Matt Wieters slides into second under future Oriole Robert Andino's tag

Today has finally come.  The day Orioles fans have been waiting for since…. well… since 1996, most likely.

Matt Wieters is playing his first game as a Baltimore Oriole.  People are excited.  OPACY will be rocking tonight.  Unnamed authors of this website went in to work at 7 AM so they could be home by the 4 PM (AZ time) first pitch.

As someone stated to me last night, today is the first day of the rest of our Oriole lives.   Tim Kurkjian wrote the first column I’ve seen in years dedicated solely to the Orioles (and not how bad they are!).

But there’s more good news, at least for Orioles fans west of the Rockies!  Apparently, the city of Tucson has made an offer to become the Orioles’ spring training home! This would be the best news I’ve heard as an Orioles fan in a long time, as it would assure me somewhere between 15-20 games in the Phoenix area, and if I wanted to, more in Tucson.

This just follows my luck though.  I create a website talking about how all my sports teams suck, then they proceed to either 1) move out of town, 2) come to town for part of the year, or 3) stop sucking.

I guess it’s a good problem to have… well, except that first one.  Speaking of which, there will be a definitive answer on the 9th of June as to whether or not the Coyotes are moving.

The best news the Orioles have had all year… And I’m going to take credit for it.

I wore my Orioles polo to work today, primarily because it had gone quite a few weeks without being worn, and I felt it was time for the shirt to get some fresh air.

Jason Berken got called up for his first major league start, and gave up two runs over 5 innings and earned his first MLB win.

Unfortunately, Berken’s start was overshadowed by this gem:
Andy MacPhail’s announcement that Matt Wieters is being called up Friday

For those who aren’t Orioles fans, Wieters (as mentioned in an earlier post) is the potential savior of the organization.  The best prospect we’ve had in years.  He’s the symbolism of the direction of the Orioles.  As Wieters goes, we think, the O’s will go.  He’ll get his first chance on Friday.

And it’s all because I wore my Orioles polo to work today.  Who would’ve thought….

Randy Starks' mug shot, from CNN.com

This is a story for the ages.

Miami Dolphins’ backup Defensive End Randy Starks was arrested last night in Miami Beach.

Okay, that doesn’t sound all that out of the ordinary for a football player.

But it gets better.

He was driving a truck. No, not an F150, or even an F350, but the 18 wheeler that we all know and love (without the trailer connected).

Okay, that’s a bit strange….

But it gets better.

He had 13 people in the cab of the truck, which has a listed capacity of 4. The 13 people included a woman who was sitting on Starks’ lap while he was driving.

Okay, that’s definitely strange…

But it gets even better!

This all happened at 12:10 AM on Ocean Drive in South Beach…. The busiest road in South Beach.

But there’s even more! (I’m starting to feel like Billy Mays now)

The cop chased him on foot for half a block, at which point the truck outsped him for a bit, but when the officer caught up again to the truck, the truck moved slightly to the left, pinning him against a car going northbound.

And one last thing…. the license plate on the truck was not assigned to his truck.

My reaction to this is somewhere beyond puzzled and confused… I’d call it “mind-effed” because it completely blows my mind. It’s Memorial Day weekend, so I’m going to take me and 12 of my closest friends out in my semi-truck down to the club in South Beach. I have so many questions about this, I don’t even know where to begin. I mean, WHERE DO YOU EVEN PARK A SEMI IN SOUTH BEACH? Can you even valet park an 18-wheeler? How do you make $7 million a year (Starks’ salary in 08 including a 5+ million dollar signing bonus) and you can only afford a semi? For $7 million, I’d venture to say you could rent a limo for a night for 13 people. And who is this entourage of 12 other people that travel with you, and how do I get a free ride like this?

Our 44th President?

Okay, so I can already see your finger hovering over the “Comments” link and your fingers itching to hit the y-o-u-apostrophe-r-e-space-a-n-space-i-d-i-o-t-exclamationpoint-exclamationpoint-exclamationpoint buttons, but hear me out.

Both are young, “up-and-comers” highly regarded based on their work on the lower levels of their trade.

Both are part of an organization that’s trying to find an identity after 8 years of devastating losses.

Both are the ultimate symbol for “change” within their organization.

Both are considered by some as the “savior” of their organization.

Both will end up on the big stage with a lot to prove.

Both got off to a rocky start in their start towards said big stage (Obama in the early primaries vs Clinton and Wieters’ April in AAA)

Okay… so it’s a bit of a stretch, but there are a few parallels. Though I think Wieters may be better liked by the Oriole-conservatives (who don’t want to rush talent to the big leagues too fast) than Obama is liked by the fiscal-conservatives.

So the Yankees swept the Orioles after the Orioles had a rather disappointing bullpen in the series, inevitably costing me another $15 to Matt.

However, they hopefully will be able to turn it around in the next three games against the Exp—-errrr—- Nationals. The much lauded Interleague Play.

I’ll go on the record and say that it sucks. It’s great for the American League, having won 100+ more games over the history of interleague play.

And sure, living in Phoenix, I get to see the Orioles within driving distance once every 6 years…

And sure, attendance is up…

And sure, tv ratings are up…

But I’ll say that it’s time for the experiment to be over. It’s gimmicky, it’s counter to the spirit of baseball. It is NFL-esque, in fact.

Baseball has long been a game based on tradition, with statistics from the early 1900s being just as well known as those of the modern era. The two leagues operate as separate entities, and until 1997, the two teams in the World Series would have not faced one another previously in the season. The idea of the Cubs playing at Fenway or the Yankees playing at Dodger Stadium meant that the games would mean something. But now, it has been reduced to simple regular season games that, in the grand scheme of the season, are meaningless.

As an Orioles fan, it’s painful enough to watch our pitching staff pitch, let alone grab a bat and swing wildly at pitches off the plate. But extended to a more macro sense, it discourages teams from playing their style of play. A crafty national league manager is useless in an American league park, and a powerful DH is useless in a national league park. It forces teams to play outside their typical form, and as such, promotes a lower caliber of overall baseball played.

As far as I’m concerned, the Ex—-nationals should be the team down in Washington that plays in the National League, not “that team we have to play 6-8 times a year, half the time with our pitchers batting and the other half of the times with them bringing in a quadruple-A guy to play DH.

I’m sorry, I don’t find it entertaining. I’d rather see 5 more series against division rivals (that the O’s would inevitably get swept in, anyway). Or maybe 5 more series against other divisions, in the spirit of the NFL, where the #1 team in one division plays the #1 in the other divisions, etc, to promote a little bit of parity.

This would give the television networks more premium games (Sox vs Angels, etc) and keep ratings high, while also increasing the attendance for lower teams (playing worse teams makes them more likely to win more games and thus attract more fans). It would certainly level the playing field slightly and perhaps keep the league from being dominated by Sox-Yanks-Angels-Dodgers-Cardinals, while getting rid of the cancer that is interleague play.

Sorry for not updating this yesterday with this, but I wasn’t sure of the specifics.

Yesterday, the judge presiding over the Coyotes bankruptcy ordered the two sides of the case (Jerry Moyes, the former owner and the NHL, the current owner of the team) to mediation to settle this.

Sounds to me like the judge is afraid to rule on this for fear of his decision being appealed and scrutinized by a higher court. Luckily, by sending it to mediation, it seems a few things are likely to happen: 1) The mediation won’t do diddly, the judge can say “Hey, at least I tried!” and keep the team in Phoenix. 2) The NHL and Moyes work out a deal that gets him his money (he’s the #1 creditor who is owed money from…. himself?). Either way I think these are conducive to keeping the Coyotes in Phoenix (Glendale).

For those of you who aren’t up to speed on the whole issue: Jerry Moyes owned the team. He approached the NHL for a loan, one of the terms was that the team would be under NHL control. Fearing his reputation in other businesses, Moyes struck a bargain with the NHL to keep him as the nominal “owner” of the team. Wanting to get rid of this toxic asset, Moyes strikes a deal with Blackberry owner, Mr. Balsillie, who has wanted to move a team to Hamilton, Ontario for ages (And has unsuccessfully tried before). The deal between the two was for Moyes to declare bankruptcy and accept Balsillie’s offer of $212.5 million for the team, which he would move to Hamilton. Of course, the NHL intervened after the bankruptcy filing saying that Moyes wasn’t truly the owner, and here we are. Since then, White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf has made an offer for the team, well below the $212.5 million Balsillie offered.

The mediation is supposed to continue until the next hearing, on the 26th, so we’ll have more details then. Ideally this issue will be resolved by then with the Coyotes staying in Phoenix. If they do remain in Phoenix, it will be interesting to see how the city reacts. I, myself, will be getting a 20 game partial season ticket package (as I mentioned before, it’s a hike for me to do the full 41 games) and I will definitely be at the home opener getting the “Jer-ry Reins-Dorf” (or whoever the new owner is) chant going. However, if Balsillie ends up owning the team, he’s required to keep them in Phoenix for the next season, due to NHL scheduling requirements…

And let me say it right here, in text on the internet, that if Balsillie gains ownership of the team, I will burn my Phoenix Coyotes jersey, or throw it on the ice of jobing.com arena. I’m unsure which, but I’ll be trying to get a large crowd of people together to do the same.

The Arizona Republic today had a column from Craig Harris asking, “Can Phoenix Ever be a Hockey Town”

It’s a decent article and sort of skirts the main issues, but doesn’t nearly go into the depth to properly analyze the problem.

So I’ll take it upon myself to do such.

First off, the article looks at the demand side, while ignoring the supply side, so we’ll tackle the demand side first.

Why isn’t demand what it is? There are three factors. First, the Coyotes suck. Second, the arena is in Podunk. Third, the Coyotes aren’t converting any fans (which goes back to factor number 1).

The biggest thing the Coyotes could do to make money as a franchise, and turn Phoenix into a hockey town (which we’ll discuss later), is to put together a winning team. It might be a sad state of affairs, but Phoenix isn’t really what you’d call a “hardcore sports town.” It’s no Boston, New York, Detroit, Toronto, or Montreal when it comes to hockey. In fact, I’d even feel safe in calling it a city of front runners. I wish that weren’t the case, but it is. If the team were making an impressive playoff run (as they nearly were last season), the stands would start to get packed around February. An impressive playoff run would continue the momentum into the following seasons. The Coyotes have one of the best traditions in hockey with the whiteout, but Phoenix hasn’t seen once since 2002 (a series that I attended all 3 home games at). However, most of the people around here haven’t even heard of it, due to the Coyotes’ long absence from the playoffs.

The second issue, arena location, is something that can’t really be changed. Unfortunately, many valley cities were unwilling to help contribute to funding an arena for hockey. Glendale stepped up and we have a hockey arena 20 miles from downtown Phoenix. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any other arena (save for the Islanders’) that is as far away from its market center. This is exacerbated by the fact that the East Valley suburbs are primarily where the Coyotes’ fan base comes from (more affluent, more people, etc). Many of us East Valley residents (EVRs) aren’t willing to drive upwards of 90 minutes (more in traffic) to see a mediocre Coyotes squad. I, myself, would be a season ticket holder if the arena was anywhere from downtown Phoenix eastward. This would change dramatically with a good hockey team. People would all of a sudden see the value in driving out to Glendale (free parking, cheap tickets, good hockey).

The third issue is fan conversion. The Cardinals experienced this a ton during their playoff run this year. People say that Phoenix can’t be a hockey town because everybody here is from somewhere else. Well thef act of the matter is that everybody else is from somewhere else where hockey is prevalent. I can’t tell you how many Chicagoans, Wisconsinites and Minnesotans there are here, but I’d venture to say that nearly 60% of the population here has upper-midwestern roots. Another 25% is from points north and east of New York. Another hockey hotbed. But why don’t they follow the Coyotes, you ask? For the primary reasons above. The team is not entertaining to watch, they don’t win, and the arena is a hike. There’s no shortage of fans here, heck, there are 4 million people in the metro area! Quite a few are familiar with hockey, and I’d venture to say that a majority of them have no clearcut favorite NHL team (Minnesota only recently getting the Wild means that there was a dearth of professional hockey outside of Chicago in the upper Midwest when most people were moving here). Fact of the matter is, you put together a young, exciting team that wins hockey games and makes a playoff run, and this city will be as successful as Dallas in the NHL.

You’ve got to spend money to make money, as the adage says. Over the past decade, the owners of the Coyotes have gone against this statement and tried to maintain the balance sheet. They fail to recognize that a playoff hockey team would likely pay the bills and become a break-even or better transaction. Chicago is seeing the benefit this year. After years of neglectful ownership and crowds as low as 4,000, the Blackhawks are hot again. Selling out games and even making the conference finals. A good team will fill an arena, and its owners’ pockets.

I just wish the potential new owners of the Coyotes realize this.

Adam Eaton throwing a mean 85 mph fastball

I’m sorry, I’m willing to give anyone a chance (after all, I’m an Orioles fan) but Adam Eaton just flat out sucks. Through seven starts, Eaton is 2-4 with a near 8 ERA. Even for Baltimore, that’s abysmal. In fact, he’s getting worse by the month, with an April ERA of 7.17 and now a May ERA of 9.00. Last night, giving up 7 runs in 5 innings, a 12.60 ERA against the Royals.

I mean, I still haven’t seen an appearance by Eaton where I was like “Well, this wasn’t *that* bad” except the game against the White Sox, but they’re the White Sox, Pittsburgh, Illinois’ second class team.

It’s time for Eaton to be out of the rotation. Bring up Hill, give him a few spots, and put Eaton in the pen. His splits are surprisingly okay in the first plate appearance of the batter. In fact, batters are only batting .260 against him in their first plate appearance of the game. In fact, I’d even go to say that he looks impressive in the first plate appearance split. 10 Ks with only 5 BBs, 15 hits, of which only 4 are doubles, and 1 HR. Compare this to the second PA of the game split where batters bat .321 with an OPS of 1.111 and have 17 hits, 6 of which are doubles, 1 triple and 4 home runs (11 of 17 hits are extra base hits).

“Well, if you want to move Eaton to the pen, whom are you sending down to Norfolk to make room for Hill?” you might be wondering. Well, I’m willing to walk away from either Felix Pie or Mark Hendrickson. I don’t believe either have any options left, so they’d have to clear waivers. I have a hard time believing Felix Pie would clear waivers, and Hendrickson hasn’t done a whole lot for us this year, and is significantly worse in the first plate appearance split than Eaton, though he seems to get better in the 2nd plate appearance and onward.

I think that, assuming Eaton were willing to become a reliever (which is a massive assumption and the potential sticking point for this argument), that Eaton could be a reliable middle to long reliever with the Orioles. Remember, Eric Gagne started off as a starter before becoming a dominant closer for a couple of years.

Just some food for thought.

Jason Taylor will once again be in a Dolphins uniform

Earlier today, former Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor signed with the Dolphins for 1 year,

So he’s 34, his performance last year flat out sucked (of course he was battling injuries) and it seems that Parcells isn’t his biggest fan, but I have to say, I think this is a great signing for the Dolphins. For $1.1 million, you’re going to be hard pressed to find a better bargain (or even 1.5 million if he makes his incentives).

And it’s particularly refreshing to see the Dolphins look back into strengthening their defense. Their offense may not be full of big name players, but they can all produce, and especially with the addition of Pat White, I can’t think of a team that will be more interesting to watch play offense (if they can develop Henne to throw). There was an article on a website (ESPN I think) talking about how organizations that rely on two quarterback systems are doomed to fail. I think the 2009 Dolphins might be rewriting the book on two quarterback systems.

Anyway, I digress. The Fins are looking to improve the defense which is a great sign of things to come. Porter and Taylor, both a little old, will be great leaders for the young guys (Vontae Davis, I’m looking at you) and perhaps the Dolphins can get back to their defensive dominance last seen in the late 90s / early 2000s.

Yesterday afternoon after hitting a 3 run homer that gave the Orioles the lead, Aubrey Huff celebrated by doing the “Justin Chamberlain fist pump”.

And this became drama in the media? Justin “Joba” shows up guys by doing his stupid little fist pump in ridiculous “un-fist-pump-worthy” situations (dare I mention while losing 4-3 to the Red Sox?). It’s nice to see a guy get a little humble pie, especially a guy who has EIGHT career wins and under 200 career innings pitched.

Of course, after the incident, Justin played it off pretty nicely like a good sport, but then decided to add “This won’t be the last time I face him.”

What a punk. He had his opportunity to throw at Huff at his next at bat and wasn’t man enough to do it then, but instead decides to run to the media to start a firestorm and hype up the next time he faces the O’s… which likely won’t be until after the all-star break, perhaps as late as August!

Ideally, he would just do one of two things: shut up and take his medicine or peg Huff in his next at bat. He did neither… because he’s all talk.

Yankee fans, this is why people hate your team. It’s not because you’re winners (because you are not, at least this century), it’s because you’re a team full of egomaniac punks. And nothing feels better than beating your whiny asses.

Oh, and to be fair, the Orioles did end up losing the game. Ergo: the name of the site.

However, they’re 3-3 against one another this year, so things are looking good for my bet!