things we knOw

1. orioles are playing fine without tejada; his injury is blessing in thin disguise. hopefully he's still part of team next year. in 3-hole with a real slugger backing him up he'll be fine. and he'll also be more apt to take days off or DH and that will keep him hitting.

2. game should have been called before jeter's at-bat last night. even so, orioles still have chance to sweep "series." orioles have been jobbed worse. remember the satan-boy in the 1996 playoffs? so last night's anti-oriole bias was minor in comparison.

3. yankees are done. they would need a 16-game winning streak to even get within sight of wild card lead. think that will happen? what was jeter so happy about after he hit his double? he ain't going nowhere.

4. macphail and trembley both have been at best impressive and at worst serviceable right out of the gate.

how's all that for positive? why don't you hit the comments area and tell wayward O what else we know. wayward Oriole is quite tired today.

nOt backing trembley (yet)

today is wayward O's birthday. isn't that neat?

lord help wayward O for saying this. maybe it's cake and ice cream talking. but wayward O is kind of starting to like dave trembley a teeny tiny little bit. unlike fired guy, interim manager does not sit in dugout with look on face like marie antoinette with angry mob outside gates; he has smile on face and good countenance. he also looks like guy you wouldn't want to try and shove around, which is what spoiled overpayed orioles did to other guy. of course, some would argue he's already being shoved around but wayward O will get to that.

wayward O knows it's a bit early and maybe first impressions are not always accurate.

trembley is already taking heat among some of the diaspOra because of decision to let miguel tejada bunt and leave game. wayward O says trembley is not in pressure position to win games immediately as team (10 out of wild card with seas of talent ahead of them) is done for 2007 (barring a miracle seen only perhaps twice in MLB history) nor is trembley going to end up on the organizational hot seat for decision, since he currently is only manager on interim basis. wayward O says if trembley were real manager he would not allow tejada such weird leeway.

that said, one poster on roch's blog made comment which strikes strong chord with wayward O:

it's crap like this that gives talking heads like Kruk and Phillips reason
to say this organization is the worst in baseball and any managerial candidate
would be nuts to take the job here. -- steve

steve is right, sadly. espn can say orioles is team where crazies run asylum and where streaks are more important than winning. based on years of evidence, who can contradict that? only thing though, kruk is more of a talking stomach than a talking head. oh and also, it does not matter what orioles do, espn is racist against them and kills them for everything. if orioles ever get good again, we'll see if espn comes around.

bigger mistake than tejada-gate was kissing girardi's ass, knowing full well all NY guys and half of world was blowing up his cell phone urging him "don't go to baltimore" probably massive collusion took place but we'll never know.

wayward O was not in least bit surprised that joe girardi did the feather boa tease dance and then hung orioles out to dry. why wouldn't he? any time a new york baseball guy gets any kind of power of AL East rival team, he will use it to hurt team and help yankees. girardi probably never intended to take job but now he knows what orioles are planning and he's gabbing it to the YES people and they of course are obligated to share intel with yankee team.

Os should have left girardi on shelf for a few weeks then talked to him. this is all angry angelos acting impulsively behind scenes. he probably feels sting of fan hate more than anyone. and deservedly so. talking to girardi first and hyping girardi in balto. media was a mistake; a bigger mistake than the tejada thing.

orioles don't need new manager just because he's got a name in the league. for example, if dave trembley is the man, then he's the man. wayward O's top choice is still davey johnson, head and shoulders above rest of rumored pool of candidates. although there is this from pioneer press:

It would be surprising if new Baltimore Orioles President Andy MacPhail
doesn't inquire as to the availability of his former manager with the Twins, Tom
Kelly, who led Minnesota to World Series titles in 1987 and 1991.

OK now business of brain-stimulating team incites is over, and you've had your bran flakes, now time for treat:

YANKEES SWEPT BY ROCKIES and yankees will be joining orioles on scrap heap of 2007 failures soon enough. it's a wonderful way to spend summer, watching this.

The Rockies now have more victories against the American League East
than the Yankees do, with nine. That oddity points out the Yankees’ early misery
and the Rockies’ surprising surge during interleague play. Colorado has won 9 of
its past 12 games, all against teams from the A.L. East.
-- New York TimeZ game story

don't tell wayward O that doesn't make heart sing!! Orioles have SIXTEEN GAMES vs. janquis to take out frustrations and damage pinstripe egos. if nothing else, this is what wayward O is living for.

the bird's jOb is safe

as wayward O learned this week by listening to tale of shitsy spitsy, sometimes traveling far and wide in effort to put your drab little town on map can go horribly wrong...

alas, sometimes pulling from inside ranks can have same effect. but not for orioles. every time orioles look for leader inside warehouse, they always come up huge. take this video for example (super ^5s to team-ophile roar from 34, who found evidence to back up claim):

as storm has beset crew inside big old warehouse, wayward O has contented himself with knowing that, as far as mascots go, orioles are nonpareil. and by nonpareil wayward o means "good" -- not sprinkles that go on ice cream cone! anyway sprinkles are very ORSULAK-era, whereas in GIBBONs-era we have DIP-n-DOTz.

SO MUCH GOODNESS IN VIDEO; MAKES WAYWARD O TEAR UP.

what really stunned wayward O most about this tubinous rex nuggetous videophinous was following image from about the 2:13 minute mark:

It's Wayward O's long-lost cousin
HOBO O-JOE!!!!

Can you believe??? Wayward O thought ol rail ridin buddy not only had disappeared for good, but that no evidence he ever walked the earth remained behind. Oh this video is SO FULL OF INCITES. wayward O loves METAPHOR of clobbering buttoned-up yankee fan and also DON AASE sighting near end and that's not even beginning of how golden!

oh sure, sometimes in-house projects don't pan out all that well. take guy who managed team until yesterday. sure he was OK man but he had two problems: first, he presided over mother's day massacre and it was, as we established here, 84.4% his fault. also in cleveland game a few weeks back he DID NOT KNOW RULES and almost forgot to argue when Young Savior scored run. Os went on to win game, and victory is a great balm, but wayward O hasn't forgotten because it was prima facie evidence that manager was asleep at switch. lastly, wayward O guesses we need manager who practices -- no not TOUGH LOVE -- but rather

UNABASHED, VERBALLY ABUSIVE HATRED

raining down upon SPOILED OVERPAYED PLAYERS; tirades so fulsome with their misanthropic bile players

NO LONGER WISH TO BE IN DUGOUT

NEAR THIS WALKING, SPITTLING BEELZEBUB of a team leader and much prefer spending innings

on basepaths

thank you very much.

so while team is floundering about, pulling shitsy spitsy's tale in hopes a golden nugget will pop out, at least orioles fanz have a little something called HERITAGE to fall back on. and what better than a giant-headed cartoon bird to represent it? (other than the B word on the away jerseys, perhaps.)

in short, to sam perlozzo wayward O sez: no hard feelings, but good riddance. and for record, wayward O -- as longtime friends and kin can attest -- has pretty much been baseball fan for whole life and prior to M.D.M. had NEVER EVER EVER ONCE EVER called for firing of manager. but match, it was plain, was not made in happy hunting grounds.

of course IRONY is that Os promoted the bullpen coach in a season where bullpen has been, how do they say in arabic, an unmitigated NACHBA --- or disaster. and talk of joe girardi is over-stated for moment. wayward O lives in brooklyn and he can tell you sports yakkers here not to mention the baseball men WANT TO HAVE GIRARDI FOR THEMSELVES and all are on phone to joe G telling him Os is not good choice!!!

it might be wOrse

wayward O counts blessings and drifts off into a summery evening dreamland. he thinks of things to be happy about as team quits one third of way through season in what surely is a new low for bunch that apparently has not yet hit rock bottom. those who have been to rock bottom tend to caution outsiders rock bottom is not for the outsider to gauge. only the subject can know when toes have touched murky lakebed. and so, without further ado, at least...

You're not rooting for him.
OMG can you imagine?

And at least...

We got rid of this palooka
Sure he wins games but c'mon.

And maybe...

The Old Savior's boredom quotient
will start to increase
after he gets his HOF laurels
and the trumpets fade...

and also...

The emperor wears no clothes.

Maybe that last bit is wishful thinking. Maybe it's all wishful thinking.

Put on the colors!
Stuff some tibacky in yer cheek
And put the fear a Jesus into these lazy lugz!

and wayward O almost forgot!

Since we're gonna need a pitching coach, too.

the stink is On

watching orioles sunday, with journeyman catcher playing & starting catcher "hurt," again, with 2nd phantom injury of season; with "freebie" the rookie -- exuberant like puppy -- half-assedly patrolling center field; and rest of team mailing it in including highly paid third baseman who didn't feel like playing; and losing series to colorado rockies, wayward O couldn't help feel the strains of old dirge, another seasOn melting away in the merry month of june.

.500 may as well be brigadoon. it's gone and not coming back.

it's kind of like 2005 all over again, except orioles never had a lead in division and injuries aren't even real. it's like if 2005 were a real orioles season, with all the drudgery and no hope.

june is when other teams start playing and when orioles quit. luckily, june is also a very nice month to be on planet earth. there are lots of nice days and many things to do. there are beaches, weddings, music concerts, other sporting events, and lots of delicious fresh produce to eat. wayward O isn't going to lie; wayward O will rock an ice cream cone any time of the year; but in june you can eat an ice cream cone any old time and nobody is even going to ask for an explanation.

wayward O will destroy a chipwich.

of many crushing disappointments so far, wayward o cannot understand this one: what is behind team's complete lack of home run power? wayward o was sure before season started orioles would have six guys hit 20 home runs but now it appears only two guys will or maybe three.

wayward O knows real answers are organizational and systemic. he knows peter angelos's cowardly soul is engine driving jalopy off cliff year in and year out. he knows cal ripken jr. needs to be the man again and save team. but in interim, while rip is apparently still contented to watch daughter's high school hoops and show up once a year for ritual baseball homage to feats of 80s & 90s, what should team do to at least make it interesting?

-- can Os get adam dunn in here to DH somehow? maybe reds take gibbons as reclamation project if Os sweeten deal with some relievers

-- maybe it is time to trade tejada. get an ace for top of rote next year. no. wayward O doesn't think tejada should be traded; anyway value is dropping

-- trade mora for a solid relief pitcher; or trade mora straight up for dunn. stick huff over at 3rd to play out string. mora turned rotten as soon as he signed star's contract. he was always sweetest when he had something to strive for

-- trade ramOn for somebody who wants to play. nobody likes to get hit in da bawlce but nobody takes two weeks off for it either

meanwhile yankee corpse is awake and walking; bolts in neck seem ready to burst open, spewing foul bile, but wayward o wonders whether somehow frankenyanks will manage to keep monster walking for a few more months ... and make run at playoffs. as for orioles, wayward O no longer cares for this bunch of fakers and doesn't care if they mail it in through every other game as long and they at least try to keep frankenyanks out of postseason.

the way this is shaping up, Os are going to be looking up at tampa bay when it's all played out.

clearinghOuse

it's been a crazy road trip. wayward O needs a day off just as bad as brian roberts' ham. no lie too. emotions have run high. here are some things wayward O has said in recent weeks:

must. sweep. kc.
angels… we know about them.
and seattle is a VERY under-rated AL squad.
-- on loss column board

Seattle Mariners: These guys were supposed
to stink last year and though they finished
last, they did win 78 games. First-place
Oakland won 93. The M’s made some
decent moves in the off-season, picking up
Joses Vidro and Guillen from the Nationals.
Add those guys to Ichiro, Beltre and Sexson
and [wayward O] says you’ve got offense.
Will Guillen’s bat put them in the playoff hunt? You betcha!
-- 14 march baseball preview on another site

so really -- no big surprises on road trip. just one big letdown. if perlozzo leaves in guthrie sunday vs. angels in ninth. or if chris ray gets it done. or if perlozzo makes vladdy face chad bradford. or if [fill in blank]. then orioles are home after a 6-4 road trip and things look peachy. but oh these bloody sundays. and you cannot tell wayward O it's not about coaching and managing. it most certainly is. that said, sammy perlozzo did a nice job yesterday at safeco as daniel cabrera was on the precipice of a nervous episode. he pulled him aside and said, man you got to step up right now. nice. sam's body of work, in wayward O's opinion, is lacking. but the man has his moments. it's up to the players, we suppose, to communicate to the team management if he's the guy they want to play for next year.

wayward O thinks gary sheffield should come dh in baltimore because we have BLACK BALLPLAYERS and could use some more.

and wayward O recently watched an encore presentation of the 1969 world series and noticed orioles had many great black ballplayers and their blessed blackness struck a chord that seems to have grown quiet in modern baseball.

but sheff must NOT SPEAK TO MEDIA if he comes to balto. to hit baseballs a million feet. and he must not ever put on glove and take field.

wayward O wants to give freddy bynum a nickname. f-bee? frisbee? the carolina flash? help us out with your ideas in comments.

sunday mOurnin' comin' down

I tuned in Sunday afternoon,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
The Mother’s Day Massacre was oh-so Bad,
And the DC debacle had been, even worse.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my Os hat,
And donned my cleanest dirty shirt.

An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' turned on MLB.tv, to see the game.
I'd seen it happen twice before,
Late-inning disasters and poor relief pitchin’
But I figure how could it happen again?
Surely butts in Anaheim would get a kickin’

Then we crossed into the late innings
and Wayward O caught the sight of someone going to the bullpen.
And it took me back to somethin',
That I’d seen twice before, somewhere along the way.

On the Sunday evening gamecast,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes an Os fan feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sunny green baseball diamond:
Sunday mournin' comin' down.

In the park I saw Vladdy,
With a laughin' little grin and a bat that he was swingin'.
And I held my breath to watch the ninth,
And pray Orioles could escape the innin;
Then I watched the slugger heading home
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'.
And it echoed through the ballpark,
Like the disappearing dreams of Jeremy Guthrie

(sing it with the Wayward O…)

On the Sunday evening gamecast,
Wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cos there's something in a Sunday,
Makes an Os fan feel alone.
And there's nothin' short of dyin',
Half as lonesome as the sound,
On the sunny green baseball diamond:
Sunday mournin' comin' down.

with apOlogies to johnny cash and kris kristofferson...