sometimes i have more opinions than i know what to do with

I am reviving this space for a post of sports-related odds and ends I wanted to talk about and didn't have the venue for elsewhere. Perhaps I shall return permanently and write long odes to Jacob Stallings' emergence as not just a great pitcher's catcher but also a contributing member of the UNC baseball team's offense! Last night he walked four times!

• This week I wrote and discarded a very defensive post about the baseball team and their season, complete with statistics to back up the fact that we should have a better record than we do, because I decided that a) no one but shep. cared and I already spent last Sunday night figuring updated ERAs and BB/9 rates for all our pitchers and reading them to her in the living room in front of the ESPN Sunday Night MLB game and b) it was probably politically incorrect to refer to any of our outfielders as midgets even if two of them are in fact under 5'7".
  
  
• The Future of Quarterbacking at Carolina is also doing time this spring at DH and 1B for the baseball team, and John Shoop, Butch's O-Coordinator, is being very passive-aggressively bitchy about having to share Bryn Renner with Mike Fox. We, for two, are pro Bryn Renner playing baseball simply because he loves it that much, and as I said on Twitter a while back, in response to a discussion at the ballpark of how QB time would be split between TJ Yates and Renner this fall, if I run TJ Yates over with my car Bryn Renner will start all the time. Also, whenever I think about John Shoop, a coach on a team that's been far less successful than the baseball team historically, being passive-aggressive at Mike Fox's program, my head starts to hurt.
  
  
• Last night shep. and I both were pleased that Matt Harvey got the win against State, because he deserved it, and today we're going to the spring football game of our own free will, and I feel a little like I've been Stockholmed without realizing it.
  
  
• Mike Leake comes out of spring training to win the job as the Reds' fifth starter, making his MLB debut tomorrow against the Cubs, and while a lot of people seem to be scratching their heads over the naming of a 22 year old rookie an MLB starter, let me just say: y'all, we watched Mike Leake take Carolina's lineup apart not once but twice in the College World Series last year. The lineup that included #2 draft pick Dustin Ackley, who could seriously swing a toothpick at a change-up in the dirt and connect for a base hit. Leake was a scarily polished pitcher even last year, and Pat Casey has (well, had, I suppose, since he's now out at Arizona State) a reputation for grooming mature and well-seasoned players, so I'm not surprised that the Reds, who've struggled for the past, well, quite a while, are staking as much as they are on Leake -- a pitcher like this kid could be a franchise-changer, if only through the optimism his success would bring. Do I like the idea of that poor baby in Dusty Baker's hands? Not really. Does the idea of Mike Leake skipping the minors entirely surprise me? Not really.
  
  
• Newsflash: the Orioles are still trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I'm mailing Mike Gonzalez back to Atlanta. Miguel Tejada is being useless in the 4 spot. No one is surprised by any of this. The Wiets was hitting .500 through the first three games, though!

"That's why Andy McPhail's a GM, and I'm not."

The Orioles have finally pulled the trigger on something and traded Miguel Tejada to the Astros for five prospects. This is a considerably better return than the basket of dirty laundry I was willing to offer the Orioles (we here in the NC were then going to offer Tejada to the Marlins for Andrew Miller, who would look lovely on our couch, although probably not develop much as a pitcher while he was here), and it gives me hope in Andy McPhail.

I still don't want to see them trade Bedard, because I think that he and Jeremy Guthrie and Matt Wieters and Jake Arrieta are the kind of guys you can build a franchise on, but I also understand the need to sell high if we can get good young guys in return. I hope they work something out with the Cubs for Brian Roberts -- we could use a good, young, only-slightly-proven-but-got-a-lot-of-talent middle infield duo, hint hint, Theriot and Fontenot, if they unload Roberts -- and I hope they hang onto Bedard, but for the first time in almost ten years, I've got this feeling in my stomach about the Orioles, and it feels like hope.

Which is a good thing, because otherwise being a Baltimore sports fan is very hard right now.

Cities That Love Sports Too Much And The Greedy Team Owners Who Use Them.

Last Monday, watching the Ravens roll over like bitches in their season opener, I said, "I think I'm really going to put my back into being a Ravens fan this year." shep. sort of made the face, and my cat, who goes by the name of Billy Donovan around here, rolled over, lifted a leg, and started to lick himself, which really sort of sums up the entirety of being a Baltimore sports fan these days. When Billy Donovan won't back you up, you know you're in trouble.

It's hard to be an Orioles fan. I'm in the middle of a trial reconciliation with them, after eight years of bitterness, anger and Midwest living, and it hasn't been easy. They're bad. I mean, historically, legendarily bad, and not in terms of loss numbers, either. Thirty runs to Texas. Seventeen to Tampa Bay and then eighteen to the Angels. No-hit by a rookie. The worst bullpen in baseball and the best All-DL starting rotation. Injuries too numerous to count. And yet I continue to love them, because I am stupid and I am a Baltimore native and I enjoy having my heart broken over and over and over again like that.

Usually in September, I'm done with baseball. This year I'm still cheering for two game winning streaks.

And then the Ravens started off the season with three first-quarter turnovers, and Kyle Boller failed to throw a game-winning touchdown even given a fourth-down penalty blessing and getting to try three more times; instead of throwing a touchdown after seven downs inside the goal line with the game on the line, he threw an interception.

I think it's fate. I think I'm doomed to love teams that are phenomenally bad in excruciatingly creative ways. And I can't help myself. I'm going to put my back into being a Ravens fan this year, because I'm from the Baltimore: sometimes, losing's the only thing we know how to do.