It's what you learn after you know it all that counts.
Hall of Famers John Wooden and Earl Weaver preached it. The phrase serves as the title of Weaver's autobiography.
I'm using it this morning to lead everyone into my latest offseason collection of random facts. And most important, what we learned from them.
No need to dig too deeply. Sometimes the answers are lying on the surface.
Also, don't overlook an orchid while searching for a rose. Or something like that.
* The Orioles were 18-11...
The day after Christmas exists in many households to eat leftovers, vacuum pine needles and return unwanted gifts. There's also time spent rehashing some of the most uncomfortable moments at the dinner table.
The Orioles haven't been shy about keeping receipts and making returns, no matter whose feelings get hurt. Just ask Grant Balfour's agent.
Sometimes they can be talked into returning home with the same item, but feeling much better about it. Just ask Yovani Gallardo's agent.
(If you...
'Tis the season to be jolly.
If you pretend that 2020 didn't happen.
My only advice is to dig deep and unearth the joyous moments in your lives. Hopefully, you'll find many more than you expected. Hopefully, you can use a trowel instead of a bulldozer.
For me, it's getting engaged at spring training, less than a week before the shutdown. My plan to propose at the spot where we met outside the Ed Smith Stadium press box would have been ruined if she chose to fly down later.
(I'll never know...
The Orioles are approaching the Christmas holiday with a shopping list that won't be satisfied by a late trip to the mall.
Their search for a veteran starting pitcher and replacement for shortstop José Iglesias, to name two of the items, could stretch into January or February. The market is evolving. A drop in prices can expand it.
Their last transaction on this date occurred in 2014 with the signing of left-hander César Cabral to a minor league deal. Catcher Ryan Lavarnway was claimed...
The Orioles announced four of their minor league signings this afternoon, with catcher Nick Ciuffo going unreported until today.
The list also includes left-hander Fernando Abad and right-handers Claudio Custodio and Conner Greene. Abad and Greene were confirmed additions to the organization earlier this month.
Ciuffo, who turns 26 in March, provides some catching depth that the organization has sought with Bryan Holaday and Martin Cervenka entering free agency. He's a left-handed hitter and...
I'm not sure how manager Brandon Hyde will readjust to a normal baseball season, if one becomes available to him, after devoting so much of his energy to detailing the protocols set up at Camden Yards and on the road and how his players adhered to them.
How the Orioles kept everyone safe, taking no chances if someone reported to the ballpark with the sniffles or a headache.
How the sport survived outside of a bubble and completed a 60-game regular season, the playoffs and World Series.
What it...
The downplaying and scant reporting of a minor league signing in January is as common as a cold. Players pop into an organization and often leave it without a fuss. The same indifference coming and going.
César Valdez is a classic example, except for the part about him going.
He's stayed on the 40-man roster since the Orioles selected his contract on Aug. 27, the latest move of significance in his rejuvenated career after the appearances in exhibition games as an extra from Twin Lakes Park...
The Orioles were getting ready to play their 17th exhibition game on March 8. Four days before the team bus pulled out of the complex and circled back, confirmation that baseball was shutting down due to COVID-19. Four days before outfielder Trey Mancini would undergo surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his colon.
Alex Cobb can close his eyes and see it all.
He remembers the local media gathering to ask about Mancini's departure from camp. How he described the situation as...
An offseason exercise that doesn't require a home gym, but makes me sweat as if competing in a triathlon, is creating an Orioles lineup in December. Taking the players on the current 40-man roster and the likely invites to spring training and filling every position.
Go nuts and, if you dare, also craft a bench, rotation and bullpen. But only if you've stretched prior to attempting it.
A national publication seeks my assistance every winter, with a deadline prior to the Christmas holiday. The...
Alex Cobb has arrived back at a point in his career that looks the same in some aspects and completely foreign in others. The final year of his contract. Shuffled priorities as he stands on the deck and peers out again at free agency.
Been there, but doing it differently.
Cobb isn't in the hunt for another four-year deal, which the Orioles gave him at a cost of $57 million before the 2018 season to mark the largest for a pitcher in franchise history. He turned 33 in October, is entering a new...
Conducting the usual search for veteran relievers during the offseason, the Orioles are on the verge of signing left-hander Fernando Abad to a minor league contract per multiple sources.
Final details are being worked out, but the sides are in agreement.
Abad will receive an invitation to spring training, which for the Orioles is supposed to begin with pitchers and catchers reporting to the Ed Smith Stadium complex on Feb. 16.
The Orioles also held interest in Abad last winter and made an offer...
Tyler Wells won't be able to truly demonstrate what he offers the Orioles as a pitcher until reporting to spring training and getting on a mound. Until he faces hitters in live batting practice sessions and in exhibition games.
What he's done so far is prove that he's going to be one of the more thoughtful, open and articulate members of the organization.
Wells was credited with a quality Zoom yesterday afternoon in his first media session after the Orioles chose him in Thursday's Rule 5...
Sometimes you get leftovers for breakfast, sometimes you get the crumbs at the bottom of the toaster.
It's a good way to manage your carbs.
The Brandon Hyde virtual Winter Meetings video conference call last Monday morning - or "Zoom" to save keystrokes - covered a wide range of topics. A few of them also interested the national media that joined in, including how the Orioles handled COVID-19 conditions and whether Hyde is confident in the implementation of a full spring training and season...
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has his scrubbed and sanitized hands full with his own club and a growing set of responsibilities. However, when another manager makes a decision in the World Series that backfires with such force that it shakes the entire industry, Hyde is bound to be asked about it.
Especially on a Zoom conference call yesterday as part of the virtual Winter Meetings that don't have the usual four-day deadline.
Rays skipper Kevin Cash took the ball from Blake Snell in Game 6, the...
Orioles manager Brandon Hyde held his virtual Winter Meetings interview this morning, providing his own update on Trey Mancini and sharing his thoughts on the spring training rotation and the losses of Renato Núñez, José Iglesias and Hanser Alberto.
He also spoke about Chris Davis' health issues over the summer and how the first baseman will be competing for at-bats in 2021.
Hyde sat in his spring training office at the Ed Smith Stadium complex. He has no idea whether players will be...
Zach Pop received a phone call from his agent Thursday after the Diamondbacks selected the right-handed reliever with the sixth pick in the Rule 5 draft. Pop should expect to hear from someone in the organization. Just be ready for it and congratulations.
And then it got weird.
Pop never spoke to anyone with the Diamondbacks and began to wonder what happened. He was warned instead on a follow-up call about rumors of a trade.
"I was like, 'What? I just got picked,' " he said yesterday.
The...
Infielder Richie Martin's fractured right wrist must have healed. He's playing winter ball.
Confirmation that doesn't require industry sources. Just access to a roster and statistics.
Martin is in Puerto Rico with Criollos de Caguas. In his first four games, the former Rule 5 pick was 3-for-15 with two doubles, an RBI, a walk and three runs scored.
He was 2-for-6 in his first two games and 2-for-11 after three. The third must have been rough.
Martin should be full-go in spring training based...
The Orioles took a deliberate approach to filling their 40-man roster, but the deed is done. It's stuffed like a holiday turkey.
Just don't assume that it's staying that way.
Anyone who signs a major league contract is going to bump a player off the roster, and the Orioles are at least willing to consider it.
In the meantime, it's impossible to make an exact prediction about the roster when you wake up in the morning and find pitchers Ashton Goudeau, Mac Sceroler and Tyler Wells on...
Ben McDonald and his nephew chatted last weekend in Louisiana about two of their favorite topics, the hunting and baseball seasons intertwined.
McDonald, the first-overall selection in the 1989 amateur draft who spent nine years in the majors. Mac Sceroler, a former fifth-round selection of the Reds out of Southeastern Louisiana who was the fifth player chosen Thursday morning in the Rule 5 draft.
A former high-profile Orioles pitcher and current MASN analyst, and a close relative who will...
The normal Winter Meetings would have wrapped up yesterday following the Rule 5 draft. The virtual version, however, keeps rolling along.
No checkout times, stops at the front desk or luggage to be dragged through the lobby and toward the exits, where fresh air is breathed for the first time in four days.
What I miss most is my annual lap around the lobby after filing my Rule 5 story. The sense of calm as media and executives race to the airport. The thought in my head that whispers, "Well,...



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