SPORTS WITHOUT CHARM
After recommending that Towson Unviersity cut baseball and men’s soccer last summer, former Athletic Director Mike Waddell has accepted a position as the senior associate AD at the University of Arkansas. Good riddance. Waddell hid behind Title IX concerns as the reason for his brash cuts, however his irresponsible spending is more likely the cause….
With Wei-Yin Chen and Miguel Gonzalez on the disabled list, the Baltimore Orioles starting rotation has been exposed and they’ve lost five straight games to the Padres and Rays. Buck Showalter has been depending on Jair Jurrjens and Freddy Garcia to hold them over and in return has gotten just two quality starts in the…
Image Credit: My favorite Caps blog on the the interwebs, RussianMachineNeverBreaks.com. Washington Capitals forward Brooks Laich will be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at Monday night’s Orioles game against the New York Yankees. Laich, who is named after the O’s legendary Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, seems confident in his abilities to…
Over the past week, ESPN.com has been running a tournament between all thirty MLB teams to find the best uniform in the game. I sort of neglected this tournament, but other local blogs campaigned for the Orioles, a 13 seed, throughout each round. On Monday, the O’s upset the number one seeded St. Louis Cardinals…
With two more stolen bases on Sunday, the Orioles lead the American League with 33 on the season. As discussed last week, the O’s aggression on the bases is new to 2013 as they stole the fewest bases of any Major League team a season ago. With his team facing one of the league’s most…
Chris Tillman‘s fourseam fastball has clocked in at an average velocity of 92.20 MPH this season according to the data on BrooksBaseball.net. Over his five year career, Tillman has averaged just 91.90 MPH. On Sunday in Baltimore, the Orioles righty touched 96.79 MPH with his 88th pitch, a called third strike to Yunel Escobar to…
I refuse to call the Orioles two losses in a two game series to the Padres “a sweep,” but their three losses over the weekend to the Rays certainly qualifies. However you look at it, the Birds have lost a season high five straight games and are now just three games above .500 at 23-20,…
Stat nerds are popping champagne like the ’72 Dolphins do when that final undefeated team takes a loss. The Orioles streak of 109 victories when leading after seven innings was snapped with an ugly 10-6 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Birds bullpen kept this miracle streak alive from August 8, 2011 through May…
Jim Johnson is a unique closer. He doesn’t overpower hitters with upper 90s fastballs, instead he makes his fielders work by forcing ground ball outs with a hard sinker. At the end of April, Orioles fans witnessed what happened when a hard throwing relief pitcher lost his command. Pedro Strop went into a tailspin and…
Kevin Spacey was one of several famous people at Pimlico on Saturday for the 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes. After the race, the Academy Award winning actor tweeted a picture of his winning ticket, a fifty dollar bet on Oxbow to win. Winner winner, chicken dinner! I chose Oxbow for Henry Fonda’s film The…
