1st game on MASN Saturday at 1 pm

[Royle]

10 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Sounds nicer than the neighbor I had as a kid. He would give us the death stare if the ball ever rolled into his yard. We never came close to hitting his house even once.

I lived next door to Bob Robertson’s father-in-law.  Remember him ?  Slugging 1st baseman for the Pirates.  A nemesis of the O’s in the ‘71 Series.

He got very angry when we would have to come in his yard to retrieve a stray ball, usually a result of a miss-hit foul.  Once I retorted “Bobby doesn’t hit the ball straight every time.”  I’m sure he wasn’t happy about a kid back-talking him, but I did see him smile as he turned to walk back in his house.

[BirdCakes22]

36 minutes ago, Sanity Check said:

Yes, it was literally "shaky" camera work from centerfield.  Also loved hearing the ball hit the mitt the instant the pitcher was letting go of the ball.  So, shaky camera had me closing my eyes so I wouldn't get dizzy, and sound and picture not synced up well at all.  And, of course, the Orioles under Angelos class act of Hollander and Palmer doing play-by-play and color from Baltimore, not Sarasota.  

But, great to see a live baseball game regardless, to I'll take the warts.    

I was closing my eyes or looking away too! That camera from center field was awful. At least I got to see the game on MLB.tv - Palmer is always a fun listen.

[owknows]

4 hours ago, spiritof66 said:

I hope you'll excuse me for taking this seriously. I lived in a neighborhood with a perfectly flat street, about 70 yards long and 25 yards wide. We played touch football, wiffle ball, boxball, wireball etc. there. (We had no Little League or other organized sports other than in school.) We often had to retrieve a ball from an adjoining yard, and when a new family moved in we had to break them in. On summer nights, we played varieties of tag and hide-and-seek games that took us through neighborhood yards, some belonging to our parents and others not. We didn't differentiate, except to avoid a couple where our presence might start a dog barking and giving our location away.

So I'm a big proponent of letting kids go on your lawn if it's part of their recreation. 

Played wiffle ball in the streets pretty often, when we didn't feel like slogging all the way down to the park. And we tied an onion to our belts, which was the style at the time.

Either the pitcher or the catcher had the responsibility of yelling CAR! when it was time to let the occasional car pass. And as a precocious kid.. I had a habit when batting, of stepping back in behind the passing car and pretending I'd just launched an upper-deck home run by swinging behind the bumper as the cars passed.

It was great fun... until... some guy in a pretty sporty Pontiac LeMans brake checked me mid-swing.. and I made pretty good contact. He slammed on the brakes and got out in a rage. And I did what any 11 year old would do..  I ran 15 ft. to the nearest parked car, and crawled under it.

And this bundle of rage chased me...  grabbed my foot.. and tried to drag me out from under the car. All the commotion brought my dad out of the house. My dad was a good head taller than this guy... and seeing another guy drag me by the leg... had my dad grabbing HIM by the scruff of the neck.

3 minutes later.. he was on his way... after confirming no harm, no foul.

That's my Get Off My Lawn story.

Edited February 24 by owknows

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

49 minutes ago, Ven6 said:

Wind-aided, but also 105 mph off the bat. 

Nice blast.

 

[Jagwar]

2 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Nice blast.

 

Nice easy stroke. Might have made it into the corner of the bullpen at the Yard. 

[Gurgi]

3 hours ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

Sounds nicer than the neighbor I had as a kid. He would give us the death stare if the ball ever rolled into his yard. We never came close to hitting his house even once.

We had a very old man who was our landlord.  He lived in the house next door.  He was a grouchy guy but he must of liked kids.  He made us a tire swing on one of his trees.  He also did not scream and make a scene when I hit a baseball across the yard and broke one of his windows.  They just fixed it no drama.  He must of loved baseball and gave me a pass.  

In other things he was a true grumpy old man.  

[Chaka Garcia]

I didn’t see the game, but I heard Bradfield pinch ran for Mullins. Anything noteworthy- if he played a defense or batted afterwards.

[Big Al]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

Honestly I wish Melewski would do these spring games, since he actually knows who all these minor leaguers are.

I agree. Sometimes they didn’t even announce who was at bat. It would have been nice to get a little background info on the batters. 

[rm5678]

17 minutes ago, Big Al said:

I agree. Sometimes they didn’t even announce who was at bat. It would have been nice to get a little background info on the batters. 

Considering that the announcers were 1000 miles away from Sarasota, even they probably didn't know who was at bat.

[OriolesMagic83]

4 hours ago, owknows said:

Played wiffle ball in the streets pretty often, when we didn't feel like slogging all the way down to the park. And we tied an onion to our belts, which was the style at the time.

Either the pitcher or the catcher had the responsibility of yelling CAR! when it was time to let the occasional car pass. And as a precocious kid.. I had a habit when batting, of stepping back in behind the passing car and pretending I'd just launched an upper-deck home run by swinging behind the bumper as the cars passed.

It was great fun... until... some guy in a pretty sporty Pontiac LeMans brake checked me mid-swing.. and I made pretty good contact. He slammed on the brakes and got out in a rage. And I did what any 11 year old would do..  I ran 15 ft. to the nearest parked car, and crawled under it.

And this bundle of rage chased me...  grabbed my foot.. and tried to drag me out from under the car. All the commotion brought my dad out of the house. My dad was a good head taller than this guy... and seeing another guy drag me by the leg... had my dad grabbing HIM by the scruff of the neck.

3 minutes later.. he was on his way... after confirming no harm, no foul.

That's my Get Off My Lawn story.

Did that keep the flies or the girls away or both?

[scarey1999]

1 hour ago, Chaka Garcia said:

I didn’t see the game, but I heard Bradfield pinch ran for Mullins. Anything noteworthy- if he played a defense or batted afterwards.

Struck out looking in his only AB. Nothing notable on the bases or in the field. 

There was a fly out I think he would have probably tagged up on, moving from 1st to 2nd, but someone was on second already.  

[Billy F-Face3]

The MASN camera man suggests there was an Earthquake in Sarasota!

On a more serious note, my quick take aways are this:

• Justin Armbruester makes an appearance and throws 1 pitch for Adley to throw out a runner with Holliday making a good cover & tag at second base.
• Jackson Holliday looked good for the first day at 2nd base.
• I hope to see more of Armbruester
• It's only one appearance in spring training, but Heasley didn't do himself any favors. He's on my cut list.
• Garrett Stallings opened some eyes today with how good he pitched. He's helped himself.
• Baumann & Vespi looks to be refreshed from the offseason. Let's see if they can build off today.
• Adley Rutschman looks like a potential MVP when he's this fresh. Brandon Hyde needs to make sure he stays fresh all season long.
• Might take a little bit before Jackson Holliday adjusts and starts hitting
• Cowser should get more looks
• I want to see Kjerstad play the outfield.
• The bullpen construction is going to be where the most roster spots will be determined.

[Billy F-Face3]

Oh and Cedric Mullins is showing alot of power in his bat this early in 2024. The ball seems to be jumping off his bat. If you've seen his Batting Practices, you know one of the reasons why I point this out.

[Hallas]

Is it me or did Cowser's home run swing there seem a bit shorter than last season?  He had a really long swing last year it felt like.

[Frobby]

9 hours ago, rm5678 said:

Considering that the announcers were 1000 miles away from Sarasota, even they probably didn't know who was at bat.

There’s got to be a producer on site.  Somebody’s coordinating those dugout interviews and such.  

At one point, they were giving details of the Red Sox’s minor league pitcher without mentioning who was at the plate.  

I don’t think Hollander and Palmer can be expected to know much about the minor leaguers outside of maybe the top 10 guys or so.  Thats la why I’d like Melewski on the broadcast.  Thst’s a big part of his job, and he’s a solid PBP guy anyway, easily as good as Hollander.

Of course, I suspect that 95% of fans don’t care about the minor leaguers and probably tune out after the fifth inning or so.