Thursday Bird Droppings: Where the World Series has the day off

Hello, friends.

There are now 153 days remaining until Orioles Opening Day 2018. It's a travel day for the World Series, so there will be no baseball to entertain us tonight. You will have to get through this one on your own. I bet you have something on your DVR.

As I watched last night's game between the Astros and Dodgers, I realized that I will probably never be emotionally prepared for the Orioles to play in the World Series. It hasn't happened yet in my lifetime and if it ever does, I really can't fathom how I would process the kind of back-and-forth game that ended after 11 innings with a 7-5 Astros victory.

Even an Orioles victory in a game like that would leave me ragged, just a shell of a human being the next day. It was a whirlwind of emotion and I don't even really care who wins between the Astros and Dodgers!

I guess either of those teams should have offered more to get Zach Britton, given the bullpen problems they ran into last night. No, I don't actually believe that (too much) - after all, I watched Britton's last couple of months of the season, but sometimes I just have to go full homer. Anyway, let's hit the links.

Around the blogO'sphere

Orioles need to add starting pitching for 2018 at the Triple-A level, too (Baltimore Sun)
Pretty much all of the Triple-A starters this year were bad, although this article’s reasoning for needing to add pitching mostly relates to the fact that a number of those pitchers can become minor league free agents, not that they were bad and don’t constitute depth.

Quiet start to Orioles offseason, spring update (School of Roch)
How quiet of a start? What passes for news is that the Orioles will travel to Bradenton to play the Pirates in spring training on March 12.

A look at a trio of free agent starting pitchers (Steve Melewski)
Melewski considers Alex Cobb, Lance Lynn, and Jason Vargas. Who do you prefer out of this trio?

Baltimore Orioles' biggest fan celebrates 100th birthday (Kent Island Bay Times)
I hope I don’t have to live to be 100 to get to see the Orioles win the World Series three times... or even once.

Birthdays and anniversaries

One lone former Oriole has a birthday today: Wayne Garland of the 1973-76 Orioles, who turns 67.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: Kremlin architect Konstantin Thon (1794), Prussian military strategist Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800), Museum of Modern Art founder Abby Aldrich Rockefeller (1874), actor Bob Hoskins (1942), Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak (1946), singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant (1963), periodically funny man Seth MacFarlane (1973), and wrestler CM Punk (1978).

On this day in history...

In 1775, King George III of Great Britain proclaimed the American colonies in open rebellion, authorizing a military response to put down the American Revolution.

In 1881, the Gunfight at the OK Corral took place in Tombstone, Arizona, between Wyatt Earp and others against a band of outlaws known as the Cowboys. Three of the five Cowboys were killed.

In 1944, American and Australian naval forces defeated the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, effectively crippling Japan's navy for the remainder of the war.

In 1977, a Somalian man named Ali Maow Maalin developed a rash as a result of smallpox. He survived, and afterwards, the WHO and CDC proclaimed smallpox to be eradicated.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on October 26 - or at least, unless something happens later. I guess you never know, it might. Have a safe Thursday.