-Bill at The Platoon Advantage paid brief tribute to each of the 42 MLB veterans who retired in 2006 with at least a decade of experience and did not make it onto this year's Hall of Fame ballot. It features plenty of Oriole retreads: Manny Alexander (with a funny one-line anecdote), Mike DeJean, current Bowie coach Einar Diaz, Jason Grimsley, Rick Helling, Tim Laker, Eli Marrero, Chris Widger, Tim Worrell, and Esteban Yan. If you wake up in a cold sweat one night this week, it probably means that you read that list out loud. Sorry about that. Also on the non-ballot list is Scott Erickson, who was no Hall of Famer, but certainly more worthy of a vote than ballot members Tony Womack or Jeromy Burnitz.
-My blogging brother from another mother, Night Owl, has started not one but TWO new card set blogs. He’s taking the lid off of two of his favorite sets, 1971 Topps and 1985 Topps. One post in on each, and they’re already looking like fun reads. Particularly the ’71 set, which pays homage to Shaft. I can dig it. I’m also learning things, such as this: Brooks Robinson does not appear in the Orioles team photo that kicks off the 1971 set. What gives? (As a side note, it’s a good thing for Night Owl that he doesn’t make any money off his blogs, or else he might owe me a cut for the dozens of readers I send his way.)
-This brilliant Orioles Decision Making Flowchart, courtesy of Tumblr user “Billy”, started making the rounds last weekend. It’s hilarious and sadly too true. But if you’ve been an Orioles fan for this long and haven’t figured out how to laugh at yourself, then there truly is no hope for you. I’m nodding knowingly at this path: Are we winning? -> No -> lol idk let’s get some players -> Sign -> Reliever -> He sucks -> Play him anyway -> Blame McPhail.
-Lastly...The Baltimore Sun's Dan Connolly makes it as painfully clear as he can: Prince Fielder is not coming to Baltimore, so stop asking already.
The list of former Orioles not up for consideration is lackluster to say the least. Maybe that's why we've endured 14 losing seasons in a row.
ReplyDeleteSometime this week when I am bored, I will plug Mets names into that O's flowchart, since the 'fail' is pretty much the same, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent (and the competent).
ReplyDeleteRyan H - Yeah, it certainly seems like an unusually high number of them were O's at some point.
ReplyDeleteMax - I'll get you started. Replace Brian Roberts with David Wright.