Tony-OH

Here's a great article by the Hardball times on Jackson's year with the Orioles including their attempts to resign him. https://tht.fangraphs.com/unenchanted-interlude-reggie-jacksons-lost-season-in-baltimore/

Well here's a Jackson quote about playing for Earl. "Reggie Jackson only played one season for Weaver but said: “I loved the little Weave. If you made a mental mistake, you saw him waiting for you on the top step of the dugout when you came back in. He’d just say one word, ‘Why?’ And you better have an answer. On his team, if you didn’t ‘think the game,’ you had a problem. He was right in your face.”

Lack of options? Trust me, I don't wanna play him but I don't have a ton of options. In game one he was the only lefty in the lineup with Sisco, Smith Jr. Williams and Ruiz on the bench. I could have started Smith Jr. instead of him (DHing him while moving Nunez to 1B), but just decided to give him the opportunity early in the season plays Davis is a better defender at 1B than Nunez. In the second game against the righty, Davis actually got his first hit of the year but again, not a ton of 1B options. When Mountcastle comes up, Davis is going to see a lot less time.

Davis has been awful for me as well.

TRAITOR!!!!! I can remember Snyder owning the Orioles, no doubt. Funny you mention that Rotisserie book. I bought that too and created leagues based off their categories for years. It wasn't until about 1989 that I ran a league in my unit that I changed some of the categories to make it more "realistic." By 1993, I had developed a league that included waivers, contracts (After the draft, you had to sign a guy to a 1, 2 or 3 year contract that went up 10% each year and were guaranteed against your salary cap) and included stats like SB-CS, SV-BS and I believe we used EBHs as a category to help those guys who did more than hit homers and collect RBIs.

Yeah, I don't recommend it either!

No, I'm going to search the waiver wire and put guys like Givens, Cobb and Bleier on the trading block and hoping to get decent offers. I've already executed a waiver claim on a pitcher and will announce that today before tonights game.

I'm trying to be as realistic as possible so I put him on the 60 day DL when he was listed as out for 4-weeks by the sim. I'm hoping real baseball will be back or preparing to get back by that time and we'll have some news on him, but I'm guessing he was going to miss all of this year or at least a good portion.

The more you look at the options the more you realize this team's offense without Mancini and Mountcastle early on is pretty weak. Heck, I've already had to bat Rio Ruiz 3rd.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/04/01/red-sox-sweep-orioles-as-offense-continues-to-sputter/ Orioles fall to 1-5.. Orioles news at end of article!

Since we're bored I'll share another story. The year was 2005 and I had just returned from spending a year in Afghanistan and was happy to be back in Hawaii with my family. Obviously I had not played in over a year when I found a local men's 18 and over team looking for players. With the itch to play again and a desire to try out my new "PRK fixed" eyes, I came out of "forced retirement/military service" at 35 years old. The team ended up being pretty good even though we ran out of pitching occasionally and I had to pitch, which is never a good long term fix for any team (haha). I mostly played outfield and some second base for this team and we ended up in the playoffs. Even though I was one of the older players on the team, I typically hit leadoff and was having a pretty good year hitting well over .350 with an on base percentage close to .500 (I walked a lot and rarely struck out). Let's fast forward to the semi-finals game with the winner getting a chance to play under the lights in downtown Honolulu on this beautifully manicured field. Down by two in the bottom of the 6th inning (we played 7 inning games), with runners on 1st and 2nd and two outs, I drive the ball to right center, knocking in both runs to tie the game while ending up on 3rd after a play at the plate. Feeling fast, and perhaps all hyped up after my game tying triple, I noticed the left-handed pitcher was not paying any attention to me at third. I kept faking like I would steal home and would have to stop myself because I realize I was almost half way down the line and no one on that team was saying anything about me. So that's when I decided I was going to do it. I had tried to steal home since Pony League ball when was 15 years old, but dammit, there I went. Head down, arms pumping, I knew I was going to steal home and we would be ahead with just an inning to go. With about 15 feet to go and before I could start to slide, I saw the catcher stand up and get ready to catch the ball. We had a no contact rule so as he caught the ball, I decided to try and reach my foot out to touch the plate before he could tag me. Unfortunately for me, I was running at full speed and when my foot landed on the side of the plate and in the dirt, my cleats caught and my momentum twisted my knee as I fell face first into the dirt. As I fell, I felt one of the worse pains in my life as it felt like someone had just chopped my leg of at the knee. My teammates eventually helped my off the field and we actually ended up winning the next inning anyways so we were heading to the Championship. Even though it was my right knee, I drove myself home, but made the mistake of not going straight to the hospital. After an awful painful night on the couch (so I could keep my leg straight and on ice) my wife had to enlist me neighbor to help me to the car so she could take me to the Hospital. My leg was so swollen they couldn't do an MRI, but the doctor was pretty sure I tore my meniscus and most likely my ACL. He gave me some pain meds, and told me to come back for an MRI in a week when the swelling went down. So here's my dilemma. We had this championship game to play and I wanted to play. The championship game was two days later and I couldn't put any weight on my leg so it looked bleak. Luckily for me, two days later I was able to walk on it and I even tried to jog in a straight line which I did with tolerable pain levels. I show up and convinced the manager I could DH and then he could use a courtesy runner if I get on. He kinda looked at me like I was nuts, but I showed him that I could run at about 1/3 speed down the line and took batting practice to show that I could hit on it. I just hid the excruciating pain when I pushed off my back leg (haha). In my mind, my knee was already torn up so screw it, it was just pain. I think I took 1600MG of Motrin to try and dull it some. So sure enough, he lets me play and I end up going 2-for-3 with a walk and two RBIs, and even convinced him to let me play an inning at 2B after the fill in made two dumb plays that cost us runs. That was really stupid because I tried to go back and catch a popup and thought someone had shot me in the knee again. We end up winning the championship by a run, and a few months later I was in the operating room getting my Meniscus and ACL fixed. It was also the last time I even even thought about stealing home again!

Thanks for sharing. I find all these experiences really interesting.

I think that's the key. With the 26th man already, not sure they need to add another slot.

That's a good question. I'll have to see.

How much do the baseball Gods hate me this year? Even the sim rained out my Orioles game fix today on my birthday! O's and Red Sox rained out and will be made up as a double header tomorrow.

Cool memories..

Welcome and glad to have you here. Look forward to having you join in on the conversation!

Pretty accurate huh?

TOP OF THE 1ST Boston Red Sox batting - Pitching for Baltimore Orioles : LHP Tommy Milone Pitching: LHP Tommy Milone Batting: RHB Jose Peraza 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Called Strike 1-2: Ball 2-2: Strikes out swinging Batting: RHB Xander Bogaerts 0-0: Ball 1-0: Ball 2-0: Called Strike 2-1: Ball 3-1: Base on Balls Batting: RHB J.D. Martinez 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-2: Ball 2-2: Strikes out swinging Batting: LHB Rafael Devers 0-0: Ball 1-0: Fly out, F8 (Flyball, 8LD, EV 108.8 MPH) Top of the 1st over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on base; Boston 0 - Baltimore 0 BOTTOM OF THE 1ST Baltimore Orioles batting - Pitching for Boston Red Sox : LHP Matt Hall Pitching: LHP Matt Hall Batting: RHB Austin Hays 0-0: Swinging Strike 0-1: Ground out 4-3 (Groundball, 4S, EV 89.4 MPH) Batting: RHB Hanser Alberto 0-0: Ball 1-0: Swinging Strike 1-1: Ground out 5-3 (Groundball, 56S, EV 68.8 MPH) Batting: SHB Anthony Santander 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Called Strike 0-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-2: Ball 1-2: Fly out, F7 (Flyball, 7S, EV 78.1 MPH) Bottom of the 1st over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 0 - Baltimore 0 TOP OF THE 2ND Boston Red Sox batting - Pitching for Baltimore Orioles : LHP Tommy Milone Batting: RHB Christian Vazquez 0-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-1: Ground out 6-3 (Groundball, 56, EV 88.8 MPH) Batting: LHB Andrew Benintendi 0-0: Ball 1-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-1: Ball 2-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 2-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 2-2: Fly out, F5 (Popup, 6, EV 53.1 MPH) Batting: RHB Kevin Pillar 0-0: Ball 1-0: Ball 2-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 2-1: Ball 3-1: Swinging Strike 3-2: Fly out, F3 (Flyball, 34D, EV 83.1 MPH) Top of the 2nd over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 0 - Baltimore 0 BOTTOM OF THE 2ND Baltimore Orioles batting - Pitching for Boston Red Sox : LHP Matt Hall Batting: RHB Renato Nunez 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Ball 1-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-2: Strikes out swinging Batting: RHB Pedro Severino 0-0: Ground out 4-3 (Groundball, 4, EV 79.4 MPH) Batting: LHB Dwight Smith Jr. 0-0: Ball 1-0: Ball 2-0: Called Strike 2-1: Ball 3-1: Called Strike 3-2: Fly out, F7 (Flyball, 78M, EV 90.6 MPH) Bottom of the 2nd over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 0 - Baltimore 0 TOP OF THE 3RD Boston Red Sox batting - Pitching for Baltimore Orioles : LHP Tommy Milone Batting: LHB Jackie Bradley Jr. 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: SINGLE (Groundball, 34S, EV 63.8 MPH) (infield hit) Batting: RHB Michael Chavis 0-0: Ball 1-0: Swinging Strike 1-1: SINGLE (Line Drive, 8LS, EV 110.0 MPH) Jackie Bradley Jr. to second Batting: RHB Jose Peraza 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-2: Strikes out swinging Batting: RHB Xander Bogaerts 0-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-2: Ball 1-2: Strikes out looking Batting: RHB J.D. Martinez 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-2: Ball 2-2: Ball 3-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 3-2: Strikes out swinging Top of the 3rd over - 0 runs, 2 hits, 0 errors, 2 left on base; Boston 0 - Baltimore 0 BOTTOM OF THE 3RD Baltimore Orioles batting - Pitching for Boston Red Sox : LHP Matt Hall Batting: RHB Jose Iglesias 0-0: Swinging Strike 0-1: Ball 1-1: Fly out, F9 (Flyball, 9D, EV 106.3 MPH) Batting: SHB Andrew Velazquez 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Ball 1-1: Called Strike 1-2: Ball 2-2: Ball 3-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 3-2: Strikes out swinging Batting: RHB Pat Valaika 0-0: Ball 1-0: SINGLE (Groundball, 34D, EV 101.9 MPH) Batting: RHB Austin Hays 0-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-1: Ball 1-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 1-2: Strikes out looking Bottom of the 3rd over - 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left on base; Boston 0 - Baltimore 0 TOP OF THE 4TH Boston Red Sox batting - Pitching for Baltimore Orioles : LHP Tommy Milone Batting: LHB Rafael Devers 0-0: Ball 1-0: Ball 2-0: Called Strike 2-1: Fly out, F9 (Line Drive, 9, EV 86.3 MPH) Batting: RHB Christian Vazquez 0-0: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-1: SOLO HOME RUN (Flyball, 9D, EV 111.9 MPH), Distance : 396 ft Batting: LHB Andrew Benintendi 0-0: Ball 1-0: Ball 2-0: Called Strike 2-1: Foul Ball, location: 7LDF 2-2: SOLO HOME RUN (Flyball, 7D, EV 91.3 MPH), Distance : 404 ft Batting: RHB Kevin Pillar 0-0: Swinging Strike 0-1: Called Strike 0-2: Ball 1-2: SINGLE (Groundball, 6MD, EV 101.3 MPH) Batting: LHB Jackie Bradley Jr. 0-0: Grounds into double play, 5-6-3 (Groundball, 56, EV 85.0 MPH) Top of the 4th over - 2 runs, 3 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 2 - Baltimore 0 BOTTOM OF THE 4TH Baltimore Orioles batting - Pitching for Boston Red Sox : LHP Matt Hall Batting: RHB Hanser Alberto 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Ball 1-1: Ball 2-1: Fly out, F9 (Flyball, 9, EV 81.9 MPH) Batting: SHB Anthony Santander 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Ball 2-1: Ball 3-1: Ground out 6-3 (Groundball, 6, EV 110.0 MPH) Batting: RHB Renato Nunez 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Ground out 1-3 (Groundball, 13S, EV 61.9 MPH) Bottom of the 4th over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 2 - Baltimore 0 TOP OF THE 5TH Boston Red Sox batting - Pitching for Baltimore Orioles : LHP Tommy Milone Batting: RHB Michael Chavis 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Foul Ball, location: 2F 0-2: Strikes out swinging Batting: RHB Jose Peraza 0-0: Called Strike 0-1: Called Strike 0-2: Ball 1-2: Ball 2-2: Fly out, F8 (Flyball, 89D, EV 98.8 MPH) Batting: RHB Xander Bogaerts 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Called Strike 1-2: SINGLE (Line Drive, 8LS, EV 98.1 MPH) Batting: RHB J.D. Martinez 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Called Strike 1-2: Ball 2-2: Foul Ball, location: 2F 2-2: Foul Ball, location: 9LDF 2-2: Ball 3-2: Fly out, F6 (Popup, 6MS, EV 64.4 MPH) Top of the 5th over - 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left on base; Boston 2 - Baltimore 0 BOTTOM OF THE 5TH Baltimore Orioles batting - Pitching for Boston Red Sox : LHP Matt Hall Pitching: RHP Heath Hembree Batting: RHB Pedro Severino 0-0: Ground out 3-1 (Groundball, 34, EV 100.0 MPH) Batting: LHB Dwight Smith Jr. 0-0: Fly out, F9 (Flyball, 89S, EV 92.5 MPH) Batting: RHB Jose Iglesias 0-0: Ball 1-0: Called Strike 1-1: Called Strike 1-2: Ground out 6-3 (Groundball, 6, EV 77.5 MPH) Bottom of the 5th over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 2 - Baltimore 0 TOP OF THE 6TH Boston Red Sox batting - Pitching for Baltimore Orioles : LHP Tommy Milone Batting: LHB Rafael Devers 0-0: Fly out, F9 (Flyball, 9D, EV 94.4 MPH) Batting: RHB Christian Vazquez 0-0: Ball Top of the 6th over - 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors, 0 left on base; Boston 2 - Baltimore 0

From that thread Frobby brought back up with some additions since that was about the highest level: I was always a pretty good player through T-ball, Little league and Pony league (13-15) always making the year end all-star team for Riviera Beach. I do however have a few highlights that I remember. As a 12-year old, I was traded from the Yankees (i hated playing on the Yankees but that was team that "drafted me" outta 8-9 ball) to the Red Sox because I was mostly a catcher and the kid they trade me for was mostly a pitcher. The first time we face the Yankees was on a beautiful spring Saturday morning because my Dad always made my weekend games. The coach told me he wanted me to start against my former team and against the kid I was traded for. My Dad warmed me up and I went out to the mound. My issues with pitching had nothing to do with velocity since I always had a good arm, but had to do with throwing strikes. Well on this day, with the manager who traded me watching, I was going to throw the best game of my young life. From what I remember we got behind 2-0 going into the bottom of the 5th (we played 6 inning games) when we came up to bat. With two outs, I came to bat with two runners on. Using my Dan Ford closed stance, I connected with a fastball that sent the ball to deep left. As I looked out to left, I could see the ball sail over the fence and land a good 20 feet behind near the money bars. It was my only home run of the year and it was sweet. I crushed it. It didn't just land over the fence, it landed by the monkey bars and had to have been the longest ball I ever had hit in my 12 years on earth. As all the parents and my teammates erupted, I went into a home run trot. I enjoyed every step of that trot and when I got to third base, I shook my coaches hand and then picked up the manager who traded me. He sat there at the end of that bench with his scorecard in his hand not wanting to look up. He finally did and I smiled at him and for second there, I thought he even slightly smiled back. I ended up pitching the 6th without giving up a run and we won 3-2. The next year, I was told I was drafted with the 1st overall pick outta 10-12 league by the Phillies because I was catcher and the Phillies had the best pitcher in the league Karl Breitenbacher. Everyone was scared to catch Karl because he could throw in the mid 80s as a 14-year old, but I wasn't, in fact, I loved the challenge. Though I had my successes including hitting about .600 as a 15-year old, probably my biggest moment had to do with catching Karl. Karl threw so hard that one of our umpires was scared of him and I was told he closed his eyes and then would see where I caught the ball. During one game, with two outs, the bases loaded, and a 3-2 count, Karl threw an 80MPH+ fastball that was so high I had to jump up and catch the ball above my head, but in the same movement I dropped back down and landed in my squat and presented a strike. The umpire opened his eyes, yelle strike 3, as the parents and coaches on the other team erupted in displeasure. I tossed the ball back to the mound and sprinted back to my bench where my coach high-fived me. In high school, I played for the great Harry Lentz and Al Kohlhafer at Northeast High school. I played JV my freshmen year, playing mostly catcher, but also some outfield and occasionally filled in at 3B or 2B if needed. I had always been able to play all the positions, but never had consistent enough hands to play the infield. This reminds me of a funny story as a sophomore. That year I was competing for the CF job since there was a senior All-county catcher named Mark Rich. One day during practice before the season started, Coach Lents yelled out to CF, "Pente, where doe the best athlete on the team play?" I yelled back, "SS, coach". He responded with, "then what are you doing out there?" My assumption was he wanted to see me get more ground balls there as they were trying to see if I could help the varsity team in some role. So i went over to SS and made a couple of nice plays including some great throws, but then I started to boot balls left and right as my poor infield hands reared their ugly head. That's when Coach Yelled back out, "Pente, get your ass back in the outfield" "Ok, coach" And that was extent of my high school shortstop career. That year with a Freshman catcher (who ended up playing in the Braves farm system for a short period of time) coming up, I moved out to the outfield basically full-time. As a senior, I ended up getting 2nd team All-county (after a slow start) and earning a special pre draft workout with the Kansas City Royals after a game in which i went 3-4 with a double and home run while throwing two runners out at the plate from RF. Long story short on this, I accidentally missed the camp when I got my dates mixed up. After high school I joined the Army, but kept playing. I first played in a summer college league in Virginia (Hit well over .450 and played SS/CF/P) when I was 20 and ended up going to an Orioles tryout camp at Memorial Stadium. During that camp I made the cut from 90 outfielders to six that got to play in the mini game in front of the scouts. On the first pitch I saw in the game hit a ball into the front row of the outfield fence just next to the 309 ft foul pole, but unfortunately it was on the foul side. I ended up striking out when they replaced that pitcher with Mike Mussina's roommate from Stanford. I was asked to come back to a camp a few weeks later and was told if they liked me then they would offer me a contract, but I wasn't able to attend because the same day Saddam Hussein decided to invade Kuwait and I became very busy and couldn't get off. I then put together my own team for a Baltimore-area Men's League (MSBL) in which we won the championship in my one and only year of being a player-manager in that league. I then was stationed in Hawaii where I played in summer and winter leagues with winter leagues being a league where we played against college teams and minor leaguers in their offseason. The Hawaii armed forces decided to put together a baseball tournament and I made the All Army Hawaii team that lost to the all Air Force team in the finals. Funny thing was the All-Air Force team then put a team in that local winter league and they asked me to try out and gave me a waiver because I worked on an Air Force base. So I get to say I was the guy to ever be All-Army Hawaii and All Air-Force Hawaii. Got stationed in NC and didn't play for almost four year when I was assigned back to Maryland and found an Anne Arundel Men's 25 and over team to play for. Played on two teams then got stationed back to Hawaii. Didn't have time to play right away, but after returning from Afghanistan, I played on two more teams (with my new PRK eyes that were fixed by the Army before deployment I could hit better than ever). I also started doing associate scouting from the Orioles out there at this time. Returned back to Maryland and after a year or two found a team in the 35 and over AA Men's League. After playing a year I put together my own team and we won the championship (that's two for two in managing championship teams if you are counting). Team broke up after the year (you have never seen politics until you deal with a men's baseball league) and I filled in some new players with the guys that stayed and we ended up making the playoffs again, but lost in the semi-finals (Making the first time I coached a team that I played on that we didn't win a championship). After that year, fed up with the politics, my hitting had fallen off to the point I was batting myself 8th (think I hit like .250 with wood bats), and I wanted to focus on coaching high school and doing associate scouting stuff for an American League team, I "retired from playing. Surprisingly, I don't miss it. I've come out of retirement two times to fill in for a team that needed a player so bad or they were going to forfeit, but after pulling my hamstring in my last game, it was clear father time had claimed another victim. And if read this far, now you know way to much history of my playing days! Haha

You are literally Rudi Stein. You are also a giant buzzkill bringing up an old thread when I'm trying to get some conversations going.

https://www.orioleshangout.com/2020/03/30/red-sox-beat-the-orioles-2-0-in-a-rain-shortened-game/ Orioles fall to 1-3 in 2020 sim

Obviously everyone on the Hangout is a baseball fan, and I know some have played up to the minor leagues, but I thought it would be interesting to hear about everyone's baseball "careers". Did you stop in Little League, JV, high School, college, pros? Did you play men's baseball as an adult? What were your top moments that you can remember?

I have really, really good sources in this sim universe!

He really pitched well. The home runs were not moon shots and he got a lot of weak fly and ground balls.