Monday Bird Droppings: Where the cold stove season just got even colder

Hello, friends.

There are now 66 days remaining until the next Orioles game. We’re also into the week of FanFest, at which there will be... uh, well, just about nothing to celebrate. GM Mike Elias has said a lot of exciting things since he got hired, but none of that excitement has been for 2019. That’s not likely to change before the season starts and it definitely won’t be happening by Saturday.

Perhaps the Orioles will officially announce their coaching staff before FanFest and then introduce some or all of those guys at FanFest. It seems like it would be an easy way to generate at least a little bit of a headline for the team. They seem to have selected most of the coaches one by one and they just haven’t announced any of them. Maybe they don’t think the coaching staff is worth much of an announcement. It’s a mystery.

Speaking of mysteries, the start of spring training is getting closer and closer and no one has signed Manny Machado or Bryce Harper. When do you think one or both of those free agent pursuits will come to a close? Where do you think they will end up at this point?

It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in America - the observance of the day, since his birthday was January 15. Congress voted in 1983 to establish the holiday, observed for the first time in 1986. I have no profound original thoughts to offer about MLK. Thinking about everything he fought through to help achieve what he did, it’s just remarkable. He’s one of history’s great Americans. Think about him if you have today off, and even if you don’t.

Around the blogO’sphere

Inbox: Will analytics help Chris Davis? (MLB.com)
We know from The Wire that the gods will not save you in Baltimore. Maybe analytics might. Probably not for Davis, though.

Mullins on FanFest, his debut, and staying humble (School of Roch)
It’s “beat writers are trying to read meaning into the placement of players during FanFest autograph sessions” season, which is not a very exciting season.

Brandon Hyde, from Santa Rosa to Orioles manager (The Press Democrat)
The hometown paper sees the new Orioles manager.

Fire at mansion Cal Ripken sold to Adam Jones last year is contained to boiler room (Baltimore Sun)
The Cal Ripken/Adam Jones house burning down would have been quite a metaphor for the state of the Orioles right now. That house, however, does not need a rebuild.

Birthdays and anniversaries

There are a few former Orioles with birthdays today. They are: 1996 short-timer Keith Shepherd, 1973-75 reliever Bob Reynolds, and 1970/72 catcher and later manager Johnny Oates, who would have turned 73 years old today.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: early American general Ethan Allen (1738), hard-to-kill Russian Grigori Rasputin (1869), slapstick TV man Benny Hill (1924), golfer Jack Nicklaus (1940), and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (1953).

On this day in history...

In 1789, a book called The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, by William Hill Brown, no known relation, was published. This is recognized as the first American novel.

In 1793, the French revolutionaries executed King Louis XVI by guillotine, having found him guilty of treason.

In 1919, the Irish Republic declared independence. It claimed the whole of the island, but after the revolution, there was a division between the newly-recognized Republic of Ireland and the counties of Northern Ireland, which remained in the United Kingdom.

In 1954, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower presided over the launch of the USS Nautlius, the first nuclear-powered submarine in history.

In 1968, during the Vietnam War, the Battle of Khe Sanh began. Over the course of the six month battle, artillery fired over 150,000 rounds and American aircraft dropped over 100,000 pounds of bombs to defend the Marine base. In July, the American forces withdrew from the base, claiming it was “no longer required.”

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on January 21 - or at least, unless something happens later. They have to announce this coaching staff eventually, right?