The Orioles announced a new value menu for 2025 that will also include $5 12 oz. cans of some beer.
Hello, friends.
Orioles Opening Day is exactly 63 days away from today. Pitchers and catchers reporting to the start of spring training will happen in just 20 days. As cold as it’s been this week in Maryland, it’s especially nice to think about the return of baseball season not being too far away.
The Orioles made what is currently the most popular move of the offseason yesterday and it had nothing to do with the roster. The team announced on Wednesday morning that there will be a new value menu coming to select concession locations across Camden Yards this season, featuring a variety of cheaper (relative to expected inflated stadium prices) food and drink items including $4 hot dogs and, incredibly, $5 12 oz. cans of some kinds of beer.
This is an initiative that’s similar in nature to, and probably replacing, the recent years $4.10 concession stands. It’s even better than the $4.10 deal because there are more items available and some things, like popcorn and peanuts, are even a little cheaper than $4. The value menu will be located behind the following sections: 17, 49, 80, 334, 373. I’m particularly pleased by the 334 location as that’s near my season ticket location.
The only thing to find fault with in the effort is that the franchise couldn’t think of it sooner. Maximizing attendance is going to require reducing the number of friction points that might cause people to choose some other way of spending their entertainment money rather than going to an Orioles game. Making concessions cheaper – or at least having cheaper concessions widely available – is one of the lower-hanging pieces of fruit.
Of course, the team generating some excitement with its on-field performance is also going to be the most crucial part of that, and that’s up to the Orioles players themselves. Has the front office done enough this offseason to make up for the deficiencies that sapped the team’s performance over the second half last year and ultimately contributed to a hasty postseason exit? If that answer turns out to be yes, the stadium will be more full by June than if we spend April and May thinking the answer is no.
Around the blogO’sphere
If the Orioles could see Tyler O’Neill duplicate his 2024, they’d probably run with it (Steve Melewski)
I’d like to aim higher than this and hope that O’Neill can duplicate the offensive performance while also staying healthy enough to play 150+ games.
How the Orioles can replace Anthony Santander in the aggregate (The Baltimore Banner)
The Banner’s post-Santander analysis sounds quite similar to what Camden Chat’s John Beers wrote on Tuesday, noting that it’s going to take some combo work from O’Neill and Heston Kjerstad.
Kyle Gibson gave Andrew Kittredge glowing review of Orioles clubhouse (The Baltimore Sun)
Thanks?
Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries
There are several former Orioles who were born on this day. They are: 2014 three-gamer Cord Phelps, 1996-97 catcher Charlie Greene, 1993-95 outfielder Sherman Obando, 1990 infielder Marty Brown, and 1959 infielder Chico Carrasquel.
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: big Declaration of Independence signer John Hancock (1737), Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (1915), actor Richard Dean Anderson (1950), actress Mariska Hargitay (1964), and actress Tiffani Thiessen (1974).
On this day in history…
In 1556, an earthquake struck the Shaanxi province of China, with modern estimates putting direct fatalities from the quake at over 100,000, and as high as 500,000 when adding in a subsequent famine. It’s one of the deadliest quakes in history.
In 1849, the Geneva Medical College awarded an M.D. to Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, making her the first female doctor in the United States.
In 1942. Japan launched an invasion of the island of Rabaul, at the time part of Australia’s territory in New Guinea. The Australian defenders were outnumbered 10:1 and surrendered within the next couple of weeks. At the end of World War II, Japan still held the island.
In 1964, the state of South Dakota ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, becoming the 38th state to do so and making the amendment an official part of the Constitution. The amendment, which bans poll taxes, was approved by Maryland (7th to ratify) the previous February.
**
And that’s the way it is in Birdland on January 23. Have a safe Thursday.