Orioles-Mariners: Welcome to Bizarro World

Here’s Daniel Cabrera’s line from last night vs. the Seattle Mariners:

Wait a second…no walks? Let me take another look…yup, no walks. I’ll say this, it’s far too early to get excited about Daniel Cabrera in the sense that he may have finally turned a corner. We’ve been there, done that. The new season gives us new hope though. Coupled with a new pitching coach and a new-ish manager however, we’ve got a few reasons to think that Cabrera might be in the environment now that is required for him to be as dominating as we all though he could be. We can only hope that this continues as Cabrera is just what we need to be competitive this year. That’s three straight quality starts…and counting.

Nick Markakis ended some personal frustration last night. Supposedly he had been pressing which led to a pre-game meeting with Dave Trembley. Trembley told him to take it easy and not to step outside of himself. Markakis then had a frustrating night at the plate and was almost ejected for arguing balls and strikes. When Ryan Rowand-Smith entered the game to face Markakis in the top of the 8th, Markakis had decided he was first pitch swinging. The result? The game-winning home run.

When men with hyphenated names get married, what happens to the name? Like if Ryan Rowand-Smith got married to Jane Doe, does she become Jane Rowand-Smith? What if she wants to keep her last name? Jane Doe-Rowand-Smith? Just wondering. Collect ‘em all!

David Steele had a great article in today’s Sun about Miguel Tejada and ESPN’s missed opportunity. Anyone who reads the blog knows that I have a beef with ESPN because they have become a tabloid of sorts for the world of sports. Check it out here. ESPN has become a must for sports fans. We can’t ignore it. It just irks me sometimes that they have no shame in their biases and their nature for making mountains out of stories where the facts come in molehills. This is not a story about Tejada lying, it’s a story about a culture of lying and the reasons why any of us would do the SAME thing if we were in that position. I suppose that is the trade off for being the “worldwide leader.”