I think of all of you Brotz looks the most like I envisioned him. Take that as you will.

Thanks for the writeup. Good cap to the best Orioles-related day (week? with the Reimold call-up and the Eaton DFA) I’ve had in a while.

+1 about MASN hosting this event. Game companies movie studios and lots of other types of hi-tech companies have been paying serious attention to blogs for years. It’s great to see MASN (and MLB sort-of) getting into the game.

He’s my favorite hockey announcer of all time and I was seriously geeked when i found out he was gonna broadcasting my club.

Now Buck is a different story. That boy just don’t know when to shut up.

as quickly as I get tired of Jim Hunter’s schtick, he comes off as being a genuinely nice guy in real life. Did you have enough contact to be able to tell?

Also, feel free to give quick assessments of all the Orioles TV people if you can? Was Roch as High maintenance as I would believe? Does Gary Thorne have as dry a sense of humor as I’d like to believe?Please, please, I need answers!!

Also, did anybody say anything to you guys about wearing O’s gear in the press box or cheering?

We whooshed up the elevators to the press level where we briefly got to meet Amber Theoharris. She was on her way down to the field so couldn’t talk for long. Jonny Pops suggested she stop by later and do a story on us, but she politely declined (hee).

A collective yay amber probably would have been too much.

the greatest celebrity run in was when Roch Kubatko stopped in and Duck introduced himself as being from Camden Chat. I’ll let Duck tell the story as I wasn’t there when it happened, but the bottom line is Roch wasn’t amused about the time that a story was written about Roch challenging a Camden Chatter to fisticuffs. Sadly I did not even see Roch as I was outside cheering on the O’s.

This is pretty damn funny.

bottom line is Roch wasn’t amused about the time that a story was written about Roch challenging a Camden Chatter to fisticuffs.

Duck, you should have told Roch to DEAL WITH IT!

johnypops is jimmy kimmel?

I introduced myself to Roch.

“Hi. Mr. Kubatko (hey, my momma raised me to be polite), I’m Bill Duck, from, yeah, well, Camden…uh..Chat…” (knowing full well what was coming next)

“You’re the one I want to talk to!”

Actually, he didn’t sound that bad, it comes across worse in type. But I certainly had his attention…

Backstory – SC made reference in the off season to an exchange Roch had with a blogger on the MASN site, and made reference to the fact that Roch seemed a bit obsessed with a year-old insult someone had posted, and posted his running joke that “I will fight him…IN PUBLIC!”

Roch, as he explained, hadn’t seen the insult when originally published – he only saw it when it was brought up here, and someone else showed it to him at the Winter Meetings. And he said when he asked the guy to “meet him in the Press Box,” it’s wasn’t a challenge. OK, to me it read that way, but hey, he’s the guy who wrote the sentence, and he said he didn’t.

His point was once something’s on the internet, it’s there forever. His daughter (who I gather is somewhere around my daughter’s age, so I can certainly relate) looks up her dad on Google every now and again, and he didn’t want her to see her dad referred to as … what he was referred to in the original posting. I get it. I’m not saying that means he should forever be off-limits for criticism just because he has a kid, but I get his point of view.

I explained that for most of what’s on Camden Chat, it’s done with a healthy dose of levity. “You gotta understand, we’re sarcastic, somewhat jaded Orioles fans and a lot of what we write is pretty sarcastic. You can’t take it seriously.”

All in all, he seemed like a likable enough guy. Funniest part of the whole exchange was as we’re talking, Andy MacPhail comes on and announces Wieters’ call-up.

Roch turns to me and says…

“Tell me he didn’t just do that now. Andy, you didn’t just do that now, did you?”

And he just about ran out of the room to get to his laptop. So when writers say no one knew Wieters was coming up Friday until Andy announced it last night, I’d say it’s true. Because Roch certainly had no idea, and neither did Rick Dempsey, who was also in the room.

a jock sniffing turd. And I didn’t do it here, I did it on my blog (lastbestangryman.blogspot.com) which roughly 8 people read. I’m really not sure how I was supposed to read the “come see me in the press box on Opening Day” thing. I feel a little bad about his daughter I guess, maybe, but I still think his entire defense of Jay Gibbons was terrible journalism, and the only reason I could see for it was a desire to be friends with a player.

Thanks to each of you for representing for CC.

Couldn’t really ask for a better group of folks to represent CC than you guys. Thanks for doing this, and I’m glad everyone had a good time.

I kinda feel bad about the Roch thing now. I mean not really, but I see his point. I think I’ll contact him just to further clear the air.

And not like Liz. But actually rad. The whole Roch exchange seems like it started out awkward, but all is well that ends well. Nice job peeps.

Sounded like a hell of a night.

you guys are actually real people?

but I couldn’t attend. I am very pissed now.

A few of us joked that Jason Berken probably pitched in front of more people at his last Norfolk start than last night.

Not quite.

Last night: 10,130

Norfolk, 5/21: 5,758.

Overall the people that invited us from both MASN and the Orioles were exemplary hosts, great to talk to and very knowledgeable about the Orioles, baseball, O’s blogs, new media etc. I also got to shoot the shit with Al Bumbry without even knowing it was Al Bumbry till later, which was pretty fucking cool.

In a way last night felt like (and I am borrowing this analogy from a guy I heard on NPR a few weeks ago, in case anybody catches that here) an 80’s teen movie where the nerd gets the sexy girl. Now I’m not saying everyone invited was a nerd or that the Orioles are super sexy for that matter. But due to the fact the rest of the media is falling down around us and, like so many other areas of our society, uncertainty reins supreme. Given these conditions, bloggers and the Internet seem to actually provide a level of stability (can you believe this?) and more importantly growth into the future, the likes of which the PR people we mingled with last night wanted to get a read on and begin making contacts with. It’s a smart move on their part, but also gracious, given that some of the guys that showed up get relatively small traffic, but are nonetheless diligent and dedicated in following the team.

Nothing much more than our names, but still cool.

http://masnsports.com/2009/05/still-savoring-todays-win.html

…well, I’m not sure how to take Amber blowing us off like that. Part of me wants to yell “B*tch!”…but another part still wants to think she’s cool. Help, I’m so-o-o-o conflicted!

Anyway, she would dig me. I just know it. I would learn Italian like the Farming Dork who wants to drill the Italian supermodel if Amber said that’s what it’d take.