Monday Bird Droppings: Goodbye football, hello baseball!

Happy Monday, Camden Chatters. The Super Bowl took place last night, which means that football season is over and baseball season is here! Aside from enjoying chicken wings and wearing Ravens shirts because they’re purple, I don’t consider myself much of a football fan. But last night’s Super Bowl was actually quite entertaining. There’s nothing like a close game to get me exclaiming over plays I actually have no interest in.

Also, shoutout to Rihanna for performing a killer halftime show while pregnant! When I was pregnant all I did was lay on the couch and talk about how tired I was.

But enough about football. As I said, it’s baseball season. Soon we’ll be seeing pictures from Florida where the sun is so blue and the grass is so green that it looks fake. Unidentified players with numbers like 86 and 71 will be stretching in the outfield while the established players talk about their goals and how excited they are for the Orioles to be even better this year. It will all be glorious for one day and then, the baseball fiends that we are, it won’t be enough.

Do you know what I am looking forward to seeing as the players roll in? Remember the hair? I miss it. And not just Gunnar Henderson, though his was possibly the best. Or was it Kyle Stowers? Dean Kremer? Adley? Cionel? Mateo? There are almost too many to name.

Do you miss having real Orioles content to read about the past few months? Probably not as much as we miss having things to write about. Or maybe you do, we’re all fanatics here. If you read Tyler Young’s post on Saturday, you know he laid out a lot of possibilities for what we’ll be talking about over the coming weeks. If you didn’t read it (we don’t blame you, it was the weekend), I recommend checking it out now.

Links

FanGraphs Audio: Sig Mejdal on Analytics, Eric Longenhagen on His Journey Here | FanGraphs Baseball
If you're looking for a good listen for today, check out Friday's episode of FanGraphs Audio. Orioles VP Sig Mejdal joined the pod to talk about his history, his current job, and his thoughts on analytics and data in baseball. If you can’t or don’t want to listen, David Laurila did a short summary in his Sunday Notes.

Orioles' Hays looks to finish strong in '23; Stowers, Urías eager to push for playing time; Means likes Chiefs - BaltimoreBaseball.com
It's a few days old, but Rich Dubroff published some quotes from Austin Hays and Kyle Stowers from last weekend's Birdland Caravan. Kyle Stowers is a guy I really want to work out. His playing time last year makes me think maybe the Orioles don't think that's gonna happen.

Looking for Orioles locks heading into spring training - MASN Sports
Let's just say Roch isn't going out on a limb for most of these.

Birthdays and History

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! What you lack in quality Orioles birthday buddies, you make up in quantity. Born on this day are:

• Henry Urrutia (36), who appeared in a total of 34 games for the Orioles in 2013 and 2015. He hit one career home run, a walk-off line drive against the Mets in 2015. I happened to be at the game and it was an incredible moment for the Cuban born player who spent so much time in the minors.
• Logan Ondrusek (37), whose seven games in 2016 were wholly unmemorable. I have no recollection of this player, though he did spend five seasons with the Reds before coming to Baltimore.
• Howie Clark (49), who I remember better as an assistant hitting coach. Clark debuted in the majors in 2002 and had 14 games with the Orioles, and made a second stop in 2006 for seven more. He was the assistant hitting coach for the team from 2017-2019.
• Todd “The Todd” Williams (52), who can’t believe present-day pitchers can intentionally walk a batter without throwing a pitch. Williams, of course, is the pitcher who gave up a walk-off hit to Miguel Cabrera while attempting to intentionally walk him. He was a stalwart dark-days reliever, racking up 177 appearances from 2004-2007 while the scoreboard comically blinked his name when he came into games.
• Jim Brideweser (b. 1927, d. 1989), about whom I have no personal anecdotes. Brideweser had a seven-season MLB career that included 73 games with the Orioles in 1954 and another 91 in 1957.

Baseball Reference doesn’t list any notable history for the Orioles on this day, but it was on this day in 1976 that Dorothy Hamill won the free skate and the women’s figure skating gold medal in the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck. My mom definitely had her haircut.