Orioles Victory Card Number 45

Orioles Victory Number 45: 6-3 over the New York Yankees

1985 Topps Traded Earl Weaver

The Orioles avoided yet another series sweep by winning on Sunday in New York. They inadvertently mimicked the Tampa Bay Rays "opener" strategy as Alex Cobb lasted all of four pitches. Luckily none of those pitches were tagged for home runs and the O's were able to overcome an early deficit on the back of two home runs from Tim Beckham and a couple of RBIs from the suddenly scorching hot DJ Stewart.

The win leads them into their final week of the season where they face the Red Sox for three games in Fenway before returning home to finish the season with four against the Houston Astros. Nothing like ending the season against the best team in baseball (Boston) and a team that should have a 100 wins by the time their jet touches down at BWI (Houston has 98 going into their series with Toronto). So that means there is a chance that the Orioles won't win another game this season.

Their season record against Boston is 2-14 and they were swept in Houston way back in April.  Should they fail to win a game in the upcoming week that will leave Buck Showalter with a record of 667-686 during his tenure as skipper in Baltimore. That's good enough for second in career wins as an Orioles manager as well as second for losses. He trails the man above, Earl Weaver, in both categories.  The diminutive Hall of Fame manager ended his career in Baltimore with a record of 1480-1060, a record which most likely will never be matched.

Speaking of endings, it sounds like Showalter's time in Baltimore is approaching it's end as well. USA Today's Bob Nightengale tweeted that Buck is "expected to be dismissed" when the season is over while Jon Heyman reported that the long-tenured manager is "very likely to be replaced" at season's end. Both reporters have been wrong in their predictions in their past about a great many things, but it's not going out on a limb suggesting that the manager of a club that has lost 110+ games is going to be let go, especially when the end of their contract coincides with the dismal season.

Of course, for Showalter's contract not to be renewed someone has to be in charge. And based on an article (paywall) by The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal from earlier this month - it's not quite certain who is running the ship these days:

"But the league, which has not heard from [current owner] Peter Angelos in the current calendar year, wants the Orioles to appoint a new control person by November or December, sources say. At the moment, even the extent of the son's authority is unclear, according to some in the organization."

Reports indicate that John and Louis, the aforementioned sons, are running the team due to their father's declining health. Former Oriole legend Brady Anderson, nominally the VP of Baseball Operations, has the ear of the younger Angelos' and may be encroaching on Dan Duquette's territory.  The same reports that herald Showalter's departure claim that Duquette should be retained. If he is, there has to be a clear delineation of duties between him and Anderson so that they hire the correct replacement for Showalter and engineer the rebuild correctly.

As for Showalter, he will leave Baltimore with a pretty good legacy despite the atrocious last season. He took over in 2010 and finished the season 34-23 (impressive for a club that finished with 96 losses). After another 90+ loss season in 2011, the Orioles took off finishing with .500 or better records in five consecutive seasons, peaking in 2014 with 96 wins and a spot in the American League Championship Series.

They would make it back to the playoffs again in 2016, losing in the AL Wildcard game when Showalter infamously left Zach Britton (who had given up 4 earned runs ALL YEAR LONG) in the bullpen and brought Ubaldo Jimenez (who was not having a great year) into a tie game in extra innings. That did not end well:

Since that moment, the Orioles magic seemed to wane. Despite being in contention for most of 2017, an ugly September sent them spiraling down the standings. The team that had outperformed it's underlying numbers could no longer slug their way past a bad rotation. The defense suffered as did their bullpen - the two hallmarks that allowed them to compete with the Red Sox and Yankees - and by 2018 the team was an embarrassment.

Has the game passed Showalter by? No, but that doesn't mean it isn't time for a new voice in the clubhouse. For whatever reason, the Orioles aren't responding to his leadership. Also, is he the right voice for a rebuilding team? He's managed for 20 years and has 1549 career wins. Three times he's been named manager of the year. Is it fair to him to have to watch 22-year-olds flail away as they learn to win at the major league level for the next two seasons? Probably not.

The competition to be the next Orioles manager will be wide open. Will they promote from within? The young players coming through the organization might be more familiar with the coaches from down in the farm system. Or do they go with an experienced bench coach that's ready to make the next step? That will be the biggest question for the brain trust on Eutaw Street to answer this winter and the biggest step towards building the next great Orioles team. Hopefully they get it right.

Yea! New Uniforms Means I Get to Buy a New Jersey!

As Russ Geller once said, “No one likes change”. And so it appears in regards to the new uniforms the Tampa Bay Lightning unveiled at the St Pete Times Forum Monday afternoon. The changes, which had been hinted at for a few weeks, were revealed at the first in a series of press conferences orchestrated this week by ownership to keep the team in the news in the lull of the All-Star break. Tuesday’s conference will be about community involvement and Wednesday will be about changes to the Forum.

Yeah I totally took this photo from the official Lightning website

Reaction to the new uniforms has been tepid at best. While the white road uniform has been generally accepted, the home blues have been almost universally panned as bland, unoriginal and too blue. One of the most repeated themes is the absence of silver and black in the color scheme. Most of the older fan base, at least the ones that use the internet, associate those colors with the team since they have been present from day one.

From a quick perusal of Puck Daddy, fans of other teams have responded with a “meh” or “fail” attitude and then moved on with their lives. Fans with more of a vested interest in the team have not exactly embraced the changes either.

With the aforementioned lack of silver and black, the other main complaint is that the uniforms bear too much of a resemblance to the Maple Leafs. While I see why that comparison begs to be made, I don’t see why that‘s necessarily a bad thing. Do San Francisco Giants fans get upset because the Baltimore Orioles have the same colors as their team? There are a lot of professional teams out there, the Bolts were bound to resemble an existing franchise.

The designers are dealing with a limited color palette. Once they decided that the colors would be blue and white, there wasn’t much they could do that wouldn’t mimic an existing team. Colors are colors, in the end they’re not that important. No one is inventing any new colors anytime soon and some colors should never appear on a professional sports team uniform (think of the original Devil Rays uniforms).

Speaking of the Rays, one of the things that struck me when I saw the new uniforms is that it was quite the coincidence that the colors were the same. Well close to the same, none of that powder blue that shows up in St Pete from time to time. Wouldn’t it be odd if the sports franchises in the TBA were slowly moving to a unified coloring scheme? Alas, I doubt the Bucs will change from red and pewter anytime soon, but it was nice to think of what it would be like. One of the few things I like about the city of Pittsburgh is that everything is gold and black.

One problem that I do have with management is that they said they sought to create a look that was “iconic” and “classic”. Well, I tend to believe that those things can‘t be created. They have to become them. The Yankee pinstripes or Dallas star weren’t created to be classic. They became iconic because of the success and longevity of the team on the field.

Which means for these new uniforms to become what Steve Yzerman and Jeff Vinik want them to be, they have to leave them alone. Don’t tinker or change. Let them be and build a successful organization on the ice and the rest will take care of itself. No one will care what the crest looks like when the team is skating the Stanley Cup around the ice.

That they were willing to change the brand of the franchise so boldly speaks to the strength of the owner and front office. While the previous regime made minor changes to the existing uniform, Vinik and company were confident the changes would stand the test of time. So far they’ve made the right decisions on the ice, time (and merchandise sales) will determine if they made the right decisions off the ice.

Fan unrest over the uniforms will die down with time. Three years ago the third jersey design was met with scorn that has since dissipated. The outcry over the bland look of the Rays uniforms has died down as well. They made the change, accept the change and get back to rooting for the team on the ice.

It will be odd next season looking at the new cards with the old uniforms on them while watching the team skate around with the new sweaters on. Always disconcerting.

Compliments of checkoutmycards.com we see Chris Kontos rocking the original black and blue

And for the record, I would take Chloe at the copyshop over uptight Rachel any day of the week.

Hey, Look Who's Finally Posting Something About Carl Crawford!

One Hundred. Forty. Seven. Million. Dollars. That’s a lot of money. Even in the convoluted world that is major league sports it’s a lot of money. Enough to walk away from the only franchise he ever knew. Enough to say good bye to a fan base that adored him (when they were involved enough to care). Enough to sign with a division rival so that those same fans can see him in the opposition’s colors 18 times a season.

I thought I would be more upset at Carl Crawford. Of course, I also thought there would be a Festivus miracle and the Rays would announce that they had resigned the four time All-Star from Waco. And yet here we are. Crawford flashed his charming smile as he donned the Red Sox jersey and I merely shrugged my shoulders and flipped the channel.

Twelve year old Justin G. would not have handled it so well. There would be moping, perhaps some tearing up of cards and other means of youthful, yet ineffective protest. It’s kind of sad to think that I’ve grown past that level of fan-dom. The blind, passionate devotion to a player or a team that kids possess. Kind of like believing in Santa Claus.

Tampa Bay Rays’ fans are at a crossroads. For the last three years they’ve tasted success, now they’re paying the price for that success. Other popular players had been moved out before, most notably Aubrey Huff and Scott Kazmir. Neither one of them had the cache of Crawford, though.

He was the one that had been there the whole time, the many years of the bad and the few years of the good. He had come up through the system, been the one constant through the long years. It was only in the last few years that Crawford had started to garner the adoration on the national level that had always been present on the local level.

Early in his career he relied on pure speed, lacking the mechanical fundamentals of more polished runners like Rickey Henderson or Vince Coleman. Few things were more fun then watching him leg out a triple. Rounding second it often looked like he was running two fast for his body. Arms wind milling wildly, legs churning it was a wonder he didn’t fall down more often.

I’m sure someone could look it up and dispute it, but it seems like nobody in the league got to two strikes faster than Crawford. It seems like he was always hitting 0-2 or 1-2. Sometimes he would concede to the two strikes and slap the ball on the ground to the left side. More times than not he would beat the throw out. Other times he would hack away, without a care in the world. Few batters look worse when they swing and miss, or look better when they connect and drive the ball a surprisingly far distance.

For years he toiled in obscurity. So long it seems impossible to believe he’s not 30 yet. I have a lingering image of him standing in left field with his hands on hips as Jesus Colome, Jae Kuk Ryu or Tanyon Sturtze jogged in from the bullpen in route to another 8-4 loss. He looked like a man who wanted to be anywhere else.

Yet in 2005 he signed a long, team-friendly extension. The rumors of the Rays dealing him away quietly died down and after Rocco Baldelli’s role on the team succumbed to health issues Crawford emerged as the face of the franchise. To Rays’ fans he was “our guy”. Maybe the rest of the league didn’t appreciate his talents, but for the loyal 10,000 fans in the TBA he was more valuable than Manny or god forbid - Jason Bay.

Then baseball changed around him. With the steroid allegations swirling and harsher drug testing imposed, home runs lost some of their luster. While the importance of a lumbering, slugging home run hitter being valuable to the team might not have totally disappeared, it has been at least devalued. Players who an run, hit and play a little defense suddenly became more important.

In addition Merlot Joe became the Rays manager. (Please note Merlot Joe is not my nickname, I am blatantly ripping it off from another site - Rays Index). Madden let Crawford be Crawford. Swing away, get on base and run till your heart is content.

Then the Rays started winning. Making it to the playoffs but the team on the national stage for the first time and even though Crawford struggled in the World Series (as did the rest of the offense) people took notice. The talking heads started talking about his talents and the TBA started to get nervous. He wasn’t our secret any more.

In the 2009 All Star game he robbed Brad Hawpe of a potential game winning home run and took home the MVP award. More national attention and more nervous fans. Swiping a record tying six bases against the Red Sox didn’t help. As the Rays dropped out of the playoff race that season the trade rumors started to swirl. Under contract for another year perhaps it was time they cashed in their chips and started over. Thus began the Desmond Jennings hype.

2010 saw the season begin with Crawford still in the blue and white of the Rays. Luckily for Rays fans the team was in contention from the get go. As a swan song Crawford rewarded his fans with the best all around season of his career. His first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, career highs in home runs (19), RBI’s (90), and batting average (.307). Leading the team to their second division title in 3 years he showed all of the potential and sealed his fate in Saint Pete.

The Rays will move on. Crawford’s records will be broken and there will be other players to cheer for. Who knows, in seven years maybe he comes back for a reunion tour. Even if he doesn’t he will always have a special place in the hearts of true Rays fans. In his first game back, welcome him warmly, but then remember he plays for the Red Sox now.

As for me and my personal Carl Crawford collection, well it’s time to move on. Over the next few months I will be liquidating my 100 or so card collection on the Bay. Certain financial obligations that cropped up during the typing of this post do not allow me to trade away the collection as was my original intent. However, if you’re interesting making an offer drop me a line and we might be able to work something out.

It was a good run, and I picked up some neat cards that I really enjoyed. There will be some sadness in seeing them go, but they’ll be another player to collect and more fun cards to discover. The player will be named shortly when I reveal the prestigious Hopeful Chase Card of the Year sometime next week.

Thank you Carl Crawford. Enjoy success in the future, well not too much success……