Thursday Bird Droppings: Where it’s Rick Dempsey’s birthday

Hello, friends.

Another day, another dismal Orioles loss the night before. This is nothing new in 2018 and yet it still manages to surprise me when they get one-hit while losing 10-0. If you think that sounds bad, you’re right, it’s mighty bad. Check out Alex Church’s recap of the game to find out how bad.

Three or four months ago, when the Orioles season was already a total lost cause but it was still too soon to trade anybody, the idea of the last couple of months of the season was vaguely exciting. I don’t know why. Perhaps that May and June period was just so bad that it seemed like anything else would have to be better, and latching onto the idea of spending August and September starting a rebuild sounded fun.

This is not fun. This is not particularly rebuilding yet, either. The bulk of the Orioles current prospect stock will not be seen for a year or two, and it is not at all guaranteed that their current prospect stock will be sufficient to carry the MLB team back to respectability.

In the meantime there is a lot of time for O’s fans to spend watching the sorts of players who might only find their way onto a 41-104 team. These are the placeholders. The offseason is a mere 17 games away and even that feels like a long slog to get through.

There is no sign of life. It may be the case that a whole lot of people should have been fired long ago. The only thing left is to find out whether or not they will finish at least 60 games out in the standings. At 58.5 games behind with the season still having more than two weeks left, I think they’re more than capable, don’t you?

Around the blogO’sphere

Luis Ortiz joins rotation (School of Roch)
Ortiz’s brief relief debut didn’t go very well. Hopefully his first start goes a lot better to give us something, anything exciting to cling to in the season’s waning weeks.

Tanking tiers - ranking MLB’s rebuilders (ESPN)
The Orioles are by far the worst team in baseball, but since they’re so new to the rebuilding path, they don’t rate as this writer’s worst rebuilding team. OK, sure.

‘It’s who he is’: Orioles players praise Adam Jones’ professionalism during difficult situation (Baltimore Sun)
There can never be enough reminders that Adam Jones is the best. His teammates know it, too.

Adam Jones wears Cookie Monster shoes before game (Cut4)
...and here’s another one!

Cedric Mullins on DJ Stewart as his MLB debut arrives (Steve Melewski)
Mullins and Stewart played together in Delmarva, Bowie, and Norfolk before now becoming Orioles teammates.

You’re the GM! Fix the Orioles (Minor League Ball)
Over at SB Nation’s Minor League Ball, John Sickels wants to know how people would go about fixing this mess.

Birthdays and anniversaries

In 1969, the Orioles clinched the American League East with a win over the Indians. This put them up by 18 games over the Tigers with 17 games left to play.

In 1971, Frank Robinson homered in both games of a doubleheader, joining the 500 home run club. At the time, he was one of just 11 people to reach the milestone.

A pair of former Orioles have birthdays today. They are: 1983 World Series MVP Rick Dempsey, and sporadic 1967-69 pitcher Mike Adamson.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Your birthday buddies for today include: Army physician Walter Reed (1851), The Hershey Company founder Milton S. Hershey (1857), World War I general of the armies John Pershing (1860), novelist Roald Dahl (1916), animator Don Bluth (1937), Village People cowboy Randy Jones (1952), Megadeth co-founder Dave Mustaine (1961), movie man Tyler Perry (1969), and singer-songwriter Fiona Apple (1977).

On this day in history...

In 1501, Michelangelo began to work on his now-famous statue of David.

In 1814, the British spent the night bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore’s harbor in hopes of capturing the city. Their effort ultimately failed. A witness to the battle, Francis Scott Key, was inspired to write a poem that remains of significance today.

In 1962, a court ordered the University of Mississippi to admit an African-American student, James Meredith. Until then, the university had been entirely segregated.

In 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan, the first installment in a still-running series of platformers.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on September 13 - or at least, until something happens later when the Orioles play the Athletics again. Have a safe Thursday. Go O’s!