There’s nothing left to do but decide which remaining teams we hate the least.
Hello, friends.
Are you out of your mourning period for the 2024 Orioles yet? I think it’s going to take at least another week for me. As long as the Division Series round is playing out, I can think about how if the Orioles only managed to score five runs across two games, they would be in this round instead. Once the postseason moves on again, it’s not as easy to just handwave, “Oh, they would have won the ALDS, too.”
Yesterday marked the start of that round, with all four sets of teams playing their first game. In those Game 1 matchups: The Guardians hung five runs on the Tigers in the first inning and never looked back on the way to a 7-0 victory; the Mets stormed back in the eighth inning after Phillies ace Zack Wheeler finished his outing in a 6-2 victory; and the Yankees ended up on top of a back-and-forth game with the Royals with a 6-5 triumph. I’m not staying up late enough to include the Padres-Dodgers result in this article. Sorry!
Do you have a strong or even half-hearted rooting interest in any of these series? Obviously, the Yankees are to be reviled forever, but so too are the Royals for me, in a different way. I’ll be rooting for the Cleveland-Detroit winner over whatever happens there. I think either the Padres or Mets would make for a fun champion.
The Guardians have the longest active MLB title drought and the Padres, with no titles since their creation in 1969, have the third-longest. Detroit’s 39 seasons (last winning the year AFTER the Orioles did in 1983) stands as the seventh-longest, and the Mets, dating back to 1986, are eighth. There are a lot of good possibilities here – though, also still the possibility of a boring big money, big market winner that’s won it within the last 15 years.
The National League series will play a second game today. Mets-Phillies is around 4pm and Padres-Dodgers around 8pm Eastern. American League teams will be waiting until tomorrow. The mid-series off day where no travel is involved is annoying.
Around the blogO’sphere
Wild card leftovers and lingering thoughts as playoffs proceed without the Orioles (School of Roch)
Roch tosses a theory out there that if the Orioles had gone from 83 wins to 91 and then 101, people would be a lot happier right now. I think there’s something to this, although the double playoff sweep would still not be fun to digest.
More on the O’s offense and the late-season falloff (Steve Melewski)
Notable from Mike Elias on the team’s drop in numbers with RISP: “I am going to behave as though it is under our control, and we are going to examine everything about our offensive approach, teachings, the mix of personnel … and put ourselves in position to where we feel like we have addressed any potential shortcomings there.”
Shedding light on former Orioles miracle manager Ned Hanlon (The Baltimore Sun)
It’s a “might as well remember the 19th century Baltimore Orioles” part of the annual calendar.
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
Today in 1966, the Orioles beat the Dodgers, 6-0, to take a 2-0 lead in the World Series. Jim Palmer, then just 20 years old, went the distance, becoming the youngest pitcher to ever toss a World Series shutout. For Dodgers starter Sandy Koufax, it ended up being his last MLB action.
In 1983, Mike Boddicker recorded a then-record 14 strikeouts on the way to the Orioles beating the White Sox, 4-0, to even up the American League Championship Series at a game apiece.
There are a few former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2019 two-game pitcher Matt Wotherspoon, 2007-09 pitcher Radhames Liz, 2013 pitcher Freddy García, and 1990 reserve Greg Walker. Today is Walker’s 65th birthday, so an extra happy birthday to him.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: engineer George Westinghouse (1846), French fighter pilot Roland Garros (1888), actress Elisabeth Shue (1963), and social media personality Addison Rae (2000).
On this day in history…
In 1600, the opera Euridice had its premiere performance in Florence. The opera, based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Euridice, is the oldest opera that still survives today. This premiere was also one of the key early signifiers for the Baroque period of music.
In 1789, the French revolutionary activity escalated as a mob forced the king, Louis XVI, to move from the palace at Versailles to the Tuileries Palace, which was located within Paris.
In 1927, the movie The Jazz Singer had its opening. This was the first “talkie” of significance.
In 1979, Pope John Paul II paid a visit to the White House, becoming the first pope to ever have done so.
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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on October 6. Have a safe Sunday.