mall-O-cup
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Posts posted by mall-O-cup
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23 minutes ago, MijiT88 said:
My first game at Camden Yards when I was 12 was also the time I got Cal's autograph. During his whole warmup routine with a wall full of people you could see him looking at everyone in the crowd and smiling, waving but more importantly it was like he was surveying to see where to go first for autographs. After his stretches and jogs he started to walk over to the wall and right towards me! As a young kid I won't ever forget this moment because my idol was walking right towards me. I was sure he was going right to me first and I couldn't have been more excited. When he got up to the wall he reached out and grabbed the ball from my little sister, then me next. It wasn't until about 20 minutes later it set in with sibling jealousy that he picked her first. Then I went through the emotions of being mad about that and wondering why for about 5 minutes and didn't really care after that. But looking back as an adult, he always took care of the fans and picked out the kids first to make a lasting memory for them. I may always be jealous of my sister in that moment but what it meant to me was wayyyyy more impactful than any other encounter I have had over the 24 years since then haha.
Players interact with the fans in some very subtle ways.
Here is another story. My son and I, when he graduated from high school in 2009, took a trip out to California.
The Orioles were out on the west coast so we bought tickets to see them play the Angels on Saturday, July 4th and Sunday, July 5th (which is my son's birthday). For the July 5th game, we had field level seats down the RF line. The crowd was on the lighter side that day so there were plenty of empty seats around us.
My son was wearing an Orioles shirt and cap. Early in the game there was a final out to an Angels inning with a fly ball to the right fielder. I can't remember who the right fielder was but I'm thinking it was probably Markakis. After the catch we stood up, hoping that maybe he would toss the ball our way. It became apparent that he was eyeballing us and was moving in our general direction. We were maybe about 15-20 rows up, so it wasn't an easy toss. Sure enough, here comes the ball, on a perfect throw, right to us. What a birthday gift for my son!
There were several other fly outs to right field to end an Angels inning that day and every ball was sent in our direction. We ended up with about five baseball's that day.
Also, right before the game started, Orioles manager, Dave Trembley was in the stands near the Orioles dugout talking with some people. It was getting close to game time and he began to move towards the dugout. We happened to be standing about 10-15 feet away. He casually looked in our direction, no doubt aware that we were Orioles fans because of what my son was wearing. He looked at us and acknowledged us by giving a simple nod of his head and took a ball out of his back pocket and tossed it to my son. It was such a subtle gesture of acknowledgement and one I will never forget.
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43 minutes ago, ThomasTomasz said:
I wonder if someone was playing their first game with Aberdeen, or had some other milestone that he wanted to give them the lineup card. That kind of “authentics” collecting certainly wasn’t popular like it is today.
We still have that lineup card, buried amongst other sports memorabilia, in our son's closet.
If we ever pull it out, I'll have to take a closer look.
The memory of that day is forever etched in my mind.
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5 minutes ago, Number5 said:
Interesting story. Makes me wonder - what use is the lineup card to the manager once the game is over? I never really thought about it, but my assumption would have been that it gets thrown in the trash. Maybe Etch collected them? I don't know, it just seems odd that he would get so upset. I'm glad your son didn't catch the brunt of his fury.
We also wondered what was so special about the lineup card to him. Did he collect or save them for himself? We'll never know.
His anger that day was on a whole different level. I hope Andy is resting peacefully now.
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Here is a bit of a scary one. In the mid 2000's my son and I went out to Coney Island Brooklyn to see the Ironbirds play the Brooklyn Cyclones. We bought seats very close to the Ironbirds dugout. Andy Etchebarren was the manager of the Ironbirds at the time.
The Ironbirds won the game and when they got the final out, all the players, coaches, and Etchebarren left the dugout and headed towards the mound for congratulatory handshakes. At this point my son and I were standing right next to the side of the Ironbirds dugout. I looked in and saw the lineup card taped to the wall. I reached in and took it off the wall and handed it to my son. My son at that time was a young teenager.
The players began to make their way back to the dugout along with Etchebarren. As Etchebarren reaches the dugout he looks in and says, "Where is my effin lineup card, who took my effin lineup card". He didn't use the word effin though. I don't think I could overstate how loud and angry he was as he continued to repeat what he said. There was smoke coming out of every hole in his head.
When he first made his comment about the lineup card, I immediately thought of my son who was no longer standing next to me. I was so concerned that I didn't want to really react. I very very slowly turned to take a look over my left shoulder and to my relief my son was standing about 15 rows back at the top of the walkway that led down to our section. He had, for whatever reason, the sense to walk away from our section and tuck the lineup card underneath his shirt. I can't begin to tell you the relief I felt. When Etchebarren started his rant I fully expected to turn around and see my son standing there holding the lineup card and who knows what would have happened. That moment certainly ranks up there with the angriest I have ever seen a human being in my life.
A scary and memorable moment that we still talk about to this day.
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13 minutes ago, Frobby said:
In 1970 I won a contest to be the “honorary batboy” for the Washington Senators for one game. I wasn’t actually the batboy, but I got a real flannel Senators jersey that said “BAT BOY” on the back (which I still have) and got to go into the dugout and get some autographs before the game. So, as a 13-year old, I got to shake hands with Ted Williams — just short of shaking hands with a god, so far as I was concerned. My other big memory was that the catcher, Paul Casanova, was sitting in the dugout smoking a cigarette (horrors!) and I asked for his autograph. He said “sure kid,” and stubbed out his cigarette in his catcher’s glove! I couldn’t believe that a professional athlete would (1) smoke, and (2) treat his equipment like that! I’m sure I met some other players, but that’s what stuck with me all these years.
If you don't mind, I would love to see a picture of that jersey. Thanks for the fun story!
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8 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:
Fair enough, but if you don't think that newspaper reporters and reporters on TV don't have their stuff vetted and approved by some sort of higher up, then I don't know what to tell you.
That's why I come here for the majority of my Orioles news because you can pretty much let it all Hang Out.
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Spring Training 1988 at McKechnie Field in Bradenton FL for a game between the Orioles and the Pirates. The game ends and I hung around a bit and found myself behind a large iron gate with a latch right behind home plate. I looked around and decided to lift the latch and walked right onto the field. Nobody was really paying attention as I walked down the left field line where Cal was standing and signing autographs. I just stood next to Cal and watched when all of a sudden the sharpie he was using ran out of ink. He looked at me, I was holding my own sharpie, and asked if he could borrow it. He continued to sign autographs and people began to hand balls/programs to me to have Cal sign.
Cal finished up, thanked me and handed my sharpie back. I never got his autograph. I think I was just stunned that I was able to walk onto the field so easily. After that, as players from both teams milled about, I walked over to the Orioles dugout and took the lineup card off the wall. I gave the lineup card to the friend I was with who decided to wait in his car while I did my thing. He laughed and simply could not believe what I had done.
These are all great stories that everyone has posted!
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11 hours ago, SteveA said:
But we simply claimed Diaz on waivers.
We actually paid cash to acquire Nevin, who had been DFA'd. We didn't even want to wait for him to clear waivers, we couldn't take the chance that someone else would claim him so we jumped the line by actually paying cash.
I am perplexed by the move. What do we see in a 26 year old with negative career war that we pay cash to acquire him rather than wait and see if he gets to us on waivers?
JA decided to open up his wallet. Lol
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3 hours ago, Frobby said:
I went to Fanfest for close to a decade and was never disappointed. It was a great event. I haven’t been to a Caravan event, partly because they don’t come anywhere near the area I live and also I just don’t find these formats as interesting or worth my time.
Yep, when my son was younger we went to many a Fanfest and we came down from north of New York City. We absolutely loved it!
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4 hours ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:
I really feel bad for the people who signed up to attend these events just to see some players, who are now dropping out.
Seems like the players dislike these things as much as some of the fans do. They are working in the direction of doing nothing going forward.
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1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:
I get that, but overspending for a guy that put up 2.1 bWAR last year doesn't make a whole lot of sense, even if you are the Dodgers.
With the amount of money the Dodger$ spend, sense never even enters the equation.
They've taken spending to a whole new level.
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7 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:
I think Teoscar is pretty good, but I don't know if he's 23.5 million good. Even if it's for one year, that seems a bit absurd.
Dodger$
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22 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:
Rendered irrelevant the second I got internet.
Worked great in the 1970's though.
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6 minutes ago, DrinkinWithFermi said:
Garver to the Mariners:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/mariners-to-sign-mitch-garver.html
That would seemingly put an end to the "Santander or Mountcastle + prospects for Miller/Woo/Gilbert" talk.
Yep, I saw this too and had the same thought. I think the Mariners are going to hang on to their pitching.
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2 hours ago, interloper said:
A move meaning a baseball transaction haha. Trade or free agent signing.
Lol. I couldn't resist. Just a bit of humor to lighten things up.
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10 minutes ago, interloper said:
I basically agree with all this. It could be a long time before we see another Orioles move as we wait for more top tier SP to sign. I wouldn't expect a move until after the new year probably.
Where are they moving?
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3 hours ago, interloper said:
Yeah just going to have to hope we don't run into too many extra inning games, especially in away games. I also believe he's not been good in innings other than the 9th, like as a setup man, etc.
So... yeah, it's gonna be a little bit dicey for sure. I think he's gonna be one of those guys where quietly he's mostly good, but he has enough rough outings where you're just never comfortable seeing him come in and he will drive a lot of fans nuts.
Overall, though, he should be solid.
I'm already starting to get that same feeling of queasiness when I see Keegan Akin or Mike Baumann on the mound.
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39 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:
Buzz word for clicks.
Bingo
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A deal for Bieber would hardly qualify as a "blockbuster" deal. Hype.
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19 minutes ago, SilverRocket said:
It was in the zone but called a ball.
I too thought the pitch was off the plate until seeing this post. I think with the catcher moving into position to make the throw to second it made it appear more like a pitch outside the zone.
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Playing possum.
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Gotta go with Bradish. He's been a stud with the ball in his hand this year.
He also was the only player to stop and get out of his car to sign autographs after a game I attended earlier in the year.
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19 hours ago, Pickles said:
Yes, his career of not having a high K rate and "not missing bats."
Dude, calm down. Take a breath.
Lol - loved the video!
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On 9/25/2023 at 5:36 PM, Hank Scorpio said:
This... and let us not sleep on Kyle Bradish either. The two of them could provide quite a 1-2 punch.
Bradish is 25, Rodriguez is 23.
Just a minor quibble here but Kyle Bradish recently turned 27.
Orioles close to acquiring Corbin Burnes (Update: Acquired for Joey Ortiz and DL Hall)
in Orioles Talk
Posted
You know what, I'm just going to bask in the glory of this moment.
Living in total fear...............Lol