Tuesday Bird Droppings: Where we're still looking for a hit with RISP (again)

Hello, friends.

Do you know something that isn't much fun? When the Orioles lose in extra innings when they aren't playing in the Eastern time zone. There's something about it being an hour later when things go sour that just makes it so much worse. The Orioles not getting any hits with runners in scoring position, at all, as happened in last night's 4-2 loss, well, that also sucks.

The O's wake up in second place this morning, 1.5 games out of the AL East lead. They also wake up with four All-Stars on their roster, and that part, at least, is pretty cool. Four All-Stars won't amount to much if they keep losing their way into the All-Star Break, though. Maybe they can stop that by beating the Twins later tonight. That would be rather nice of them.

Our daily trip around the blogO'sphere is always a little less fun after a loss, but hey, we must make do. Hopefully these help you get through your Tuesday...

Around the blogO'sphere

Baysox bobblehead gives glimpse of Babe Ruth as an Oriole - The Washington Post

The Bowie Baysox are going to give away a Babe Ruth bobblehead, with Ruth wearing an old timey Orioles uniform on the bobblehead. That's all well and good, but I think that the bobble's face looks more like President Obama than Babe Ruth.

School of Roch: More on Machado
Yesterday was Manny Machado's birthday, and although our man Roch from MASN is not in Minnesota with the team, that didn't stop him from rounding up some awesome Manny facts in the hour before he was named to the All-Star team.

Four years after leaving Orioles, Phillies' Andy MacPhail gearing up for another reclamation project - Baltimore Sun
Former Orioles beat writer Jeff Zrebiec, who now covers the Ravens for The Sun, steps up in his offseason to tackle the Andy MacPhail project in Philadelphia. Jeff Z. knows a thing or two about covering a loser team run by MacPhail.

Eutaw Street Report | Our 2015 BEVy Categories
There will be more about the BEVy Awards on this site later today - keep your eyes peeled on the front page at 11am! For now, if you feel the urge to vote on something, take a look at these categories on our fellow blogO'sphere site, Eutaw Street Report.

This next one is from elsewhere on the SB Nation MLB network but is of interest to all baseball fans who like blogs...

GIFs, Twitter suspensions, and social media: an open letter to MLB Advanced Media - Lookout Landing
You may recall that last year, we had a regular GIF of the Week feature. That feature was effectively shut down by MLBAM, as was the Twitter account maintained by our GIF pal Aaron Royer. The Mariners site, Lookout Landing, recently encountered something similar, leading to this impassioned plea. Baseball, let us share your product.

Birthdays and Anniversaries

On this day in 1995, the Orioles acquired Scott Erickson from the Minnesota Twins. They traded Scott Klingenbeck and a player to be named later, who ended up being Kimera Bartee. Erickson ended up staying with the O's for most of the next decade.

One lone former Oriole has a birthday today: Baltimore's own Tim Nordbrook, who played in 73 games from 1974-76. Non-Orioles born on this day include Hall of Famers Satchel Paige and Billy Herman, and, much more recently, Baseball Twitter Hall of Famer Brandon McCarthy.

If today is your birthday, happy birthday! Some of your no longer living birthday buddies include Dr. Camillo Golgi, Nobel Prize Laureate in Medicine (1843), a favorite composer of brass instrument players, Gustav Mahler (1860), and Otto Frederick Rohwedder (1880), who is credited as being the inventor of sliced bread, which it turns out is probably greater than Matt Wieters after all.

Among those still living, you share the day with Ringo Starr (1940), comedian Jim Gaffigan (1966), basketballer Chris "Birdman" Andersen (1978), and Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan (1980).

On this day in history...

In 1456, Joan of Arc was posthumously acquitted of heresy, 25 years after she was burned at the stake. Maybe one of those times where "better late than never" does not apply.

In 1863, the USA started its first military draft. You could buy an exemption for $300, or about $6,000 today.

In 1947, the Roswell event occurred. The truth is out there...

In 1981, President Reagan appointed Sandra Day O'Connor as a Supreme Court Justice. She is the first female to hold that position.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on July 7 - or at least, until something happens later. Have a safe Tuesday.