Orioles Precition

Even though I said I would be boycotting MLB, I retracted my boycott and am going back to my annual tradition of trying to predict how the O's are going to do this year. Last year I predicted that they would go 59 and 103, they won 9 more games then I thought they would ending the season at 68-93 which really confuses me since it appears they only played 161 games last year instead of the standard 162 games; I guess there was a rained out game that was never made up again, which is probably good so that they wouldn't lose again.

This year I am going out on a limb. They exceeded my expectations last year and while it would be easy for me to continue to predict that they will have a losing season (would be their 13th in a row), I am going to go out on a limb. In order to prevent a losing season the Orioles would have to win 81 games. I know that they basically don't have a starting pitcher capable of winning more then 10 games, but I believe that something good will happen this season. They won't make the playoffs or anything that great, but I think they can get over .500. This year's prediction, 83 – 79; yes that would be a winning season and good jumping off point for the future. I can't wait, I will be back in the US for most of the season and hope to be watching the birds win it up (over half the time).

The Boycott that never was...

Way back when, I thought about writing a blog entry about my unofficial boycott of my hometown baseball team the Orioles. My boycott was going to be to not pay attention to anything Orioles or baseball in general this whole season. I guess my justification for not writing a blog entry was mostly because I thought if I wrote an entry I would have been talking about them, so it was quite the conundrum (kind of similar to the Cowboys saying they would keep TO and then cutting him…only not). The reason I was going to boycott baseball is because there is no justice in the free agent market for the small market teams like the Orioles and I have had to endure free agent after free agent go to the Orioles division rivals the Yankees (aka, the evil empire) and the Red Sox (aka, the formally cursed team that everyone wants to play for now that the curse has been lifted). My frustration hit a breaking point when a "hometown boy," Mark Teixeira decided to go with the Yankees. I put hometown boy in quotes because regardless of how much money was being offered, if you grew up in the Baltimore area and were truly an Orioles fan, there would be no amount of money that should inspire you to go to the Yankees…kind of like St. Josephs is to Villanova (man do I seriously dislike that stupid St. Joes Hawk and his flappy-ness).

Anyway, I say all this because…well…the boycott is over. Yeah, I didn't have the guts to go through with it, and to be honest, the O's are my boys, I can't leave them hanging. I know they will probably only win like 60 games this season, but who cares, I have endured 11 straight losing seasons, what's another one on the list? So, as has been the tradition, before opening day this year, I will give my true prediction of the O's for the season…I know all you readers (me) can't wait.

I was wrong…hopefully way wrong

I am very happy that I was wrong about my good ole O's. They have eclipsed my prediction of only winning 59 games this season by winning their 60th game yesterday. While still sitting in last place (in last place in by far the most competitive division of the majors), they are only 3 games away from being .500. They have not been this close to .500 this late in the season in probably 9 or 10 years, so this makes me excited. So much so, that I hope I am very wrong in my prediction and I hope that they can be right around .500 this season, that would be a major success for a team with basically no names (for those non-O's fans).

Prediction

Do you all remember my prediction for the Orioles? Well if you don't (and you don't know how to click the link), you might remember that I predicted that they would win 59 games this whole season. As I write this, they have won 52 games thus far in the season and with 54 games left in the season, I am pretty confident that they will crush my prediction of 59 games. Note that if they do end up only winning 59 games this season, not only will it be one of the worst second halves that a team has ever played, but I will have to begin actually doing this prediction thing on a more regular basis. I am not planning on quitting my day job though because they will most likely get to around 70-75 wins this season if they keep pace with how they have been doing this whole season. Believe it or not, this will be an accomplishment for these guys and I will be very happy to be wrong.

UPDATE: I wrote this while the game today was going on, just in case you wanted to know, they now have 53 wins, so only 6 away, looks like my title of being an idiot is still in place.

My prediction and some memories

Even though the baseball season has begun, I still have to make it a priority to give my prediction for the Orioles this season. If you can remember all the way back to last year, I predicted they would land somewhere around .500, but in fact they came no where close. This year I am going to try to be more realistic (note that this prediction was made over email prior to the first two games of this season), my prediction for my boys for this season is 59-103. That's right, I think this is even slightly inflated for them this season, but I am optimistic.

So this season will be another flop, but they are still my team and as such I have to rely on my memories of when things were better. I remember my first opening day in 1988, my dad picked me up early from elementary school and we went to have a great day at Memorial Stadium. The O's lost, but it was still a great day of exciting baseball...oh wait...how could this be the "better days," the O's lost their first 21 games that season. Well, I also remember going to opening day in 2003...wait...there was some periods of heavy snow that came to a peak when one of the Cleveland Indians hit a pop fly to right field and it was snowing so heavy that the right fielder (Jay Gibbons?) couldn't even see the ball. Oh well, so my good memories were of the O's losing, oh well, they are 1-1 as I write this entry, so at least they won't beat their 0-21 season start.

Go O's!!

MLB Flushes Poo Poo O's

As I write this, the Orioles are about to take the field for the first time in 2007, and, for the first time in almost 30 years, they will be opening away from Baltimore. Actually I didn't know that it had been almost 30 years until I read this Baltimore Sun article, but when I heard that they were opening on the road I thought, "I don't remember the last time they opened on the road," I guess that's because they haven't in my lifetime. The MLB can tell us that it's because the Nationals are in town and they are trying to make it so that one team in the area has an opening day at home while the other opens on the road, but this just doesn't make sense. In the National's inaugural year, both the Nationals and the O's began the season at home. My theory, its just the fact that the O's are stinking it up, and the MLB is trying to get the best teams to start out at home, with the exception of the Royals (which confuses me, but I guess they have to start at home everyone once and a while), all the teams with home games the first day are the winners (Detroit, NY Yanks, Philly, Houston). I know the Nat's stunk it up last year, but I think the MLB is sticking it to Peter Angelos and the O's for fighting the whole Nat's thing.

It actually makes sense this way (am I agreeing with the MLB, well no, cause this is not a definitive rule, but I am saying that they should make it into one), if a team does well the previous season they deserve to start the season at home, it should be a part of the privilege of performing we...start out at home. Basically, the O's have played themselves into opening on the road, if they continue to stink then start them out on a long road trip, make them earn their way back to a home opening day. It definitely kills an opening day tradition, but it also gives a team one other small motivation to continue to fight all season long. By the way O's fans, next year the Nat's are opening up their new stadium, so there is a 0% chance the O's will open at home next year.

Coming off the heals of a pretty nice NCAA tournament, just to review, went 4 for 4 on the final four and 1 for 2 on the finals (had Georgetown advancing, just trying to give them some Big East love), I guess you would love for me to give my predictions. Well, baseball is not my thing, and I really hate predicting who is going to win it all, but I will keep it local with the O's. They absolutely can't be worse then last year, unless afflicted by major injuries, their young players should be improved over last year, Peter Gammons has them in 3rd place in the AL East, whoa nelly, I'm not that bold, ESPN.com has them at 4th place in the AL East ending at 75-87, pretty safe prediction (last 3 season results: 2006: 70-92, 2005: 74-88, 2004: 78-84). I think the 9 season streak of having a losing season ends...next year, yes I don't think they will be quite there yet, but close. I am close to ESPN, but I think they will be right on the cusp of a winning season, finishing 4th in the AL East with a record of 80-82. This opening 6 game road trip against Minnesota, and NY Yanks, then a 3 game home opening against Detroit is going to haunt them come the end of the season, so they won't be able to make it over the hump quite yet. Nonetheless, O's prove me wrong, and earn that home opener.

IN: Popcorn, Orville Redenbacher would be proud to see his true baby coming back to life. People are putting down the chips and pretzels and starting to pop up the every fun and tasty popcorn. But this time its not just butter they are putting on their popped corn, toppings include cheese, old bay, jalapenos and sugar(kettle corn of course has grown in popularity outside of sketchy carnivals over the past couple of years). People also think popcorn is more healthy, but add butter flavoring, salt, sugar, and cheese and you basically have the equivalent to a chip. But congrats to popcorn for making it back to the limelight.

OUT: High executive pay - now I can write a whole diatribe on this one, but its a fact that executives of most large publicly traded companies make anywhere from 50-200 times the average workers salary, and that is simply insane. As you know I am for a free market, but sometimes you just have to pull in the reigns of a free market gone wild. There is no true justification for giving the executives this much in compensation, should they be compensated like superstars, absolutely, but some of these executives led company's with mediocre(if any) earnings and still get a grand payday (see Home Depot). Being a CEO and CFO is a privilege and they should get paid a lot for that privilege, but this should not be at the expense of the Company or its shareholders, in fact they do need to be held more accountable for the actions of the Company if the Company is under performing yet they are still taking massive checks to the bank. Just a thought that I will get into more later.