The Orioles are winners for the second straight year, DL Hall wants to start, and more in today’s Bird Droppings
Happy Tuesday, Camden Chatters! The Orioles are winners again! They smacked down the White Sox by a score of 9-0 last night, doing exactly what a good team should do to a bad team. For a full recap of the lovely totals, check out John Beers’s story from last night.
It’s now August 29th and the Orioles are 82-49. They have clinched their second straight winning season and are on pace to win 101 games. Will I ever get used to this? I don’t think that I will. 101 wins still feels like too many, but maybe that’s just because I am damaged from watching Orioles baseball my entire life.
But the fact remains that the Orioles are approaching September and STILL on a 100+ win pace. It’s completely nuts. Even if they go just 15-16 over their final 31 games, they will finish with 97 wins. And 15-16 would be a big disappointment!
Tonight is a big night personally because tonight is the night that I am sitting in the Bird Bath! It felt wrong to not experience this very 2023 Orioles experience. I would have rather gone on a weekend with a bigger crowd, or against a team with bigger stakes than the White Sox. But by the time I got around to buying my tickets, nearly every game in that section was completely sold out.
So, Tuesday night against the White Sox it is. I am looking forward to it! 2023 is an amazing year for the Orioles and I feel like I’m getting another bit of that by putting myself in the path of Mr. Splash. I just hope the Orioles give him plenty of reason to turn on the hose.
Links
For now, Hall’s place is in Orioles’ bullpen, but he wants to start again – BaltimoreBaseball.com
I don’t blame him, but as someone who is not DL Hall, I like him in relief.
Before the Birds and the bees, the Orioles and Hoyt Wilhelm had a run-in with gnats in Chicago
Sunday’s game against the Rockies was delayed due to bees. That prompted the Sun to go back in history to a time when Hoyt Wilhelm was encircled by a cloud of gnats.
The New and Improved Grayson Rodriguez – Eutaw Street Report
A deep dive on Grayson Rodriguez’s second stint in the majors this season. Spoiler: he’s good!
Orioles bullpen still strong without Félix Bautista – MLB.com
There was a time when this headline was laughable, but they really have been doing better lately.
Birthdays and History
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have four Orioles birthday buddies, including Doug DeCinces, who is turning 73. DeCinces spent the first nine seasons of his 15-year career with the Orioles. DeCinces hit 107 home runs as an Oriole including one very memorable one.
On June 22, 1979, DeCinces hit the home run that is said to have kicked off Orioles Magic. This is not something I remember, having been just three months old at the time, but it’s a story I’ve heard told time and again. The Orioles scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth, two from the DeCinces homer, to walk off the Tigers.
You can learn more about the origin story of Orioles Magic in this seven-minute YouTube video and read more about DeCinces in Mark Brown’s story from 2020 in which he was named the 27th best Oriole of all time.
Also born on this day in history are former Orioles Eddie Rogers (45), Frank Zupo (b. 1939, d. 2005), and Dave Nicholson (b. 1939, d. 2023).
On this day in 1954, Clint Courtney had a five-hit game in an Orioles 5-0 win over the Senators. It was the first five-hit game for the franchise after their move to Baltimore.
In 1979, Eddie Murray drove in all seven runs in a 7-4 win over the Twins. He did so with three home runs, two right-handed and one left-handed.
In 1999, Albert Belle hit four doubles in an 11-4 win over the Tigers.