David Rubenstein’s arrival marks the start of what the team is calling The Next Chapter. Fans are ready.
Hello, friends.
Today is the day! Opening Day is here. As of this writing, the forecast is looking good for the scheduled 3 o’clock start, though if you’re in the vicinity enjoying some pregame festivities, you might get a little wet. The 2024 Orioles season is going to get started, and it’s going to get started with an official new owner. David Rubenstein was approved by MLB’s owners unanimously yesterday, launching what the team has been teasing as The Next Chapter of Orioles baseball.
It is as good of an omen as any for the beginning of a new season. Orioles fans are now beyond the preoccupations of John Angelos with hosting concerts. His delusions of real estate grandeur dragging out lease negotiations don’t matter to the fortunes of our favorite baseball team any more. We do not have to hear his whines about the state of the team’s finances and about how the organization will be following the Rays model, or about how there is no way to ever hand out a $150 million contract.
You can believe that all of this behind-the-scenes stuff will get better with Rubenstein’s group and hopefully with its money now supporting the franchise. Certainly, the new guy has said all of the right things so far, and looks like he’s committed to renewing connections to great Orioles of the past that the later Angelos years did not prioritize.
All of that allows the players who are here right now to be the real focus today. No more Angelos blundering in to say something stupid when you start to feel good about the team, as happened on multiple occasions last year. This was a 101-win squad a year ago and the only important player who will not be a part of it at all is Félix Bautista. (Statement optimistically excluding Kyle Bradish for now.)
Everything about how the regular season turned out a year ago was great! The Orioles had the best regular season record that the team has had since 1979. One kind of weird thing about winning so many games last year is that the Orioles might very well field a better team this year but not win quite as many games. After the bad taste of last year’s postseason, it’s not so much the regular season record that matters. Get back to the postseason and do better there. That’s what will help us feel like there’s improvement.
There’s a lot to be excited about. I wrote about a few of my big ones yesterday, with hopes of Gunnar Henderson maybe chasing the end of the franchise’s 30+ year MVP drought or Corbin Burnes pursuing the end of the 40+ year Cy Young drought. Hopefully you’ve got your own long list.
There hasn’t really been as exciting of a beginning to an Orioles season as this since, I would say, the 1990s. Even when the team was in the postseason in the last decade, they never managed to have an offseason where you could feel like they got even better. The records in the 2013, 2015, and 2017 seasons reflect that. These O’s needed a top-flight pitcher and they got Burnes. That’s pretty much all that was needed. (Statement optimistically excluding bullpen uncertainty, for now.)
Are you going to Camden Yards today? You’ll be feeling some of that excitement along with me and 40,000 others. At least there’s not a Billy Joel concert at the football stadium next door, so hopefully getting home when it’s over won’t be as bad as my last memory of going to an Orioles game. Having the Orioles actually win would be nice too. This is the first Opening Day to happen in Baltimore since 2018. It’s been a while.
Around the blogO’sphere
David Rubenstein says owning the Orioles is a way to pay back his hometown (The Baltimore Banner)
New Orioles owner David Rubenstein on his to-do list, responsibilities and more (The Athletic)
In forum, incoming owner David Rubenstein shares priorities for organization (The Baltimore Sun)
The new owner seems to have gone on a local media blitz, giving separate interviews out to The Banner and other outlets. He’s saying all the right things! He wants to win the World Series. He wants to get the MASN situation solved.
Orioles ready to take care of unfinished business in ‘24 (Orioles.com)
Among the player quotes in this article, Cedric Mullins predicts the Orioles will exceed 101 regular season wins. I can’t even imagine it, but I’m glad that he can.
Jordan Westburg on what it’s like to wait for your chance while at Triple-A (Steve Melewski)
Westburg’s 714 plate appearances with Norfolk between 2022 and 2023 definitely count him among those who’ve had a long wait. He thinks everyone who was sent down is mature enough to stay focused even if they’re disappointed.
The official (and hopefully not too cringe) 2024 ZiPS projections (FanGraphs)
Some of the projections out there are not expecting a repeat as AL East champions for the Orioles. This is an optimistic one, with the Orioles taking the division with 91 wins, ahead of each of the Yankees and Blue Jays by four games.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1999, the Orioles traveled to Cuba to play the Cuban national team in an exhibition game that the O’s won, 3-2, in 11 innings. It was the first time since 1959 that major leaguers had been to Cuba.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2014-15 first baseman Christian Walker, 1997 pitcher Shawn Boskie, and 1991-93 first baseman Glenn Davis. Today is Davis’s 63rd birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: brewer Frederick Pabst (1836), musician/actress Reba McEntire (1955), actor Vince Vaughn (1970), and musician/actress Lady Gaga (1986).
On this day in history…
In 1854, the Crimean War, which had previously been fought between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, escalated to a new level as France and Britain declared war on Russia. The war went on for another two years, with nearly 700,000 soldiers dying over the course of the fighting.
In 1939, a three-year siege of Madrid ended with the dictator Francisco Franco capturing the city. The Spanish Civil War ended within days, leaving Franco in power for over 35 years.
In 1979, a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania went into a partial meltdown.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on March 28. Have a safe Opening Day. Go O’s!