Leading Off

Hi. We hope this episode finds you well – in good health and good spirits.

Spring Training is winding down, and the season is tantalizingly close. So, too, might be “normal” baseball?

Around here, that means sub-.500 baseball, and that is all but assured in 2021.

Drink of the Week

Join us for the Drink of the Week, and let us know how you’re consoling yourself as you watch the O’s. Find us on Untappd

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This Week on the Twitters

Here’s what’s going on in the world of Orioles Baseball, in 280 characters, or fewer:

1 – @Jim22Palmer vs 7 – @BirdsEyeViewBal

— MASN Oriolez (@MASNOriolez) March 9, 2021

I think 673 ft 🤔🤣 https://t.co/rSS7fg6Wz1

— Nelson Cruz (@ncboomstick23) March 12, 2021

Congrats to Nick Markakis on his retirement from baseball after an incredible 15-year career.

Thank you for the memories, the hustle, and your countless contributions to this organization. Best of luck in your next chapter, Nick! pic.twitter.com/T9IGMflOSG

— Baltimore Orioles 😷 (@Orioles) March 12, 2021

someone parody ‘we didn’t start the fire’ but the lyrics are all former orioles who went on to be great with new teams pic.twitter.com/Q8mpcbcSis

— OLIVIA witherite (@Oliviawitherite) March 16, 2021

Zach Britton: “Will I pitch in this Wild Card game?”

Buck: pic.twitter.com/wialwZwSHh

— Locked On Orioles (@LockedOnOrioles) March 11, 2021

Around the Bases

First Base: Rosturbation

Spring Training is all about trying to figure out who is going to be on the club. We break down who is a sure thing, and what dark horse candidates are out there.

Second Base: Fans in the Stands

The Orioles (er… the Maryland Stadium Authority?) are going to allow fans i n the stands, up to 25% capacity to start the season. Yes, we all get the jokes about the fact that the Orioles are going to struggle to get 11,000 fans. They’re all very funny. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Sigh.

But, we talk about attendance, ballpark safety, and whether the return to “normalcy” might even be an attendance boon to a club expected to be quite dreadful.

Third Base: Slow Motion Capture

The Orioles photogs broke the internet with their coverage of a knuckleball. This got us to wondering: what else in Birdland should we be capturing with similar effects?

Home Plate: The End of Spring Training

We haven’t seen a darn thing this year, due to MASN’s “coverage” of Spring Training. So now that it’s almost over, what have we learned?

OK, maybe “what would we have liked to have learned?”

Orioles HOFers

Nick Markakis has retired, and we are old, and the good old days are officially gone, and sadness will reign supreme for another baseball eternity.

But in the midst of all those feelings, Friend-of-the-Program Justin McGuire gave us an interesting thought experiment:

The next four people inducted into the Orioles Hall of Fame should be Joe Altobelli, JJ Hardy, Buck Showalter and Adam Jones.

— Justin McGuire (@JMcGuireMLB) August 5, 2020

Who are the no brainers for Orioles Hall of Fame induction? Who is in the next tier of Orioles HOF status, and who is in the Jake English Hall of 2012-2016 Memorializing Wish Fulfilment?

We’re, uh, workshopping that name. We’ll get back to you on that.

Blowing the Save

Most podcasts try to end on a high note – the perfect coda to a quality program. That’s just not our style. Each week, we’ll end on a weak note, blowing the save with an item that didn’t quite fit into the episode, or something they simply need to get off their chests. It’s our version of taking the ball and pulling a Kevin Gregg.

Your Turn

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