Happy Sn-"O"-w Day

Wieters Listed Among "25 Stars 25 and Under"

Andrew Simon of "Hitting the Cutoff Man" has provided his first installment of the series "25 Stars 25 and Under." Matt Wieters makes the list at catcher. Adam Jones gets a mention in the outfield but comes up short in competition with the Cardinals' Colby Rasmus.

Here's an excerpt:

C – Matt Wieters, BAL, 23. Wieters came up last season with tremendous hype, and while his performance wasn’t awe-inspiring, it was solid and encouraging for a 23-year-old catcher getting his first taste of the Majors. Even with his inexperience and position, he was about a league-average hitter.

...

OF – Colby Rasmus, STL, 23. Adam Jones and Denard Span also were great options here, but Rasmus wins via music video tiebreaker. Rasmus is already a top-five defensive center fielder, so it’s just a matter of his bat developing after an unspectacular rookie season. More patience and a better performance against lefties would help, but Rasmus did show his power potential with 16 homers in 474 at-bats.

Image source: O's on Deck.

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The View from Sarasota

Here are some photos of the Orioles complex in Sarasota, courtesy of one of the city's local baseball advocates, Norman Schimmel.

Architects presented their re-design plans for Ed Smith Stadium on Tuesday.

Orioles Vice President of Planning and Development Janet Marie Smith is overseeing the re-design effort. Smith, an architect and urban planner, worked for the team in the same role from 1989-94 during the design and construction of Camden Yards.

Starting in 2002, Smith served as senior vice president of planning and development in Boston, where she spearheaded improvements to Fenway Park and its surrounding neighborhoods.

The Biz of Baseball profiled Smith back in September when she was hired again by the Orioles. A month earlier the site lauded her efforts in Boston.

Here's an excerpt of the latter article:

The completion of the Fenway Park renovations adds another blue chip sports facility project that Smith has seen through to completion. Prior to the Fenway Park renovation, she worked with current Red Sox president Larry Lucchino on Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and prior to that, changing the Atlanta Summer Olympic Stadium into what is now Turner Field.

Luminaries in Boston are already feeling the loss of Smith. As reported in the Boston Globe:

“We’re going to miss her in Boston,’’ Mayor Thomas M. Menino said of Smith, a Mississippi native. “When she started, I thought she was just another of these smart architects. And she was a smart architect, but she also knew how to get the job done.’’

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If I Was King for Just One Day, I Would Give it all Away

The University of Kentucky men's basketball team rolled out its version of a "We're No. 1" T-shirt on Monday. On Tuesday, they lost to South Carolina.

Looks like the T-shirt jinx is more powerful than even the SI cover jinx.

This got me to thinking: What if the Orioles had created their own poorly timed "We're No. 1" T-shirt during a brief perch atop the A.L. East standings?
 
Believe it or not, there have been opportunities during the past 12 seasons - other than 1999, 2001, 2002, or 2007 - for just such a design. 

Perhaps the most ironic time to have created an Orioles T-shirt to cover one's torso during a premature round of chest thumping would have been 2005.

Yes, that "memorable" 2005 season (Thanks, Raffy!) when the O's spent more than 60 glorious days in first place. A June 23 loss to the Blue Jays started a free fall that ended with the Birds in fourth place, 21 games behind the division-winning New York Yankees.

A 2003 T-shirt would be particularly amusing. That season, the O's held and lost the division lead before April showers had even started (March 31). One week later they were in last place.

Here are the other candidates from the O's current streak of losing seasons:

2009: Final day in first place - April 14

2008: Final day in first place - April 29

2006: Final day in first place - April 6

2004: Final day in first place - April 23

2000: Final day in first place - April 9

1998: Final day in first place - April 19

Cue the Thompson Twins!



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B12. Bingo! Tejada an Oriole Again

Miguel Tejada is an Oriole again. Personally I think it's A-Team Andy MacPhail rubbing salt in other teams' trade wounds. Haul in a package of players one year, reacquire the original player another.

Consider yourselves warned Seattle: Andy's on the jazz, and he's coming for Bedard next.

Fans, Please Stay Off the Grass

Orioles head groundskeeper Nicole Sherry offers some turf maintenance insight in the article "Major League grass for sale," which details an effort by Scott's to cash in on insane fan loyalty by marketing grass seed blends used at baseball stadiums.

An excerpt:

Maintaining a lawn for the highly compensated guys in spikes to tear up requires a lot of work. Nicole Sherry, the head groundskeeper at the Baltimore Orioles' Camden Yards, puts in 16-hour days during the season. Of course, she's got three acres of Kentucky bluegrass to mow and manage.
 
"People think that we just take care of the grounds and that there is no science involved," Sherry told smartwomanonline.com. "But keeping this field perfect is a full-time, year-round job."

O's fans will have to wait to develop their very own patch of Camden Yards goodness. The product debuts in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

Meanwhile, fans in Tampa can get ahead of the pack by tearing up their grass and replacing it with carpet.

I probably wasn't the only kid who came away disappointed each time I tried to cut my parents' lawn like they do at the ballpark. It wasn't until I read Nine Innings years later that I realized you need Kentucky Bluegrass, which is shiny on one side, to pull off the effort.

MLB.com tells the detailed story of the new product and offers the obligatory "Field of Dreams" reference. They got their first, so they get the credit for quoting Shoeless Joe: "I'd wake up at night with the smell of the ballpark in my nose, the cool of the grass on my feet. The thrill of the grass."

Did I really just write a piece about grass? Must be the off-season. And I don't even have a new ballpark as an excuse like the guys over at Twinkie Town, who provide a detailed breakdown of the Target Field sod.


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It's Time to Start Calling the Orioles the A-Team

It's time to start calling Andy MacPhail's Orioles the A-Team.

John Tomase of BostonHerald.com has unintentionally cast MacPhail as Hannibal Smith with the recent article "Andy MacPhail's plan coming together for Orioles."

Cue the Hannibal Smith catch phrase: "I love it when a plan comes together."

Clearly Tomase has A-Team on the brain as he describes how the Orioles "have very stealthfully, and quickly, laid the groundwork."

Stealthfully? Quickly? Sounds like a certain group of '80s pop culture mercenaries to me.

Besides, there's a certain literal irony to calling the mid-market Orioles "soldiers of fortune" as they work to take down the free-spending Red Sox and Yankees.

Be it decreed: Solid personnel moves in Baltimore will now be greeted by the phrase "Andy's on the jazz."

The Franchise in Review: The O's vs. the Yankees and Red Sox

Part 2 of Roar from 34's "Franchise in Review" considers the O's performance over time against New York and Boston

In 1954, their first year in Baltimore, the Orioles went 11-11 against the Red Sox. It was the team's best record against any opponent that season.

The O's fortunes against the Yankees, however, were squalid that year -- 5-17, the team's second-worst total against any franchise. (Baltimore was 3-19 versus Cleveland, which won 111 games in 1954.)

And so began the longest-running division rivalries in Orioles history.

Of the seven other teams in the 1954 American League, only New York and Boston have shared a division with Baltimore for the franchise's entire modern history.

In other words, the Evil Empires of the American League East have been thorns in the Orioles' side from the get-go.

Here's a rundown of how the Birds have fared through the years against the Yankees and Red Sox:

[More after the jump.]



-Overall, the Orioles have done slightly better against the Yankees than they have against the Red Sox. Unfortunately, they don't hold a winning record against either franchise.

The Birds are 412-497 (.453) all-time against the Yankees and 408-495 (.452) all-time against the Red Sox.

-The O's have had 18 winning seasons against the Yankees and three seasons ('61, '73, '07) where they earned a series split. Baltimore's best showing against New York came in 1966 when the team went 15-3 in head-to-head games.

-The O's have had 17 winning seasons against the Red Sox and five seasons ('54, '68, '71, '75, and '98) where they earned a series split. Baltimore's best showing against Boston came in 1960 when the team went 16-6 in head-to-head games.

-The Orioles' worst season against each franchise came at different times, but the record was the same each time. The O's were 1-12 against the Yankees in 1985 and 1-12 against the Red Sox in 1987.

-Bring back the '60s and '70s. The Orioles posted winning percentages of .603 and .549 against the Yankees and .571 and .509 against the Red Sox in those successive, successful decades.

The O's did not lose a season series against the Yankees for 11 straight seasons from 1964 through 1974. Meanwhile, the Birds did not lose a season series against the Red Sox for eight consecutive seasons from 1964 through 1971.

-The 1960s were the only decade when the Orioles won 100 or more games against both franchises. Conversely, the 2000s were the only decade when they lost 100 or more games against both franchises.

By the way, the 2000s were every bit as bad as you remember them: 62-116 (.348) against New York, 64-114 (.360) against Boston.

-Finally, as if you needed a reminder, Baltimore's last winning season against the Yankees came in 1997 when they went 8-4 against New York (note: the O's did split with the Yankees in 2007); Baltimore's last winning season against the Red Sox came in 2004 when they went 10-9 against Boston. 

Here's to rivalries in the 2010s that look more like those of the '60s and '70s Can you dig it, man?

Fenway Park South, M&T Bank Stadium North, & the Visting Team Takeover

Albert Breer of The Boston Globe took notice of the large number of Ravens fans in Foxboro for Sunday's Patriots game, writing "Fenway Park South, meet M&T Bank Stadium North." Ah, yes, another case of the all-too familiar visiting team takeover.

How many times have Baltimore fans heard a quote like the one below from the Patriots' Vince Wilfork during baseball season?

"It felt like we were playing an away game, that’s what it felt like," said sixth-year Patriot Vince Wilfork. "Even if we’d moved on from here, we probably would’ve played two away games, back-to-back. I’m telling you, for all this team’s done in the past … I don’t understand it."

If memory serves, Brian Roberts and Aubrey Huff - among others - have said similar things about fan support at Camden Yards when the Red Sox are in town. So Sunday's Foxboro takeover could be viewed as a form of payback for jilted Orioles fans.

While it's nice to see the Ravens get solid fan support on the road, the "revenge" motif isn't all that satisfying for me. I'm more concerned with defending the home turf regardless of season. Here's hoping the O's can fill Camden Yards with hometown fans again sometime soon.

Still, you can add Wilfork's quote to the taste-of-your-own medicine cabinet alongside Kevin Youkilis' complaint last spring regarding the lack of fan support for Team USA baseball.

“It definitely hurts a little bit to know that you’re always the away team in your own country,” he said. “There are some good people out there, but it would be nice to have a lot more of those people chanting ‘USA,’ holding up American flags. That’s the one thing we didn’t see much of the other night – there were more Puerto Rican flags than American (flags).”

Regardless of the uniform he wears, no player likes to feel like a visitor in his home park.

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The Franchise in Review: A Historically Bad Decade for the Orioles

The Orioles are preparing not only for a new season but also a new decade of baseball in Baltimore. Roar from 34's "Franchise in Review" series will consider how the past decade stacks up against the ones that came before it.

Allow me to speak for O's fans everywhere in saying I hope we never again experience 10 seasons of baseball like the ones just completed in Charm City. The results were anything but charming.

When it comes to the 2000-2009 Orioles, optimists and pessimists can agree, albeit in a different tone of voice: "It's never been this bad."

With a 64-98 record in 2009, the Orioles completed their worst decade of baseball since the St. Louis Browns - "First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League" - relocated to Baltimore in 1954.

Overall, the O's compiled a 698-920 record during this period. The team's .431 winning percentage was worse than the previous low, a .438 mark recorded from 1954 through 1959.

However, these dispiriting totals are not in keeping with the team's otherwise proud tradition of success on the diamond. Consider that this was the first full decade in which the Orioles compiled a losing record. It's never happened before.

The team's high-water mark came in the '70s when the O's tallied a .590 winning percentage. The Birds had a .566 percentage in the '60s and a .512 percentage in both the '80s and '90s.

Here's to the return of winning baseball to Baltimore.

 Some other items of interest:

[More after the jump.]



-The Birds' current run of 12 losing seasons is one short of their record streak for consecutive winning seasons --13 straight from 1968 through 1980. Five of those 13 seasons included 100 or more wins.

-The Orioles have won 100 or more games five times. Only once has the team won 100 games and failed to make the World Series. The 1980 O's finished second in the American League East to the New York Yankees, who won 103 games but lost to the Royals in the ALCS.

-This was the second consecutive decade in which the Orioles neither won nor lost 100 games in a season following four straight decades where one, the other, or both happened.

The O's lost 100 games in 1954; won 109 games in 1969; won 108 games in 1970, 101 in 1971, and 102 in 1979; won 100 in 1980 and lost 107 in 1988.  

Up next for "The Franchise in Review" - How the Birds have fared against their two longest-standing rivals: the Yankees and the Red Sox.

The Night Cal Ripken Saved Baseball, and the Democrats

We've all heard about how Cal Ripken Jr. saved baseball following the 1994-95 strike with his consecutive games streak, but did you know he saved the Democrats on Sept. 6, 1995, as well? 

Former Rep. Martin Frost, a Texas Democrat, writes in The Hill this week about how Cal indirectly helped raised $150,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on his record-breaking night.

Here's an excerpt from Frost's column, "Politicians might look to sports to lift their spirits":

For months I had been harassing Maryland Democratic Reps. Ben Cardin (now a U.S. senator) and Steny Hoyer (now House majority leader) to put on a DCCC fundraiser in Baltimore. They had multiple excuses about why it wouldn’t work, but I did not give up.

Finally, one day in the middle of the summer, they approached me on the floor of the House and said they had an idea. What about a fundraiser at Camden Yards the night Ripken broke Gehrig’s record of 2,l30 consecutive games played? The owner of the Baltimore Orioles was a big Democrat and had offered to provide a 75-seat party box in left field for our use that night.

It was an inspired idea. So, on Sept. 6, 1995, the DCCC held a fundraiser at Camden Yards. It was a spectacular evening. Ripken hit a home run to left field (near our box) in the fourth inning and then did a victory lap around the perimeter of the field (passing just under our box) at the end of the fifth inning, when it had become an official game.

We raised $150,000 for the DCCC, and people called me the next morning to thank me for having a fundraiser at the park that night.

Ben Cardin has longstanding Oriole loyalties. On April 4,1989, he introduced a Congressional Resolution honoring the Birds following the team's Opening Day victory over the Yankees. It read, in part, as follows: "The Sun is shining, the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing. Of course, I am talking about the birds of Baltimore. The Baltimore Orioles are back where they belong, in first place in the American League East."

See this "Flashback Friday" post about Cardin's 1989 Congressional Resolution.

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Interesting Baseball Reading

It's a bitter cold January, the Hot Stove doesn't have much heat left to provide, and Rick Dempsey has packed away the Santa suit (until next year?).

Don't despair, O's fans, there's still some good baseball reading to be done.

Stephen Brunt of the Globe and Mail details Roberto Alomar's brilliance during his pre-Orioles playing days in Toronto. "Hero, Heartthrob, Goat, Target ... Let's Start Over" discusses Alomar's rock star status in Toronto when the city functioned in concert with its chart-topping Blue Jays. We O's fans aren't the only ones to witness the decline of a once-mighty baseball town.

Did you know that Orioles third base coach and three-time All Star Juan Samuel - he of the .259 career average and 161 home runs in 16 seasons - received multiple first-ballot votes for the Hall of Fame? Paul Francis Sullivan of Sully Baseball runs down the idiosyncrasies of Cooperstown voting in "Hall of Fame Ballot Insanity"

Finally, Real Clear Sports brings us a fun, retrospective read, "The Top 10 Erroneous Columns of 2009." Included on the list are two mistaken A.L. East-related prognostications:

1. Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated, in the April column "Some Semi-Bold Predictions Entering the 2009 Season," envisioning a post-season without the Yankees.

2. Dan Shaugnessy of the Boston Globe, in the September column "Things are falling into place," predicting a Red Sox World Series victory.


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Adam Jones, Award-Winning Shortstop

Adam Jones has been voted as the top shortstop on the Single-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers' 15th Anniversary Team.

The honor and Jones' time with the Wisconsin minor league outfit connect him historically with the likes of Earl Weaver, Boog Powell, and Cal Ripken Sr., each of whom were associated with an earlier incarnation of the club that used to serve as an Orioles affiliate.

But first, the team's website makes the case for Jones:

The Stats: .267 average (136 hits in 510 at bats), .314 OBP, .717 OPS, 23 doubles, 7 triples, 11 home runs, 72 runs batted in, 8 stolen bases

The Facts: Seattle Mariners 1st round draft pick in 2003 out of Morse (CA) High School;  Opening Day Age: 18

The Case:  Young and multi-talented, Jones is the best defender of the group and leads the candidates in home runs and RBI.

Jones, who played shortstop during the 2004 season in Wisconsin, won with 44 percent of the vote, which was otherwise divided between Ramon Vazquez, Ramon Valera, and Matt Tuiasosopo. Among Jones' memorable days with the Timber Rattlers was July 31, 2004, when he homered twice and drove in five runs.

The Orioles star center fielder moved to the outfield in 2006 with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers.

Previous incarnations of the Timber Rattlers included the Appleton Foxes, who were an Orioles affiliate in the early '60s. Earl Weaver led the club to a league championship in 1960, the team's first year connected to the O's, behind the bats of Boog Powell, who hit.312 with 100 RBI, and League MVP Pete Ward, who hit .345.

Ward played eight games with the Orioles in 1962 before being sent to Chicago as part of the Luis Aparicio trade. Ward came in second for Rookie of the Year honors in 1963 with the White Sox.

Meanwhile, Cal Ripken Sr. earned Manager of the Year honors with the Wisconsin club in 1962 at the age of 26. Ripken was in his second year as a manager, having been at the helm of the Leesburg Orioles in 1961.


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Merry Christmas from Roar from 34

Remembering Former O's Farmhand Joel Stephens

Joel Stephens' varsity football coach has written a book about the Orioles' 1995 first-round draft pick, who died in 1998 at age 22 following a 10-month battle with colon cancer.

The Star Gazette in upstate New York interviewed Mike D'Aloisio about the book, "5 C Hero: The Joel Stephens Story," and the player he once coached.

Here's an excerpt from the interview:

"Eleven years ago, when Joel passed away, I felt a gap was created in my life, losing somebody so young who was such an inspiration to so many people and who was such a good person. I felt to fill that void, I would like to share the story of Joel Stephens, and the Joel Stephens I knew.

It took me a while to do it. I always knew what I wanted to write about, but it wasn't until two to three years ago that I started putting things down on paper. That was the first thing: I just wanted people to know Joel as myself and the people in this area knew him."

Stephens, a celebrated athlete in his hometown of Elmira, N.Y., joined the Orioles Gulf Coast League affiliate in 1995 as a 19-year-old outfielder, playing with the likes of O's prospects Calvin Pickering and Kimera Bartee (aka the "player to be named later" in the Scott Erickson trade with Minnesota).

The Orioles' ninth pick of the '95 draft, Stephens also played with Bluefield and Delmarva before his 1997 cancer diagnosis. He became the franchise's third player to be treated for colon cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the course of a year, following Eric Davis and Boog Powell. He tossed out the ceremonial first pitch before an Orioles exhibition game the following March. Stephens passed away on Sept. 30, 1998.

The Frederick Keys established the Joel A. Stephens Memorial Fund in 1999 to benefit children dealing with serious illness or bereavement due to the death of a parent or sibling. Learn more at the foundation's website. Meanwhile, the Joel Stephens Invitational Tournament has become one of the premiere senior-level baseball tournaments in the Northeast since its founding in 1998.


Image source: The Star Gazette story.

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Adam Jones - Face of the Franchise?

The Orioles will need a face of the franchise - and de facto team leader, at least in the public eye - as they re-build and hope for a brighter future. I nominate Adam Jones.

Rule #1: A team leader must be quotable. And Jones sure is.

From Friday's Sun:

"I'm just sitting back here, watching it and loving it. I'm letting Andy do what he came here to do," Orioles center fielder Adam Jones said. "I'm letting him do his magic. He's in charge for a reason. I like all three moves, to be honest with you."

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Holliday In Baltimore

Matt Holliday should play in Baltimore for no other reason than that together with Felix Pie he would allow the Orioles to compete for having the most players with names that invite witty headline attempts.

Take, for example, this offering from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Holliday Intrigue: Orioles in, and a 'mystery team' arrives."

Just imagine the Holliday Inn Express possibilities. I'm picturing Jumbotron videos that rival the 2008 Kevin Millar Orioles Magic fare.

Baltimore: We do humor better than baseball! Have a laugh at our team on and off the field.

The Post-Dispatch story is worth reading for more than just the headline. Derrick Goold rightly points out that this script mirrors the media narrative for Mark Teixeira last off-season. In other words, some folks might just be getting played (again) by Scott Boras.

Writes Goold:

This Courtship of Holliday is following a familiar script: Mark Teixeira, Take 2.

Last season, the Orioles were interested in signing Teixeira because he had Maryland roots and they had an opening at first base. The pursuit of Teixeira was, if you recall, positioned as a three-team derby, with the Los Angeles Angels looking to re-signing him and Baltimore and Boston vying to woo him back east. As Christmas approached, a word of a mystery team came and went, the talks seemed to delay and drag on. Then, out of the blue, came the New York Yankees, who swooped in with the $180-million offer.

The Garrett Atkins/Brian Roberts angle on this story - namely that Holliday is friendly with both players and was an FCA rep along with Roberts - fits with the Hot Stove Myths and Truths I discussed last off-season.

Narrative/Myth #1: We're an attractive destination for a top free agent because we have an "in" with him (aka "The Hometown Discount"/"Hometown Hero" Effect).

The thinking here is that a player's relationship to the city, the team, or its personnel will propel him to take a below-market deal with the Orioles. This favored narrative applies to cases where we're trying to keep a guy in the fold (i.e. the hometown discount) or to bring him into the fold (i.e. the hometown hero). Mike Mussina was an example of the former, Mark Teixeira is an example of the latter. A.J. Burnett, whose wife is from the Baltimore area and who has an off-season home in Monkton, could also fit into the latter category.

I would love to add  Matt Holliday's bat to the Orioles' lineup and to see what kind of trade that would allow the team to make from there. But, as was the case when Teixeira flirted with the Birds, I'm not getting my hopes up.

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Ballard Calls B.S. on Red Sox Nation and Moneyballers

Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard uses the magazine's latest "Point After" column to call b.s. on the sports world, including Red Sox fans and Moneyballers. Read the piece in context before you form any conclusions.

Ballard's critiques are tough, but fair - and, for me, much appreciated - as they cut through the pretense that so often surrounds the otherwise simple joy - and if you're lucky, shared joys - of watching games being played at their highest levels.

Writes Ballard:

In fact, it's high time to call b.s. on lots of stuff in sports. It's the rare precinct in which we're encouraged to be ourselves, unburdened by the solicitousness and the affectations of polite society. In sports there should be no equivalent of obscure indie rock bands people say they love but never listen to, or Stephen Hawking books that are displayed yet never opened. No, this world is about winning and losing and loving and hating. This is no place for pretense.

So for starters, I call b.s. on Red Sox Nation. You are not a "nation." Your fandom and your suffering is no more or less important than anyone else's. To insinuate so is to insult all of us who passionately follow our teams. No, at best you are a province. Please stop migrating.

I know and like Boston fans who when it comes down to it are just good baseball fans. They enjoy talking about your team as well as their own. They respect the game and its history. They're easy to root for.

But then there are the others - the bandwagon jumpers, the BIRGers and CORFers, the never-lived-in-or-near-Boston-nor-knew-anyone-who-did-but-still-manage-to-live-and-die-by-the-Sox types - who give the "Nation" its numbers and its obnoxious qualities.

So Ballard is tough on Red Sox nation. But fair.

Key line: "Your fandom and your suffering is no more or less important than anyone else's." Fans who realize that fact - and they are out there - show a glimmer of the Red Sox mythology that at one time was actually endearing.

More from Ballard:

Moneyballers, come on down, because I'm calling b.s. Not on the stats revolution (valid) or Billy Beane (ahead of his time) or even the measures themselves (OPS is pretty damn useful). No, I'm talking about the holier-than-thous who profess to prefer a game predicated on driving in runs with walks, never stealing bases and acquiring a fleet of Scott Hattebergs. The ideas may have been enlightening, but we all know that when it's late at night and no one's around, you revel in watching Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval bushwhack his way on base and Rays outfielder Carl Crawford swipe second and third. You know why? Because sports aren't homework; they're entertainment.

After some initial skepticism, I've come to appreciate the value of the stats revolution in baseball. Heath at Dempsey's Army has helped me with that journey as he often provides valuable context to O's fans by playing the numbers game.

However, as Ballard points out, let's not allow slavish devotion to formulas to keep us from enjoying the bushwhacking and swiping of bases. After all, we're still fans, not GMs.

Key line: "Because sports aren't homework; they're entertainment."

In the end, I think that's the primary point underlying Ballard's entire column: sports are entertainment. So allow yourself to be entertained.

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Alomar is Already in the Hall of Very Good; Will He Make the Hall of Fame?

He won't be an Orioles Hall of Famer; more likely a Blue Jays or Indians Hall of Famer. Or perhaps, given how many future nominees would benefit from such a thing, Cooperstown will create a new category for vagabond players, who won't be required to choose just one team's hat for their plaque.

Whatever the case, Roberto Alomar will be in the Hall of Fame regardless of which team claims him as its own. Maybe not first ballot - given, um, that incident I'm sure you remember - but he'll be there.

The Hall of Very Good sizes up Alomar's candidacy.

Alomar went to twelve straight All-Star games (nine as a starter), compared to Ryno’s ten. Incidentally, his ten Gold Gloves over a span of eleven years is the most ever by a second baseman.

His .984 fielding percentage is a hair behind Sandberg’s .989.

His 2724 hits (and career .300 batting average) is the most by any every day second baseman since Charlie Gehringer’s 2839. Gehringer was inducted in 1949. FYI…Sandberg finished with 2386 and a .285 batting average.

Even, Alomar’s OPS+ (a stat that I am not that high on, but some people are) of 116 is smack dab in the middle of the pack when you look at those already enshrined. For the record, Sandberg’s was 114. Joe Morgan...a surprising 132.

Alomar even slugged .347 in back to back World Series victories for the Blue Jays
And yes, for every “case for”…there is a case against:

...

Alomar was the type of player that, because he was so damn solid for nearly 17 seasons…people forget that he was a hitting machine. From his second year in the majors (1989) until 2001, Alomar hit under .295 only twice. He even had an impressive run of nine out of ten years where he hit .300 or better.

Open your doors for Robbie, Cooperstown, I’ll be watching...all the while knowing that the best second baseman I ever saw play is getting his just desserts.

Alomar seemed to dog it toward the end of his three-season stay in Baltimore when his numbers dropped accordingly. The fact that those numbers rebounded enough for him to finish third in the MVP voting in 1999 after returning to Cleveland only added to existing accusations that he played hard only when he really wanted to. Nevertheless, when Alomar gave it his all there weren't many who were better at the position.

I first saw Alomar play in Toronto, where he dominated the Blue Jays game I attended. It's not very often you walk away from a baseball game most impressed by a second baseman, but that's exactly what happened that night.

I went to Toronto to see the SkyDome; I left there talking about Robbie Alomar, a future Hall of Famer.

The Hot Stove Wasn't Always So Tepid for the Birds

The Hot Stove season is likely to be a fairly tepid affair for the Orioles this year. Rather than comb the current class of free-agents and potential trade targets I revisited the team's moves headed into the 1998 season, when the the O's became the first team in baseball to post a $70 million payroll.

Take a minute and let that sink in: the O's were baseball's biggest spenders just a little more than a decade ago. In fact, Baltimore holds the distinction of being the last team to outspend the New York Yankees, who have had baseball's highest payroll every year since 1999.

Unfortunately, the end result for the Birds in '98 was a 79-83 record, the first of an active 12-season losing streak. 

Mo' money, mo' problems? Try mo' money, mo' intrigue.

Big bats, frontline pitchers, aging veterans - the O's chased them all back then.

[To be fair, much of the team's '98 payroll went to players who led the team to back-to-back ALCS appearances in 1996 and 1997, including Robert Alomar ($6.3 million), Brady Anderson ($6.2 million), Mike Mussina ($6.5 million), Rafael Palmeiro ($6.5 million), and Cal ($6.3 million).]

Here's a rundown on some of the Birds' 1997/1998 Hot Stove maneuverings:


-Fresh off a league-leading 45 saves in 1997, closer Randy Myers spurned the Orioles' two year, $11 million offer in November to sign with Toronto for three years, $18 million.

Myers recorded 28 saves in 41 games for the Blue Jays, who let him go in August when the Padres claimed Myers off waivers and inherited the remainder of his contract. Myers did not pitch again after the 1998 season.


-The Orioles chased future first-ballot Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, who ultimately signed with the Twins for $4.25 million in early December.

O's fans bummed about losing out on Molitor received good news days later when Brady Anderson signed a five-year, $31 million extension with the team

Here's what the Washington Post had to say on Dec. 8, 1997:

“The Orioles will be one of baseball's highest-spending teams next year. In the past eight months, though, Angelos has gotten the club's three cornerstone players -- third baseman Cal Ripken, pitcher Mike Mussina and Anderson -- to sign contracts below their free agent market values. Anderson, 33, agreed to receive $ 1.5 million of his $ 6.25 million  salary in each of the first four years of his new deal as deferred compensation without interest.”

"I thought the whole thing was cool," Anderson said. "I was surprised how concerned the fans were. They seemed to care a lot more than I thought they would. That's one of the reasons I got out of Baltimore. I thought I was getting ready to sign for whatever the Orioles were offering."

-On Dec. 12, the Orioles signed free-agent pitcher Doug Drabek to a $1.8 million, one-year contract that included $600,000 in performance incentives.

Drabek won 12 games for the White Sox in 1997. He went 6-11 with a 7.29 ERA in Baltimore.


-On Dec. 13, the team inked free-agent outfielder Joe Carter to a $3.3 million one-year deal. According to the New York Times the move "added another sizable bat to their lineup."

Carter hit 11 home runs in 85 games before being traded to San Francisco for Darrin Blood.


-Ozzie Guillen and Norm Charlton signed minor-league deals with the Birds in January.

Said Guillen: "I picked the Baltimore Orioles because I think they have the best chance to win." Both players finished the '98 season in Atlanta.


-In January, the Orioles also re-signed pitcher Scott Kamieniecki, who went 10-6 with a 4.01 ERA in '97, for two years, $6.2 million. Kamieniecki won four games in those two years.


-The intrigue continued into the spring when the O's retained the services of free-agent-to-be Scott Erickson by signing him to a five-year, $32 million extension in May.


When it was all said and done, the Orioles produced a payroll that was larger then ($70.4 million in 1998) than it is now ($67.1 million in 2009). The record-setting '98 figure would rank in the lower two-thirds among teams today. It's essentially what the Royals ($70.5 million) are spending these days.