Saturday Bird Droppings

With qualifying-offer price tag set, will Orioles make offers to Davis, Chen and Wieters? - Baltimore Sun
The qualifying offer price for this offseason, which is determined by averaging the top 125 annual salaries in MLB, will be set at $15.8 million, according to the Sports Business Journal.

Former Baltimore Orioles Players in the MLB Playoffs - The Baltimore Wire
Here is a listing of a total of 10 former Baltimore Orioles players who are participating with playoffs teams in both leagues.

Cal Ripken Jr. admits interest in Nationals' manager job - CBSSports.com
Without a doubt, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. wants to manage a Major League Baseball team. Ripken has communicated this before, but he articulated it during an interview on the Rich Eisen Show on Friday, stating his own case for why he'd be the right guy to manage the Washington Nationals.

School of Roch: More on the qualifying offer and the 2015 season
The qualifying offer for free agents this winter reportedly has risen from $15.3 to $15.8 million, which is the amount that the Orioles will dangle in front of first baseman Chris Davis and left-hander Wei-Yin Chen. They haven't decided what to do about catcher Matt Wieters.

School of Roch: Updates on Dylan Bundy, Branden Kline and Brian Gonzalez
Orioles pitching prospect Dylan Bundy threw another 20-pitch bullpen session Friday in Sarasota and continued to make significant progress.

Will there be Orioles coaching changes in 2016? | CSN Mid-Atlantic
In each of Buck Showalter’s first five offseasons as Orioles manager, there was a coaching search. Will there be another in his sixth?

Local roundup: Orioles sweep Bears in volleyball | Fredericknewspost.com
As is the editorial stance of this blog, we celebrate all Orioles' sports team success. Maryland School for the Deaf Orioles had a good day on the volleyball court.

Happy Birthday to former Oriole Gordon Sundin! He shares it with 1731 - Henry Cavendish, England, physicist/chemist (discovered hydrogen); 1946 - Ben Vereen, actor/dancer; 1946 - Charles Dance, actor and Father of the Year recipient for his work on Game of Thrones; 1954 - David Lee Roth, singer; 1973 - Mario Lopez, actor, Saved by the Bell; and 1974 - Dale Earnhardt Jr, NASCAR icon.

On this day in Baltimore baseball history...

1979 - In the World Series, Baltimore scores five runs off Bruce Kison in the 1st inning of Game 1, then hangs on to defeat the Pirates, 5 - 4.

1996 - The Baltimore Orioles' 5 - 3 win over the New York Yankees in Game 2 evens the ALCS at one game apiece. Rafael Palmeiro's 7th-inning home run is the key blow.

Some things happened in 2012 and in 2014, but we don't talk about it in polite company.

Also on this date...

680 - Al-Hussein (Al-Ḥusayn ibn) and his followers killed at Karbala by army of Yazid, the Umayyad caliph, on the way to Kufa

1780 - Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000 to 30,000 in Caribbean, hitting Barbados first. Atlantic's deadliest recorded hurricane.

1899 - IR Johnson patents bicycle frame

1938 - Germany completed annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland

1954 - Ho Chi Minh enters Hanoi after withdrawal of French troops

1957 - A fire at the Windscale nuclear plant in Cumbria, UK becomes the world's first major nuclear accident.

Consider this your discussion space for Maryland softball vs George Mason in NCAA action.