The first day of a new era

Today is May 29, 2009, and on the calendar, it looks very much like any other day as an Oriole fan for the last 11 years or so.

But this isn’t an ordinary day.

Matt Wieters, the Orioles’ first pick in the 2007 draft, a catcher that scouts say looks like a switch-hitting Joe Mauer – with power, will make his major league debut tonight at Oriole Park against the Tigers.

It really is the best I’ve felt as an Oriole fan in quite some time.

I remember the last time the Orioles were any good. It was October 15, 1997.

I was working the grease pit at Ichabod’s in Shelby, N.C., during my junior year at Gardner-Webb University. The Orioles were hosting the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the ALCS.

Tony Fernandez, of all people, hit a home run off Armando Benitez in the top of the 11th and Jose Mesa came in and got the save in a 1-0 Tribe win.

Since then, to say the wheels have fallen off would be a massive understatement.

In the years since, the birds have been 4, 6, 14, 36, 28, 20, 6, 14, 22, 24 and 25 games under .500. There’s plenty of blame to go around. The owner, Peter Angelos, usually garners most of it.

You won’t find it in his Wikipedia entry, but the lawyer-turned-owner has guided the team to just three winning seasons since he purchased the team in 1993 – and the last one of those was the aforementioned ‘97 squad.

While Angelos graces his fair share of dart boards in the hearts and minds of Oriole fans, some venom should be spared for the folks handling the draft.

Since 1993, Baltimore has had 26 selections, including supplementals, in the first round of the Major League Baseball Draft. Now, the MLB Draft is an even bigger crap shoot than its NFL and NBA cousins, but of those 28 players, only two of those, Brian Roberts (1999, 50th pick) and Nick Markakis (2003, 7th pick) lived up to their lofty draft positions.

It really is an incredible list:

2008 – Brian Matusz
2007 – Matt Wieters
2006 – Billy Rowell
2006 – Pedro Beato
2005 – Brandon Snyder
2005 – Garrett Olson
2004 – Wade Townsend
2003 – Nick Markakis
2002 – Adam Loewen
2001 – Chris Smith
2001 – Mike Fontenot
2001 – Bryan Bass
2000 – Beau Hale
2000 – Nelson Johnson
1999 – Mike Paradis
1999 – Richard Stahl
1999 – Larry Bigbie
1999 – Keith Reed
1999 – Joshua Cenate
1999 – Scott Rice
1999 – Brian Roberts
1998 – Rick Elder
1997 – Jayson Werth
1997 – Darnell McDonald
1995 – Alvie Shepherd
1993 – Jay Powell

Not exactly a who’s who of major league talent.

Which brings me back to Wieters. In a year in which pitching prospects Brad Bergesen and David Hernandez have arrived at the big club and young outfielder Nolan Reimold has smacked five homers in his first 53 big league at-bats, the arrival of Wieters is just the latest member of what Oriole fans are calling “the calvary.”

First-round picks Matusz and Snyder will likely follow the Georgia Tech product in the coming months, but for now, it will be nice to relegate Gregg Zaun to backup catcher duty, where his .209 batting average won’t hurt quite so much.

His rise through the minors has been a rapid one. He combined for a .355 average, 27 homers and 91 RBI in 437 at-bats in A and AA ball last year and, after a minor hamstring injury slowed him down a bit early, he’s hit .305 with 5 home runs and 30 RBI in 141 AAA at-bats at Norfolk.

Hope they enjoyed the show down there, because it’s not likely he’s heading back there anytime soon.

“I’ve never been around a prospect with this much hype, and it’s something he’ll need to get used to,” David Stockstill, Baltimore’s director of player development, told MLB.com. “It’s something he’s already begun to deal with, but it’s magnified tremendously at the Major League level. That’s something he’s going to have to live with, and the better he does on the field, the more of it there will be. So hopefully, this is just the beginning.”

So, while a four-game winning streak still leaves my favorite club at 22-26 overall –  fifth place in the rough and tumble A.L. East. – today I have something that I haven’t had as an Oriole fan since that fateful night almost 12 years ago.

Hope.

Our nation’s capital

Every year since 2004, my wife and I travel somewhere to watch the Orioles play.

Yeah, I know. It’s a sickness.

Anyway, the birds were on a two-game losing streak with me in attendance. They lost to the Yankees in the Bronx last year (the only game of that three-game set they DIDN’T win) and, the year before that, Colorado’s Ryan Spilborghs hit a pair of homers to topple my O’s at Camden Yards.

This year, I decided to stack the deck.

We went to Nationals Park in D.C. to watch “The Battle of the Beltways,” featuring two of the worst pitching staffs in baseball.

Of course, the Orioles won.

But it was 2-1!

An unexpected pitcher’s duel broke out between Baltimore’s Koji Uehara (who left early with a sore hammy) and Washington’s Ross Detwiler. It was a good, fast-moving, well-played game.

Some impressions…

1. The park is nice – We sat in the third level behind home plate in seats that probably cost a little too much, but the sight lines were good, the food was reasonably priced and, aside from the fact that they ran out of nachos, there was enough of it.

2. The Metro was an adventure- Our friend Mike Bollinger, who we scooped up in Northern Virginia, may never go anywhere with us again. We took the Metro (D.C.’s version of the subway) to the park without incident, but the trip back to our lavish hotel (thanks, William Shatner) was a nightmare.

Apparently, there hasn’t been 31,883 at a ball game in the capital in a while. There was a crush of people trying to get on the train. We waited. Then we made it to the platform. And we waited.

We took our first train, made it to Chinatown, got out and waited for the next train.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

For all I know, people are still standing there like cattle, straining their neck to see a board list the trains in and out of hell.

OK, maybe I made that last part up, but it was way too hot down there.

So, we finally gave up waiting, walked up and walked outside into the heart of Chinatown. There were five police officers and a transit guy hanging out by the door. That made me happy, but apparently my wife and Mike didn’t share my glass-half-full assessment of the scene.

Luckily, Shanna channeled her inner Carrie Bradshaw and hailed us a cab.

I’ve never enjoyed riding in a minivan quite so much.

So, in summary, if there’s a game, take a freakin’ cab.

3. This entry is brought to you by Priceline- Going somewhere? Use Priceline. Seriously, it rocks. We paid $90 a night in a place that charged my wife’s non-profit agency about $240 two weeks earlier. Captain Kirk doesn’t lie, kids.

Next year, I’m thinking Fenway…

The shotgun approach

I feel compelled to do a better job keeping this site updated, even if it is the one I’m doing for free.

Yes, this is yet another shameless plus for my “other” work.

Get over it.

Anyway, I am watching some sports. I’ve actually been following the NBA Playoffs pretty closely.

Game 7 is a sports rarity. It’s a little like finding a beer in the fridge that you forgot you had. It’s refreshing, assuming that it was “born” fairly recently.

Yesterday, we had two of them in the NBA Playoffs. I wasn’t holding out much hope that the 3:30 Lakers/Houston game would be any good. And after L.A. laid a 19-point beat down on the Rockets, I must say that it wasn’t.

Surely the nightcap in Boston between the Celtics and Magic would be compelling, right?

Turns out the Magic hit more threes than a rigged roulette wheel and cruised to an easy win, leaving me to catch the tail end of Bull Durham to get my sports fix.

It was a really disappointing day in what’s been a pretty decent NBA postseason thus far.

Falling down on the job

I realize that I haven’t been writing much here lately.

I have good reasons.

I’m getting paid to write here, here and here instead.

But blatant capitalism is no excuse, so let’s right the wrongs this morning.

• Manny Ramirez is a muppet. While he didn’t test positive for steroids or any other performance enhancing drug, he had elevated levels of testosterone – caused by a prescription female fertility drug. You don’t have to call it a 50-game ban for substance abuse. Call it a suspension for stupidity instead. How hard is it, really, if you have a legit medical issue to go to one of the dozens of team doctors in the clubhouse and ask for help. He was cheating, he got caught and now “Mannywood” has more than one meaning.
• I’m really into the NBA Playoffs. The Boston/Orlando game yesterday was very good, and the Rockets are putting up a surprisingly good effort against the Lakers out west. It’s good TV, and well worth your time on a May evening.
• When you’re a day away from turning 33, playing 27 holes of shambolically awful golf without sunscreen may not be a good idea. I have sore arms, a red neck and a small blister on my right (non-glove) hand. Good times.
• On Mother’s Day, it pays to treat the women in your life like the queens they are.
• I watched hockey the other night. It wasn’t horrible.
• Any golf tournament in which Tiger is not playing – or playing well – is must-turn-TV for me. Sorry, I like watching the best golfer on earth play well.

That’s all kids. Have a good one.