On Sunday, September 8, the Oriole Advocates will conduct their 2013 Cardboard to Leatherâ„¢ collection at Oriole Park, presented by Legg Mason. The Oriole Advocates created the program in 1992 to provide new and used baseball and softball equipment to underprivileged youth in developing countries. Since the program started, the Oriole Advocates have distributed tons of equipment to little league ball players throughout the world in places such as Afghanistan, Aruba, Belgrade,...

They had a first-year manager and plenty of new players, some brand new to pro ball coming right out of the 2013 draft. Then the short-season, Single-A Aberdeen IronBirds started the season 0-5 and were outscored 28-9. They were probably not thinking about the playoffs then, but Aberdeen picked up a key extra-innings win the next night and went 6-1 over the next seven games to right the ship. "We were 0-5 but no one panicked," manager Matt Merullo remembered. "The guys were just getting to...

Let's take a look at what's going on in the divisional races: * If the season ended today, the Red Sox would be considered the favorite to represent the American League in the World Series, but watch out for Texas. The Rangers might be having trouble beating Oakland in the AL West, but it is hard to argue with the Rangers' deep bullpen and a rotation led by Yu Darvish, Matt Garza and Derek Holland. And prospect Martin Perez has come out of nowhere to be a consistent winner. Biggest surprise...

It's the latest craze! Since Manny Machado has reached the majors, we've seen "Hakuna Machado" signs and shirts in the stands at Camden Yards. Now, thanks to the MLB Fan Cave, Manny's nickname was made official with its own music video. With appearances from J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones, Tommy Hunter, Boog Powell, Jim Hunter, Mike Bordick, Orioles fans and even Machado himself, MLB Fan Cave's video proves that "Hakuna Machado" is a wonderful phrase. Your browser does not support iframes.

We're getting to that time of year where scoreboard watching becomes a pretty big part of the nightly routine for major league teams still in playoff contention. Teams like the Nationals can talk all they want about how they're just focused on taking care of their own business. They can say that their concern is just on each game that they play, and that they aren't worried about what's going on around them. Part of that certainly might be true. The Nats can't get caught up looking in...

It had been longer than I could remember since I last sat in the stands at Nationals Park, so on Sunday I changed that. Maybe it was the fact that it was "Sunday Night Baseball" on the eve of Labor Day or maybe it was the fact that I was feeling slightly burned out. But either way, I went to that game. The unfortunate part is that I missed the eighth-inning comeback due to having to catch the Metro in the bottom of the seventh. The superstitious voice in my head said, "You know, the second...

It's no secret that Baltimore sports fans have a bit of a chip on their shoulders. Whether you root for the Orioles, or both the O's and the Super Bowl champion Ravens, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The national media doesn't seem to respect the Orioles in the same way as it does some other teams. Part of it could be understood after a long string of consecutive losing seasons. Then again, I've seen the Pittsburgh Pirates glorified in the media over the past few days as they end...

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - The high Single-A Potomac Nationals edged the Lynchburg Hillcats 2-1 in 14 innings, grabbing the first game in the Carolina League Northern Division playoffs' best-of-three series. Michael Taylor's clean single to left scored the winning run from third base to give the P-Nats Game 1 of the series. The P-Nats can sweep the series with a victory Thursday night. "I was just trying to put the bat on the ball," Taylor said. "I struggled a little bit earlier in the day. I was...

A few thoughts after a road trip that put a real damper on the Orioles' playoff chances, as the Birds lost three series against three teams that they are competing with for postseason berths. * Michael Morse has started just two of the five games he has been an Oriole. Even if we don't count Saturday since he had a long travel day and there was not a plan to start him then, it is still two of four games. Now the O's have only faced one lefty in that stretch, but I thought they might just...

PHILADELPHIA - There were jokes all around in the Nationals' clubhouse tonight as players packed up their things for a flight to Miami and monitored the Reds-Cardinals extra-inning game on multiple clubhouse TVs. The bulk of the chatter was about two defensive gems - the Steve Lombardozzi/Jordan Zimmermann spin-and-scoop at first base to end the seventh inning and keep the game tied, and the Jhonatan Solano sprint-and-tag at the plate in the eighth that kept the Nats on top 3-2. The play by...