor is that the Yankees include a long, ponderous version of “God Bless America” during their stretch just to make the opposing pitcher sit and wait a little longer. I’d like this a lot better if the Orioles had thought of it first.   

Anyway, I hope your team has a better stretch time (and I invite you to tell me all about it in the comments).

Half-time at basketball and football games are ok, but still a bit chintzy.

Hockey does all right. Two luxuriously generous breaks between periods, and nothing to do but watch the Zamboni slide around, suck up the blood, and smooth up the ice. Very Zen.   

So, anyway, I wrote up my to-do list for this past weekend. The stupid thing was three pages long. THREE pages (double-spaced, but still!). That list didn’t even mention Christmas and all the additional things that are expected of one during this “peaceful” season. So, not only did I not decorate, or write cards, or wish anyone “Merry Christmas” … I didn’t even have time to put those tasks on my list.

Needless to say, I got very little on the list accomplished. So, I’m far behind, tired, and yes, a little annoyed by doing too much and achieving too little.

And, that’s what brings me back to the need for daily intermissions.

Yoga is great in that respect. We sit and breathe. Think of it like sitting and watching the Zamboni slide around (but without any hockey bloodshed). 

Sit. Breathe. 

That’s it.

That’s the daily intermission. One minute. Two minutes. Five minutes. Whatever you got.

Breath goes in. Breath goes out.

You can try it now. It’s pretty easy.

Or, you can take the next 39 seconds and watch this video and one of the greatest songs of all time … and, yeh, go get yourself a treat. You deserve it.

Oh, and by the way, writing something for you WAS on my “to-do” list this weekend. I’m a day late, but I’m checking it off the list anyway.

Breath goes in. Breath goes out. Breath goes in. Breath goes out.

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Hurricanes & Yankees

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They should have named the Hurricane A-Rod.  Then it wouldn’t have hit anything.  ~ “Hurricane Sandy” joke making the rounds on Twitter yesterday.

Sandy Alomar, by the way, batted .273 during his 19 years in the major leagues. (Alex Rodriguez – A-Rod – of the Yankees is at .295 for his career, despite his icy-cold bat, and benching, this post-season.)

I’d hate to be a New York Yankee. No one likes you. Not even your own fans. I’ve never heard fans so quick to boo, heckle, and denounce their own players. They heckle better than anyone. And, they do it without throwing garbage and beer bottles out into the field (hear that, Atlanta?).

Did you know that the Yankees tagline is “Heroes Remembered. Legends Born”?

Yankees fans are sort of funny about their team. When they win, they’re still not happy; it should have been bigger, it should have been better. Their record 27 World Series victories? Too few.

When they lose (and they do lose from time to time), it’s as though they rival the Cubs in futility. It’s as though they will never win again. Every loss is a hollow cry of despair.

And, really, they have no idea.  NO idea.

When the Orioles lost Game #5 of the American League Division Series in early October, it was well past midnight before they got back to Baltimore. They were met at the stadium by hundreds – hundreds – of loyal fans (layered up against unseasonably cold weather) who showed up to say “Thanks” “Good Job” and “We love you.”

It’s a wonderful moment. You can watch it here.

I wonder if the Yankees came back after losing the pennant to Detroit to find their cars torched, their apartments ransacked, and their supermodel girlfriends gone?

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How To Enjoy Your Next Rain Delay

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APRIL 2016 UPDATE! Wondering about the rules governing rain delays? How long will yours last? Will your rain delay ever end? (Yes.) For my April 2016 update & all your questions answered, click here: “Your Rain Delay Companion”

Rain delays, I’ve discovered, are even more like Yoga than an actual baseball game.

You have to create your own focus. You have to slow yourself down. Way down. You have to be in the moment and you have to be patient.

The Sunday night Orioles-Yankees game came with a bonus 2-1/2-hour rain delay. That’s a lot of just standing around. Did I mention it was barely 50 degrees out?

Fun Fact: Rain Delays don’t last forever. Fun Fact #2: Rally Towels are very absorbent.

The dynamics of some 48,000 people hunkered under the concourses, killing time, would be a great sociological experiment. For the record, 48,000 people in one place is about 5x the population of the county I live in.

So, here’s what you can do during your next 2-1/2-hour rain delay:

* You can drink.  I wouldn’t advise it, but you can do it.  You can drink a lot in 2-1/2 hours. You will be incredibly entertaining and funny for the first hour. After that, you’ll be shunned, even by the people you came with.

* You can do a scientific jersey count poll. In this practice, you count the players represented on jerseys as they pass by. For the person wearing the Adam Jones jersey who walked back and forth several times – nice try, buddy, we only counted you once. We decided that pitchers are underrepresented on jerseys. We also discovered that a player can be long gone, long-ago traded to another team, or just faded into the annals of “wait, who? Doesn’t he work at the car shop downtown?”, but if you spent $100 on a replica jersey 10 years ago, you’ll wear it anyway.

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“That Ball’s Gone, By The Way”

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Baseball doesn’t change much. The rules you learn in Little League are pretty much the ones that will get you to – and keep you in – the Big Leagues. And, one of the most important rules is this: Keep Your Eyes On The Ball.

Whether you’re batting, or fielding, or even if you’re just watching a game.  In Yoga, this concentrated, focused gaze is called Drishti.

So, the Orioles won last night, 1-0, over the Tampa Bay Rays, thanks to a Homeric homer by RF Chris Davis.  (He’s homered in six straight games, an O’s record.)

Use your Drishti … Watch it here.

Post-game attention quickly shifted to New York where the Red Sox led the Yankees going into the 9th. A Red Sox win would be good news for the O’s who still don’t know where their post-season game will be or whom they will play.

But, the comfy Red Sox lead evaporated as the Yankees rallied in the bottom of the 9th.

The Oriole fans on Twitter would have been hand-wringing, if they weren’t madly tweeting their anguish. (What I learned reading Twitter last night: You can fit a lot of creative curse words into 140 characters.)

Meanwhile, back at The Trop in Tampa … Orioles’ hero Chris Davis was being interviewed by MASN broadcaster Jim Hunter, while the Yankees game played on a TV in the background.

Chris took his Little League training to heart – he kept his eyes on the ball over at Yankee Stadium, all the while giving a nice, chatty interview. The best part – and why I love it and am sharing it – comes when, not missing a beat, he quickly and nonchalantly calls the homerun that ties the game for the Yankees, and then goes right back to the interview.

It’s around the 1:48 mark. Watch it here.

No anguish from Chris. Instead, he reminds us that that there’s no hand-wringing required when an exciting play is unfolding.

The Yankees won, by the way. Making tonight’s games even more important for the O’s. Keep your eyes on the ball.

About That Oriole Pumpkin

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Oscar has an Oriole pumpkin. Do you?

[UPDATED: October 2013 and October 2014]

Yes, I have the Oriole Bird stencils for your pumpkin. Smiley Bird. Angry Bird. The new “We Won’t Stop” stencil. Read on! 

Back in 2012, I was very excited when people started coming to my blog … Someone out there really cares what I think about the Orioles? What I think about Nick Markakis? Manny Machado? Darren O’Day? They want to read what I know about the history of the world’s most perfect game? (I’m blushing.)

It didn’t take long to discover that you’re not coming to read my insights about baseball after all.

You want the elusive Oriole pumpkin stencils, don’t you?

OK, I’m bummed that you didn’t stop by to see what I have to say. These words don’t write themselves, you know. (And, I write a lot of them … just click here to read my latest post. And, if you’re an Orioles fan … sign up to get my posts, we’ll have fun!)

But then …

Yay for my 20-year-old super-cool cat Oscar who gets attention whenever his pumpkin photo pops up on Google. And, yay for for the Orioles … in the post-season!

That pumpkin I carved back in 2011 was a mess. (But then, so were the 2011 Orioles.) I didn’t know what I was doing, and really, put sharp objects and me in the same room and there’s bound to be blood.

Yours will be better. The Orioles were too busy making their way to the World Series to update the stencils in a timely fashion, so I’m doing my part … here they are.  (Just click on the stencil you want, then right click to save it on your computer.)

OrioleBird Stencil

 

Here’s Angry “Buckle Up” Bird.

And, new “We Won’t Stop” for 2014:

We Wont Stop 2014 Stencil

 

It’s hard to find the stencils online. But, here’s the link to these Oriole stencils if you prefer the PDF format. Click here.

But, those are awfully fancy pants for a pumpkin.

So, here’s the more primitive stencil I used back in 2011. I think it’s much easier to carve.

This easier Oriole stencil should be here: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/bal/downloads/y2009/retrohatbird.pdf

This simpler Oriole bird stencil is also in PDF form.  Click here.

Tape the stencil to a pumpkin. Poke a nail along the stencil’s lines and onto your pumpkin. There you go … carve away!

Have fun. Don’t cut yourself. And, I hope you find a cool cat to pose with your Oriole pumpkin.

Go O’s!

(Extra credit if you carve an Oriole pumpkin and post the photo in the comments.  Or email it to me at jackie@thebaseballbloggess.com and I’ll post it for you!)

Go Out & Have Fun

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Sometimes my Yoga students scowl in class. They try so hard to move into – or stay in – an asana (pose). They want to succeed and show their body who’s boss.  And, their faces get all scrunched up sometimes, and their brows crinkle. They are trying so hard to be perfect.

When I see all the serious frowns in class, I’ll remind them to soften their face or smile. Or, I’ll say something irrelevant and stupid to get them to lighten up.

After all, it’s only a pose.

There is so much stress in our daily lives, no need to make more on the mat. It’s important to remember the playfulness of Yoga.

If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that for me Yoga and baseball have many parallels.

And, so here’s where baseball gets serious, too.

The Baltimore Orioles clinched yesterday. They’re now assured at least one playoff game for the first time in 15 years. They’ve proven their many, many, many, (many) detractors wrong. They have heartily and forcefully won the arguments of those who said their season was merely luck.

And, as they played yesterday (sweeping the Red Sox incidentally), I noticed a change in the fans. Lots of happy. Lots of cheering. But, also, lots of serious. People clenching their hands, frowning with worry, on the verge of tears. I was tense, too.

My Editor/Husband (formerly a Yankees fan, but now coming over from the dark side to all that is good and Oriole), is getting a bit testy during the games as well – barking at a crummy pitch or a poorly played ball. (Hi Honey. Lighten up on Jim Johnson will you? He’s fine.) I tend to look away during tense moments, try not to care too much, to ease the stress.

I talk a good game – I love baseball, because it’s baseball. I love the Orioles because they’re the team that “brung me”. I don’t get swept up in the victories. I love the game for the game.

But, now I’m getting excited. And, getting stressed because the games mean something more.

Over-zealous fans sort of bug me. There they are rubbing it in loudly with every victory … and then getting angry or defensive with the next loss. They seem to take it too seriously sometimes.

They miss the point.

It’s only baseball. It’s a game. 

Manny Machado is smiling & having fun. So, I will, too.

Orioles third-baseman Manny Machado (Hakuna Machado!) said in a recent interview that Orioles Skipper Buck Showalter has reminded everyone to have fun.

And, that’s the lesson for me this week, too … even if it only goes one extra post-season game.

It’s too darn fun to be in a playoff race to let stress and tension and worry mess up the good.

Strangely, I think I carried some of the excitement and stress over to my Yoga mat yesterday.  I think I hyper-extended my sternum.  I’m not even sure that one can do that.  But, I think I did … trying to be a Yoga superstar and push through a pose, trying to show my body who’s boss.

Life is stressful.

But, Yoga shouldn’t be. And, neither should baseball.

So, I’m going to enjoy this week, no matter what it brings.

Go O’s!

Tending The Baseball Garden

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I think one of the most perfect things about baseball is the way it mirrors the seasons.

Hope springs eternal in the springtime! The time for digging up the old flower bed, tending some returning plants, putting a few new seeds in the ground.  A little water, a little sunlight, a little weeding, a little hope.

The energy is fresh and it’s so wonderful to be outside working up the soil. What emerges? Fresh arugula or a young Mike Trout in the outfield, depending on which garden you’re tending.

Then comes summer … the fruits of one’s labors. If the ground was good, if the water was plentiful, if you worked hard … oh, what an amazing garden you can have. In garden terms, the tomatoes are bountiful and delicious. In baseball terms, this means you’re winning.  (A mangy, unfriendly groundhog eats your tomatoes? Your starting pitcher goes on the DL. Kinda, sorta the same thing.)

But, 162 games is a long, long, long growing season.

And, so now here we are in the fall. So tired. So tired of weeding. So tired of tending. So tired of zucchini. Everything is getting old and leggy and limp.  And, we’re trying to coax just one more week – just one more win – out of that tired tomato plant with the worn out shoulder-vine.

Oh sure, you toss in a few lettuce seeds in late August to see what might sprout up and carry you through the last weeks of the growing season.  (Manny Machado, Dylan Bundy? Hear that? You’re the fall lettuce of the Orioles.)

Mostly, though, you’re just trying to squeak out the last bit of life from a worn-out garden. You’re sort of getting tired of watching the garden, but you still want to savor every last minute you have left with it.

You keep cutting back the basil because where will you be in December when it’s only a distant memory?  You’ll be wishing for that basil plant, that’s where. So you cheer on that basil plant, and you clip those seed heads and you remind it that it’s only one game back of the Yankees.

I’m still working on how the World Series fits into the garden. To be honest, as an Orioles’ fan, it’s been years since I’ve had to think about how one extends a season into October.

But, how about this …

Maybe the World Series is a giant pumpkin that’s been hiding in the weeds, only to “pop” out all orange and huge and brilliant when the knee-high weeds finally die back on their own. It’s the culmination of a long, long season … and a lot of hard work by a pumpkin that started out as a hopeful seed just a few months ago.

Yeh, ok, that’ll do. If a giant pumpkin pops out of my dying garden in the next couple weeks, that would be the equivalent of the Orioles going to the World Series. It would also be a little strange because we didn’t plant pumpkins. (But, that doesn’t mean I give up hope for the Orioles.)

And then, next thing you know, it will be cold and dark and the garden will grow quiet.

As winter comes, you swear that was the last time you’ll spend every free moment in the garden. You swear that you’ll never put in such a big garden again. You swear that it’s too much work and you’re done with gardening. Forever.

But, then after a little well-deserved little rest, the seed catalogs start showing up in the mail. And, then on one very dreary, snowy day, when you’re missing the basil, just like I told you would happen, you pick up a catalog and start dreaming of your spring garden … and then you wonder how the boys did in the off-season, and you start counting the days until pitchers and catchers report.

But, it’s not quite winter yet. So, for today … with just 10 games left, I’m cutting back the basil and cheering for the Orioles and the jalapeño peppers, both of which seem to be particularly hot and sassy this year.

And, hoping for a pumpkin.

Want to carve your own Oriole Pumpkin?  Click here for the stencil.

This blurry photo is from 2011. To give the Baltimore Orioles’ bird something to do in October, I attempted to carve my very first pumpkin. If the Orioles go to the post-season this year, I will carve a much finer Oriole pumpkin. Oscar the cat, by the way, is 20. He was 5 when the Orioles last made it into the post-season.

Lotsa Luck

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Many years ago, I had a neighbor who was an elderly widow. One morning she went outside and discovered that someone — we never found out who – had deposited a healthy, little puppy in her front yard. It was clearly not an accident. We decided that someone knew how lonely our neighbor was and decided she needed a companion. She named her puppy Lucky. And, yeh, he was a pretty lucky pup. He was lucky our neighbor was up to a task she didn’t ask for. She kept good care of her pup, although a bit of housetraining would have been a nice touch.

So, let’s talk about luck.

Because the notion of luck often rankles me.

Has anyone ever told you that your success or the fruits of your efforts were lucky? Someone once told me, quite kindly, that I was very lucky that my massage therapy practice was doing well during such tough economic times.

Luck? That’s it? I’m just lucky? OK, maybe. But, maybe, just maybe — and I’m going out on a limb here — but maybe, my clients have found some value in my work. Maybe I’m good at my job. I know they didn’t mean anything rude by it. And, yes, I do believe that random things happen that influence one’s success or failure. Right time, right place. That can lead to a bit of good luck. But, to suggest that someone’s good fortune is pure luck … well, that’s just unfair.

And, you know what? Maybe, just maybe, the Baltimore Orioles are more than lucky, too.  Maybe, they’re a good baseball team.

I am so tired of the so-called baseball experts who have decided that since the Orioles’ success this year doesn’t fit into their neat little mold of what makes a team good … that the statistics show that the Orioles should be no better than average … that there’s no way they could possibly be in a pennant race in September … then, surely, the only answer is that they have been lucky.

This has gone on all season. The chatter started already in April. They couldn’t explain why the Orioles were winning. That’s because there’s no easy way to chart intangibles – like team dynamics, players improving over previous seasons, or the zen-like influence of a manager like the Orioles’ Buck Showalter. And, without the intangibles, yeh, sure, the Orioles sort of looked beatable on paper. So, without bothering to think through the intangibles, a lot of sports talkers – ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and, just yesterday, National Public Radio among them – decided the Orioles had to be simply lucky.

I say, they’re wrong. Baseball statisticians haven’t found a way to quantify intangibles. But, that doesn’t mean those intangibles don’t exist.

If luck drove sports, then wouldn’t every team hover around .500? A little good luck. A little bad luck.

Or, how about this — maybe everything is luck. If the Orioles win a game, are they lucky? Sure. They’re lucky it didn’t rain and stop the game. They’re lucky that their winning pitcher didn’t fall down the dugout steps and dislocate his shoulder before the game. They’re lucky that the losing team scored fewer runs.

Every team has their good luck. And, their bad luck.

But, luck doesn’t exist in a vacuum. What those “experts” call luck, I call a good mixture of talent, heart, skills, and smarts. The Intangibles (which, by the way, would be a terrific title for an action movie).

In the case of the Orioles game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, I guess you could say the O’s are lucky that their superstar rookie is Manny Machado and not Bryce Harper.

And, here’s just one reason why. Enjoy one of the most beautiful, exciting, and head’s up defensive plays of the year, courtesy of a 20-year-old rookie. Did he just get lucky? You decide.

Click here to watch.

Oh, and the Orioles won again today. (yippee!) Wrapping up a three-game sweep of the surging Tampa Bay Rays. So, I guess all that luck of theirs hasn’t run out yet.

You Can Make It Simple … Or Not

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There’s this thing amongst many Yoga students … that a challenging, pretzel-twisting pose is somehow more valuable and more beneficial than something plain and simple.

They’re wrong, of course. And, I spend a lot of class time trying to convince them that a beautiful, simple pose, done well, can be powerful and transformational.

A massive, powerful swing of the bat can turn into a glorious homerun. But, a nicely placed and well-timed double can be just as effective. Earl Weaver says the best play in baseball is the three-run homer.  A “simple” double, with three men on base, can do the very same thing. You just won’t get the fireworks.  But, you still get the runs. (And, oh yes, Orioles win.  Yay!)

And, here it is … simple. Effortless. And, did I mention that three runs score?

Orioles outfielder Nick Markakis off of the White Sox last night:

(right click on the video above.  Click “open in new tab.”  That oughta take you to the clip without taking you away from this post.  Because there’s another clip coming up that you also need to watch.)

Oh, all right. You talked me into it. Yes, the fancy-pants plays have their place in baseball too.  (And, the fancy-pants Yoga poses are, I admit it, rather fun.)

So, here you go.

Also from last night.

The Giants’ 3B Pablo “Panda Bear” Sandoval and SS Brandon Crawford combine, somehow, some way, for an out.

Not so effortless. But, a joy to watch none the less.

A little circus music might be a nice touch.

So, in baseball, as in Yoga, your ice cream can come in delicious vanilla (and I do love vanilla), or you can go load it up with cookie dough and sprinkles and chocolate.  And, that’s delicious, too.

The Easiest Way Around The Bases …

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Legendary Baltimore Orioles Manager Earl Weaver was clear … the best play in baseball is the three-run homer.  (Not sure why a “four-run” Grand Slam wouldn’t be even better, but he’s Earl, so he should know.)

Anyway, last night against Toronto, Orioles Designated Hitter Chris Davis — oh, he of the beefy forearms — hit three home runs.  A total of four RBI.

I appreciate the long ball.  Honest, I do.  In fact, relive the moment with me right here, right now  …

But, here’s what I don’t get. Chris won the game for the Orioles (with some help from everyone else on the team, including pitcher Zach Britton, who had a better game than anyone ever could have imagined — except perhaps his mother.)  And, in the end, we remember this: Chris Davis hit three home runs.

The baseball world gets very excited about a three-homer game. But, Chris Davis could have racked up four RBI with just one grand-slam swing of the bat. This to me would have been more efficient and a much finer accomplishment. Because it would have meant men were on base … a good omen to be sure and a sign that the entire team is doing well.

Still, Orioles win. And, that’s the most important thing to me.

And, here’s Earl on home runs:

“Praised be the three-run homer! In my mind, the home run is paramount, because it means instant runs.  The minute you hit a homer you have a run, no questions asked.  … On a home run, nothing can go wrong.”