A few days ago in this space, Orioles director of player development Matt Blood explained how players and coaches on the O's farm are keeping active and trying to improve themselves in various ways during the shutdown of baseball.
Much of this is happening via video chats on Zoom.
"As a group, we've had Zoom calls on just about everything there is to have a call on. Hitting, pitching, defense, strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental skills, research," he said. "We have calls with the...
Mike Elias is preparing as if the 2020 season will begin at some point over the summer. He's preparing as if the First-Year Player Draft will last 40 rounds. He's proceeding as if baseball life will get back to normal while fully aware that it might stay on hold.
There might not be a season. The draft might consist of only five rounds. The club's executive vice president and general manager couldn't offer many updates this afternoon in a Zoom video call with the local media. He's hoping...
I returned home from spring training 10 days early because of the coronavirus pandemic. I haven't seen my daughter or been able to hug her since I left for Sarasota, with news that I'm going to be a grandfather. And I haven't seen my mother and can't celebrate her 80th birthday today beyond another phone call and promises that we'll be together again.
I've written about the many ways that sports influenced my relationship with my father, who passed away in January 2019, five months after...
Part of my spring training routine that disappeared after March 11 was receiving and passing along the list of Orioles extras brought over from the minor league complex. Some high draft picks and some minor league free agents.
Pitcher Isaac Mattson fell into a different category. The Orioles didn't draft or sign him. They acquired him from the Angels as part of the four-pitcher package for Dylan Bundy.
Mattson appeared in two exhibition games and totaled one inning, but he warranted our...
A random assortment of tidbits for you on this Sunday morning with no baseball ...
* We put the World Series re-watch on hold for a couple of days so we could line up the final two games with MASN's rebroadcast schedule. So look for my re-watch article about Game 6 on Monday morning, with MASN showing the game at 7 p.m. Then I'll have my re-watch article about Game 7 on Tuesday morning, in advance of the telecast at 7 p.m. Hope you've been enjoying the entire experience all over again.
* As...
Earlier this week, we discussed the Arizona plan in this entry. Now there is a Arizona/Florida plan, according to a report yesterday by USA Today sports.
In spring training there is a so-called Grapefruit League and a Cactus League. This plan calls for each of the states to host the 15 teams they currently host in spring and there would, for one crazy year only, be no American or National League. No fans would be in attendance at these games.
It's another option, another possible plan to try...
A Nationals employee who was with the club during spring training in West Palm Beach tested positive for COVID-19 after returning home, has completed quarantine and is now symptom-free, general manager Mike Rizzo revealed today during his regular, weekly conference call with reporters.
The male employee, whose name was not revealed, tested positive "well after we shut down the facilities in West Palm Beach and D.C.," Rizzo said. "And fortunately he's home and resting and doing well. His...
The absence of games during the sports shutdown has made it necessary for me to tap into my many years on the Orioles beat and my memories as a kid rooting for the team to keep the blog humming.
There are only so many roster decisions and stalled competitions to dissect. Only so much speculation about the 2020 season to rekindle and douse.
Let's find out a little more about you. With a heavy dose of me, of course.
What is your most random or bizarre piece of sports memorabilia? I own a hockey...
As fans began entering Nationals Park for Game 5 of the World Series, a few thoughts probably were foremost on everyone's minds ...
* The home team had to win one of these games eventually, right?
* The fact that Max Scherzer was starting for the Nationals should help make that happen, right?
No. And no. Not even close. The home team would not win on this night, nor on any forthcoming night (though nobody could have realized that at the time). And more troublesome, Scherzer would not start...
A regular season allowed to play out as intended would have brought the Orioles back home tonight after a four-game series in the Bronx.
Gary Sánchez probably would have hit five or six home runs. And Gleyber Torres would have said, "Hold my protein shake."
The Orioles were supposed to host the Pirates in a three-game weekend series and we could have rehashed the 1971 and 1979 World Series. Better to reminisce about the 2017 regular season and a two-game sweep for the Orioles at Camden...
If Game 3 of the World Series was the most frustrating four hours of the Nationals' entire postseason run, what was Game 4? Awfully frustrating in its own right, that's what it was.
There weren't as many squandered opportunities at the plate as there were the previous night, but there were more than a few. And though the final score (an 8-1 Astros victory) was lopsided, the game was very much there for the taking in the bottom of the sixth and top of the seventh, perhaps the key stretch of...
Today was supposed to be opening night in minor league baseball. Triple-A Norfolk would be hosting Gwinnett and Double-A Bowie would host Richmond. Single-A Frederick was scheduled to play at Fayetteville and Single-A Delmarva would be hosting Asheville.
But when baseball was shut down March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Orioles' minor league teams had yet to even play exhibition games. There were around 150 players at The Buck O'Neil Baseball Complex at Twin Lakes Park. Some had...
I'm wearing rubber gloves today while sorting through my mailbag. All of my clothes are made out of Glad trash bags. Safety first.
Don't use the scented brand. They'll give you a headache.
I'd keep a six-foot distance from the mail, but my vision is pretty bad. Also, my arms wouldn't reach it.
You know what's also a reach? Trying to convince anyone that there's an actual bag. But treat it as you would "Rocky IV" and suspend disbelief.
(The Soviet crowd chanting his name at the end?...
Has there ever been more excitement and anticipation for a Nationals game than there was on the evening of Oct. 25, 2019, when the World Series came to D.C. for the first time since 1933?
This was an event some weren't entirely sure would ever take place. Then throw in the not-insignificant fact the Nats went into Game 3 up two games to none on the supposedly superior Astros, and you had the perfect convergence of joy, intensity, nostalgia and celebration on South Capitol Street.
The whole...
The Orioles intend to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cal Ripken Jr.'s record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game. Their promotional schedule includes the distribution of bobbleheads on Sept. 6, and other plans to honor him were under discussion prior to the shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The schedule was released in early February. So much has changed.
ESPN aired 2,131 last night and Ripken watched it for the first time from start to finish. He told me yesterday that he'd stumble...
The Nationals are lending celebrity chef José Andrés a really big place to cook.
During the baseball hiatus prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, World Central Kitchen will distribute from Nationals Park thousands of free meals prepared in two of its large kitchens. The Spanish star chef and owner of gourmet restaurants in Washington and other cities across the United States founded the organization after an earthquake devastated Haiti in 2010.
Uber Eats drivers will ferry the food to D.C....
Honest opinion: What was your reasonable, best-case scenario for the Nationals in the first two games of the World Series? Maybe you had a pie-in-the-sky dream of snatching both games from the Astros and returning to D.C. flying high, but realistically you just wanted to see them win one of two on the road. Especially when those two games were started by Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander. Right?
Well, after beating Cole in Game 1, the Nats returned to Minute Maid Park the next night for Game 2...
Say this for officials of Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association: They seem very determined to play baseball in 2020.
That may prove to be ambitious, but the will to get it done is clearly there.
The plan that ESPN and other outlets reported on yesterday included all 30 teams playing their games in the Phoenix area in parks with no fans. Players and other essential personnel would basically be under a form of quarantine, going back and forth from a hotel to a...
Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. has been intrigued with the idea of opening a Twitter account. He just needed a reason to do it beyond the interaction with fans, something he did tirelessly in person during a 21-year major league career. Most notably in 1995 as he closed in on Lou Gehrig's record for most consecutive games played.
Ripken found his excuse and, as usual, it tied into his desire to help other people.
Using his new account (@CalRipkenJr.), which already was approaching 3,000...
My mind keeps spinning back to past Orioles teams that I've covered as an adult or watched as a kid. Anything to limit my screen time during this shutdown.
Let me pose a question this morning while we resist the urge to panic shop.
(Don't be that person. You don't need 12 dozen eggs and all the toilet paper and liquid hand soap.)
Which homegrown Orioles started out good, fooling you into thinking that they'd become future All-Stars or at least longtime contributors, and then fizzled? Got...



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