'shOw me the ball!'

wayward O used to get excited about every win by team but we are so great wins are like just part of day's work now. here at t.w.O. world HQ we weren't exactly surprised to see brandon fahey get sent down but we do NOT LAUGH at OTHER'S MISFORTUNE and we say to bloggers who do ... karma is a beeesh, mang.

anyway, did everyone see this one?


It came from the swamps of Florida!
here's the video.

it is dan uggla, who is king of baseball diamond today. florida marvins = NOT worst team in MLB!

Of nats and mets

is it wayward O or was last night's win over seattle the blueprint for team's success? ascension of BIG BIRD continues, FLATBRIM gets save and YOUNG SAVIOR plays big ball and small ball...

anyway, spies have been visiting NL EAST BALLPARKS. first, here is sponsort's report from NARTS' new stadium:

The most impressive thing is the video display. It feels as tho you are inside a hi-def video game. Humongous center field tv-scoreboard looms over the stadium; flashing, psychedelic displays constantly on the move around the entire concourse area. And the seating in the bowl is so close to the field that the field lights shine into your
eyes.

The structure, however, is mundane - gray concrete and gray steel girders give it the feel of an Erector Set construction. And the red-painted areas of the inside of the stadium are in a hideous tomato color. But the cherry trees were in bloom, and the 4 presidents race gives it a really neat touch (Teddy lost again, don't you know!).

The seating in the bowl is very flat. My sight line was through a mob of people who are constantly standing up and blocking the view. Better to sit higher up or further back.

Lastly - the cost. I don't want to sound like a miserly geezer, but it cost me over $100 for 1 person. Lower box seat (20th row) beyond the 3B dugout was $58 ($69 after all internet fees); Metro cost $16.70 (new thing - you are required to purchase a $10 Metro parking credit card even tho the parking charge is $4.25); Beer $7.50; Boardwalk Fries $5. I'm not including my delicious Subway Italian grinder which only cost me $3.50 on the way to the game.

So, if you are taking the family, bring your home equity loan checkbook.

sounds decent. perhaps fans are standing because there is prospect of home team finally winning a baseball contest?

and g. donovan, veteran METS BLOGGER, sends this shot of the ascendant CITIFIELD...


Don't bury Adam Wainwright
jersey in here, please!
wayward O shudders to think how expensive new Mets & Yankees ballparks will be.

rearview mirrOr savants

all over diaspOra today there is criticism of manager for letting jeremy guthrie pitch to jose vidro in 8th inning in last night's loss to seattle. here is what wayward O is seeing from fickle fan-base:

• guthrie was "gassed" and should have been pulled
• jamie walker was ready for the matchup vs. vidro
• by extension, presumably, trembO "can't manage" bullpen...

maybe, maybe and wrong, says Wayward O. we know already that manager has TOLD STARTERS THEY MUST GO DEEP INTO GAMES. so he's just doing what he said he would.

if you want to pull guthrie for walker fine. maybe guthrie is tired. sometimes pitchers get better when they're tired. sometimes not. maybe walker gets vidro, maybe not. but as it stood, vidro barely slapped ground ball past roberts.

if roberts throws out vidro, yammering critics are happy and quiet today ... and this FACT, friends, is why criticisms are nothing more than sour grapes. trembO made a decision and it didn't work out. that's all, nothing more.

meanwhile, Wayward O was proud of st. guts ... going toe-to-toe with king felix over eight innings and once again showing why he's real deal. and how about jeremy's unassisted put-out at third base late in game?

Hustle.
when will you ever see that again? mlb.com has video here. mlb video is getting better, incidentally; hopefully soon there will be EMBED feature ... welcome to 2005!!

anyway, back to game. if only Os hitters, especially young savior and his holiness, luke scott, hadn't been asleep at switch during early innings outcome might have been very different....

frank thOmas

don't tell wayward O that blue jays' benching of frank thomas has NOTHING to do with his contract.

clearly it does.

toronto says it's because he was 1-14 recently. but he hit three home runs already in april. that's a 36-HR pace for season!

so chintzy blue jays are BOGARTING THE BIG HURT. because if he gets enough at-bats this year his $10 million option kicks in for 2009. here is what TORONTO STAR says...

the solution may be to simply release Thomas

amazing. here's what frank says...


'My career isn't going to end like this'
here is what wayward O says....

HEY BLUE JAYS....
STAY CLASSY!
wayward O also says .... let's um just suppose for argument's sake that 2008 orioles are a real team and they're over .500 come the trade deadline. perhaps big hurt might be option for a rental DH ... certainly he would be mOtivated to do damage to AL EAST FOES.

wayward O ain't sayin', wayward O is just sayin'....


update: thomas released! -- amazing. new low for blue jays!

fire, brimstOne and grilled meats!

team is religious!!! did you see young savior's cross glint in baltimore twilight after he took second on AROD's ERRANT THROW?

wayward O is ON BOARD!!!

were SEVEN SINGLES a SIGN? what about SEVEN RUNS?

YOU TELL ME!!!!!!!!!!

WHO WILL STAND BEFORE BIG BIRD'S MIGHTY FASTBALL AND PROFESS TO WIELD BASEBALL BAT??


Sun Photo

NOT THIS GUY...


NY Post Photo

SMITED. SMITTEN? smOte!

are we FINALLY WITNESSING ........

the
ascensiOn
???

WHAT DANIEL HATH WROUGHT LET NO YANKEE PUT ASUNDER!

sOme wild, wacky stuff

the baltimore baseball orioles are the kings!

they just came back on bobby jenks to tie, and then beat the white sox 6-5 in 10 innings. prior to getting owned just now by team jenks was 6-for-6 in saves with a 0.00 era for 2008! brian roberts and melvin mora had HUGE clutch hits in the bottom of the ninth.

adam jones came up with the big hit after kevin millar and luke scott walked in the 10th.

also in the batting lineup was closer george sherrill. that's because, after ramon hernandez batted for light-hitting short stop brandon fahey, huff moved from DH to 3rd and melvin mora moved from 3rd to short stop.

and team had no more position players because it's carrying 13 pitchers.

kevin millar scored a run in the bottom of the eighth when he legged it out to first after the catcher dropped the third strike....

"no one in the history of the game starts a two-out rally by striking out better than kevin millar," said joe angel after the game.



Check out the win probability thinger!
nutty i tell ya! nutty!

jeremy guthrie pitched his guts out and the young savior took gavin floyd into the flag court earlier in the game.

clearinghOuse

so, about last night....

*(bad-da-bUM)*

seriously folks ... did anybody get number of that truck? it had canadian plates.

but here is silver lining: adam jOnes went yard and erik bedard went on DL. bedard really is a wuss. he takes himself out of more games than any professional athlete in history. wayward O is beginning to suspect that bedard has an abiding dislike for humanity and simply wants to take money and run.

flatbrim has 6 saves. which smart guy called arrival of george sherrill the "most under-rated and under-hyped player in erik bedard trade hype fiasco"? oh it was me, Wayward O.

you are welcome. here are some other things that are true:

-- baltimore has low-ish payroll and good young talent. there is no reason to wait on signing a blue-chip cleanup hitter. that is canyon-sized gaping hole in orioles current makeup. and no luke scott is not answer. he's a guy who protects cleanup hitter, not a 4-man himself.

-- wayward O understands why trembO is sticking with luis hernandez. despite foibles, he plays the game right.

-- there is much talent in the American League and orioles have barely tasted it yet. going back to the cleanup hitter lamentations: without one, we're going to get our doors blown off in a lot of games this year.

-- melvin mora is showing characteristic flashes of brilliance mixed with selfish tendencies on the basepaths but hasn't blatantly bunted or run team out of an inning .... yet. he will save that for july when team "needs a spark." heheh. melmo. remember when we all wanted melmo to get his payday? you know you did too...

-- brian roberts thinks he's king of hill right now. you can see it on his face every time he steals second. but brian is useless as a hitter with runners in scoring. he lacks focus at the plate in RISP situations. if he's going to be a top-tier second baseman a la robby cano or chase utley, he's got to do more with the bat.

-- it's becoming abundantly clear why brewers waived greg aquino.

-- did i mention our lack of cleanup hitter?

that is all. have nice spring day!

feeling b.l.u.? get the O.r.n.j. & b.l.a.k.!

wayward O was trying to cheer up after last night's double header. What better way to do so than, you know, to get a little exercise?



Plus also this lady has PERFECT PHILOSOPHY for life!

"Without a little motivation in your life, you can quickly become a stagnant pool of drainwater..."

Three cheers for the Ornj & blak!

will may be Our cruel mistress?

wayward brO is wayward O's bro. he lives in CATONSVILLE. in 1994 he got a RAFAEL PALMEIRO jersey for birthday. wayward brO enjoys days at the beach, thunderstorms and playing TDK CASSETTES of JOE and JON from BETTER DAYS.

wayward brO was crunching the numbers into wee hours last night. because wayward brO is not merely content to enjoy april gifts. he, like most of diaspOra, figures team will regress back to -- and ultimately well under -- baseball's mean. here's what he came up with...

April W-L -----> May W-L
'97: 16-7 -----> 36-15
'98: 14-13 -----> 25-30
'99: 6-16 -----> 19-31
'00: 14-10 -----> 23-27
'01: 12-14 -----> 24-28
'02: 12-14 -----> 24-28
'03: 13-12 -----> 27-27
'04: 12-9 -----> 24-23
'05: 16-7 -----> 31-20
'06: 13-13 -----> 25-28
'07: 12-14 -----> 27-27
totals: 140-129 (.520) -----> 285-284 (.501)

"They're doin' it again."
but wayward O thinks there may be key differences this season, which might pOrtend something different. here they are:

KEY DIFFERENCE NO. 1: dave trembley is good manager. he will make sure team doesn't get too tard out.

KEY DIFFERENCE NO. 2: andy macphail seems to have found a nice balance of players this year. there are essentially three types of player on team: YOUNG GUYS, OLD GUYS and BRIAN ROBERTS.

looking at brO's numbaz, wayward O is starting to hope team can avoid a may disaster a la the '00 and '07 vintages; and avoid june doom as happened in the '05 collapse.

but pretty much everyone doubts team can pull off something like the '97 wire to wire year.

maybe that leaves us somewhere in the middle. maybe team can maintain composure, weather bad stretches, and yield something like the '89 why nOt team, which played meaningful games all year and made us proud.

in any event, i think we can all agree april wins > april losses no matter what happens rest of year!

sO, this is fun!

team is playing april games and winning.

will happy feelings continue when hordes of boston and new york fanz descend on camden from the north (like Orcs from Mordor) to remind diaspOra of lost decade?

maybe. maybe not.

meanwhile here are six things we've seen during first week:

thing one: trembO cares and he can manage and it seems he asks for -- and gets -- a "team first" ethic from club.

thing two: aubrey huff can hit and he is dangerous.

thing three: much like aubrey huff, luis hernandez draws much fan ire, but today he came though in clutch, big time.

thing four: brian roberts got cut down three times in one game between 3rd and home on saturday night. the first time he was safe; ump made a bad call but it was really close. the second time juan samuel waved him home on a misplay by seattle; roberts should not have been waved home there as there was only one out. the third time he got caught in a rundown on a squibber by nick markakis on a "go on contact from third" play with one out. i doubt you'll ever see that again in a game ... some guys go a whole year without making an out at 3rd base. yet none of them were really roberts' fault. just one of those things that make each game unique.

thing five: after game saturday night, george sherrill explained flat brim on cap. he told fred manfra "i just leave [the hat] the way they gave it to me." sherrill seems to fit in well with some of the doods on club like millar and huff.

thing six: luke scott is firing this april. wayward O may have to take back regret that tike redman did not make team.

have nice evening everybody. and let's hope daniel cabrera can lower his 13.50 era tomorrow!

'ain't going tO lie'

the thing is, aubrey, nobody is EVER going to accuse you of being a liar.

they might take offense at your talent and your, um, er, off-the-cuff remarks.

but nobody will ever say you're a liar, dawg.



Baltimore Sun Photo

you're a rich man, aubrey, yOu ain't got to lie!!

the hOuse that ruth built

want to hear funny story? wayward O purchased some tickets last year through yankees so he could go to bronx and watch team play here in new york city. somehow yankees took this to mean wayward O is yankee fan! because yankees sent wayward O a fancy brochure entitled 'THE FINAL SEASON' encouraging wayward O to come see many games in bronx this year. here is front page...


at first wayward O thought they meant "Mussina's Final Season," but upon further review it turns out Yankee Stadium is being REPLACED by NEW STADIUM next year for yankees.

anyway wayward O normally would put such a piece of literature into recycling bin and immediately sprinkle entire body with OLD BAY SEASONING to CHASE AWAY NASTY SPIRITS. but it was kind of a boring, cold, rainy march day so WTF we took peek inside and we were pretty AMAZED by table of contents....


way more FORTHRIGHT than your average sales brochure, no? anyway Wayward O found it to be PRETTY COMPELLING ... see you in the Bronx this summer!