happy hallOween

Looks like good ol' Sammy Perlozzo found costume!


Image via FOX
Hey Sammy -- DON'T PULL GUTHRIE, OK?

Nevermind....

If Wayward O had his druthers, which he does not ... have ... he'd go as this guy:


Image via MASN

Or maybe a Memlo Hobo.

time heals all wOunds

some clutch hits.

some clanky mitts.

some orioles MAGIC from YOUNG HOUDINI sometimes known as JIM JOHNSON!

some FLAT BRIMS!


sOlidarity
what a difference a year makes!

note to jim palmer: those fans were saying "luuuuuke." um. after luuuuke's home run. no sabe? palmer groused on MASN "you've got a lot of red sox fans booing" as scott circled bases last night.

abOut last night...

Wayward O was surprised the papes didn't mention last night was Orioles first return to Fenway since MOTHER's DAY MIRACLE MASSACRE. Apparently team forgot too. After loss to Yankees, Orioles went up to Boston and handed out some more pain to division leaders.

Game was Os at their best; from opening pitch home run off bat of the Diminutive Dazzler to Jamie "Grizzly Juice" Walker's save it was a tense affair but Baltimores weren't fazed, crazed or dazed. Wayward O was so excited about win he um took a spin around Internets and found a few photos from Associated Press to display here. Wayward O loves Associated Press! He feels guilt about displaying these picture but excited dwarfs shame right now!!

TrembO is dead ringer for Shatner

Bedard was all sick but still nasty

Corey is vacuum cleaner in CF


Manny is goofball!

There were so many more tidbits from last night to savor. How about the Young Savior going two rows deep in stands near Pesky Pole and stealing foul ball from like eight Red Sox fans? How about effective performances from Rob Bell and Chad Bradford?

How about Danys Baez not being in ballpark at all? Coincidence? Wayward O asks you...

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...

the massacre, part fOur

wayward O wishes to move on from mother's day massacre, but he cannot for two main reasons:

· reason one: Os haven't won since (this doesn't need much discussion)
· reason two: people are *still* talking about it

wayward O is watching the NESN today as tigers visit host red sox. and the announcers are going on and on about it except they call it ....

THE MOTHER'S DAY MIRACLE

wayward o has trouble digesting such mendaciOusness. everybody knows the almighty great baseball spirit was far from the ballpark that day!

nevertheless, red sox sideline babe -- who is not as hOt as amber (!!!) -- reports there were two nuns next to dugout last sunday and they blessed manager terry francona's boys and that's how come red sox got 6 runZ in bottom of ninth to drive demonface orioles into weeklong spiral.

if this is true, then what does that make perlozzo? calling all bible scholarz!!!!

even sawx fans got to shOut

wayward O asks: is it okay for root for sammy now that the diaspOra has called for his ouster? let wayward O know in comments area! it is a moral quandary of the highest order. wayward O says he will root for team to get it together and go on a tear over next month. wayward O also says if Orioles aren't above .500 on 26 june you will see shake-up.

more importantly, wayward O knows a fella who is a rare breed: a thinking man's red sox fan. we had following chat after mother's day massacre and a good deal can be inferred herefrom.

Ted Williamsburg: You wanna talk about it?
The Wayward O: hehe.
The Wayward O: i had a feeeeling i might hear from you today.
Ted Williamsburg: I was relieved when neither the Times or NY1 had a story about a white, mid-30s jumper on the Brooklyn Bridge
The Wayward O: tell me this, honestly.... when i pinged you [Sunday] ... i never claimed victory right? i just basically said Guthrie was having a great game and i was enjoying it
Ted Williamsburg: That's true, in discussing it with GF and one other person I noted that you weren't jinxing yourself or your nine
The Wayward O: excellent. i'm glad to hear that.
Ted Williamsburg: If you had, you'd a heard from me a lot sooner
The Wayward O: i think -- aside from the ortiz and varitek hits -- the sawx were bystanders, witnesses to a self-inflicted calamity.
Ted Williamsburg: Oh, totally
Ted Williamsburg: That said, Yukes was safe
The Wayward O: i didn't go back and really eyeball the force at home.
The Wayward O: but it's the kind of thing that can propel a team like the sox and give 'em a sense of destiny
Ted Williamsburg: Absolutely
Ted Williamsburg: I said to a Yankee fan that if the Sox hold onto the division, that will be looked upon as the day they took control
Ted Williamsburg: Especially with NY wasting a nice effort by Andy while getting cuffed by a no-name
The Wayward O: true that. the only bright spot is Os are about to hit the easiest portion of their sked.
The Wayward O: if we're not at .500 or above it on june 26, then heads will roll.
Ted Williamsburg: Sox next 22 games are against teams with a win percentage of .560
The Wayward O: yeah.
Ted Williamsburg: They Yanks are against teams .590
The Wayward O: Os had a tough sked in april. now they get the NL West and the Nats.
Ted Williamsburg: Nats can do wonders for a team
The Wayward O: so --- if perlozzo hasn't lost the clubhouse maybe they shake off the Mother's Day Massacre and keep playing hard.
Ted Williamsburg: Pulling your pitcher because your catcher dropped a pop out is f*cking retarded, I can't imagine him hanging too much longer
The Wayward O: you should see the balto blogs. to a man they're calling for his head.
The Wayward O: folks are comparing to the maier game in terms of level of agony.
Ted Williamsburg: How do you not?
Ted Williamsburg: Higher stakes in the Maier game, but SUnday was totally self-inflicted
The Wayward O: right .... and as i said on the camden chat blog (prior to collapse) "This is as big as it gets in May"
Ted Williamsburg: big = bad

the critics rave

wayward oriole woke up early. he heard birds chirping and saw may sunshine. then reality hit a few moments later... DID. That. HAPPEN????

yes. yes it did.

wayward oriole could not go back to sleep. so he took a spin around the internet just to see how the mother's day massacre resonated with bloggers, players, managers, and writers:

"Jeremy Guthrie probably should have stayed in" -- ap wire's game recap, lead sentence

"Guthrie had thrown 91 pitches and given up only three hits. The Red Sox were certainly happy to see him go." -- jeff zrebiec, baltimore sun writer

"what if Guthrie had given up a 420-foot out? That would have been OK?" -- bob ryan, boston globe story

"...we had no chance" -- david ortiz, on jeremy guthrie's performance

"I'm glad he got taken out" -- kevin youkilis, on perlozzo's decision to pull guthrie

"I’ve been reluctant to criticize Perlozzo too harshly ... you have to lay the blame for this one squarely on his shoulders." -- the loss column

"I really feel terrible for Guthrie." -- kevin millar

"Unconscionable ..."

"There is no adequate English for what I saw last night."

"They deserve a playoff worthy manager"

"I never think it's the manager. Today ... it is."

"Perlozzo said he would have made the same decision again ... That is a cause for concern, there should be a learning curve somewhere."

"Perlozzo ... has no business running a major league baseball team"

"Normally I'm not the guy calling for anyone to get fired ... Sorry Sam"

"As soon as I saw Perlozzo come out of the dugout, God as my witness, I said, 'We're going to lose this game. You watch. ... Ask my mother-in-law: that's what I said."

"Second-rate management" -- commenters on Kubatko's Balt. Sun blog and Camden Chat

and, last but not least:

"Game should have been over" -- orioles manager sam perlozzo

indeed.

and lest, dear reader, you think wayward oriole is cherry picking, wayward oriole sought comment from those who did not think perlozzo is to blame. there were a few -- and far between -- but what they offered were essentially two points: hindsight is clear and it's more angelos than anything else. not really, but even so that doesn't negate any of the above.

assigning respOnsbility

wayward Oriole spent his whole afternoon enjoying the cruising in boston. and now someone must pay the cost. because wayward Oriole does not easily assume a hard-fought win is in the bank. and when he does assume a hard-fought win is in the bank, it had better damn well stay in the bank.

wayward Oriole assigns blame for the mother's day massacre as follows:

84.4% blame: sam perlozzo, who complains his bullpen is worn out and then defies all logic by rushing them into a non-save situation. perlozzo should never have left the dugout. bottom line: if perlozzo just sits there with a donut in his mouth, orioles win.*

4.6% blame: leo mazzone, who didn't stop his ol buddy ol pal from leaving the dugout. and then half-heartedly walked out to talk to chris ray long after everyone knew what was coming.

3.9% blame: ray, who conducted himself like a choker for not getting to first base; every other part of his debacle of an outing would have been moot but for that. ray is not a choker; he's in the midst of a rough sophomore slump but he should be able to right himself.

3% blame: wayward oriole blames himself for investing so much in this woebegone team. but he cannot help it; he cannot root for another.

2% blame: to cal ripken, jr., for walking around like his turds don't stink and pretending not to be interested in orioles. ripken needs to take over this team. he needs to find a way. ripken can no longer sit on the sidelines and watch this decade-long disaster unfold.

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, CAL?

FIND A WAY!!!!

1% blame: danys baez, for being unprepared to take the mound, albeit that he had no time to warm up and no inkling he'd be called upon by perlozzo.

1% blame: ramOn, for not catching the pop-up. it was windy out there; earlier in the game jay payton misplayed a ball - though no harm was done. so all orioles should have been on their most highly alert status.

.1% blame: to peter angelos for being an incomprehensible, galactic clown. wayward Oriole has a lot of trouble assigning blame to angelos because wayward oriole does not believe in prosecuting the mentally retarded.

* we can take a quick few moments to look on bright side. orioles upcoming schedule is light. diamonbacks, nationals, royals, over-rated angels, threadbare blue jays, and oakland (to whom payback is owed) conversely, boston must now play detroit, atlanta, and yankees. that's why this loss is even more hideous; it hands red sox a sense of destiny they don't deserve... also, josh beckett's nice little start is kaput; wayward o predicts this finger problem will plague him for rest of year and not to mention rest of career.

nor has wayward oriole forgotten how perlozzo did NOT KNOW THE RULES in the cleveland game when markakis scored a run and tommy trebelhorn had to bail out manager and protest umpire's call.

wayward oriole is very, very sure perlozzo will soon be fired. and mazzone can stay or go as he pleases since he's clearly irrelevant any how. as he rode home from softball game on train tonight, wayward O had a vision of a new manager for the orioles....

BOBBY VALENTINE.