Wednesday Bird Droppings

Game one of the 2010 World Series is tonight, but did you know that on this day in 2005, the Chicago White Sox won the World Series? And on this day in 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series. Ah, the good old days, when baseball was over before Halloween.

How about a question of the day? We've never done that before, but I'm feeling like mixing it up. If people like it, maybe we'll try it more often. Here goes: What is the one barometer of success for the Orioles in the coming season? If you like, fill in the blank: I will judge next season successful if ________ happens.

Ken Rosenthal Tweets the O's
According to Rosenthal, Mark Connor is leading candidate to be the Orioles pitching coach, Rick Adair for bullpen coach, and they'll interview Wayne Kirby and Jim Presley for hitting coach. They're also interested in Mike Bordick and Billy Ripken.

Orioles Insider: Sources: Crowley and Orioles agree on hitting-evaluator post 
Although no official announcement has been made, the Orioles have reached an agreement with Terry Crowley that will make the big league hitting coach an organization-wide offensive evaluator in 2011, according to two sources. 

Ten years in prison for bilking Baltimore Oriole Julio Lugo - DominicanToday.com
Edwin Baquero has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding Lugo out of $1.4M. Someone should slam that guy's head into the hood of a car.

Orioles Insider: Mahoney will have knee surgery; winter league stint over
So Joe Mahoney goes to have his wrist examined and ends up needing knee surgery. Brilliant. 

If Teams Want Fans To Pay For Stadiums, They Should Give Fans Some Ownership
This article is about how to pay for new stadiums, but the most interesting thing to me was that in 2011, only nine baseball parks will be older than Camden Yards. Can you name them? No cheating!

Lee’s arrival meant the Rangers could believe - MLB - Yahoo! Sports
This is just another "Cliff Lee is awesome" story, but it's funny because it starts with his first game as a Ranger, which of course came against the Orioles, and because it's a story about how awesome Cliff Lee is, this is what it says: "And so in the deathly Texas summer heat, in front of a bunch of guys he had met an hour earlier, Cliff Lee put on his fourth uniform in less than a year, went out against the Baltimore Orioles and pitched a complete game." They don't mention that he lost that complete game to the Orioles. Cliff Lee! The Orioles own you! Now please come pitch for us!

Stats are great, but intangibles move baseball's true barometer - CBSSports.com
The Rangers have more heart and hustle, but the Giants are more intensity and momentum. So....I don't know. And hey! He made BUNTING an intangible? 

We don't sell Tic Tacs, we sell Open Threads. And they're cool, available, and addictive. The job is almost done for us.