Merry Christmas, friends.
There are now 102 days until Orioles Opening Day 2015. Does that count as a Christmas present for you? A World Series would be nicer, I have to say. But it's pretty hard to get one of those today, being as there won't be any MLB games for months. I hope you both gave and received some nice things from loved ones, if your religious traditions or lack thereof involve such gift-giving in relative or actual proximity to this date on the calendar.
May your days be merry and bright and may all your Christmases be white. Not one of those in Baltimore this year. Maybe next time around.
Here are a couple of links for you to check out when you get a chance. Stop staring at your phone! Your family notices and they're judging you.
Orioles still interested in Padres' Seth Smith and Will Venable, sources say - Baltimore Sun
This was written before the Orioles signed Delmon Young. Do you think it changes anything? The O's could still use some platoon partners out there, so maybe not.
School of Roch: "Because You Asked - Lost in New York"
If there's one thing you should never do in a blog post, it's have a conversation with yourself where you're pretending that someone is asking you questions.
Being as yesterday was Christmas Eve and today was Christmas, there's not much more to be found in the blogO'sphere, but you may get a kick out of this from elsewhere on SB Nation MLB:
Book review: Jason Grilli's hilariously narcissistic 'Just My Game' - Bucs Dugout
It turns out that Jason Grilli wrote a book, which you should not under any circumstances read. However, our Pirates blog counterpart's teardown of the terrible things contained within is worth it.
Former Orioles with Christmas birthdays include Charlie Beamon, who pitched a few games from 1956-58, turning the big 80 today. Also turning a year older today is Tom O'Malley, whose undistinguished tenure was in 1985-86. O'Malley is one of the two players from his high school to ever appear in MLB. The other is Mike Mussina.
Other baseball birthdays today are Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, and also Hideki Okajima, who hilariously gave up a grand slam to Jay Payton that one time.
Did you get any good baseball- or Orioles-themed stuff today or recently? Share your loot with us.
And that's the way it is in Birdland on Christmas Day - and it'll probably stay that way, because can you imagine if they signed someone today?
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.