Then/now: What were you doing when you joined OH?

[weams]

You're just kissing his ass so he doesn't give you concrete shoes!

I've loved Soprano for a while, even though he spent years proving every one of my posts wrong. That's why I only post silly crap now! lol Finally got to meet the big fella last year. T is one of the best!

You are both really good dudes.

[TonySoprano]

Tony, you were an impact player from the minute you signed up. I think everyone knew it.

You're just kissing his ass so he doesn't give you concrete shoes!

I've loved Soprano for a while, even though he spent years proving every one of my posts wrong. That's why I only post silly crap now! lol Finally got to meet the big fella last year. T is one of the best!

I don't know about being an "impact player," still don't in fact, but thanks all the same, Scott. Anyway, the biggest "then to now" for most of us is finally having a respectable, winning team to discuss.

P.S. Don't know why Dip - little paisan' brother from another mother - keeps saying I was out to get him. Italians stick together.

[scOtt]

Anyway, the biggest "then to now" for most of us is finally having a respectable, winning team to discuss.

BOY HOWDY! Fun times in Birdland!

[rainchild908]

Then: I started reading OH in the summer of 2000 but didn't discover the message board until early spring '03. I was a wide-eyed 9th grader at St. Paul's--and the official stat boy for our back-to-back championship varsity baseball team, led by Mr. Steven David Johnson (he graduated one year before me: he's '05; I'm '06). Being a naive teenager, I was still suffering under the delusion that the "prospects" acquired in the great fire sale of 2000 would blossom that year and lead the O's back to relevance. Needless to say, I certainly did not foresee having to wait another nine years to see the team do so much as win 82 games.

Now: I'm an aspiring math teacher fresh out of grad school. As it happens, I also did my undergrad work at the same institution as Jeff Maier (though unlike Steve Johnson, we thankfully did not overlap). I moved back to MD in June 2012 and would have to say I picked a pretty good time to come back home. I did make good on my vow to send my former employer a picture of OPACY at playoff time, along with the caption "told you so." I've also been able to develop a greater appreciation for how lucky we are to have OH over the years, especially the past three!

[24fps]

I found the OH during the 2003-2004 off season when I was looking for news about the possible acquisition of Vlad Guerrero. At the time I was producing the TV campaign for the release of the Bourne Identity DVD for Universal. I lurked for several years before finally signing up in the summer of 2007 at which time I started to post albeit not that frequently.

I've now left LA and moved to Tennessee to produce natural history documentaries - something I've done off and on for the last 25 years. Conservation of the world's remaining wild places is very important to me. Currently I'm involved in the post production of an 18-webisode series on endangered primates in western Africa. They'll be a feature length program as well.

Tony's comments about the OH being more of a community than a message board couldn't be more true as far as I'm concerned. It's was a great find and now it's a daily part of my life.

[weams]

I was selling cars and trucks. A single man. With too much time on my hands. Tony was overseas and John Domen was keeping the boat afloat.