FanPost

25 Random Orioles Things

I was reading Big League Stew on Yahoo and enjoyed Ian from Bless You Boys' 25 Tiger Things, modeled after that silly 25 things that's going around Facebook these days. It's a very slow day so I thought why not create my own 25 Orioles things list?

1. When I play roulette, I always play 4, 5, 8, 20, 22, and 33. Sometimes I also play 9 for Brady. Not related to the O's, but I also always play 19/20 for Women's Suffrage.

2. Even though I often wear an orange t-shirt to Orioles games, I think I look awful in orange. I'm never quite tan enough to pull it off.

3. For the past couple years, my grandfather and I periodically have the same argument where he says I shouldn't complain about the Orioles or call them awful or talk about not supporting them. He says we're lucky to have a team and if we don't support them they might just leave. I tell him that if the Orioles don't want me to complain about them maybe they shouldn't suck so bad. I tell him that the Orioles consistently give us an inferior product and in any other situation that'd be reason enough to ditch them, but yet here I am. He also hates when I talk about the players being bad and I've been eating crow about Aubrey freaking Huff since last summer. He seriously brings it up all the time.

4. Once at an Orioles-Yankees game I saw two people get hit on the head with batting practice balls in one night. One guy was on Eutaw Street and the ball bounced off his head and his buddy caught it and they both had a good laugh. The second was in the left field seats and the guy hit the ground like a ton of bricks but got up right away. It was funny and scary at the same time.

5. On a shelf at Pickles Pub there is this giant bottle of champagne with a sign saying they're going to open it when the Orioles win the World Series. That thing has to be skunky by now, right?

6. I love the crab shuffle. I don't care what people say. Sometimes during the games when the crab shuffle is happening and everyone is shouting which crab is hiding the ball, you hear people say how sad it is that the fans are more excited about the crab shuffle than they are the game. I suppose that's a valid point, but the Orioles could be perennial contenders and I wouldn't be any less excited about the crab shuffle.

7. The only time an usher has ever had to say anything to me regarding my behavior was when i got into an argument with an A's fan who had been particularly foul mouthed all night. At one point the A's intentionally walked Palmeiro in front of Cal and the A's fan started going off on how Cal is so awful and Cal is so old  and blah blah blah. So I started screaming at him. It wasn't pretty, I'm sure, but I was so mad at him. The usher told me to pipe down, even though the fans around me were being quite encouraging. Imagine that! (Cal, in case you were wondering, hit an RBI single after the IBB to Raffy)

8. When I was in middle school HTS used to replay that night's O's game at like 2 a.m. and on weekends I almost always stayed up to watch it even if I'd seen the game during its regularly scheduled time.

9. It totally sucks that if you want any beer other than Bud/Miller Lite at Camden Yards you have to walk halfway around the stadium because there are so few stands that offer anything else.

10. It also totally sucks that on college night you can only buy one beer at a time, especially when each trip for beer takes at least a half inning due to #9. I'm not in college! I know how to drink responsibly!

11. When I was about 12 years old we were on a family trip to Ocean City and my mom went to some antique store and bought these two side tables. They sat strapped in next to me the entire ride home so my sisters and I named them Cal and Kelly. Kelly broke quite a few years ago but Cal is still around. My mom will say something like, "I did some rearranging and moved Cal to the upstairs hallway."

12. I love bobbleheads. Love. There is no such thing as too many. I go to every bobblehead night each year. In addition to various Orioles related bobbleheads, I also have Ryan Zimmerman and Thomas Jefferson from the Nats games, Polish Sausage from the Brewers, and even Dwight Schrute. Sometimes when I'm in a bar and someone tries to talk to me and they ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I'm the foreman of a bobblehead factory.

13. I feel like I'm supposed to hate the O's hat/logo, but I don't. I like it. I have an O's hat. I don't wear it though because I look like a damn fool in a baseball hat.

14. My favorite place to sit at Camden Yards is Left Field Lower Reserve. You can get a seat very close to the field for just $27 and it's a prime home run location.

15. The worst place to sit is section 98 on Eutaw Street. Because it's right next to the scoreboard you can't see a decent chunk of right field.

16.  I've seen the Orioles play in New York (Yankees), Chicago (Cubs), Chicago (White Sox), Milwaukee, and Cleveland. I've seen them win in Chicago (Cubs) and Cleveland.

17. I paid multiple hundreds of dollars to see Cal Ripken's last home game, only to have it not be his last home game due to 9/11/2001.

18. This past baseball season I went to two games where someone I was with wanted nachos and was told he couldn't have them because the cheese was cold. No explanation was given as to why the cheese could not be heated up.

19. As long as I'm talking about stadium food, my favorite thing to get at Camden Yards is the Grille Dog with onions and peppers.

20. You know that fold up schedule that fits in your wallet? I keep one all year and keep track of the wins and losses at games I attend. In 2008 I actually had a winning record!

21. I went through a stage where I bought a ton of Orioles pins on eBay. I don't actually have any use for these pins so I currently use them on my tackboard in my cube in lieu of actual tacks.

22.  When Rafael Palmeiro came to the O's in 1994 I changed my softball number to 25 because I liked him so much even when he was a Ranger. Now, unfortunately, when I think of Raffy it only reminds me of 2005, the most depressing season of baseball I've ever encountered.

23. I was in attendance at 2130.

24.  It is a constant struggle for me to temper my enthusiasm about Matt Wieters. Every time I read something about him I sort of wish that I hadn't because if he doesn't turn out I don't know if I'll be able to take the disappointment.

25. Whenever I see a baseball picture online that makes me happy, I save it to my computer. Sometimes I just look at them all when I need to be cheered up. My favorites are the celebration pictures, obviously, but I also enjoy photos of giant guys standing next to little guys (such as Frank Thomas next to Brian Roberts).

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