Thursday Bird Droppings: Baseball on hold for who knows how long

Hello, friends.

There are now three months and 26 days remaining until the next scheduled Orioles game, which is Opening Day 2022. Pitchers and catchers reporting to Sarasota to begin spring training is a mere two months and 13 days away. However, this all assumes that there are no disruptions to the 2022 calendar resulting from the long-expected, near-reality ownership lockout that was unanimously approved last night and is anticipated to begin at any time today.

The final day before things shut down featured some more free agents reaching deals. The Orioles did not add any more surprises beyond Tuesday’s addition of Jose Bautista-puncher Rougned Odor. Their division rivals did not make any last day moves either. There just weren’t many impact moves across the AL East in the month of November, and now there won’t be any until who knows when.

One former Oriole got a little payday in under the wire. Dylan Bundy, who struggled in 2021 with the Angels, received a guaranteed $5 million from the Twins. Now that Bundy’s become a free agent, it would sting a lot less if he suddenly became good. The Orioles would not have benefited from any hypothetical 2022 Dylanaissance anyway.

It’s like how the Kevin Gausman success arrived only after he’d been a free agent twice. It sucks, especially given that Dan Duquette traded him with two years of service time for pretty much nothing, but would it have mattered here? I guess maybe, if the Elias pitching regime had been able to make him pitch better and increase his trade value. I don’t need to drag myself down by wondering about that stuff, so I try not to.

With the lockout into effect, perhaps you are wondering, what will we be doing to pass the time on Camden Chat? Next week, you can look forward to the start of a series of retrospective recaps on some noteworthy games from the 1966 season, the first in which the Orioles won a World Series championship.

We looked back on 1970 for the 50th anniversary while baseball was paused for the pandemic last year and that was fun, so we’re doing a different championship from before most of us were born. I bet it would be fun to see the Orioles win the title. Maybe some day.

To all who will be continuing their celebrations of Hanukkah tonight, a happy Hanukkah to you.

Around the blogO’sphere

Leftovers for breakfast (School of Roch)
This is the fourth edition of Leftovers for breakfast just since the end of the regular season. Here, Roch comments on the removal of Richie Martin and Brooks Kriske from the 40-man roster.

O’s 2022 bullpen could be taking shape (Baltimore Baseball)
Rich Dubroff notes that the Orioles tendering contracts to three relievers seems to lock in the three of them for 2022 spots. I hope they either pitch better than last year or don’t stick around for long.

An MLB lockout preview (Fangraphs)
This is the only story that exists in MLB until the league and players reach a deal on a new CBA. Here, FG’s Nathaniel Grow runs through the players’ two options: Work within the existing status quo, or dissolve their union and sue MLB. I’ll take a guess they pick door #1.

Birthdays and Orioles anniversaries

Today in 1971, the Orioles sent future Hall of Famer Frank Robinson to the Dodgers in a six-player trade that brought Doyle Alexander, among others, to Baltimore.

In 2013, they traded Jim Johnson to the Athletics for Jemile Weeks. Though the move was panned at the time, including by me, it looks good in the rear view mirror: Johnson posted a 7.09 ERA in the 2014 season.

One current member of the Orioles 40-man roster has a birthday today. Happy 27th birthday to pitcher Bryan Baker. Maybe he will get to actually pitch in a game for the team. He would be the first Oriole with a December 2 birthday. There has not been one before now.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday to you! Your birthday buddies for today include: circus man Charles Edward Ringling (1863), fashion man Gianni Versace (1946), actress Lucy Liu (1968), and singer-songwriter Britney Spears (1981).

On this day in history...

In 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte appeared at the Notre Dame Cathedral to crown himself as Emperor of the French. Exactly 47 years later, Napoleon’s nephew, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, then the president of France, overthrew the Second French Republic and one year later than that also crowned himself as Emperor.

In 1823, President James Monroe delivered a State of the Union address articulating that the US would remain neutral in future European conflicts, and warning European powers against further involvement in the Americas. Exactly 22 years later, a later president, James K. Polk, delivered an address that argued for American expansion into the west of the continent - the principle that’s since been known as the “manifest destiny” of America to expand across North America.

In 1917, Russia effectively exited World War I after signing an armistice at Brest-Litovsk.

In 1942, Enrico Fermi’s team in the Manhattan Project reached a major milestone, starting the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear reaction.

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And that’s the way it is in Birdland on December 2. Have a safe Thursday.