Fandom from Afar
Join me as I discuss my journey as a Colorado sports fan living in Florida and my interviews with sports fans that are forced to enjoy their favorite teams from a distance.
Fandom from Afar
Legends in the Making in Baltimore
As the crack of the bat echoes in our hearts, Tyler, a true Baltimore Orioles devotee, steps up to the plate to share his touching origin story with the team—a tale woven with memories of his grandfather and the diamond heroics of Orioles legends. Our exchange, rich with both nostalgia and forward-looking enthusiasm, captures the bittersweet symphony of the past pitching disappointments and the bright horizon promised by fresh ownership and a burgeoning roster of young talent. We stroll through the hallowed grounds of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, where each home run etched into Utah Street's plaques is a verse in the Orioles' enduring saga.
Picture the frenzy of a ballpark as Tyler and I recount the evolution of Oriole Park, from the B&O Warehouse roots to the modern fanfare of rooftop bars and the lively "Bird Bath" cheer zones. We celebrate the legacy of the Orioles greats and set our sights on the rising stars poised to carry the torch. Names like Adley Rushman and Gunner Henderson inspire chatter about their impact and the future they're crafting in Baltimore's lineup. The heart of our discussion pumps with anticipation for these young Orioles, their promise shining bright against the backdrop of baseball's grand stage.
Settle in for a playful banter that leaps from the field to the stars, as we juxtapose Orioles trivia with the lore of Star Wars in a game of cosmic proportions. We revere Cal Ripken Jr.'s ironman legacy, debate his place among baseball's pantheon, and make bold predictions for the Orioles' season. Pondering the same odds as a non-Skywalker Star Wars film, we dream of World Series glory dawning over Baltimore. Join us for this episode, where the love of the game and the soul of a city converge, and the spirit of Orioles fandom flies higher than a home run sailing over Camden Yards.
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All right, everyone, welcome back to Fandom From Afar. We have another returning guest. Today. It is baseball season and Tyler, who you may remember from our Baltimore Ravens episode, is also a huge Baltimore Orioles fan, and they are one of the hot young teams in the league, so I wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about them and we can talk some baseball. So welcome back. I appreciate it, brian. Thank you, so obviously you've been here before. You know the routine. Yes, so I got to say, though, when listening to your Ravens episode, your origin story for the Orioles has a lot to live up to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's definitely not as cool. It's definitely not as cool at all.
Speaker 1:You don't have one of the best players ever talking to you and giving you swag.
Speaker 2:No, no, no. Cal Rifkin's not walking up to me and handing me his game-used glove or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Well, all right, I'm sure it'll be cool anyway, so let's hear your origin story of uh, how you became an orioles fan, um, so yeah, it was basically around the same time that I really started getting into being to being a ravens fan and, uh, my grandfather, um, he used to take me and my cousin brady. He would take us to orioles games and I remember the very first or I wouldn't say the very first one, I think it was the one that stood out the most to me was when he got a suite for us and, oh wow, it was like like we had free hot dogs and free soda all day and he and he was like no rules on anything, just have whatever you want, just don't tell your parents oh, that's like the dream.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like, okay, cool, you ain't gotta tell me twice, right and um, so yeah, that day I believe it wasoles. I think they were playing the Nationals. It was the Beltway Series, so the stadium's always full for that because it's only about a 35-minute drive between the two stadiums. Oh yeah, so it's literally on the same Beltway and so, yeah, the stadium was always full for those games. And it was just like ever since then watching Miguel Tejada and, like Javi Lopez and Melvin Mora, and I mean especially Brian Roberts, like he was one of my favorite players, yeah he was like, uh, like a little second baseman, wasn't he?
Speaker 1:oh, yeah, yeah he was.
Speaker 2:He was one of the most sure-handed fielders I've ever seen like he did incredible things. He I mean he holds the Orioles record for batting average in a season too. I mean I think he hit 281 in a season Very nice, which is very weird that we haven't had a 300 hitter on the Orioles, considering the type of players we've had around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's actually very odd. It's very, very odd.
Speaker 2:Shocking almost Is that true, yeah, wow, I mean take it this way the season that the Orioles set four offensive records, they lost or they went, like I think it was like 22 or 23 games under 500. Oh, so like I mean, yeah, the offense is there, but the pitching was never there.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So it's like, yeah, we were setting records, but all for nothing. That's interesting and, like the first 10 years of my fandom, I didn't even see a playoff win. I didn't even see a playoff appearance until 2014, when they won the AL East and they swept the Tigers in the first round and then lost in five games to the Yankees in the next round.
Speaker 1:But that's when you really get your fandom stripes, is when you stay loyal to a team for 10 years without any success, and you're still there for the glory days it was not easy, brian yeah, it was not easy, like back to back hundred plus lost seasons and finishing last five out of six years, and you know it was hard.
Speaker 2:But then I mean everything kind of started turning around when, uh, uh, like people like Adam Jones and Matt and Matt Wieters and, um, I mean who else you have the Eric Bedard and Zach Britton and like all the, all the good people started coming up, like all the crappy years and all the high draft picks and all that they finally started paying off.
Speaker 2:Had people like Nick Marcakis and Jay Gibbons who were being called up, and so it's. I mean, from there it's always been forward momentum, but then, like the main thing that was always holding us back, which got changed this year, is we got a new owner.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And our new owner is David Rubenstein, and it's him and 15 other guys and Calrick and Jr is actually a part of the ownership group, and so is Grant Hill. Oh very cool. Yeah, so is Michael Bloomberg. So you know, like Bloomberg Investments.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Billion dollar portfolios and stuff like that. And so now we have the richest owner in baseball. We got all these people to sign extensions to. That's really interesting, maybe you'll start owner in baseball.
Speaker 1:We got all these people to sign extensions too, so that's really interesting. Maybe it should be a lot of fun start spending with like the yankees and the red socks, and oh yeah that's. That's gonna be really interesting. Oh yeah, I'm excited, I'm ready for it. Well, that gives me hope, because I think that's the main thing. Holding the rockies back now, too, is the owner just does not care about winning.
Speaker 1:They just they want to spend as little money on the team as possible because they know the fans are going to sell out the stadium every night, no matter how good the team is. They'll make as much money as possible and that's all they care about.
Speaker 2:That's the issue with baseball too. It's all up to how much money the owner has. There's no salary cap. That's why the Yankees are able to spend half a billion dollars in one season on their payroll.
Speaker 1:Same with the Dodgers. What's their payroll?
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure they're almost at a billion dollars. It's really close. And I mean you're signing guys to 10-year $700 million contracts, like Shohei Otani, and he deferred all that until the end of his contract.
Speaker 1:They'd only given him $2 million.
Speaker 2:That's cheating.
Speaker 1:You shouldn't be able to do that. Maybe they knew he was going to gamble it all away, so they just knew where his translator was going to gamble it.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Now let's, I guess, kind of a broad question, because you mentioned getting the suite at the stadium. Yeah, but that's one thing I always think about with the Orioles is their stadium is just really cool looking. It's kind of one of those classic stadiums with all the brick and everything and it's just one of the cooler looking stadiums. Does it seem that way when you're there too, or is it just kind of like my memory seeing it on TV that I just kind of no, it's like when you're there, it's one of those parks where you walk in.
Speaker 2:You're like man, this is different from other baseball fields. Like this is cool because the warehouse, uh, it's in right field. So behind right field is the BNO warehouse. What is that? So it was a warehouse for a railroad. Oh, okay. And so now it's actually the Orioles front offices, and so it overlooks the field.
Speaker 1:Oh, very cool.
Speaker 2:That's where all the offices are, and they bought it out a long time ago I think. I think sometime in the 80s or 90s.
Speaker 2:I might be wrong, but um, they bought that out, now it's their front offices and um, and now they, now they use that as like a part of the stadium so that uh, the street in between the warehouse and the stadium is called utah street, okay, and so whenever somebody hits a home run there, uh, they put a plaque, and it's in the shape of a baseball where it landed and that's really cool player's name how far it went, and the furthest home run to this day is ken griffey jr. In the home run derby, I believe he hit it like 468 feet I remember watching that home run derby.
Speaker 2:That was fun yeah, and the plaque is on the wall, the warehouse, like it didn't hit the ground first, like he hit the warehouse first, that's a bomb, I mean it's ken griffey, yeah exactly. He's the only player in mlb history to have his his name on there as an opposing player, like there's no other player besides orioles and there's he's the only one on there who has his name up there because he's the only one that's hit it out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh really, so it doesn't happen very often no, just because he's the furthest, that's it wow, okay, yeah yeah, if you're an oriole and you hit it the furthest, I mean, obviously they're not going to take down ken griffey's ball yeah I mean, at this point he hit the warehouse wall, so how much further can you hit it, right?
Speaker 1:well, I was gonna say that was like back in the day when they were kind of juicing the baseballs because they wanted everyone to hit home runs.
Speaker 2:They were juicing themselves. Yeah, exactly. Well, yeah, that's true too.
Speaker 1:Well, that's cool, and so I guess what kind of like it's a cool-looking stadium, what kind of amenities does it have? Like, is there anything that kind of makes it stand out, or is it pretty simple and it just is kind of like a throwback in that sense too, where you're literally just there to watch the game and just enjoy time with your family or whatever.
Speaker 2:So in recent years it's become a little more modern. It used to be just like a classic, like if you were going to Turner Field for a Braves game or something like that. That's the kind of feel it gave, like long beer lines because they weren't updated with vendors and all that stuff yet. So I think in the last five or six years the Angelos family one of the very few things they took investment in the team for was the stadium. So what they did was they added a Coors rooftop deck bar and that actually got finished building this past off off season. So this season is the first year they have it open and stuff. Um, and then, uh, something new they added to it's uh, it's called the bird bath and what is that?
Speaker 2:and it's a section out in left center field and it's a very small section of like. I think it's just one section of like eight, eight seats wide and like 10 rows deep and we and they call it the bird bath, uh, because we have this guy, his name is mr splash and he stands in this platform at the front of the section and whenever we score a run or hit a home run or do something good, he has this water hose and he sprays all the fans in the in the bird bath oh, okay, and that's fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's cool and, like our team, like we have a lot of play on, like on things with water, like our bullpen. So every game, our bullpen uh, they have. They have one of those, like it's one of the funnel things and you would chug something oh yeah and so every game, the bullpen pitchers they pick one player to hit a home run and if their player hits a home run and they take a whole cup of water through the funnel and that's awesome.
Speaker 2:In the dugout we have what's called the hydration station and it's this it's a funnel that's got four hoses coming off of it, because that's the max amount of runs you can score on a home run on the grand slam and so anybody who scored and the person who hit the home run will all drink from the hydration station after they get in the dugout, and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:See, I like little stuff like that. It's so much fun, it's so much fun to watch. There's so many games. Why not do little quirky, fun things like that, just to have fun, why not?
Speaker 2:That's what I was telling my fiancee. She's like how do they play 162 games? And I was like because they do things like this? To keep themselves occupied like yeah, exactly, you have to make it fun when you, when it's your job. That's why they're.
Speaker 1:They're chewing sunflower seeds all the time, like they're just trying to like pass the time and do something exactly like that's cool. So you obviously had the experience with the suite do you remember, like what player really stuck stood out to you at that time and like kind of was your first favorite oriole I would say miguel tahata yeah, he was good because he was so much fun to watch.
Speaker 2:He still holds the rbi record and hits record a single season. For us I think it's like 128 rbis, then he had 214 hits in one season was he still a shortstop for you guys?
Speaker 1:I remember he played shortstop for the a's, but I didn't remember if he moved to third or anything like.
Speaker 2:No, he was a shortstop and then, uh once melvin mora got there, uh so melvin mora was a shortstop and then he ended up playing third because I guess they didn't want to move to hoda tahada was a beast, no he was incredible, like there was that whole golden age of shortstops back then with like tahata and jeter nomar jeter. I mean, who else was? I mean, I mean, that's just the east alone. He had three hall of famers, so that yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 1:That was when it's like oh, shortstops can be more than just like the smooth fielding, like little tiny guy, they can actually hit some bombs, so yeah right, yeah, tahata was great. I loved watching him. Now you said you had 10 years in there where they were losing. Who was your favorite player on the team when they finally broke through and beat the tigers that one year in the playoffs?
Speaker 2:um, I would definitely was that when brian ro, brian Roberts was on the team. Yeah, that was towards the end of him, but he was injured that year and he finally got back to the right form halfway through the season when he came back from his injury and he had an incredible postseason that year. I mean, just everybody started hitting, everybody started pitching. Well, it was just all coming together. And then obviously we just ran into the yankees and who still had a rod and robinson cano and derrick jeter and all those dudes over there and all their pitching. They had like I'm pretty sure they had randy johnson at that time, still so they were always loaded during that time.
Speaker 1:Again, you know, back to the payroll. They could pay everyone. It's just money, money, money. Exactly our owner. I think our owner's worth 124 billion dollars now. So yeah, you're gonna be playing, playing with the big boys now playing the same game. You're gonna forget about little, uh, small market teams like the rockies and be like, oh sucks to be you can't relate anymore yeah, well, what it was the year you guys beat the tigers, is that the farthest you've gone in like recent times?
Speaker 1:yeah that's the farthest I've ever seen but now they got this nice young core that hopefully can put something together I'm ready for it.
Speaker 2:I like it.
Speaker 1:I'm ready for it well, let's kind of talk about this year's team um because that's part of the reason why I wanted to have you on is just to educate myself a little bit, just because I feel like I'm out of touch with baseball and I know there's so many good young players and quite a few of them happen to be on the Orioles, so I wrote down some names, so just kind of tell me a little bit about them, if they are legit good or if just the hype has kind of exceeded their talent. I got you, so let's start with Adley Rushman.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, adley Rushman. Oh yeah, adley Rushman is everything he was supposed to be. Yeah, ever since he came to the team, the Orioles have the best record in the MLB. Oh really, since May of 2019, the Orioles have the best record in the MLB since his first game in the MLB. So he completely turned everything around for us. He's everything he was supposed to be. Okay, so he's our franchise player. He's the face of our franchise.
Speaker 1:He's everything yeah, and he's the catcher right. Yeah, he's captain.
Speaker 2:He's captain, that's uh okay, that's a good start. Oh yeah, how about? Gunner henderson. He's the. I think he might win an mvp this year or next year hey he's well.
Speaker 2:I mean, I mean he's. I think his ops is over, is well over 1.12 or something like that, and I mean that's unheard of. And he's. He leads our team in home runs. He leads our team in hits and RBIs. He steals bases, he plays the field well and he was a second round pick and he became the number one overall prospect before he was called up. Wow. So I mean that's just, you guys are legit, loaded with these young guys.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, what about, uh, ryan mountcastle?
Speaker 2:he's good. He's another homegrown guy. He, um, he was called up a little while ago, I think four or five years ago, and um, yeah, he's good, I like him, he's. He's just, he's just consistent. More solid, yeah, he's just. Yeah, he's good, I like him, he's just consistent.
Speaker 1:More solid than the other guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's more like you know exactly what you're going to get. And Gunnar and Adley, they've definitely been up and down so far, but they've become a lot more consistent. They're both hitting well over 300. Mountcastle's right there with them. He's just doing it quietly, that's all.
Speaker 1:And apparently, as we learned, hitting over 300 in Baltimore is a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's real tough to do. Yeah, apparently.
Speaker 1:And then the newest one, which is funny because, just for the listeners behind the scenes, tyler and I were going to do this last week when Jackson Holiday had just been called up and the hype was huge, and over the past week it might have died down a little bit, but tell us about Jackson Holiday no, the hype is still there, like I fully believe in that kid.
Speaker 2:He was the number one prospect for a reason. He's not. He's not just gonna like all the scouts in the league aren't gonna look at him and not tell the truth, right? What's the point, you know? But I mean people just keep saying, oh, he's one for 25, he's hitting. I'm pretty sure he's hitting like 0.04 or something like that it's, it's not good right now, trust me he's.
Speaker 2:But at this point like there's no point in sending him back down to triple a because he's already proven like I can hit that pitching and take a yard whenever I want Exactly I need to learn how to hit this MLB pitching. And also he's had like 31 at-bats, yeah, like, Come on, dude, he's 20.
Speaker 1:And people have these streaks in baseball all the time.
Speaker 2:It just happens to be that he's having this streak right away and it's fine and I keep telling people I'm like, as long as we're winning and he can just hide and and figure things out and hitting ninth in the order, whatever yeah, and he'll have a streak eventually where he's like 15 for 25 and it's all gonna balance out exactly and with the way our lineup is now, like he could probably end up staying at ninth. Honestly, yeah, it's like we have so many more guys. It's. It's like an embarrassment of riches, like there's.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't know if you had any more players to go over, but well, yeah, I was gonna say, did I miss any big time guys that I need to be paying attention to?
Speaker 2:yeah, jordan westberg he's what position is he? He plays third base. Okay, he's incredible, he's like he. I mean, it seems like he barrels the ball up every time he makes contact. He's. He's consistent, he's. Every time he makes contact, he's consistent. I think he's on an eight-game hitting streak right now and I think he's hitting 18 of 24 or something like that I mean that's incredible, that's insane.
Speaker 2:And he was caught up last year for the playoffs and then he had to make the team in spring training again, which he did, and I mean he's just good in the field, he doesn't make errors. Playoffs. And then he had to make the team in spring training again, which he did, and I mean he's just good in the field, he doesn't make errors, and like he's he's he's a low-key superstar. I think he's going to be really, really, really good and correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1:All these guys are like mid-20s and younger, like, oh yeah, like you guys are gonna be good for a long time like jordan westberg is 23, gunner henderson's 22, at least 24.
Speaker 2:Jackson holiday is 20 dang, we don't have anybody in our lineup over the age of 30 well and what?
Speaker 1:what perfect timing it is to get owners that actually have money. So when these guys are getting their big contracts, you guys are like yeah, that's fine, we'll pay, you got a lot of contracts to hand out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good problem to have it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2:They kind of made a little teaser, I think, on social media, uh, this past couple weeks. Um. So they actually had cal ripken jr sit at a desk at shortstop at camden yards because, I mean, for those who don't know, cal ripken jr was a short stop, uh, before he was a third baseman and he went into the hall of fame as a third baseman, which is incredible. That wasn't his first position, yeah and um. So they had him sit at a desk at shortstop it was like an office desk and it was our manager and David Rubenstein, our new owner, and they were standing in the dugout and they were like, I mean, who's going to tell him that he can't work out here? I'm not going to be the one.
Speaker 2:And all of a sudden, like gunner henderson, our shortstop, our starting shortstop he walks into the frame and he goes.
Speaker 1:I'll go tell him.
Speaker 1:It's like that's my area exactly, so I'm thinking they were teasing like an extension or something coming up for gunner, like letting us know like that's going to be his spot for the foreseeable future which that's awesome, I really hope so it's it's very cool, that's like the sweet spot to be a fan of a team that's homegrown, young and just super talented, so like, oh yeah, you got to be super excited for the next five years basically oh yeah, and I mean I, I mean there's another name um colton kouser is he the pitcher? No, no, don't you guys have like a stud pitcher too? That I'm not, yeah.
Speaker 2:Corbin Burns, there we go. Yeah, we traded for him from the Brewers Gotcha gotcha, which we actually traded away a couple good prospects. They both made the MLB team for the Brewers as starters.
Speaker 1:So you know that's good for them. You guys have a, because they weren't going to make the team in Baltimore.
Speaker 2:But yeah, but um. Yeah, we traded for him. And then grayson rodriguez, he's homegrown, we drafted him in the first round like four years ago and I mean he's incredible, he um. But no, colton kouser, he um. In his first road series of his career he got called up this year or before the season started. In his first road series in uh in boston he had 10 rbisIs in three games. He was absolutely smashing the ball that series.
Speaker 1:What position is he?
Speaker 2:He's a left fielder.
Speaker 1:Okay. Every position they just keep coming.
Speaker 2:I hate to keep talking about the prospects, but we literally just called one up today. His name is Heston Kerstad. He's been hitting over 300. He leads the minors and home runs, rbis and slugging and ops, and he's just another. He's the number 28 overall prospect but he leads the minors in every hitting category right now. So, yeah, he's like 23 years old and he's playing tonight so that's so fun.
Speaker 2:It's it's really cool and I I love that we didn't have to buy the team. I like that we did it all the right way, like, yeah, we might have tanked a couple years, but you know it's a business.
Speaker 2:Well, how to get draft picks I was gonna say because there's plenty of teams colorado rockies, um that are terrible every year and then don't get these amazing players because they don't draft well so it's like yeah man, you should be pretty excited I am very excited and, uh, speaking of the rockies though I hate to get off topic of the orioles but I actually know somebody who who pitches for you. He's the husband of one of my friends, uh, uh, justin lawrence oh yeah yeah, yeah he's. I think he was your closer or like short believer for a little bit.
Speaker 2:Or he still is. He's pretty good. He's been doing pretty well. He married my longtime high school friend. Oh, that's awesome, yeah, so she gets to go travel along with him. They don't have kids or anything yet.
Speaker 1:Well, you can get the inside scoop from me and see what a Rockies player actually feels like. If the players hate the owners as much as the fans do, I'm sure they do.
Speaker 2:They just can't talk about it. Hopefully it's not their paychecks.
Speaker 1:Here's a good prediction. Hopefully Justin gets traded to Baltimore.
Speaker 2:Yes, so that it can bring your worlds together and then we can both cheer for him. Then that's probably. The one weak spot is our middle relief.
Speaker 1:Hey see, there you go, we'll work something out. You is our middle relief. Hey see, there you go, we'll work something out. You give us some of those nice prospects, we'll take them.
Speaker 2:I think I'd rather just let them sit in the minor leagues for a couple more years.
Speaker 1:Another connection to the Rockies is obviously Jackson Holiday because Matt. Holiday was like our star. The last time we were good, and so when Jackson got called up last week or whatever it was, they were showing him little four or five-year-old running around Coors Field just playing catch with his dad and everything.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh man, he's all grown up now. Yeah, there's a bunch of Orioles accounts that were sharing those videos.
Speaker 1:Our little boy is all grown up now I'm cheering for him because we don't have anything to cheer for.
Speaker 2:I love Jackson. I think have anything to cheer for. I love. I mean, I love jackson. I think he's gonna turn out fine, he's gonna. He's gonna sit there, he's gonna figure it out. He's got his dad. His dad was a two-time champion and well, like a seven or eight time all-star, you know. So if he can do anything close to that, you guys will be happy, we'll be good.
Speaker 1:He makes me feel old, though, because he has that little baby face and I'm just like man I don't even think he can grow a beard yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll get into predictions later but, you got me all excited about the Orioles now.
Speaker 2:They're fun to watch man.
Speaker 1:I need to watch some games now. But speaking of games, do you want to play some games? Let's do it, all right. So this first one is called Titles. So I'm going to give you a title and you give me a name of the player that you anoint with that title. Okay, let's do it. So these are pretty simple, but I'm interested to hear now that apparently you have every good player at every position yeah, it's gonna be hard to pick, so first title, best hitter oh.
Speaker 2:Oh goodness, I would say right now it would have to be Jordan Westberg. It's because he just always seems to come through with runners in scoring position and you know, whenever you need him most, he's there.
Speaker 1:So he's more like solid all around. He's not necessarily like yeah, he's literally a five tool player.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he can run he can hit, he can throw, he can catch, he can do solid all around. He's not necessarily like yeah, he's literally a five tool player.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he can run, he can hit, he can throw, he can catch, he can do everything. Okay, he's good. Well, that fits then.
Speaker 2:Best fielder? Fielder Definitely Gunnar Henderson. Yeah, a hundred percent. He's nasty at shortstop. That's good. I mean, he's already made a couple of incredible plays. I mean, if you want to go look it up on YouTube, it's there. But he uh, yeah, he's his arm, and his arm is incredible, like he'll throw from his butt and he'll get it there on a I mean on a laser. Hey, that's one of the plays he made was he threw across the diamond at like 95 off his butt Really. So I don't understand how you do that.
Speaker 1:So I think now I see why he's he's allowed to kick Cal Ripken out of out of shortstop Right. Uh, best pitcher.
Speaker 2:Um, I'm going to go with Grayson Rodriguez only because we didn't trade for him. He's homegrown and that gives them a little bit of a bump. Yeah, it's kind of like we did that.
Speaker 2:I like it. Yeah, of like, we did that. I like it. Yeah, that's that. That's our best in my mind. And then, best player, best overall players ali rutschman. Okay, yeah, as far as like iq and like just being a leader, being a captain, being like I think he keeps everybody together, like he's the oldest of the young guys, so he's kind of like he's like the grizzled vet at 25 years old exactly like, but he's kind of like the leader of the young guys, and then we've got a couple vets that are probably above him.
Speaker 2:But it's really about it like he's the captain. He was voted on by the players as a captain, like it's his team.
Speaker 1:So perfect, I like it. That was a easy warm-up game because it's your opinion, so you can't get it wrong. Exactly yeah, exactly all right. Now for your Ravens podcasts. We did some Harry Potter games, so I told you to switch it up and I made you. Tell me some other pop culture that you like, yes, and you chose Star Wars, yes. So this game is called light side, dark side, all right. So in this case, you're going to give a light side answer and a dark side answer. So what I mean by that is for the light side. I'm going to say a team and you're going to tell me a player that you wish would have played for the orioles, like present or past, anytime you want that. Anytime they, they either play now for that team or they did play for that team, like sometime in your fandom and you wish they played for the orioles.
Speaker 1:Okay, the dark side is that same team. You need to name a player that you just love to hate whenever they played the orioles.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, let's do it, so should be pretty easy we're gonna start out with the blue jays, oh. Oh man.
Speaker 1:Who's your light side? Your Jedi that you wish would have played for the Orioles? That was a Blue Jay.
Speaker 2:I would say Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Oh yeah, Are you kidding me? Oh yeah, that dude hits it 500 feet with a wooden bat. I loved it. He was such a beast. I mean, he's just like his dad too. He'll hit it. I mean he'll golf it off the ground. He'll hit it dead center off the ground.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's incredible what he does with the bat. I mean, he's no good in the field. He'd probably be a DH.
Speaker 1:But I'd be cool with that. He'd probably hit 50, so I'm cool with that. He'd probably get bored and just learn how to hit.
Speaker 2:Left could hit the warehouse right, right, or just do it oppo yeah, exactly, it's just that strong what about dark side?
Speaker 1:who did you love to hate on the blue jays?
Speaker 2:I really love to hate jose bautista. Oh nice, I really didn't like yeah, he was too cocky for me, like he was just I don't know. Even though we've never played the Blue Jays in the playoffs during my fandom, it seems like every time we were good, they were bad, and vice versa. But he was just so, so, so cocky.
Speaker 1:Those cocky guys that make it easy to hate.
Speaker 2:I couldn't stand him, dude. I really couldn't stand him. Every home run it was a bat flip and a pimp. He was walking all the way to first.
Speaker 1:Then he started jogging like posing the whole way like hurry up, dude, hurry up, like well, there you go. That's a perfect dark side answer yeah, I did not like him all right, let's go. Tampa bay rays this is hard.
Speaker 2:Um light side, I mean they've had a few good guys, but I just feel like all their good guys they always end up somewhere else diving off if they stay with the Rays or they go somewhere else and also end up diving off.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Evan Longoria. He didn't really do much after he left, like I don't know. I think maybe like Kevin Kiermaier. Okay, he was really good in the outfield. He was fast, he could hit, he stole bases like he had a strong arm and he was a lefty and I like lefties.
Speaker 1:So they do look cooler doing everything. Oh yeah, what about dark side? Is there anyone that you love to hate on the race?
Speaker 2:um carlos pena? Oh yeah, because he he was an oriole destroyer. He had our phone number like every, it seemed like every series we faced him, it was like anywhere from like four to seven home runs, like 10 to 15 rbis. I mean just there's always those guys pitching like I don't know what it was about our pitchers, but he could just see the ball. It was bad. There you go. It was real bad. I did not. I not like playing him you mentioned them earlier.
Speaker 1:Let I I uh threw in the nationals on here. So who, who, uh, who from the nationals do you just wish would have? Uh, come up the highway a little bit and and play for those?
Speaker 2:I mean I'm sure everybody thinks I'm gonna say bryce harper. I mean I don't really think I would. I would have wanted bryce Bryce Harper to come play for us because, I don't know, I feel like we didn't really need him, even though we were losing, when he came to the league, but he didn't go to the Nationals and go win a World Series either, so is he your sneaky dark side pick.
Speaker 2:Who? Bryce? Yeah, no, Okay, no, no. I'm very indifferent about bryce. Harper I I I honestly think he was just a tad overhyped, like yeah, like two mvps in one world series.
Speaker 2:I think I think he won a world series yeah yeah, and I mean, yeah, it's awesome, but I don't know like he's been hurt a lot. He's missed entire seasons I I think two or three times. Now he's playing first base because he had surgery on his elbow. Oh, I didn't even know that. Yeah, yeah, I mean he was only hitting for a while and then they eventually got him out to first base when he started throwing again. But yeah, no, I'm neutral on Bryce Harper.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:So no one sticks out that you would want off the nationals.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, steven strasburg. Oh, okay, there you go 100.
Speaker 2:I would have loved to have him because I knew he wouldn't have abused his arm the way the nationals did I was gonna say, if he could have stayed healthy, they killed his arm they destroyed him.
Speaker 2:I mean, they were having him go. They were having him start like 33 to 40 games a year. I think like 35 or 40 games a year, yeah, that's too much. Yeah, he was throwing 265 innings, like what. It's crazy. See, if only he would have come to the O's. Yeah, we wouldn't have done that to him, I don't think what about dark side for the Nationals? The Nationals. I really feel like there wasn't much on the Nationals who were really disliked by me or anybody I knew, really, I would say Ryan Zimmerman, maybe.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, he was there for a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that pitcher, he was pretty good. He always seemed to pitch well against us. I always chalked it up as a loss whenever he was pitching against us.
Speaker 1:There you go. Just a respectful hatred. It was discouraging when I saw it. All right, now we're getting into the big boys, let's say the Boston Red Sox.
Speaker 2:There's so many players that I wish would have played for us. Instead of the Red Sox, I would say one that sticks out the most is probably. I mean, I would have loved to have Mookie bets. Oh yeah, you kidding me. Yeah, I think, I think I would still rather have Mookie bets than Gunnar Henderson.
Speaker 1:Dang.
Speaker 2:I mean Mookie's crazy. Mookie's amazing, he's crazy. He does everything. He doesn't miss like I don't know. He does everything. Gunnar does just a little bit better, I think.
Speaker 1:And the Red Sox didn't really get much for him in that trade right?
Speaker 2:No, he didn't even get traded. I'm pretty sure he walked for free.
Speaker 1:Oh, really, so even worse yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then they didn't re-sign Bogarts. He went to the Padres, yeah. So yeah, dang, I wish she would have played for the Orioles.
Speaker 1:Who do you love to hate on the Red Sox? Manny Ramirez.
Speaker 2:That came out quick. I hate Manny Ramirez so much.
Speaker 1:Does Manny being Manny?
Speaker 2:No, it's not Manny being Manny, he's being a clown, he's being a clown.
Speaker 1:That's funny, that came out so quick.
Speaker 2:It is funny to watch him do it, though Like catching a ball, running up the wall high-fiving a fan and stuff like that. Yeah, it's fun to watch, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:I wonder if his teammates thought it was funny or if they got tired of it.
Speaker 2:I mean, they also had David Ortiz on their team. So, I mean, he was probably just as bad, yeah. But I love Big Papi now because he got into broadcasting a little bit and started calling games.
Speaker 2:And he was an analyst for a little while for mlb central, I think, and and he became a little bit more likable for me. Okay, good, he's like the, the charles barkley of the. No, roger Clemens, oh really, yeah, I would have wanted Roger Clemens because during the time he was playing, like I said, the pitching wasn't there for us, uh-huh, and I loved watching Roger Clemens. And he was just winning all those sightings, yeah and he was a strikeout pitcher and that's what I liked about him is that he could strike anybody out with any pitch and put it anywhere he wanted.
Speaker 2:And even when he did miss, it was 98, and he blew it right by you.
Speaker 1:And he played for pretty much every other team in the AL East, so why not?
Speaker 2:play for Baltimore.
Speaker 1:Exactly, All right. Who do you love to hate on the Yankees?
Speaker 2:Yankees. It's a close tie. Well, no, it's not a close tie. I would say it's close between two players. I would definitely say A-Rod. Yeah, I don't like A-Rod, he cheated.
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:He cheated and I don't like that. I mean, he was found guilty of cheating, that's why he got suspended for an entire year and then, like I don't know, I don't think you should be touted as one of the greats if you cheated. Yeah, I think that makes perfect sense. I mean, hence why I didn't mention Rafael Palmeiro, like a famous Oriole, or Sammy Sosa, who also played for the Orioles. I never even mentioned them.
Speaker 1:I even mention them. Yeah, I don't think they should be in the hall of fame like I like it, but yeah, same with especially good, even though everyone was probably cheating back then. It just seems like if they were doing it to the point where they kind of stuck out above everyone, then they were pushing it way too far like yeah, it was cool to have two guys going at it for the home run title.
Speaker 2:Like 62 home runs, like that's incredible, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, if everybody did that, then like what would it be? Like we'd be hitting balls like 600 feet and like pitchers to be throwing 105 consistently. Like how fun is that?
Speaker 1:exactly speaking of steroids, brady Anderson Ah, brady, his one random year where he hit like 50 bombs all of a sudden, when his previous career high was like 14. It was 51. There you go.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that was a fun year too.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, good, I feel like you're a true fan, because the dark side answers came out so much quicker than the other ones, because you always remember those guys that kill your team and you can't stand. I like it All right. Our last game is called Either or, so this one. I'm going to give you two options and you just have to tell me. I'll give you the the category as well, but usually it's which one is bigger. So on one side, there will be a orioles option, and then on the other side, it's going to be a star wars option. Okay, so some of these are kind of out there, so you gotta stick with me, let's do it all right.
Speaker 1:So I looked it up and you guys have a pitcher on your team named tyler wells. Yep, he is six eight, so that's pretty tall.
Speaker 2:He's a big old country boy uh-huh.
Speaker 1:So um, tyler wells with a baseball on top of his head, or the actor who played chewbacca oh, I know who the actor actor who played Chewbacca.
Speaker 2:Oh, I know who the actor is who played Chewbacca, which is taller. He's well over seven foot. He's like 7'3", isn't he? Yeah, he's 7'3". It'd be the actor who played.
Speaker 1:Chewbacca. Oh okay, Very good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:I thought that might be tougher 7'3 or 7'4".
Speaker 2:That's like one of the first things my dad taught me about Star Wars. He was like you know, that's a real guy in that suit, right, I say, you got exact card.
Speaker 1:He was 7'3". Yeah, very good. Yeah, because my first guess for the Chewbacca guy was like that he was maybe like 6'11 or maybe 7', that's what I thought.
Speaker 2:So I thought it might be close. I gave him like a small stilt or something.
Speaker 1:But no, I should have given Tyler Wells two baseballs, right, all right. Next one, which one is higher? Cal Ripken's streak, which, for those who don't know is he played in a record consecutive games and he had a streak that was very famous back in the day, and now this is the one where it's kind of out there. You got to stick with me Weeks. Oh no, I'm sorry. Days that the original Star Wars stayed in the theater when it was originally released.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Plus Yoda's age in years. I yoda's like 300 years old so you have the number of days that star wars was in the theater in 1977, plus yoda's age, plus yoda's age in in years, years compared.
Speaker 2:Compared to Cal.
Speaker 1:Ripken's streak.
Speaker 2:Which is 2,161. Oh man, I wasn't around when the first.
Speaker 1:Star.
Speaker 2:Wars came out. I don't know how long it stayed in theaters, for my dad would know.
Speaker 1:I'll give you a hint. It was in the theater for quite a long time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I figured I'm still going to go with Cal Ripken's record. Okay, yeah, I mean 2,000 days is a lot.
Speaker 1:It is Now. Cal Ripken's streak, when I looked it up, was like just over 2,600.
Speaker 2:Okay, maybe I got the numbers wrong, like 26 something, yeah.
Speaker 1:And Star Wars was in the theater for 135 weeks, okay, so that's so. That is 945 days, okay, and Yoda is 900 years old when he died, so that total brings us to 1845. So you were correct Cal Ripken. Cal's record still stands.
Speaker 2:That's right, he's the winner.
Speaker 1:All right. Next one, which is higher the total gross of all the Star Wars movies, oh, that's billions it is. Or the career earnings of Cal Ripken Jr, adam Jones, chris Davis and Mike Musina all put together times 25. Times 25.
Speaker 2:Gosh. Well, for those who don't know, Chris Davis was the highest paid player on our roster this season and last season, not even in the MLB. That's how these contracts work.
Speaker 1:He either hit a home run or struck out. It wasn't anything else.
Speaker 2:But man so.
Speaker 1:So you have Cal Ripken Jr Mike.
Speaker 2:Mussina, chris Davis and Adam Jones. Adam Jones.
Speaker 1:All added up together their career earnings, Times 25. Times 25. Or the total gross of the nine main Star Wars movies that have been released theatrically.
Speaker 2:Well, we never paid anybody, so this is going to be the Star Wars movies. It has to be. It has to be the Star Wars movies.
Speaker 1:So the total gross for Star Wars is $10.3 billion. Yeah, there's no way. If you take all those guys' career earnings and times them by 25, $10.5 billion, so the o's took that one, but I had to times it by quite a lot to get to star wars level gosh it was surprising because, like cal ripken jr, you think he's one of the greatest players ever, but obviously contracts just weren't big back then so I didn't make a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Back then his career earnings was only 71 million. So like that's crazy. I bet he's made more in endorsements since he retired he was drafted in like 1983 yeah, like he he played until 2001 if if he was a superstar nowadays. That would be like more like 700 million.
Speaker 2:See, like everybody, like yeah, cal was a superstar, for sure, I think the game streak definitely helped him, but like he, he was honestly like really a middle of the road player compared to all the other players that were around him too yeah, I.
Speaker 1:I would say so, like, like, yeah, it's he was consistently on the field.
Speaker 2:Good yeah like he didn't make mistakes right, he's got like four or five gold gloves, never made errors and like, yeah, he just, and yeah he's, he's definitely king in baltimore, like everybody worships. Yeah, cal ripken jr. Like his little brother, billy is the billy, it's the billy. Um, uh, what is it called the billy ripken?
Speaker 2:it's the little league there oh nice so like whenever they hosted a camp or anything like that, like I would see. I would see billy, I would see cal senior sometimes there and cal junior there and they just be watching with him, that's awesome you walking around the park because ain't nobody gonna do nothing to cal ripken they're, they're, they're probably like you said, just they own baltimore they worship everybody in the ripken family, like his dad was a manager while cow was playing and like it's just a family affair in baltimore for them that's really cool for sure yeah all right.
Speaker 1:Last one this one is what is more likely the o's win the championship. I haven't looked in a while. Or lucasfilm slash disney, make a movie that has nothing to do with the skywalkers that's not all he did, yeah that's all they do. They can't. They can't get away from the skywalkers um. So you said so it's either the ozwin a championship, championship or lucasfilm disney makes a movie that's not about the skywalkers.
Speaker 2:Well, that's never happened both are very unlikely. Those odds have to be astronomical, like I'm gonna take. I'm gonna take. Lucas films makes a movie that's not about the skywalkers oh, okay, interesting.
Speaker 1:I thought you just would have said I think the orals win the championship, have decent odds. Speaking of, let's do some season predictions. Um, let's start with just the orioles, but that may bleed into your world series prediction. We'll see. So, all right, give me, give me a prediction for their record and where they finish in the AL East.
Speaker 2:We're definitely going to win less than 101 games, which is how many we won last year. I think we won a lot of games we shouldn't have. Oh really, we stole a lot. Shoot, we've stolen a lot. This year already we lead the league by seven and um comeback wins like at one point I think eight of our 13 wins were comeback wins like oh wow, maybe that's just their skill, not exactly the best way to watch a baseball game, but you know it's after the seventh inning. Like we have the largest run differential after the seventh inning. So I don't know what it is. It's like the seventh inning stretch. I we have the largest run differential after the seventh inning, so I don't know what it is. It's like the seventh inning stretch. I don't know if they go eat some food, you know whatever.
Speaker 1:They just get re-energized. Who knows, that's cool, but yeah, so less than 101 could still be 100 wins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think we'll be somewhere in the range of like 91 to 98. And playoffs 91 to 98 and playoffs. Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I think we'll either. I think we'll win the al east, I think. Since the yankees don't have garrett cole, it's kind of surprising how good they are right now.
Speaker 1:But juan soto is incredible okay, so you guys are a half game in first right now and you're predicting to win the al east? Yes, so let's take it a step further. Do you predict them to win the L East?
Speaker 2:Yes, so let's take it a step further, do you predict them to make the World Series? I think one thing we're going to have to do is do something at the trade deadline in order for that to happen. Because Justin Lawrence, I think we need a little bit more firepower than him. No, our bullpen, it seems like I don't know. Our starting pitching is good. It seems like we've got two bona fide aces in Grayson Rodriguez and Corbin Burns. I hope after this season we get to re-sign Corbin Burns because he'll be a free agent after this year. It's kind of like a rental Like here. Let's see what you can do for us real quick. Yeah, I think we'll make the World Series as long as we make a move at the trade deadline for relief pitching okay and who do you predict they'll be playing in the world series?
Speaker 1:I mean?
Speaker 2:it's got to be the dodgers with that payroll. You would hope so. Yeah, it hasn't panned out before, but you know, but I don't know. I think, having just all the guys they have, it's pretty darn near impossible for them not to think they're going to be there right.
Speaker 1:So now, remember, I know nothing about baseball anymore so this prediction is coming just out of the out of blue, but I will not pick the dodgers because I hate the Dodgers.
Speaker 2:I know Everybody hates them.
Speaker 1:So I will say Braves versus Rangers. Sorry, you got me all excited about the O's, but I'm still going to go with the Rangers.
Speaker 2:I don't like the Rangers man. I didn't not like the Rangers before last season, but they were destined to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they had a pretty good next year.
Speaker 2:They had to go on and do that Like we. Yeah, so they had a pretty nice clear. Go on and do that like we ran into a buzzsaw and I don't like having that first round by yeah, I didn't like that, get a little rusty. Oh yeah, yeah, it's all about.
Speaker 2:It's all about how much momentum you can keep from the regular season going into the end of the playoffs oh, for sure like baseball is so hot and cold, like I mean you saw with the orioles, they won 101 games, had a week off because they were so good and then and it ended up being a punishment nobody could hit yeah, exactly it was like one through seven just couldn't hit.
Speaker 1:Well cool man, you got me excited about the orioles. Like I'm definitely gonna check them out just because yeah, no, they're fun to watch it really is like my favorite kind of team, where they're just homegrown, they're super talented and like just fun to watch there's still guys we haven't mentioned on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Who I mean? I mean one other name to look out for who's still in the minors is kobe mayo. Um, I saw him. He was playing against the shrimp, uh this past saturday night and he had two home runs and a double, seven rbis and had a diving play at third I mean it was, they just keep on coming. Man, it's crazy.
Speaker 1:So you guys, need to spread the wealth. Can I know? We definitely need to start spreading the wealth. It's an embarrassment of riches I'm happy for you I appreciate it and I appreciate you coming on again yes, sir.
