Vintage Fridays: Bobby Grich, 1975 SSPC #388

As I mentioned in a recent post, I happened to find a copy of an old ABC “Monday Night Baseball” broadcast (complete with the original commercials!) on YouTube. It featured the Orioles hosting the AL West-leading Royals at Memorial Stadium on August 30, 1976. Warner Wolf and Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson, who had just retired at the end of 1975, were the announcing team. Because I miss baseball just this much, I decided to watch the whole thing and time-stamp my observations. I did not look up the box score ahead of time, so I’m going in spoiler-free. Follow along if you so desire. Enjoy!

1:22 – Lineup introductions are handled by the players themselves, with the Kansas City starting ten (including the DH) parading on-camera one-by-one and awkwardly mumbling their name, position, and hometown. The highlight is the camera suddenly panning down from 5’11” second baseman White to 5’4”, 140-pound shortstop Freddie “the Flea” Patek.

2:57 – As the Orioles’ defense is shown warming up, Wolf mentions that Doug DeCinces, in his first full season in the majors, is starting at third as the heir apparent to Brooks Robinson. It’s wild to think that Brooksie was still hanging around at the time.

5:20 – Left fielder Jim Wohlford steps into the box as the first batter of the game, facing lefty Rudy May. The on-screen graphics show each batter’s age, hometown, and years of big league experience, as well as basic batting stats (AVG, HR, RBI). It’s a very different information set than we’re used to now.

5:58 – Wolf points out that Amos Otis completely smears away the right-handed batters’ box as he comes to the plate. No respect for the grounds crew!

7:16 –After Otis singles up the middle, George Brett comes to bat, carrying a .486 (17-for-35) average against the O’s. Ouch. Fortunately, he bounces into a force play at second base.

11:42 – Miller High Life ad: “If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer!”

14:17 – 35-year-old Tommy Harper is the DH and leadoff batter for Baltimore, and an on-screen graphic notes that the Birds are his eighth team (Reds, Indians, Pilots, Brewers, Red Sox, Angels, A’s, O’s). They’ll also be his last, as he bats .234/.318/.338 in just 46 games on the year.

15:42 – Reggie Jackson takes his first at-bat, receiving a smattering of boos from the sparse Monday night crowd that is noted on play-by-play. Reggie is quoted as saying that he doesn’t mind being booed, because “it means they’re paying attention to me”. That seems on-brand. He drops a single over the infield and promptly steals second base before Lee May strikes out to strand him there.

19:52 – Vintage commercial update: Bob Hope for Texaco Motor Oil, with “In the Summertime” by Mongo Jerry as the music accompaniment.

24:00 – There are a ton of invisible fans sitting in the yellow bleachers. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear the Baltimore fans were practicing social distancing.

24:46 – Back-to-back doubles by Al Cowens and Frank White give KC an early lead.

25:52 – Bob Gibson claims that Patek’s response to being asked what it’s like being the smallest player in the major leagues is that “It’s better than being the smallest player in the minor leagues.” Can’t argue with that.

30:16 – Wild batting splits for Kenny Singleton: .204 righty, .288 lefty.

34:50 – It’s reported that the Royals call manager Whitey Herzog “Stein”, short for “Frankenstein”. That one’s new to me!

36:40 – With Kansas City eight games ahead of Oakland in the West and the Yankees 11.5 up on the Orioles, the ALCS seems like a foregone conclusion. It’s noted that the Royals took the season series from New York, 7-5. Of course, the Yanks would scrape by in five games in the postseason series (which was then best-of-five).

41:52 – Wohlford is caught stealing second base by O’s catcher Dave Duncan, who is playing out the last season of his 11-year MLB career. He should get into coaching or something.

43:28 – There’s an odd ad: Fred Lynn and Jim Rice urging youngsters to join the Navy.

47:15 – Since July 1, Duncan is 9-for-71 (.127)…make it 9-for-72, as he pops out. I’ve got a hunch why this was his last year.

48:58 – Mickey Mantle hawking an athlete’s foot treatment (NP-27). I guess a paycheck is a paycheck.

51:08 – It’s the always-fun May-to-May putout, as Rudy corrals a comebacker from league-leading hitter Hal McRae and Lee digs out a low throw at first base.

53:16 – John Mayberry is credited with 12 game-winning hits for the Royals. I had assumed that the oft-derided “GWRBI” statistic hadn’t come about until the 1980s.

54:58 – Bob Gibson claims to have been used as a pinch runner “lots of times”, until he got injured doing so and the practice was discontinued. His career splits do show that he scored 14 runs as a pinch runner.

1:01:28 – We see that Reggie has tied an American League record in 1976 with a six-game home run streak. As you may know, that record was broken in 1987 by Don Mattingly, who ended up tying Dale Long’s MLB record with homers in eight straight games (Ken Griffey, Jr. tied Mattingly in 1993). Reggie’s streak is still an Oriole record, tied by Chris Davis in 2012.

1:05:54 – The Birds are finally on the board in the bottom of the fourth, as Bobby Grich singles, Lee May doubles him to third base, and Singleton brings him home with a groundout. We’re tied 1-1.

1:10:45 – Incredible backhand in the hole by Mark Belanger, who guns it across the diamond to put out KC catcher Buck Martinez by several steps. He didn’t last 18 years in the majors with a .580 OPS for no reason.

1:15:14 – Just like that Kansas City takes the lead back, thanks to a two-out double by Wohlford and a seeing-eye single by Amos Otis. 2-1.

1:17:16 – As Dave Pagan warms up in the Oriole bullpen, we see Mike Cuellar (sans hat) shuffling around behind him.

1:18:14 – Good gravy. Whose idea was it to let Pete Rose sing in an Aqua Velva spot?

1:19:11 – A pregame interview with KC starting pitcher Andy Hassler is shown, discussing his 18-game losing streak, which spanned two seasons and wasn’t snapped until a few weeks prior to this game, shortly after he’d been traded from the Angels.

1:27:50 – Another pre-recorded segment, as Rudy May tells the story of tripping over his dog in the middle of the night and breaking BOTH arms. Man’s best friend, indeed.

1:30:11 – Some great curmudgeonly commentary from Gibson, as he retells the story of a Roberto Clemente comebacker that broke his leg, and somehow spins it into a defense of raising the mound back to its 1968 height. Then Warner Wolf mentions Gibson returning to pitch against Boston in the World Series, and needles the future Hall of Famer about giving up a home run to opposing starter Jose Santiago in Game One in Fenway Park. Bob shoots back, insisting it was a pop-up that sailed over the cozy fence in Boston’s home park. I can see why he’d be so salty, as that solo homer was all that kept Gibson from a complete game shutout.

1:37:30 – Leading off the bottom of the sixth, Harper draws the first walk of the game for either team.

1:39:32 – Grich blasts a double to the center field wall, scoring Harper with the tying run. 2-2. As Rick Dempsey would say, walks will kill you every time.

1:42:02 – Lee May booms another deep fly ball, caught by Otis. Grich (who had moved up on a Reggie Jackson grounder) tags from third and scores, giving the O’s a 3-2 lead. It’s Lee’s 84^th RBI, tying him with the Yankees’ Chris Chambliss for the league lead.

1:56:04 – With DeCinces batting, Wolf talks about how he was almost traded to the Mets prior to the season for Rusty Staub. I’d never heard that, either!

2:02:26 – With one out in the bottom of the seventh, the Orioles finally chase Andy Hassler with a Paul Blair single. That moves DeCinces, who walked to lead off the frame, to second base. Mark Littell enters from the bullpen on…the cart!

2:07:00 – On Littell’s second pitch, DeCinces is thrown out at third base on an attempted double steal. Now you know why Earl Weaver didn’t like small-ball.

2:11:14 – Tony Muser, future manager of the Royals, enters the game for Baltimore at first base, replacing Lee May.

2:14:02 – As Warner Wolf notes, back-to-back flyouts to Ken Singleton mean that Rudy May has held KC’s two most dangerous hitters (Brett and McRae) to a combined 0-for-8, while giving up nine hits in all (UPDATE: 11 hits).

2:17:43 – May escapes the eighth inning, stranding two runners after Frank White hits a tapper to Grich. Moments earlier, White had been admonished by home plate umpire Joe Brinkman for having too much pine tar on his bat. Do you think George Brett was paying attention?

2:31:00 – Bob Gibson cracks that Cookie Rojas “has been 37 years old for about 37 years”, but the Royals’ pinch hitter gets the last laugh with a single. That’s 12 hits allowed by Rudy May in eight and one-third innings.

2:34:05 – Amos Otis gives the ball a ride, but Paul Blair barely moves before snagging it for the final out. O’s win 3-2 (box score and play-by-play), despite being outhit 12-5. Rudy May gets the complete game win to improve to 11-9 with a 4.01 ERA. Despite scattering those dozen hits, he didn’t walk a single batter. He also only had three strikeouts, so he kept the defense on their toes.

2:34:58 – Marvelous Marv Throneberry sighting! A Miller Lite commercial. That seems like a good place to end this.

Vintage Fridays: Royle Stillman, 1975 SSPC #393

It wasn't easy being a prospect in the O's farm system in the 1970s. Royle Stillman arrived from the Dodgers in the Frank Robinson trade prior to the 1972 season. At age 21, he batted .297/.404/.505 with 23 home runs at AA Asheville. The following year, the young outfielder couldn't replicate that power stroke in his first crack at AAA Rochester, but he did lead the league with a .354 average in 94 games, with a .441 on-base percentage to boot. That earned Stillman a return ticket to the Red Wings in 1974, with Rich Coggins, Paul Blair, Al Bumbry, and Don Baylor blocking his path to the major leagues. He had something of a sophomore slump that year, but still held his own with a .292 batting mark. The third time was the charm, as Royle batted .313/.382/.484 with 30 doubles, 14 homers, and 75 RBI with Rochester in 1975 and finally made his Orioles debut in September. He went 6-for-14 in that brief exposure, but saw action in only 20 games in Baltimore the following year and scratched out two singles and three walks in 25 trips to the plate. He signed with the White Sox as a free agent at the end of the 1976 season, but put up a .210/.307/.361 line in 56 games in what proved to be his final crack at the bigs. But he does hold the historical distinction of being MLB's only player named Royle.

Vintage Fridays: Ross Grimsley, 1975 SSPC #377

Tonight, Nationals starter Max Scherzer finally gave up a run, as the Phillies touched him up for a pair in the seventh inning. It snapped a 47 and one-third inning shutout streak by Washington starting pitchers, ensuring that the 1974 Orioles' post-expansion record of 54 straight scoreless innings will stand. Of course, the Birds did it the hard way, as those innings were truly consecutive. Dave McNally finished up a 7-1 complete-game victory over the Royals with a scoreless ninth inning on September 1 after his shutout was spoiled by a John Mayberry groundout with runners on the corners in the eighth. The next day, Ross Grimsley and Mike Cuellar each went the distance in a pair of 1-0 squeakers, as the O's swept Boston in a twinbill in Memorial Stadium. "Scuz" twirled a three-hitter, and Cuellar one-upped him with a two-hitter. Jim Palmer continued to flummox the BoSox on Wednesday the 4th, blanking them on three hits in a 6-0 breezer. The Orioles traveled to Cleveland for a Friday doubleheader and McNally (three-hit, 2-0 final) and Cuellar again (five-hit, 1-0 final) kept the zeroes coming. On Saturday, September 7, Grimsley carried a four-hit shutout into the game's final frame. With the Tribe down by three, George Hendrick led off with a double and Charlie Spikes finally spoiled the fun with a two-run homer. Ross regrouped to put down the next three Indians hitters in order, preserving the complete game victory. It was the tenth straight victory for the O's, who were in the midst of yet another late-season surge under Earl Weaver. That must have been an incredible time to be a fan.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Palmer, 1975 SSPC #380

I guess a full week is long enough to leave you hanging. Here's the card that I had signed by Jim Palmer last Saturday at FanFest. It's a classic 'Cakes card, in that he's posing without a cap, the better to air out his luxuriant chestnut locks. I made a remark to Palmer in that vein, and he told me that once he posed for a photo while wearing former pitching coach Ray Miller's cap. He assured me that "the Rabbit" had a huge noggin, hat size eight-something, so it was a funny visual. (To be fair to Miller, a quick check online for game-used memorabilia suggests that he wore a seven and a half, barely bigger than Palmer's seven and a quarter cap size.) I likened it to the time that Adam Jones swiped the Oriole Bird's oversized headgear and tried it on for himself. So that's the context for these photos, helpfully snapped by my sister. From left to right, Brian Matusz, Caleb Joseph, and Palmer are seated at the autograph table.

As for the signature, I'm glad that Jim appended the "HOF 90" inscription without being asked. I'm sure he takes a lot of pride in his first-ballot selection to the Hall of Fame, but it makes the autograph that much more special to me.

Vintage Fridays: Doug DeCinces, 1975 SSPC #387

Happy 64th birthday to Doug DeCinces. Doug's best season with the Orioles was 1978, when he led the club with 37 doubles, 28 home runs, a .526 slugging percentage, and an .872 OPS. I was surprised to learn that he was never a Gold Glover at third base, and his only All-Star season was in 1983, the year after he batted .301/.369/.548 for the Angels with 42 doubles, 30 homers, and 97 RBI, all career highs. For a guy with a solid 115 career OPS+, he doesn't seem to get his due. So here's to you, Doug.

P.S.: I'll be away and without Internet access for the weekend. See youse on Tuesday!

Vintage Fridays: Jim Hutto, 1975 SSPC #385

This is Jim Hutto, Jim Hutto's scraggly hair, Jim Hutto's comparatively well-trimmed mustache, and Jim Hutto's wayward tuft of chest hair.

If you require more information, there's this: Hutto was a rookie with the 1970 Phillies, appearing in 57 games and seeing time at first base, catcher, and the outfield corners. He was a zero with the bat: .185/.222/.304 in 101 plate appearances. Philadelphia traded him to the Orioles that offseason along with Grant Jackson, and he spent five of his last six pro seasons with the Rochester Red Wings. In 1975, he was a September call-up and went 0-for-5 with the O's in four games. That was his only major league experience save for that 1970 season. Jim Hutto's legacy as an Oriole is complete, though: he was the last player to wear #33 before Eddie Murray claimed it.

Vintage Fridays: Dave Duncan, 1975 SSPC #383

Tonight the Orioles had a pitching performance worthy of longtime pitching guru (and onetime O's catcher) Dave Duncan. Chris Tillman earned his seventh win by working around four walks in six scoreless innings. He limited the Red Sox to three hits, and this season's Big Three relievers (Darren O'Day, Tommy Hunter, and Jim Johnson) faced nine batters and got nine outs. Throw in another Chris Davis home run and a run-scoring infield single by Adam Jones, and you've got all the ingredients for a 2-0 Baltimore win. The last time the Orioles blanked Boston was September 13, 2006, when Erik Bedard, Todd Williams, and Chris Ray combined for a 4-0 shutout. Tonight was a great night to be at Camden Yards, and the topper was a lively fireworks display after the game.

One and a half games out of first place.

Vintage Fridays: Mike Cuellar, 1975 SSPC #375

This is an outstanding photo. From the dusky sky in the background to the faraway grimace on an aging Mike Cuellar's face...that face. The lines are so numerous and so deep that you could probably count them to determine the veteran screwballer's age. You know, like the rings in a tree. Assuming that Mike didn't fudge the numbers when he left his native Cuba, he would have been 38 years old in this picture. It seems to me that most of today's players don't age quite so visibly. Of course, they have the time, money, and resources to take better physical care of themselves than players of Cuellar's era. Is it any wonder that Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz wear their years better than he did?

Vintage Fridays: Tommy Davis, 1975 SSPC #398

For the second year in a row, I spent the entire month of November growing a mustache from scratch as part of the Movember campaign. While I didn't exactly reach the hirsute heights of Tommy Davis, I'm pretty happy with the results. You can check out the photo gallery on my "Mo Space", and if you want to feel good about yourself, you could also make a donation to support prostate and testicular cancer research and awareness. It probably would've been wiser for me to mention it at the beginning of the month, but rumor has it that I'm an extreme procrastinator. Better late than never, I suppose!

Vintage Fridays: Bob Bailor, 1975 SSPC #386

This card serves as a reminder that I have only scratched the surface of the history of the Orioles. Every SSPC card features a close-up photo of the player with no text on the front. As I paged through my team set in its vintage O's binder, I could identify most players by sight. Grant Jackson, Mike Torrez, Dave Duncan, Elrod Hendricks, Brooks Robinson, Don Baylor. Most, but not all. This wild-eyed young man with tufted shocks of hair protruding from his cap was unfamiliar. I had to flip the card over to read that it was Bob Bailor. Oh, Bob Bailor! I know about him. Well, let's see. He was taken by the Blue Jays in the expansion draft, and...um.

Yeah, I've still got a lot to learn.

Bob Bailor was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Orioles in 1969, but he garnered some attention by hitting .340 with a .423 on-base percentage and 50 RBI in 68 games at low-A Aberdeen at age 19. The following year (1972), he led the Class A California League with 63 stolen bases, nearly double the 32 steals of runner-up Jerry Remy. Bailor also hit .290 that season for Lodi, though he mustered only 21 extra-base hits. That profile would hold as he climbed the ranks. Bob was a .288 hitter with a .359 slugging percentage in parts of 7 minor league seasons in the Baltimore organization.

With Brooksie, Mark Belanger, and Bobby Grich ensconced in the Oriole infield, Bailor received only a few cups of coffee with the Birds in 1975 and 1976, compiling a .231 average (3-for-13) in 14 games.   In his big league debut, he pinch hit for Tom Shopay in the bottom of the 13th inning with runners on first and second and one out. He drew a walk against the Yankee relief ace Sparky Lyle, loading the bases for Don Baylor (Baylor batting behind Bailor!). Baylor singled to deliver the walkoff win. On October 3, 1976, he got only the third start of his O's career. In what would be his final game with the club, he played all 15 innings of a 3-2 loss and went 2-for-6 with both hits coming off of Luis Tiant. One of those hits was a triple, the first extra-base hit of his career.

I did have one thing right: the Blue Jays chose Bob with their first pick (second overall) in the November 1976 expansion draft. He appeared in 122 games in 1977, dividing his time amongst shortstop, left field, and center field. He hit .310 with 5 home runs and 32 RBI and stole 15 bases. Incidentally, he would only hit 4 homers total in another 819 career games going forward. He was named Toronto's Player of the Year, and defended his title in 1978 despite a batting line of .264/.310/.338. That season, he did set career highs with 29 doubles, 7 triples, and 52 RBI. His offensive performance further dwindled in the proceeding two seasons, reducing him to a utility role. The Jays even used him as a relief pitcher in August of 1980. After two scoreless one-inning appearances, he failed to retire a batter against the Royals on August 16, yielding back-to-back doubles and a walk before Mike Barlow replaced him. Bailor was charged with two runs, and never pitched again; his career ERA was locked in at 7.71. On the bright side, he also played right field in that game and had three hits!

Bob spent the 1981-1983 seasons with the Mets, continuing in the utility role and batting .266 without walks or power but succeeding on 40 of his 46 steal attempts. In December 1983, he and reliever Carlos Diaz were dealt to the Dodgers for young lefty Sid Fernandez and minor league shortstop Ross Jones. The trade was a steal for the Mets, as Fernandez was a frontline starter for the next decade. Diaz and Bailor were both done by 1986. Still, Bob hung around for parts of 11 major league seasons, carrying a .264 average overall and striking out only 164 times in 2,937 at-bats. He also played at least 80 games at each of 6 different defensive positions (all three outfield spots, second base, shortstop, and third base).

Ladies and gentlemen, Bob Bailor.

Mike Torrez, 1975 SSPC #381

Mike Torrez's career was so long, and he traveled so extensively, that it barely even registers that he was once an Oriole. The big righthander pitched for 7 teams in 18 seasons. He was a Cardinal, Expo, Oriole, Athletic, Yankee, Red Sox, and Met. The O's acquired him in an absolute heist of a trade in December 1974, trading Rich Coggins, Dave McNally, and minor leaguer Bill Kirkpatrick for Torrez and Ken Singleton. At age 32, McNally was done, racking up a 5.24 ERA in a dozen starts in Montreal before retiring in midseason. Coggins, who had hit .319 as a rookie outfielder for the Birds two years earlier, was purchased by the Yankees in June 1975 and was out of the league a year later. Singleton was an offensive force in Baltimore for the next decade, putting up a whopping .388 on-base percentage and slugging 182 home runs.

Torrez stayed in Charm City for only a year, but it was a good one. He went 20-9 with a 3.06 ERA and 16 complete games, though he must have been a master of smoke and mirrors: he led the American League with 133 walks allowed and struck out only 119. In the offseason, the Orioles traded him to Oakland to acquire Reggie Jackson, a strong gamble that didn't quite pan out. However, the Birds also acquired pitcher Ken Holtzman in the deal, and in mid-1976 they sent him to the Yankees in the trade that brought Scott McGregor, Tippy Martinez, and Rick Dempsey to Baltimore. So you could say that Mike Torrez had a small part in building the 1979 American League Champs and 1983 World Series Champs.

Vintage Fridays: Jim Northrup, 1975 SSPC #399

Look at that picture of Jim Northrup for a moment. Stop giggling at the gray perm and just take it all in. It's less a picture than a portrait. So much gravitas. With the silvery hair (he was nicknamed "The Gray Fox", after all), the weary grimace, and the shadowy backdrop that seems to indicate twilight, the 35-year-old outfielder looks for all the world like someone who is ready to call it a day. This it what makes me truly appreciate the SSPC cards, a rogue set from the mid-1970s that was wholly unlike industry giant Topps. The full-color, close-cropped photos somehow exhibited more of a player's personality than Topps' awkward posed shots and often-blurry action pictures of the time. There was no brightly colored, boldly lettered design to distract the eye. The card backs featured the player's uniform number and a detailed biography not unlike the Score sets that came along more than a decade later.

The back of this card actually tells the reader that Northrup retired at the end of the 1974 season, and sums up his career with overall stats and a few highlights (including his grand slams in consecutive innings on June 24, 1968 and his .536 slugging percentage in that year's World Series). It's refreshing to see a solid and mostly unspectacular everyday player, one who topped out at 25 homers and 90 RBI and put up a 116 OPS+ over 12 seasons, get a little recognition for a job well done as he slips out of the active rolls of Major League ballplayers. It gives a real sense of the person beyond those rows of season-by-season numbers.

Vintage Fridays: Dyar Miller, 1975 SSPC #379

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Exhibit A in the case of Why Baseball Players Wear Caps: Mr. Dyar Miller. Is that a combover? His hair doesn't look particularly thin. Is he just in dire need of a haircut, a brush, a mirror, or all of the above?

I joke, but Dyar Miller is perseverance personified. The Phillies signed him as a catcher in 1968, but he quickly converted to the mound and showed quite a bit of talent. Still, he found it incredibly difficult to break through the glass ceiling that was the Oriole pitching staff. For instance, his 12-10 record with a 3.23 ERA (and 149 hits allowed in 170 innings) at AA Dallas-Fort Worth in 1970 earned him...another season at AA in 1971! Dyar was 29 years old and in the midst of his third straight season at AAA Rochester when the O's finally came calling for him in 1975. In 30 games as a rookie reliever, he went 6-3 with a team-leading 8 saves and a 2.72 ERA. He would go on to pitch seven seasons in the big leagues with a 3.23 career ERA.

Even though Dyar Miller didn't know the meaning of the word "manscaping", he also didn't know the meaning of the word "quit".

Vintage Fridays; Wayne Garland, 1975 SSPC #376

Wayne Garland looks troubled. Maybe it's because he's stuck behind Jim Palmer, Mike Torrez, Mike Cuellar, Ross Grimsley, and even Doyle Alexander and he wonders if the Orioles will ever give him a good chance to crack the starting rotation. Or maybe it's just because the sun is setting behind him, and he dreads the uncertainty that nightfall brings.

Like Wayne Garland, I'm starting to feel troubled. The 2008 Orioles' first-half feel-good story is taking a familiar sharp left turn. Just when Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Aubrey Huff, and company are churning out runs at an impressive rate, the pitching is falling apart. Three-fifths of the rotation can be counted on for no more than five innings, and the bullpen that was such an important part of the team's turnaround is in shambles. Matt Albers and Jamie Walker are injured, and Dennis Sarfate, Jim Johnson, and All-Star closer George Sherrill are suddenly surrendering even the largest of leads. To pile on, the defense is making crucial lapses that turn one-run innings into seven-run explosions. The Birds have lost five in a row to pretty mediocre competition, and now they head to a potential house of horrors in Boston for the final series before the All-Star Break. A ragtag bunch of rookies and unwanted veterans that was supposed to lose 100 games made it to the 88-game mark with a .500 record, but now they're two games below and the sun could be setting. Is it time to start trading off any veterans with sufficient value? Will this be the Baltimore swan song for Brian Roberts, Chad Bradford, and others?

I want to believe that anything is possible. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light, you Baltimore Orioles.