mlb.incOmpetent

wayward O can live with the steroids and the lying and even the $5 dip n dots but this, friends...


They're making my experience better
by not letting me hear the game!

... this is unacceptable.

if gamecast simply didn't work, well that would be one thing, but who wrote this?

We apologize for the inconvenience.
We are currently undergoing maintenance
to make your experience better,
please try back later.
is this a george Orwell novel???

2:10 p.m. update: after 20 minutes on hold wayward O reached an operator for mlb.com "technical support" who says she has "no information" on cause of outage or estimated time for return of services. she was able to confirm, however, that wayward O is a PAYING CUSTOMER. wayward O urges you to take the time and call mlb.com at 866-800-1275 if you are unable to listen to games today! don't let them get away without at least giving them a (polite but firm) piece of your mind.

2:26 p.m. update: got in finally via a minor workaround: chose an old video from O's page, then clicked "Use old player", i.e. not silverlight player, then clicked "today" and found the game stream there. wayward O never thought he'd be so happy to hear Manfra's sweet baritone!

2:55 p.m. update: as if on cue team gives up a 5-run top of fourth -- welcome to lost season!

t-bOne

john shelby won world series with team in rookie season of 1983. then, after career in majors he coached around league for many years. now he's back in baltimore.

there is video interview with shelby on Os Team Page today. he has sense of humor and tells funny stories! also, he likes tike redman, as does Wayward O, in outfield, mentioning tike right after adam jOnes and young savior in same breath, saying, "there's a lot of promise in the outfield."

appropos of nothing, wayward O thinks tike should be starting in left field on opening day. though luke scott will likely get job. at minimum tike should be 4th OF with club and get many starts during lost season. of course wayward O is just being presumptuous since spring games are ONLY JUST STARTING.

as first base coach, t-bone says, "one thing that i have to make sure of is where the ball is. i don't like the hidden ball trick. it worked on me one time and i so gotta make sure i don't let that happen again." and he adds "when they get picked off the players get mad. the players go to the dugout and i'm the one who gets booed."

does anybody know the situation to which tbone is referring, i.e. falling for the hidden ball trick? please enlighten wayward O, as he has no idea. wait ... google! ... yes ... it must have been this one.

silly seasOn

is it the baseball times yet?

these are the days that make wayward O anxious because waiting time is still here but wayward O is ready for baseball games and will have to settle for split squads and 35-pitch caps. but at least first Os radio broadcast is just THREE DAYS AWAY!

in meantime, please entertain yourself with suzyn waldman crying jag -- complete with .mp3 -- from teary moments following yankee elimination from 07 playoffs and also please feel free to contemplate implications of this:


An Equal Opportunity Mullet Employer
If Manatees travel with team to play Brewers, Milwaukee needs to have police guard on hand so sausage races can be run with out danger to humans INSIDE LIFELIKE MEAT SUITS.

also, in baltimore news, read about how team now has own BOY GENIUS to match wits vs. Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein. which leads to obvious next question: just what IS mike flanagan doing with self these days?

herO insurgent bird

look at this guy!



New York Times photo
kind of reminds wayward O of when he goes to see team play in bronx. well, sort of...

It came down to the ground and, without ceremony, pecked at a piece of banana.

no bananas for sale at Yankeezeera HQ however, one may eat...


read full accounting here of real, actual Wayward Oriole bird, who is HARBRINGER OF GLORY FOR TEAM, who has taken up residence in Manhattan. this is normal range of Scott's Oriole.

mOseby

Wayward O is back in snowy New York Town to-day. He took Amtrak night train all night and made several trips to BAR CAR.

Baseball is on everyone's mind these days!! Even Darvin Ham from Wizznutz is taking break from making designer men's suits out of old bacon packages and checking out VIDEOS FROM BYGONE ERA in hopes of someday seeing team return to glory. He sends this one along, which of course is the raison d'etre of this web site.



How do you get a name like "RANCE"?

mOdem

wayward O is in horse country, aka western howard county, at house where internet connection is MODEM DIALING. reminds wayward O of ancient times when whine of modem was sound of progress writ large and each day brought new beer coaster to mailbox. and team was ONLY ONE IN MID-ATLANTIC REGION and team was in playoffs and team was being robbed by umpires bearing lingering grudges against expectorating second basemen!

amazingly, grumpy little modem is still relevant in these parts, friend. because there is NO DSL here and there is NO CABLE HERE. just horses, chevy silverados and lingering sunsets that twinkle amid bare branches of forested hills. wayward O feels like he should be listening to PEARL JAM or something, just to make experience more authentic.

also arguably relevant despite national ongoing media blackout is black and orange baltimore orioles team. so many breaths of fresh air down in ft. lauderdale so far as the lOst season begins earliest congealings and team looks to see who will make big club to play alongside young savior and the deadwoods.

• adam jones says all right things, check.
• matt wieters says all right things, check.
• jamie walker says all right things. wayward o wondered if he used astronaut diapers to make time during drive from flatlands down to spring training facility but was too shy to ask. check.
• even BROB says all right things!
• markakis says he would say all right things except he doesn't say things, so -- yes that's a check.
• luis hernandez, aka the latino second coming of mark belanger, says all right things.
• dennis sarfate says all right things in eloquent fashion! check.
  
• and trembO says ... we're going to play hard and try to win us some ball games. check.

maybe old man roberts will stick around and play second base and anchor offense. it's not like he's methuselah, exactly. he could play his career here and if team plays cards right he'll probably sniff playoffs in '09 or so. for unlike dial-up internet, team's rebuilding phase seems to be showing real promise finally. also showing promise is washington post, which has a beat reporter covering spring training for orioles. washington post seems to struggle with relationship to non-DC baseball team but seems to have made decision to continue acknowledging existence of Orioles.

all good things. pretty much. except for troy patton's labrums or whatever those things are.

no graphics today or shiny Interweb dingdongs because modem is very creaky and it's unclear at press time whether post will actually make it from computer screen onto cyber space womper tubes.*

wayward O is quite curious about readers' impressions so far as young spring gets under way so if, dear reader, if you have inclination please let fly in the comments section below...

* seems to have!!

i did an Orbit!

blog turns one years old today! and what a year it's been. and so much positive things said from so many quarters it's almost too haptastic! this year we're looking forward to many improvements to site (assuming we can slog them together) such as:

• box score widgets? how you do that?
• haikurls for (almost) all gamez ...
• polls, tunes, and many other web-2.0 dingdongz
• by popular demand, MORE SCREENSHOTS of AMBER
• full MLB preview with playoff predictions coming in march

not to mention endless Optimism as the lost season gets under way....

i've been here befOre

wayward O is not big on "pitchers and catchers." to his ears it's like hearing somebody say, "only six more weeks of freezing cold 18-degree mornings and some squat thrusts and oh yeah and the baseball people get to head down to ft. lauderdale and get paid to lounge around at the marriott and drink frozen beverages and holler at pesky wildlife and file missives."

wayward O = jealous

brandon inge had six hits in 17 world series at-bats for tigers in 2006 but pitchers flamed out and detroit lost to lowly st. louie. he's been an everyday player for D-town for four years. and his career BA is ... is ... um ... is that right?

.241

so when organization says to a career .241 guy ... "hey why don't you take some snaps at catcher the spring and be ready to sub in at backstop and sub in for miguel cabrera at third base for a team that's got a GREAT SHOT at another word series berth?" you'd think inge would say, "indeed, can't wait to be a super world series sub and let's see how injuries go, etc." you'd think he's say:

boy would i like another shot at the ring.

anything you say, fellas. winning's the thing.

this organization has been great to me -- giving me 4 years/ $24 million --
and anything i can do to help is what i'm going to do.

i play baseball. that's joy enough. and i am handsomely
compensated to do that. wow. holy cow every time
i think of that it makes me want to pop a cork on some bubbly.

nope. that's not what .241 career hitter said. he said:

if i can't start in detroit, i prefer to play elsewhere

if i was detroit FO guy you know what i'd say to b-inge?

i'd say, "brandon, your happiness is important to me, that's why i'm sending you to kansas city for a couple prospects. have fun playing every day!"

'nOne of that was accurate'

If world was Bud Light ad, Team General Manager Andy MacPhail simply would have said, "Dude."

But instead he spoke at length Friday at Warehouse regarding endless spinning about Erik Bedard trade and about endless rumors and conjectures regarding what was holding up trade. Let's look at what he said:

"This hasn't been my favorite period as you can imagine. ... I've been privately a little critical of 'journalism.'"

Now, more publicly so.

MacPhail called initial reports of the trade, from Jan. 27, "premature." He went on to say: " ... this is a big move and both teams need to satisfy themselves ... so it took an extra week. To me it was never of much impact whether I was up here Feb. 2nd or I'm up here Feb. 8th making an announcement. In May nobody will remember the date."

He hammered sports journos who wrote stories professing to know about why trade was slow to be finalized, saying "it's unfortunate that we had to go through a slew of rumors and scenarios" and added "none of that was accurate."


Andy MacPhail to reporters:
You're embarrassing yourselves.
And he wrapped up his very low-key yet unmistakable lambasting with the following: "We have to live with the consequences of this action and so do our fans." The "real reason" for the delay, according to MacPhail, was that Seattle GM Bill Bavasi "was thinking this was going to be a three-for one," where the Orioles had five players in mind.

Wayward O takes a couple things from this:

• unlike Yankees and other teams, Os still have bad relationship with reporters
• having good relationship with reporters is crucial
• conversely, having good team is more important than a few extra page views
• MacPhail is very smart and has ability to be critical without being strident
• organization needs to work on relationships with media and vice-versa
• MacPhail seems like the guy who might be able to do this...

The Ken Rosenthals of the world clearly have a hatred for Orioles and Rosenthal especially seems intent on damaging team with everything he writes. Yet even though he makes things up out of thin air, he still seems to be afforded more benefit of doubt and credibility than team itself.

Hopefully recent events will change this and team will regain respect in terms of its word, which of late it seems to be upholding over and over again. Nobody seems to believe it, but MacPhail seems to be in charge. All good things.

Oh and um in case you didn't hear, Erik Bedard is gone but we have Adam jOnes.

hug him and kiss him and call him geOrge

george sherrill is most under-rated and under-hyped player in erik bedard trade hype fiasco.

look at his 2007 ....

appearances ----- ip ----- Ks ----- whip ----- era
73 -------------- 45.7 --- 56 ----- .985 ----- 2.36

is this a typO? pull the trigger! add him to jamie walker and chad bradford in bullpen.


now you're having fun!