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Garth Brooks rightly ditches the Royals for the Orioles

Garth Brooks dons Orioles jersey, wins Baltimore's heart.

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

If you live in the Baltimore area, you may have heard that country music superstar Garth Brooks is doing a few shows in Baltimore this weekend. Five shows, actually. Two were rescheduled from last weekend's blizzard, which means that Garth is a very busy man this weekend. He had two shows scheduled for yesterday, the second of which didn't get started until about midnight. For that show, Garth donned an Orioles jersey that was presented to him before the show. This can only mean one thing: Garth Brooks, who was once featured at Kauffman Stadium in a Royals jersey every single game, has realized the error in his ways and has spurned the dark side in favor of the light.

Yes, for those of you who don't know, Garth Brooks was featured on the Royals' jumbotron in the sixth inning for years, wearing a Royals jersey and kicking off a crowd-sung rendition of his hit song, Friends in Low Places. Prior to the 2014 season, the Royals halted that tradition and a fan vote replaced it with Don't Stop Believin' by Journey.

Perhaps it was being spurned by his once loyal team that drove him into the Orioles arms. Maybe Garth doesn't like the heel turn his former team has taken. It's possible that he loves dongs and the Royals couldn't deliver. And yes, it could be true that the Orioles gave him a jersey and he was in Baltimore, so he just put it on to gain favor with his audience. Who's to say?

Garth Brooks has long been a baseball lover. He played in high school, and to raise awareness for a program he started to raise money for children's charities, he spent time in spring training with the Royals, New York Mets, and San Diego Padres in the early 2000s. In fact, Wikipedia informs me that he even got a hit off of pitcher Mike Myers in a spring training game. Who knows, maybe we'll see him in Sarasota this year!

It's all fun and games to talk about Garth Brooks ditching the hated Royals for the loveable Orioles, of course. I'm an Orioles fan and a Garth Brooks fan (I'll be at his show this evening) so seeing him embrace my team even if only for a night is a lot of fun. And all I know is that this:

looks a lot better than this:

Garth Royals

Photo Credit: Brian Bahr/Getty Images