Tuesday Bird Droppings: Six games to rule them all

Hello, friends.

Here we are in the last week of the season. The home stretch for the Orioles, although unfortunately for them, the home stretch will happen entirely on the road. Thanks to a favorable Monday, they will enter the series one game behind Toronto for the top wild card spot and two games ahead of Detroit for the road wild card spot.

What all that adds up to is that the Orioles magic number is five with six games to play. It's good to have a magic number, although the magic number isn't going to do them any good if they don't show up in Toronto and New York and win at least half of their remaining games.

Can they do it? That's the big question. Well, of course they can. The Orioles are good enough that they can beat these teams, especially with New York seeming to be in the middle of a bit of a collapse. Being able to do something and doing it are different ideas entirely, however. A few bad bounces at the wrong time, a few bad pitches, a few mistakes, and they'll be right out of that postseason picture.

As this article posts, there are about twelve hours until the latest ultimate game of ultimate destiny begins. Hopefully you have something productive you can do, or something fun, to distract you during the day today. It's going to be intense. And now let's hit the links.

Around the blogO'sphere

As Orioles leave Camden Yards, it might be a farewell for some players - Baltimore Sun
Way to be a downer, Peter Schmuck. Actually, I'm not going to be too hard on him for being one of the few O's writers to actually turn out some kind of content on the off-day.

3 keys for the Orioles to make the postseason | orioles.com
They all basically boil down to, "Don't play like a bunch of idiots."

Notes on game time, playoff tickets and Britton - School of Roch
The Orioles announced "postseason ticket purchase options." Option 1 is you put down a deposit for season tickets next year, and you get postseason tickets. Option 2 is, you're screwed.

The flawed AL wild card race - Stats & Info- ESPN
Turns out that the Orioles are not the only AL Wild Card contender with problems. They've all got problems. What remains to be seen is whose problems are more exposed in the last week of the season - and, for that matter, in the wild card game itself.

That's all the links today. It was an off day for almost everybody!

Birthdays and anniversaries

On this day in 1996, then-O's second baseman Roberto Alomar infamously spit in the face of umpire John Hirschbeck. Alomar had been ejected in the first inning of the game for arguing a check swing call.

There are three former Orioles with birthdays today. They range from 1998 one-gamer Radhames Dykhoff, to 1978 outfielder Carlos Lopez, to Dick Hall (1961-66, 1969-71), who was one of a handful of players on all four of the 1966, 1969, 1970, and 1971 Orioles.

Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! Along with those former Orioles, your birthday buddies for today include: Declaration of Independence signer Samuel Adams (1722), Union general "Bull" Nelson (1824), "diabeetus" medicine pitchman Wilford Brimley (1934), the singer who famously won't do that, Meat Loaf (1947), inferior-to-Brooks Robinson Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt (1949), actress Gwyneth Paltrow (1972), and rapper Lil Wayne (1982).

On this day in history...

In 1066, William the Conqueror and his army set sail from France, kicking off the Norman conquest of England.

In 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania became the capital of the United States of America for all of one day

In 1905, a German physics journal received a paper from Albert Einstein, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" The answer to that question, by the way, is E = mc².

In 1908, the first production model of Ford's Model T automobile was built at a Ford plant in Detroit.

In 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published, ultimately leading to, among other things, the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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And that's the way it is in Birdland on September 27 - or at least, until something happens later. Have a safe Tuesday. Go Orioles!