"Excitement finally surrounds the Orioles"-- is Boswell on drugs?

by Titov on Mar 7, 2011 2:46 AM EST

Young southpaw Brian Matusz of the Orioles walked past General Manager Andy MacPhail before an exhibition game this weekend and pointed to the lineup card on the wall of the dugout.

"Thanks for that," said Matusz. "That's exciting." [...] It's been a very long time, 13 seasons to be exact, since any comparable excitement surrounded the Orioles. [...]

[With] the arrival of Showalter, the late-'10 turnaround and a brilliant offseason, the Orioles have a near-monopoly on preseason buzz.

To some degree, the signings of Guerrero, 36, and Lee are the definition of a relatively cheap cosmetic one-year patches to appease a bitter fan base. But there's also a longer view. If those vets help more than a half-dozen young Orioles players to establish themselves, it'll be worth it.

"The hope is that these new players will help level out the load for everybody else," said MacPhail.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030603122.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/06/AR2011030603122.html?hpid=moreheadlines

SC, the Venerable Bede of Camden Chat, was very dismissive of Boswell — How Life Imitates the World Series and the Single Average campaign notwithstanding — but I’ve always enjoyed him. He’ll catch some flak in our ranks (as will Mac) for using the R(BI)-word here, but as the Brits say, there you are.

In the end, I do think this piece is exaggerated…unless you’re used to viewing “excitement” in the context of the moribund rivalry of O’s vs. Gnats, for both of whom, as Boswell correctly implies, the excitement threshhold resembles a limbo bar set at five feet or something.

But y’know what, screw that. In ST you’re supposed to be excited: “It Happens Every Spring”. It’ll be cool to drub the frickin’ Gnats this year. And win 85 games, dammit. Go O’s!

"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Churchill,1942-- a rebuilding year.

by Titov on Mar 7, 2011 3:06 AM EST reply actions

Boswell loves to wax enthusiastic

I like him. I don’t look to him for judgement and analysis. I look at him as someone who expresses the heart of baseball fandom. His books are love notes to baseball.

Like a bad, suave dude. You know what I'm sayin'. COOL. SC 7/24/08

by 33 on Mar 7, 2011 9:45 AM EST reply actions