Brooks Robinson, 2004 Maryland Lottery #44

Brooks Robinson's career high in home runs was 28, coming in his MVP season in 1964. Eddie Murray, who racked up 504 homers in his Hall of Fame career, never hit more than 33 in a single season. Cal Ripken peaked at 34 four-baggers, a number he reached in 1991 en route to his second MVP award. Tonight I braved the cold damp weather and bitter October winds to see Manny Machado (who, I feel the need to remind you, is only 23 years old) hit his 35th home run of the year - his fifth in the last four games - as the O's wrapped up a doubleheader sweep of the Yankees with a 4-3 win in the nightcap. A win in tomorrow's season finale would allow the Birds to end 2015 with a five-game win streak and a break-even record of 81-81. A victory tomorrow afternoon would also possibly deny the Yanks home-field advantage in their wild-card playoff game on Tuesday; they are one game ahead of the Astros, and Houston holds the tiebreaker. If you can't go to the postseason yourself, you might as well play spoiler.

Jim Gentile, 2004 Maryland Lottery #36

Chris Davis has had a rough go of things for the past 14 months or so, but today was a good day. He gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead with a fourth-inning two-run homer off of Astros starter Collin McHugh, immediately following a double steal by Adam Jones (second base) and Jimmy Paredes (home plate!). After some shaky infield defense by the O's contributed to a game-tying three-run rally by Houston in the seventh, Crush put Baltimore on top for good an inning later, blasting reliever Tony Sipp's first pitch of the game deep into the right field bleachers. That's 10 home runs in 2015 for Davis, and 124 in his O's tenure, spanning an even 500 games. As Press Box writer Paul Folkemer (@PaulWFolk) tweeted during today's game, Davis passed Lee May (123 HR) and caught Diamond Jim Gentile on the team's all-time homer leaderboard. Only 14 players have more round-trippers in an Orioles uniform. Now Chris will set his sights on Paul Blair, whose 126 four-baggers are well within reach.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 2004 Maryland Lottery #32

I am safely at home tonight, and I hope anyone that reads this blog is safe as well.

Remember that violence doesn't solve anything. But also remember that media outlets can't be relied on to tell the full, unvarnished truth. And read the words of John Angelos, who eloquently pointed out that the disturbing current events in our city and elsewhere have long, insidious roots.

Be good to one another.

Dave Schmidt, 2004 Maryland Lottery #25

The blog has taken on a throwback flavor this week, as the 2015 O's have had a week to forget. Tonight, I'm amused by the inclusion of Dave Schmidt in the Maryland Lottery's 50th Anniversary Orioles card set. He sticks way out among the likes of Cal, Eddie, Cakes, Brooksie, Frank, Boog, Earl, Little Looie, Brady, Flanny, Tippy, and such, and the tidbit on the back only makes it more obvious. After all, the card reminds us, he was the only Baltimore pitcher to have a winning record in both the 1987 and 1988 seasons. That's like being the smartest of the Three Stooges, isn't it? Oh, but Dave also had a career walk rate of 2.4 per nine innings, we're told. Greg Maddux was at 1.8, and Jeremy Guthrie was at 2.6, with Daniel Cabrera at 5.2, if you want some pointless frames of reference. But hey, I guess it's good to toss in a curveball among the usual suspects.

Mark Belanger, 2004 Maryland Lottery #4

Since I spent the entire week after Christmas in North Carolina visiting with Janet's family, I wasn't around to mark the seventh anniversary of this blog's debut on January 1. I welcomed the break from my day-to-day routine, but I'm also glad to return to some familiar comforts. Whether it's sleeping in my own bed, or looking for tenuous connections between my baseball cards and my everyday life (seven years of regular blogging deserves a visit with fondly-remembered #7 Mark Belanger), it's good to be back.

Boog Powell, 2004 Maryland Lottery #43

I'm already going through baseball withdrawal, so much so that I found myself half-watching Arizona Fall League games on TV this weekend. That's how I learned that the Athletics have a minor league outfielder named Boog Powell. Well, he goes by "Boog", anyway, but his given name is Hershel Mack Powell IV. He's no relation to the 1970 American League MVP and pit beef maven, and at 5'10" and 10 pounds, he doesn't bear much resemblance to #26 either. But his grandfather went by Hershel, his father went by Mack, and the family began calling the younger Powell "Boog". It stuck. Whether the 21-year-old sticks in the big leagues remains to be seen. Through 177 pro games, he's batted a strong .317/.412/.384, but so far he's untested at the AA level or higher. The younger Boog also served a 50-game suspension in 2014 for amphetamine use, and he's certainly not the first to make that mistake. If Powell does land in Oakland some day, I don't know that I'll ever get used to hearing the announcers talk about "Boog Powell".

Earl Weaver, 2004 Maryland Lottery #40

With Toronto's 10-inning loss to the Rays this afternoon, the magic number is an Earl Weaver-esque four. The Orioles have battled to a stalemate with the Yankees through six innings, so we could still get into Harold Baines (or Curt Blefary, or Bobby Grich, pick your preference) territory before the Jays come to town tomorrow. No matter how you slice it, the O's can clinch at Camden Yards if they take care of business this week. I have tickets to Tuesday and Wednesday's games, and I am more excited than I can say.

In unrelated news, today I celebrated one year of marriage. So far, so good!

Memorial Stadium, 2004 Maryland Lottery #41

I can only imagine the frenzy that surrounded the Orioles' first Opening Day in Baltimore nearly 60 years ago. Of course, I'm sure that the team's 2013 home opener will be a raucous scene as well. The Birds are coming off of their first winning season and playoff berth since 1997, after all. I'm happy to say that I will be there for my second straight opener and third overall. Today I hauled myself out of bed at 8:00 (on a Saturday...scandalous!) and drove down to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for the team's Tag Day event. After careful consultation with my sister, I picked out a pair of seats in section 340, Upper Reserve, behind home plate, and locked us in for a 29-game partial season ticket plan. Of course, I'm hoping that the next time I'm looking out on the field from my seats, it's not 36 degrees with gusting winds as it was this morning. That's not baseball weather.

Elrod Hendricks, 2004 Maryland Lottery #30

The O's just-concluded 2012 campaign, and the resultant response by the fans of Baltimore, makes me think of the strong ties that men like Elrod Hendricks had to this city and its people. I'm still somewhat astounded by the realization that I attended 18 Orioles games this past season. I'm reasonably certain that I've never visited Camden Yards more than a half-dozen times in a year before. But it makes sense: I live closer to the stadium than I ever have before, I've been blessed with a bit more discretionary income, my parents gifted me with a Legends series six-pack of tickets, and of course the O's held up their own end of the bargain by making things fun and exciting again (and eventually coming to their senses and offering bigger discounts to more effectively fill the park on weekdays in September!). I got more than my money's worth for the 22% of the club's 83 regular season and postseason home schedule that I witnessed in person. The Birds went 48-35 at Oriole Park, a .578 winning percentage. But through uncommon good luck, they went 14-4 in the games I attended for a .778 winning percentage! You could root through the past six months of archives to figure out which games I saw, but there's no need for that. Out of the kindness of my heart, I cobbled together a fancy-schmancy results table on Baseball Reference. Observe!

Rk	Gm#	Date		Tm	Opp		R	RA	Inn	W-L	Rank	GB	Win	Loss	Save	Time	D/N	Attendance
1	1	Friday, Apr 6	boxscore	BAL	MIN	W	4	2		1-0	1	Tied	Arrieta	Pavano	Johnson	2:38	D	46,773
21	21	Saturday, Apr 28	boxscore	BAL	OAK	W	10	1		13-8	1	Tied	Chen	Ross		2:53	N	26,926
33	33	Friday, May 11	boxscore	BAL	TBR	W	4	3		21-12	1	up 1.0	O'Day	Peralta	Johnson	2:37	N	26,669
47	47	Saturday, May 26	boxscore	BAL	KCR	L	3	4		29-18	1	up 1.0	Holland	Strop	Broxton	3:14	D	26,714
61	61	Tuesday, Jun 12	boxscore	BAL	PIT	W	8	6		35-26	2	1.0	Chen	Lincoln	Johnson	3:22	N	15,618
70	70	Friday, Jun 22	boxscore	BAL	WSN	W	2	1		40-30	2	1.5	Hammel	Zimmermann	Johnson	2:20	N	45,891
77	77	Saturday, Jun 30	boxscore	BAL	CLE	L	5	11		42-35	2	5.0	Tomlin	Eveland		3:16	D	35,335
87	87	Saturday, Jul 14	boxscore	BAL	DET	W	8	6	13	46-41	2	8.0	Gregg	Benoit		4:43	D	43,215
100	100	Friday, Jul 27	boxscore	BAL	OAK	L	9	14		52-48	2	8.5	Blevins	Johnson		4:00	N	29,278
113	113	Friday, Aug 10	boxscore	BAL	KCR	W	7	1		61-52	2	5.5	Gonzalez	Hochevar		2:31	N	17,277
114	114	Saturday, Aug 11	boxscore	BAL	KCR	L	3	7		61-53	3	6.5	Mendoza	Tillman		2:59	N	40,456
125	125	Friday, Aug 24	boxscore	BAL	TOR	W	6	4		68-57	3	5.0	Britton	Villanueva	Johnson	2:52	N	25,754
128	128	Tuesday, Aug 28	boxscore	BAL	CHW	W	6	0		71-57	2	3.5	Tillman	Sale		2:30	N	12,841
137	137	Thursday, Sep 6	boxscore	BAL	NYY	W	10	6		77-60	1	Tied	O'Day	Robertson		3:09	N	46,298
141	141	Tuesday, Sep 11	boxscore	BAL	TBR	W	9	2		79-62	1	Tied	Johnson	Moore		3:03	N	23,828
156	156	Wednesday, Sep 26	boxscore	BAL	TOR	W	12	2		89-67	2	1.5	Gonzalez	Villanueva		2:47	N	26,513
158	158	Saturday, Sep 29	boxscore	BAL	BOS	W	4	3		91-67	1	Tied	Hunter	Doubront	Johnson	2:37	N	46,311
	ALDS Game 2	Monday, Oct 8	boxscore	BAL	NYY						N

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/15/2012.

And because I'm a bit wonky about this particular phenomenon, I've run some other numbers:

Wins: Chen 3, O'Day 2, Gonzalez 2, Arrieta 1, Hammel 1, Gregg 1, Britton 1, Tillman 1, S. Johnson 1, Hunter 1.
Saves: J. Johnson 7.
HR: C. Davis 13, Jones 5, Reynolds 5, Machado 5, Hardy 4, Markakis 2, Andino 2, N. Johnson 1, Teagarden 1, Quintanilla 1, Ford 1, Wieters 1, McLouth 1, Thome 1. (43 total)

Call me crazy, but I don't expect another 93-win (96 including the playoffs) season in 2013. But I had such a blast in Oriole Park this year that I plan on keeping up my frequent visits next year. Also, some day I might have to name my first-born after Chris Davis. He's no man; he's a remorseless home run machine.