Saturday Bird Droppings

About Last Night

Pedro Alvarez cranks out two homers in Baltimore Orioles' 7-5 win - UPI.com
Pedro Alvarez's hot streak continued Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field, where he hit two more home runs to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 7-5 win to start a series against the Chicago White Sox.

Yovani Gallardo, occasional 'hiccup' aside, settling into back end of Orioles rotation - Baltimore Sun
"There was some good defense behind me today. Double plays, then J.J. [Hardy], the one inning there were three ground balls to him. But it’s just being aggressive, being aggressive in the zone." - Yovani Gallardo

Sick Again

Buck Showalter 'not really' seeing progress at the plate from Orioles slugger Chris Davis - Baltimore Sun
"I think Chris (Davis) just now is getting over some sickness and stuff," Buck Showalter said. "He's been lessened, like a lot of our guys. He's had bronchitis, had that sickness that really hung with him for a long time. It affected everybody differently. I think as he gets that behind him, he's going to feel better." Did we know he had bronchitis, too?

It's you and me for the first time, in history. We're history.

Orioles' Buck Showalter is key to victory | MLB.com
It's Richard Justice, so it's worth a read.

Keeping an eye on MLB history in August - ESPN

The Orioles look to become the first team since Babe Ruth's Yankees to have four straight seasons with the American League's HR leader.

Time to retire the Teixeira storyline - School of Roch

"I did have some fun with Teixeira over the years, twisting his words to suit my tweets. For example: "It was always Mark Teixeira’s dream as a kid to commit a two-base error for the Yankees." I’ll miss those opportunities."

Birthdays and History

Happy Birthday to former Orioles Victor Zambrano, Mike Reinbach (who had just 20 AB in 12 games in his MLB career), Jim Hardin, and Joe Schaffernoth. They share today with famous people like Emperor Go-Toba of Japan (1180); Alfred Lord Tennyson, British Poet Laureate of Great Britain (1809); Edith Roosevelt, US First Lady and wife of Teddy Roosevelt (1861); Alexander Fleming, bacteriologist (1881); Lucille Ball, American comedienne and actress (1911); Andy Warhol, American pop artist and film producer (1928); and David Robinson, American NBA center (1965).

Today in Baltimore baseball history...

1959 - White Sox lefty Billy Pierce and the Orioles P Billy O'Dell are even up 1 - 1 when Hoyt Wilhelm relieves in the 9th for Baltimore. Wilhelm tosses 8 2/3 innings of no-hit ball. After 18 innings and the score still at 1 - 1, the game is mercifully called because of the midnight curfew. Pierce goes 16 innings before he gets relief from Turk Lown.

Today in world history...

1661 The Treaty of The Hague is signed whereby the Dutch Republic sells New Holland (Brazil) for 63 tonnes of gold to Portugal

1890 At Auburn Prison in New York, murderer William Kemmler becomes first person to be executed by electric chair

1945 Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the US B-29 Superfortress "Enola Gay"

1965 US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act prohibiting voting discrimination against minorities

1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. WWW debuts as a publicly available service on the Internet.

1996 NASA announces that life may have existed on Mars (ALH84001)

Consider this your discussion space for Olympic Women's 10m Air Rifle.