Probably even more surprising than the Baltimore Orioles resurgence in 2012 is the rise in the sale of their merchandise.

Only the New York Yankees and San Francisco Giants have sold more team gear on Fanatics.com than the Orioles have in September.

Darren Rovell of ESPN.com reports that sales of the Orioles official New Era hat are up 102 percent from last season. The cartoon bird hat is the 7th-most popular team cap in all of Major League Baseball.

“There was a desire by ownership to reconnect to the past and we knew from fan feedback that they desperately missed the cartoon bird,” Orioles spokesman Greg Bader told Rovell. “Then you have the fact that the retro feel is still very popular.”

But what’s ever crazier about the Orioles rising merchandise sales is that 67 percent of people who purchased O’s gear from Fanatics.com were from outside of Maryland.

All aboard the Orioles bandwagon.

I guess the Red Sox nation of Virginia and Delaware have decided to embrace the Orioles like they did in the mid-90s.