I had to chuckle a bit when I saw Gary Thorne and Mike Flanagan interviewing former Baltimore Orioles’ manager Earl Weaver during today’s MASN telecast. All Oriole fans have fond things to say about the Earl of Baltimore; whether you’re old enough to remember him managing the team or not. (In my case I have faint memories of his second stint with the team from 1984-1985.) Weaver said that he had the opprotunity to address the Oriole coaching staff this morning regarding the Oriole Way, which is a golden age of sorts in Oriole history.
As we remember, Earl’s potion for winning games was “pitching, defense, and the three-run home run.” Ironically, the latter part of that theory was proven correct in this afternoon’s ballgame, as the Phillies beat the O’s 7-5 under a beautiful blue sky with blonde streaks of sunshine in Sarasota. With the O’s up 5-2 in the fifth inning, Jake Arrieta walked the first two Philadelphia batters before Jimmy Rollins popped out. After Buck Showalter changed pitchers, Clay Rapada managed to serve up a three-run homer to Shane Victorino which tied the game. Erik Kratz added on a solo homer off of Michael Gonzalez in the seventh before the Phillies added on another run to close out the scoring for the afternoon.
If the 2011 Phillies will be noted for anything, it’ll probably be their starting rotation. However, Oriole bats made Cole Hamels look fairly mortal during his time in the game. Robert Andino was safe at first after dragging a bunt down the first base line on the first pitch. After an Adam Jones walk and with Derrek Lee making his first spring training at-bat, Buck Showalter put Andino and Jones in motion on a double-steal which resulted with two runners in scoring positon and nobody out. Lee took first base on a walk after which Vladimir Guerrero swung at the first pitch and lined it into center. Adam Jones came home on a Nolan Reimold walk, and Derrek Lee scored on a fielder’s choice by Randy Winn. Suddenly, the O’s had three runs on the board against Philadelphia, who’s rotation was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Prhaps more importantly, the Orioles loaded the bases two times in that first inning against Philadelphia. If this were the regular season those three runs would be the most important part of the equation. But given that it’s still spring training, the fundamentals that led to those runs are the biggest story. In other words, during spring training the means justify the ends, whereas in the regular season the ends will have to justify the means. Vladimir Guerrero got somewhat lucky in that Hamels started him off with a high changeup; Vlad swings at everything, and most opponents know that. Andino’s drag bunt showed a lot of versatility on his part as well. Adam Jones showed that his judgement has improved at the plate in walking on four consecutive pitches (laying off of that slider). All of these things, along with Mark Reynolds’ RBI-single in the third showed sound fundamentals on the part of the Orioles offensively today.
As for Jake Arrieta, he elevated his fastball a bit but his stuff was pretty good. After the game Buck Showalter and Arrieta himself agreed that (Arrieta) needs to work on his tempo a bit. Michael Gonzalez, in a sober reminder of the first few games of last season, gave up two homers in that fifth inning. As I stated above, Derrek Lee made his debut today, going 0-1 with a strikeout and a walk. Lee is expecting to be ready for Opening Day, and is looking forward to getting in as many spring at-bats as he can in the time left before the regular season. Brian Roberts is expected to play in tomorrow’s game against Tampa in Port Charlotte. I’m not saying that those injuries can be wiped off the board, but the fact that the O’s are getting those guys back now is a good sign that they’ll be ready to go on Opening Day.
I think I’m speaking on behalf of all Oriole fans when I say that it was good to see the Earl of Baltimore on the telecast today. In my opinion baseball does the best job out of all the sports in honoring it’s past and it’s heros. The Yankees still have an annual “old-timers game,” and most teams have former stars that linger around their camps and their ballparks come the regular season. I don’t feel that you should spend so much time on the past that you lose sight of the future, but history has always been important in baseball. Earl Weaver is part of that history; we can also hope that the winning that he represents is also part of the Orioles’ future.
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