As I began my fifth year of “bloggessing” yesterday, the Baltimore Orioles finished their three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians, ensuring one more night of sweet dreams atop the AL East.
Look! It’s the Orioles!
Stay with me. This Bloggess Public Service Announcement will take only a few seconds of your time …
Yesterday. Orioles and Indians. Bottom of the 9th Tied at 3.
One man on base, two outs. Orioles outfielder Nolan Reimold comes in to pinch hit. Yes, the O’s were pinning their hopes on someone who hadn’t even played that day. He doesn’t get many chances to play at all, really.
And, this happened …
Two-run walk-off home run.
Game over. Orioles win.
How can a player come in, tamp down the stress, focus, and crush a baseball like that?
Let Nolan’s wife Jenny explain:
Might I add that I told Nolan to do yoga yesterday. He did this morning and hit a walk off. You're welcome honey. Down dog it tomorrow Nol!
Yoga cannot guarantee that you will hit a walk-off home run for your team. But, if Yoga helps Nolan Reimold perform at the highest level … along with scores of other big leaguers who rely on Yoga every day to keep them strong, toned, mentally focused, steady, and flexible … imagine what it could do for you.
If you’ve got an hour, I’ve got the mats. (And, if you’re not nearby, I’m sure there’s a Yoga studio near you … and they’ll have a mat you can borrow.)
The 4th batter in a baseball lineup is the Cleanup Hitter.
(In a perfect world, the Cleanup Hitter’s job is to clean up the bases with a home run or a double. You know, something awesome, exciting, and powerful.)
Today, the Baseball Bloggess celebrates its (her? my?) 4th birthday. And, to celebrate, a bit of cleanup is in order.
I take a lot of photos at ballgames. But, I’m trying to watch and score the game, too – so I don’t capture much of the action … no exciting steals of second, no miracle catches at the wall.
There’s not a lot of dust kicking up in my photos.
Most of the photos I take just sit quietly on my computer, in their folders, like the utility guy on the bench patiently waiting for a chance to play.
So, here’s some cleanup – four recent photos that I’m sweet on, but don’t quite fit anywhere.
“Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. [C]ome, take fear from bats.” ~ Pedro Ceranno in the movie Major League (1988)
The Baltimore Orioles bats went cold this month.
Power bats slump from time to time, and teams often slump together.
I think Rickard’s putting a spell on his bat here as he comes to the plate.
University of Virginia third baseman Justin Novak lays down a bunt.
A few days ago I wrote about bunts and how much I love them. And, you all agreed!
I think we love bunts because we are thoughtful and cerebral and strategic. (And, because, at some point in Little League or junior high gym class, we bunted. Sure, we couldn’t hit one out, but, by golly, we could bunt.)
Photo: Georgia Tech at University of Virginia. Davenport Field, Charlottesville, VA. May 14, 2016.
The Washington Nationals Racing President Thomas Jefferson visits Charlottesville from time to time and is here racing – or being chased by, depending on how you look at things – Cosmo, a sheepdog, and “Prairiewether Lewis,” a prairie dog, at a recent Tom Sox game.
(A question you may have: Why does a prairie dog – a species that doesn’t even live in Virginia — represent the Charlottesville Tom Sox? Editor/Husband responds: “In 1805, the explorers Lewis and Clark sent a live prairie dog to President Jefferson at the White House.” Yes, he really knows this stuff.)
Photo: Covington Lumberjacks at Charlottesville Tom Sox. (Valley League) Cville Weekly Ballpark, Charlottesville, VA. July 7, 2016.
Last month, a Facebook exec predicted that in the next five years Facebook would “probably be all video.”
According to Cisco Systems: “It would take an individual five-million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2020.”
Words are, sadly, obsolete.
But, on the bright side, I’ve still got five years to figure out how to use the video camera on my six-year-old Droid phone.
Happy Birthday, Baseball Bloggess … here’s to four – and, apparently, only four – more years.
Also, cleaning up today? Those pesky ads that sometimes appear at the bottom of these posts. I keep worrying that some political ad will find its way on here and ruin your day. You can’t buy me, you angry political meanies! Get off my blog! Which is to say, those little ads that pop-up at the bottom of posts should now be gone. (But, if you see one, let me know so I can stamp my feet and complain to someone.)
“Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.” ~ Casey Stengel
On July 13, 1991, in a game in Oakland versus the A’s, Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Bob Milacki threw a no-hitter.
So did Orioles reliever Mike Flanagan.
And, so did Orioles relievers Mark Williamson and Gregg Olson.
It was a four-pitcher no-hitter.
Not unheard of, but kind of rare.
In a game that prides itself on the power of teamwork, there’s an awful lot of focus on individual performance in baseball.
So, you may sniff a bit and say, “Hmm, four pitchers to get through a game? That’s no big deal.”
But, you’re wrong.
No hit is no hit. And, the A’s, including Jose Canseco, Harold Baines, Mark McGwire, and a young Mike Bordick, no hit that day.
(Baines and Bordick went on to play for the Orioles, and Bordick is, today, a color guy for Orioles games on television.)
Sure, there are a few of you Giants and Dodgers fans who are so used to no-hitters that you’re a bit surprised to learn that one team has never even had one.
(Sorry, San Diego Padres … it’s still you.)
Seven pitchers had no-hitters last season – five came after the All-Star Break.
Just one this season so far. (Congratulations, former Oriole, reigning Cy Young, and current Cub Jake Arrieta!)
But, see! Even I have wandered off into the land of individual excellence and in less than 200 words, I’ve abandoned those four Orioles pitchers – including two (Milacki and Williamson) that even seasoned Orioles fans don’t really remember – and this is supposed to be about them.
Since becoming the Baltimore Orioles in 1954, there have been only five Orioles no-hitters.
Hoyt Wilhelm versus the Yankees in 1958.
Steve Barber and Stu Miller versus the Tigers in 1967.
Tom Phoebus versus the Red Sox in 1968.
Jim Palmer versus the A’s in 1969.
And, Milacki, Flanny, Williamson, and Olson 25 years ago this past week.
(For the cruel readers out there – and I know some of you by name – I know what you’re asking, so here … the Orioles have been on the receiving end of a no-hitter seven times, most recently last season.)
13 Jul 1991: Pitcher Greg Olson of the Baltimore Orioles prepares to throw the ball as the scoreboard behind him shows that he has pitched a no-hitter during a game against the Oakland Athletics. (Getty Images)
See, even Getty Images can’t get the game straight. Olson threw one no-hit inning. Milacki threw six. Flanny and Williamson, one each.
(Oh, and it’s Gregg Olson, not Greg Olson.)
Embed from Getty Images BALTIMORE, MD – CIRCA 1991: (L-R) Paul Kilgus #17, Mike Flanagan #46, Mark Williamson #32 and Gregg Olson #30 of the Baltimore Orioles pose together for this portrait prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game circa 1991 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. (Getty Images)
Oh, for crying out loud. That’s Bob Milacki on the left, not Paul Kilgus.
Come on people, how hard can it be? These four pitchers threw a combined no-hitter!
(Kilgus did, indeed, pitch briefly for the Orioles in 1991, but I had to look that up to make sure. Fun Fact: he looks nothing like Bob Milacki.)
Milacki was cruising through six when he was hit on the hand by a comebacker.
That might have done in both Milacki and the no-hitter. But, the ball ricocheted off his hand and bounced right to first baseman Randy Milligan for the out.
Milacki’s day was done. Although bruised and swelling, his hand wasn’t badly injured, and he argued to stay in the game, to no avail.
“I thought I could still pitch with it,” he said afterwards. “They didn’t want me to risk it. I was very disappointed. You never want to come out of a game like that.”
The Orioles scored just two runs – catcher Chris Hoiles batted in beloved utility guy Chito Martinez in the fifth and outfielder Mike Devereaux homered in the sixth.
Flanagan, Williamson, and Olson each pitched one hitless inning. The game ended. The Orioles won.
Thanks to Orioles closer Gregg Olson, who shared this 30-second recap online. Otherwise I’d have no video to share.
(2017 Update: What the heck!? Gregg Olson’s video is gone. I’m going to be pretty mad if Major League Baseball made Olson take down a video of his own no-hitter.)
(2017 Update2: I found another quick video recap, just in case you thought I was making this whole thing up.)
(You’re welcome.)
“There was no raucous celebration,” The Baltimore Sun reported the next day. After striking out Harold Baines to end the game, “Olson walked off the mound the same way he did after each of his first 18 saves. The Orioles took the field slowly, as if they still were trying to digest what had happened.”
“It kind of seemed like nobody knew what was happening,” Olson told The Sun. “There weren’t really any diving plays or great plays to save it. Bob Milacki is the guy who deserves all the credit. If he had been out there [in the ninth], there would have been a dog pile on the mound.”
“Perhaps it was the [Oakland] crowd that set the tone,” The Sun continued. “Fans began leaving the stadium before the game was over, apparently unimpressed over only the second four-pitcher no-hitter in major-league history.”
(There have been other multi-pitcher no-hitters, including a couple six-pitcher affairs, since then.)
The Orioles are surrounded by former players today – like Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Rick Dempsey, and Cal Ripken – who stay close to the team and remind fans of the O’s two World Series championships (in ‘66 and ‘83).
This season the O’s are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1966 trophy with special events and promotions.
So, maybe the 25th anniversary of that understated, but still wonderful, four-man no-hitter has gotten lost. And, that’s a shame.
Because nothing says teamwork like a no-hitter shared.
There have been 295 no-hitters in major league baseball. Babe Ruth threw one. And, yes, dear Orioles readers, Ubaldo Jimenez threw one for the Rockies in 2010.
And, on July 13, 1991, Bob Milacki, Mike Flanagan, Mark Williamson, and Gregg Olson threw one, too.
“There are two ways of learning to play base ball: the one is to learn it for the objects of recreation and exercise, and the other in order to become a skillful and noted player.”
“To learn the game, therefore, for the simple purpose of a few hours of recreation of a summer’s afternoon, is an easy task; but to go into a regular course of training, in order to become a professional player … involves steady and persevering application, fatiguing exertion, plenty of pluck and nerve, thorough control of the temper, great powers of endurance, and, withal, the physical aptitude to excel. …”The Game of Base Ball. How to Learn it, How to Play it, and How to Teach it. By Henry Chadwick, 1868
It is Wednesday. There is no baseball tonight.
It’s the annual All-Star break and there will be no major league games until Friday. It’s a civilized break that all those players with plenty of pluck and nerve have earned.
I fell asleep during last night’s All-Star Game, which I’m a little ashamed about. It makes me sound old, which I suppose I am. Pluckless, I guess. Maybe I just needed a civilized break, too.
I have nothing to do on this night without baseball.
Except wonder how the Orioles will do when they play again on Friday.
They think I just live in the past … just re-posting and re-watching this clipfrom 2011, one of my favorite baseball moments, over and over and over.
(You don’t need to watch it. Seriously. It’s a couple years old and, really, while it is one of my favorite moments in the history of baseball, you don’t have to waste one minute to watch this clip no matter how magical that one minute will be for you.)
I don’t hate the Red Sox.
I’m not angry at them. You know, this kind of angry …
That’s Red Sox DH David Ortiz answering the dugout phone at Camden Yards in 2013.
Actually, I think I’m pretty fair to every team.
And, in that spirit, and because it is brilliant, here’s a new commercial of David Ortiz and piñatas.
(I hope he’s trying to earn enough money to buy Baltimore a new dugout phone.)
1. One billion tons of rain falls on the earth every minute. One billion. (Fortunately, an equal amount evaporates somewhere else, so things even out and the earth doesn’t explode like a water balloon.)
3. I don’t know when your game’s rain delay is going to end.
In October 2012, I sat through a cold, 2-hour-41-minute rain delay in Baltimore. The Orioles were playing the Yankees in the playoffs – it marked the O’s first post-season appearance in 15 years.
After all the rain delaying, it was nearly midnight when the two teams, knotted at 2, entered the 9th. And then, Orioles closer Jim Johnson gave up five runs. Five.
Ever since, this blog gets a spike in visitors whenever rain stops a big game. Earlier this month, the Orioles’ three-hour double-delay during their home opener on April 4, and the Washington Nationals’ 85-minute delay during their home opener on April 7, led to a downpour of impatient wet fans turning to the googler to tell them when the stoppages would finally stop.
Over the past few years, all kinds of questions and queries have led people to my rain delay post. I’m going to go ahead and clear those questions up now.
“Baseball isn’t necessarily an escape from reality, though it can be; it’s merely one of our many refuges within the real where we try to create a sense of order on our own terms. Born to an age where horror has become commonplace, where tragedy has, by its monotonous repetition, become a parody of sorrow, we need to fence off a few parks where humans try to be fair, where skill has some hope of reward, where absurdity has a harder time than usual getting a ticket.” ~ Thomas Boswell, 1984
Happy New Year! May your team play hard, win often, keep a ready bullpen, and always recover quickly from bottom-of-the-9th, two-out, tying-run-on-third heartbreakers.
Thank you to those many people who made me both love and understand baseball, including Thomas Boswell and his Washington Post columns, and my friends Jay, Jim, Renee, and Editor/Husband Randy who will sit through long rain delays, and games played through sleet, cold, my bouts of heat exhaustion in summer, leaky bullpens, and late-inning meltdowns in the outfield.
This is our year.
I’ll see you at the game … or I’ll see you in November. Play ball!
I’m on to you, Sports Illustrated. You’re picking the Houston Astros over the Chicago Cubs in the World Series just to be quirky. You’re going with hipster picks – just a little off the beaten path, but still kinda making sense. Good for you.
You went quirky last season, too, picking the Cleveland Indians when everyone else was certain it was the Washington Nationals’ year.
You didn’t pick the Royals. No one did.
You all make a living knowing baseball and you still get it wrong.
That’s why, once again, I turn to my own panel of experts – those who admit they have no real knowledge of baseball – to help me pick the 2016 World Series champion.
Sure, go with the ‘Stros if you must. Or, come with my experts.
You want quirky?
Let’s settle this.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AL East ~ Clinton picks the Red Sox
Clinton is a handyman who does lots of fix-it jobs around the building where I have my massage studio in Madison, Virginia. Last year he replaced all the aging and water-stained ceiling tiles in my studio, which may seem like a small thing to you, except when you realize that the average massage client spends a fair amount of their time looking up at the ceiling.
I’m pretty sure the entire building would fall apart without him.
Clinton was, as always, busy working when I stopped him to help me choose an AL East winner. He’s not a baseball fan, he’s all football and roots for that team from Washington.
Why the Red Sox? Clinton may not know that the Red Sox play in Boston, but he does know that his mother is a Red Sox fan, so he picked them for her. (This is especially sweet, because, if you remember last year’s experts, Andrew chose the Red Sox because they were his mother’s favorite team. Based on this anecdotal evidence, I believe that the Red Sox are the favorite team of every mom in America.)
AL Central ~ Parker picks the Detroit Tigers
I met Parker at the local grocery store where he was feeding the goats.
What? Your local grocery store doesn’t have a barnyard of goats? Well, aren’t you all fancy pants with your city-slicker Smart Water in bottles and 20 kinds of Oreos …
“I used to be a dog until I drank SmartWater.”
Parker is in first grade and plays first base and pitches for his local Little League team. When I asked him the name of his team he said he couldn’t remember, but I think he was just afraid I would show up at his game on Saturday if he told me.
Congratulations, Baseball Fans … You’ve made it through another off-season.
It’s Opening Day for the National Champion University of Virginia Cavaliers (wahoowa!) (I did mention “National Champion” didn’t I?).
University of Virginia vs. Kent State from Pelicans Ballpark in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. First Pitch is at 4:00 p.m.
And, major league pitchers and catchers have been reporting all over the Cactus & Grapefruit Leagues this week. (Fun Fact: The Baltimore Orioles still only have four starting pitchers in their rotation; I’m sure they’ll figure something out.)
“Packing for Spring Training is a pretty easy process. You just throw everything in the bag, throw it in the truck, and hit the road.” ~ Former UVA Cavalier & Current Baltimore Oriole Pitcher Tyler Wilson
“When assembled for exercise, the President, or in his absence, the Vice-President, shall appoint an Umpire, who shall keep the game in a book provided for that purpose, and note all violations of the By-Laws and Rules during the time of exercise.”
The only thing more important than an umpire? Rule #1 which reminds players to “strictly observe the time agreed upon for exercise, and be punctual in their attendance.”
So, let’s give umpires some love on Valentine’s Day …
First, don’t call it a clicker.
“[A] ball and strike indicator … figured in my very first lesson in how to be a professional umpire: Never call it a clicker. (Why? Nobody ever said, but, I guess it’s like an opera singer’s not referring to an aria as a song.)” ~ Bruce Weber, As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels In The Land of Umpires
Not a clicker.
Don’t call the Umpire “Blue.” It’s just rude as it was once a heckle and it was spelled “Blew” – as in “Hey, Blew, you blew the call!”
