Monday Bird Droppings: The Orioles are undefeated!

Happy Monday, Camden Chatters! And oh what a happy Monday it is. We were all happy to see the start of baseball season finally arrive, but I don’t know if any of us expected what we saw over the weekend. Your Baltimore Orioles swept the Boston Red Sox in convincing fashion.

I personally expected to be excited for the season to start only to watch the Orioles get beaten down for three straight games. Instead we got an exceptional start from John Means on Opening Day, a non-disastrous start from Matt Harvey and a solid bullpen effort in game two, and an offensive beatdown in support of Bruce Zimmermann to complete the sweep. You can read about that last game in Paul Folkemer’s game recap from yesterday.

Baseball is fun! Or at least, it was this past weekend. There are no guarantees for how long it will last, and if we’re being realistic, it won’t last long. Tonight the Orioles start a three-game series against the New York Yankees, who are the favorites to win the division and who, unlike the Red Sox, currently have a viable starting rotation.

The Yankees just lost two out of three to start the year against the Blue Jays, so here’s hoping that the Orioles can continue with what they started this past weekend.

Links

‘Just fantastic’: After missing debut, Bruce Zimmermann’s family soaks in Maryland native’s first major league win - Baltimore Sun
Jon Meoli caught up with Bruce Zimmermann’s family at Fenway Park yesterday and wrote a nice story on the local kid playing for the Orioles.

O’s rock Fenway: ‘This is just the start’ - MLB.com
Bruce Zimmermann is feeling good about the Orioles. As well he should!

Orioles lose Hays and win again in Boston - School of Roch
It’s still too soon to tell how badly Austin Hays injured his hamstring, but it would be a real shame if he has to go on the injured list. Get better soon, Austin!

Manny Machado on J.J Hardy | FanGraphs Baseball
David Laurila's Sunday Notes are always worth the read, and this week he asked Manny Machado about his friend and mentor, J.J. Hardy. You'll have to scroll down a bit.

Answers to your Orioles questions - BaltimoreBaseball.com
Rich Dubroff answers your questions! This caught my eye because the first question is from @TheWarehousePod, which happens to be the podcast hosted by Camden Chat's own Tyler Young.

Disasterous start: Orioles complete sweep of Red Sox, 11-3 - The Providence Journal
Yes, they spelled disastrous wrong in their headline. That's how bad this weekend was! Read on for some fun at the Red Sox expense.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You have four Orioles birthday buddies. Ron Hansen, who won the Rookie of the Year award in 1960, turns 83 years old today. Hansen spent the first five seasons of his career with the Orioles and went on to have a 15-season career. My favorite thing about the 1960 Rookie of the Year voting is that three different players got vote, and all three were Orioles. Chuck Estrada and Jim Gentile each received one vote.

Also born on this date is the late Roger Marquis (b. 1937, d. 2004), whose entire MLB career was made up of one at bat for the Orioles in 1955. He grounded out to shortstop. More recent short timers Steve Clevenger (35) and Winston Abreu (44) are celebrating their birthdays today as well.

On this day in 1979, Earl Weaver won his 1,000th game as a manager.

In 2013, Chris Davis hit a grand slam, giving him home runs in four straight games to start the season. I wonder what ever happened to that guy.