Excuse us for feeling like the Ravens and Orioles are colluding on some master plan to make us learn as many new names and storylines as possible before they begin their 2019 seasons. It’s hard to keep up with all the changes.

This week alone: Terrell Suggs gone, to Arizona (here he is in Cardinal red—weird); Eric Weddle signed with a team in Los Angeles; C.J. Mosley, he of the cathartic playoff-berth sealing interception and a four-time Pro Bowler, is now the richest inside linebacker in the NFL, with the New York Jets; Joe Flacco was officially traded to Denver; and outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith said he’s headed to Green Bay. There’s no telling how many hours the Ravens’ social media staff spent posting nostalgic thank you tributes to the departed.

Meanwhile, former Orioles captain Adam Jones signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks (are there good crabs in the southwest or something?)—he got a video tribute, too—and first-year O’s manager Brandon Hyde named Alex Cobb the team’s Opening Day starter.

And we haven’t even talked about the big additions to town: safety Earl Thomas and running back Mark Ingram, whom the Ravens signed at the start of the NFL’s free agency period and whom the team will introduce at a press conference in Owings Mills on Friday morning.

It’s always difficult to say goodbye to familiar and respected sports heroes—which we’ve done a lot of the last few months (see Buck Showalter, Flacco, and Jones). But change also creates opportunities, and fresh starts. Two-plus months into this year, that’s the story of Baltimore’s biggest teams. The question now is what comes of the all the new?

Well, for starters, the Ravens’ addition of Thomas, who has been widely regarded as one of the league’s best safeties but missed most of last season with a broken leg, seems fitting for a franchise that will see Ed Reed inducted to the Hall of Fame this August at that position. Thomas was the leader of the Seattle Seahawks’ legendary “Legion of Boom” a few years ago.

A pairing with fellow safety Tony Jefferson has already led a few observers to create equal parts patriotic and funny “Thomas Jefferson” references to the twosome.

The continued changing-of-the-quarterback guard will get the most attention, though. The Ravens thanked Flacco for the memories after the trade was made official, and he in turn thanked them.

At around the same time, second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson, who has been handed the keys to the offense, posted to his Instagram account a self-recorded video of him driving 105 miles per hour on a highway, apparently without wearing a seatbelt.

The video ended up on TMZ, and Jackson apologized for the “bad decision,” and said he “will set a better example going forward.” Jackson is 22 years old, and we’ve praised him before for his authenticity, but clearly has some growing up to do.

He deleted the troublesome video from his account, but left public his thoughts on all the free agency moves, which also don’t seem to sit right.

The only thing that would have made this week more interesting is if former Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell chose to sign with the Ravens instead of the Jets, which he was reportedly close to doing.

We’re also close to the O’s first game of the year, now less than two weeks away against the Yankees in New York. Cobb, who was 5-15 with a 4.90 earned run average in 28 starts for the Orioles last season, is now apparently the O’s best pitcher.

That might not sound promising, but we’ll take our chances with something new.

Opening Day is 20 days away, and—has anyone noticed?—Adam Jones is still a free agent. Yes, the beloved former pie-throwing, gum-chewing, sweet-swinging Orioles captain remains without a baseball home—and his actual home, the Lutherville estate he bought from Cal Ripken, Jr. about a year ago and renovated over the last several months, is on the market for $4 million, too.

It’s a long shot, but now more than ever the idea is worth discussing. Is a Jones-Orioles reunion at all possible?

A piece of required O’s fan reading might inform the chances. One of the more fascinating parts of Ben Reiter’s book Astroball, which chronicles how the O’s current front-office leadership regime of Mike Elias and Sig Mejdal helped turn the Houston Astros from rags (three straight 100-loss seasons) to riches (100 wins and a World Series title four years later in 2017), is the case of a veteran player and potential future Hall of Famer, Carlos Beltran. He’s a guy not unlike Jones in stature and reverence.

Beltran was older in baseball years, 39, when the Astros signed him to a one-year, $16-million deal ahead of the 2017 season. And though he didn’t get a hit in the World Series, he provided the organization’s younger players with invaluable guidance and expertise, and the team probably wouldn’t have a won a championship without him. The Puerto Rico native helped bridge the cultural gaps in the clubhouse between English and Spanish-speaking players. He shared tips he picked up while watching hitters’ video, not just of himself but of teammates and opposing pitchers. And, in general, he was a sounding board and a trusted source, for anything.

The circumstances of the current O’s are different. We’re not talking championship hopes this year; in fact, quite the opposite. The Astros were already on the upswing in their rebuild when they signed Beltran. The O’s are just starting theirs. But at the same time, Jones, at 33, is six years younger than Beltran was.

The salient point is about the valuable presence a respected and likeable veteran player can provide—even if it’s admittedly difficult to quantify in the data-driven, video-capture era the O’s are now practicing. Indeed, Reiter penned in Astroball about what Mejdal, the former NASA engineer turned baseball analytics guru, thought of the Astros signing Beltran: “Not only did Sig have zero predictive information related to chemistry, but he didn’t even know what he might try to predict it.”

Here’s a recent piece of evidence that might fit a predictive chemistry model, if applied to the question of if bringing back Jones is worth it. Like the rest of us, he watched as his former teammate, Manny Machado, signed a lucrative contract—with Jones’ hometown San Diego Padres, of all teams—then not long after in an interview delivered a few words that could be interpreted as bad-mouthing the O’s. “The Orioles drafted me. I did a lot for that community, I did a lot for the state, and they didn’t show me a little bit of love,” Machado said. “It is what it is.”

We really can’t imagine Jones saying anything resembling those comments, or starting a debate as to what he really thinks about Baltimore. We know what he thinks. His wife, Audie, is from here. He played 11 years here and didn’t want to leave (see, vetoing the Phillies trade last July). He was back to host a charity event a few weeks after the O’s 2018 season ended. And those actions represented just a few reasons why so many fans want to see @SimplyAJ10 back in an O’s uniform.

In late January at the Orioles’ annual FanFest, Elias, the new general manager, fielded more questions from fans about Jones than any other topic during public question-and-answer sessions. At times, like after the third, or the fourth, you could infer Elias would rather talk about something else. He didn’t rule out a possible reunion with Jones, but didn’t exactly sound like he was dying to make it happen either.

He said the O’s would monitor the free-agent market, that Jones was always welcome with the organization, and it was nice to hear great things about him. But he also mentioned giving young players time to grow and get major league experience, a more than reasonable argument. And, since then, spring training in Sarasota has revealed that Cedric Mullins, D.J. Stewart, and Austin Hays are in good position to start in the outfield this year and prospect Yusniel Díaz, the prize return in the Machado trade to the Los Angeles Dodgers last year, is on the radar, too. They’ve been team-building in Florida.

But there’s room in the clubhouse and on the field for a guy as appreciated as Jones. First off, he can still play. Maybe he wouldn’t play every day, but when he does, he would show how it’s done. And, heck, Trey Mancini did his best impression of the old captain at the start of spring training when he ordered platters of Popeyes chicken for all after the team’s first game. Could you imagine what it would be like if Jones was actually on the team?

If the losses pile up fast this season, which is possible, per the Vegas odds-makers, Jones’ presence alone would give us something to root for, and a reason to show up for a steamy game in the middle of the summer. Because the good memories still linger and sports heroes like him don’t come around all the time.

And, most relevant and practical, the free-agent market that Elias spoke of six weeks ago has broken in the O’s favor. Jones’ former teammate, Steve Pearce, the reigning World Series MVP, recently said he’s surprised Jones is still available. There’s three weeks left until the O’s open the season March 28 at Yankee Stadium before a nationally televised audience, and Jones wants to be on a roster by then.

It’s hard to know exactly what AJ’s asking price is, but if it’s not much more than the $4 million he’s asking for his own house, the O’s front office should again run the algorithms in their “Nerd Cave” (that’s a label the Astros analytics department was known by) and consider taking a hard look at bringing back the sentimental favorite this year.

Because who cares if Jones already had his emotional sendoff last September at Camden Yards? We could do that again. There’s time and space for this second act.

It’s sad, but true. The consensus among Las Vegas sports books—and they typically know a thing or two about how games and seasons unfold—is our Baltimore Orioles have the longest odds at winning next year’s World Series.

Anywhere from 350-to-1 to 300-to-1, they say.

I guess this shouldn’t be surprising, but it still hurts. The Orioles are in major rebuild mode, and haven’t hired a manager, or a permanent general manager just yet, to lead a roster comprised of what are largely unproven players—and all that after a 115-loss season and the painful teardown of what we knew as the Old Guard. Buck. Manny. Adam. And the rest. (Okay, this is the last time we’ll write their names. Maybe.)

“It’s a process. It’s not going to happen overnight. In baseball, when you’re rebuilding, it takes some time,” first baseman Trey Mancini said on the last day of the season. “You have to get some of the right guys, people have to click, and unfortunately, it might take a couple years. That’s usually the case.”

A couple years? Really? Yes, another one in the sad, but true department. And as each day passes, those low expectations for the start of a new era of O’s baseball unfortunately become more real. Buck (Okay, last time we mention him, really) returned to town a few weeks ago to hold a previously scheduled charity event at Camden Yards, and he mentioned he and wife, Angela, sold their tractor, mower, and land at their Baltimore-area home, and would be holding an estate sale. That was two days before former Oriole Steve Pearce won 2018 World Series MVP with the Red Sox, after crushing three home runs in five games against Machado’s Los Angeles Dodgers.

Meanwhile, at the current moment, the O’s are like a schooner floating in the bay without a captain while powerboats zip by. John and Louis Angelos, now in control of the team’s day-to-day operations, have reportedly interviewed a few candidates to be the team’s top executive from a broad list of targets—including Houston Astros assistant general manager Mike Elias (analytics, man!), former Red Sox and current Blue Jays assistant GM Ben Cherington, and former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti. But Orioles player development director Brian Graham is still the point person for the roster in an interim role.

Whoever the next front office leader is will hire the next manager, but that’s a way’s off, even as major league baseball’s free-agent signing period has already begun.

That means the guys we used to know—Machado and Jones (Okay, last time, seriously. That’s it), the latter who will be back in Baltimore Thanksgiving weekend for a Boys & Girls Clubs charity tailgate—now have the chance to sign with new teams. But it’s doubtful anyone will want to come here given the lack of clarity in leadership. The O’s are the only team in baseball without a general manager right now.

Aside from a few in-their-prime leftovers from last season—like Mancini, pitcher Dylan Bundy and prospective closer Mychal Givens—and a handful of second-year pros, you’re unlikely to be familiar with the O’s Opening Day roster come April. They don’t even know who they are yet.

So, as much we want the Vegas odds-makers to be wrong, they’re probably right. On the bright side, an Orioles World Series win next October would give you the greatest return on investment of any baseball bet you could make right now. If you ever wanted to turn $10 into $3,500, no strings attached and for a good cause, this is the time to take a chance.

Sports tend to be a great outlet for a city to express its collective id. And while Baltimore has had plenty of modest, lunch-pail, grind-it-out sports heroes (Johnny Unitas and Cal Ripken, Jr. being the obvious examples), it’s also had more than its fair share of larger-than-life characters.

One of our first great sports celebrities was the Colts’ Artie Donovan, a funny, irreverent raconteur who was as comfortable on The Tonight Show couch as he was on the gridiron. We also had the Orioles’ famously pugnacious Earl Weaver, whose nose-to-nose, spittle-flying, profanity-laced confrontations with umpires, pictured, were the stuff of legends. Weaver often clashed with his gifted right-handed pitcher Jim Palmer, who with his perfect teeth and off-field polish made him a perfect foil to his manager.

The rowdiness of Weaver extended to the fans in the stands, who exuberantly took it upon themselves to improve the National Anthem by inserting a raucous “O!” before “Does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave?”—a tradition that continues to this day. Meanwhile, at Memorial Stadium, Wild Bill Hagy became an icon for donning that ubiquitous cowboy hat and leading the cheap seats in a pantomimed chant of O-R-I-O-L-E-S. (We also like to think that Hagy is the one responsible for “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” emerging as the official song of the seventh-inning stretch.)

Our tradition of eccentric athletes continues into the 21st century with the preacher-warrior linebacker Ray Lewis and his unforgettable “Hot in Herre” pre-game dance; our delightfully geeky, opera-singing, Royal-Farms-pitching kicker Justin Tucker; and the bubble-blowing, food-loving, do-gooding Adam Jones.

Each of our sports heroes tell us a little something about ourselves—what we value, what makes us laugh and cheer, how we choose to be perceived by the rest of the country. And while there will never be another Donovan, Hagy, or Jones, we’ll undoubtedly find another endearingly oddball athlete to idolize. It’s what we do.

Adam Jones has been around a while. I can guarantee he doesn’t remember, but I talked to him seven years ago, at the start of Buck Showalter’s first full season in Baltimore, which coincided with my own arrival here. While reporting on a story for the New York newspaper I used to work for, looking ahead to Showalter’s return to his old Yankee Stadium stomping grounds a few days later, I approached Jones at his locker in Camden Yards before a Sunday afternoon game and asked how things we’re going so far, with Buck at the helm.

“Heck of a lot better than last year, I can tell you that,” he said, earnestly, and without hesitation. The O’s were in first place in the division at the time. “Winning is a lot better than losing.”

Jones, who arrived in 2008, obviously knows the toils of the pre-Buck years, as much as the spoils of success during the memorable playoff runs in 2012 and 2014. And now, 33 years old and near the end of his 11th season wearing an O’s uniform, he’s a metaphorical bridge of sorts to the bad times again, finding himself of all people—benched for four recent games, including last night against the A’s at home—as the latest piece of evidence of perhaps the most dismal of the franchise’s 64 seasons.

The O’s have lost more than 100 games—104 to be precise; just three short of the team’s infamous low-water mark of 107 defeats in 1988—and they still have 16 games to play the last three weeks of the season.

There’s speculation of a possible offseason house-cleaning, meaning goodbye to Buck and general manager Dan Duquette. We already saw the roster imploded—Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Jonathan Schoop, Kevin Gausman, Brad Brach, and Darren O’Day, where art thou?—and sold for prospects. Hope for the future, they say.

But, jeez, the present is hard to digest. If the O’s don’t have the resources or yearning to keep a player like Manny, what, exactly, is the point of all this? Empty green seats at Camden Yards are the lasting image of the last several months, which hit a bottom on Monday with a little over 9,141 fans announced in attendance.

That came after a weekend series away in Tampa Bay in which Jones, the team’s de facto captain, was benched for three games in favor of giving “the younger guys” playing time, after he already acquiesced to management about a month ago and shifted from his traditional centerfield position to the less glamourous right.

The benching led to this tweet . . .

. . . and support from Jones’ teammates, like shortstop Tim Beckham, who was quoted this week in the The Sun saying, “As much as he’s done for this city, as much as he’s done for this organization, he should be in there every day.” Jones also happens to lead the team in batting average since August 1.

So, sadly, it appears Jones and the O’s could now be headed for a bad breakup once the year is over. He, and Chris Davis, with his own set of circumstances, again wasn’t in the lineup last night, displaced by Joey Rickard, who’s 27, not exactly young by baseball standards and former top pick D.J. Stewart. Nothing says more about the state of the franchise than this situation.

Here’s Jones, the not-too-long-ago centerfielder and pie-throwing centerpiece, whose been a pro’s pro for 10-plus years and with the Orioles for at least five, a “10-and-5” status that, under Major League Baseball’s negotiated player rights, gave him the ability to veto a trade that would have sent him to Philadelphia in late July.

And did anyone else notice that it was Jones (and a few others) who were put on billboards around town and featured in MASN giveaway posters, and not the lame-duck Machado, clearly the team’s best player, before the season started?

Jones is a guy who’s appealed for a contract extension for several years, and subtly told the media during FanFest his desire for one again. But he hasn’t gotten one.

More recently, he mentioned publicly that if the O’s mentioned trading him to a contender for just the rest of this season, he’d be up for it, and would still consider signing back to play in Baltimore, where his wife is from and where he’s spent most of his adult life.

Then, of course, Jones nixed the trade to the Phillies, who were in first place in their own division. That decision presumably ruffled a few front office feathers, and certainly got us to where we are today, amid the O’s looking to the future at the expense of a fan favorite.

Professional sports is a business, at times more than it should. We know that from the Orioles’ enduring TV contract discussion with the Washington Nationals that’s set to impact the team’s finances, big name players we’ve seen leave or not sign here, and the hopefully-not-important fact that the team’s lease at Camden Yards ends in 2021, and has yet to be extended.

There are so many questions without answers right now, not the least of which is who’s really running the team? Brothers John and Louis Angelos seem to be in charge, with their father and owner, Peter, 89, reportedly in declining health.

For now, there are 10 games left at Camden Yards this season, and six straight starting tonight. We already missed a chance to wave an official goodbye to Manny Machado, although the writing was on the wall.

If this is also the end here for Jones, let’s hope the team gives anyone who wants to see him one more time the opportunity to say, “We love you, A.J.”

Gervonta “Tank” Davis Signs Deal with Under Armour
This is cool. World IBF junior lightweight champion Gervonta Davis, who just defended his title in convincing fashion Monday with a third-round TKO of Britain’s Liam Walsh, has inked a deal with Under Armour. To announce the partnership, Under Armour unveiled a billboard of Davis on I-95. It’s a particularly cool billboard, because Davis isn’t in the ring or even crouched with his fists up in a classic boxer’s pose. Instead, he’s standing in West Baltimore, looking contemplative but determined, row homes behind him, his elaborate neck tattoo in full view. The billboard reads: “Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis: Baltimore’s Own.”

Dennis Pitta hosts The Bachelorette viewing party.
This is the greatest thing we’ve ever seen. We’re not sure what our favorite part is, Justin Tucker admitting he’s the Whaboom guy (“I would hope that I’m not the Whaboom guy, but I think I might be the Whaboom guy”); Joe Flacco doubling over in laughter as a be-aproned Dennis Pitta brings out his freshly made cinnamon buns; or Pitta proving that real men can love reality TV dating shows when he says, “A lot of football players wants to act like they’re too cool and tough to watch shows like this. Not us.” This is pure gold.

Jones breaks Camden Yards home run record
It hasn’t been a particularly great few weeks for the Orioles (understatement alert), but there is at least one reason to celebrate: Adam Jones, team captain, center fielder, Twitter foodie, and all-around awesome dude has broken the home run record at Camden Yards. He hit his 125th Camden Yards dinger on Monday, a no-doubt-about-it blast to left field against the Twins. (The Orioles went on to lose the game in frustrating fashion, but let’s focus on the positive.) Congrats, Adam!

 Justin Jackson is back
You can exhale now, Terps fans. Forward Justin Jackson, arguably the strongest member of a trio of superb freshmen who helped lead the Terps to the NCAA tournament last season, has removed his name from draft consideration and will be returning to the team next season. Whew!

Michael Phelps teasing us again?
Is it weird that we don’t want Michael Phelps in the 2020 Olympics? It’s not that we don’t love the guy—we do. We just don’t want to mess with the perfection of what he’s already accomplished. That being said, dude keeps “joking” about a 2020 run. First, on April Fool’s he tweeted. “Some goals/dreams you just can’t get rid of…been doing a lot of thinking n I’ve decided that I’m going 2 make another comeback! #tokyo2020.” Okay, that was funny. But then, just this week he posted a photo of himself and fellow Olympiad Grant Hackett to Instagram, with the caption, “Just two old dudes getting back in the pool…2020?” Then he followed that up with a Tweet that linked to the ’Gram post and added, “A little rusty . . . nah, still got it!” One joke is funny. Two jokes are intriguing. But three jokes? We’re just saying.

What a strange, intense inferno of a week it’s been for the Orioles.

This, all in the last two nights in Boston: Adam Jones said racist fans repeatedly heckled him in the outfield on Monday, at least one tossed a bag of peanuts at him, and stadium officials eventually escorted that guy out of Fenway Park; many more (non-racist-name-calling) Red Sox fans gave Jones a standing ovation on Tuesday before his first at-bat in a sign of support; but the good feelings ended just one batter later, when Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale threw yet another ball of rubber, twisted-yarn and cowhide at nearly 100 miles per hour in the direction of Manny Machado’s head.

It’s often easy to lose track of who holds the moral high ground in the weird, childish, and occasionally embarrassing tit-for-tat world of unwritten baseball rules. Maybe the latest Missile at Manny, the fifth (!) by a Red Sox pitcher this year, was in retaliation from Monday, when Dylan Bundy hit one of their guys or because Manny took some extra time rounding the bases after a cathartic home run.

However, the fan tossing food and the racist words at Fenway is more cut and dry. Even the Red Sox owners requested to meet with Jones on Tuesday morning to apologize and address the situation, and Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker tweeted:

What’s more, Jones said to media on Monday night, the incident is bringing to light a very dark underbelly of baseball fandom and he thinks it’s important to speak on it rather than stay silent. He said it wasn’t the first time he’s heard the n-word on the road in Boston, and a few black Major League Baseball players have said the same the last two days.

“It’s frustrating for me,” he told reporters. “I am a grown man with a family to raise and I am not going to let somebody just sit there and berate me. Let’s be honest with ourselves—this isn’t the only place that’s like that. It’s all about having a conversation and, once you have the dialogue, that means you can work toward something.”

But the latest on-field events last night, even if linked indirectly by the sole discretion of one pitcher, did nothing but keep open the unresolved, simmering tension between the two teams that started more than a week ago, when a Machado slide into little-guy second baseman Dustin Pedroia was perceived as a “dirty” play.

Manny insists that high-leg wasn’t intentional, and he’s obviously seen and heard enough about all the shenanigans. Machado unleashed another towering homer last night, against Sale, and after Boston’s 5-2 win last night (oh, yes, the scoreboard; remember that’s why they play? And the O’s are still tied with the Yankees for first place in the A.L. East), he lost it, as players sometimes do in post-game interviews with media after wild, temper-raising affairs.

“I’ve lost mad respect for that organization, for that coaching staff, for everyone over there,” Machado said amid a profanity-laced tirade that will probably endear the Gold Glover even more to dedicated O’s fans.

Here’s the NSFW without headphones version (unless your office-mates are cool), and here’s a cleaned up version with MASN’s Gary Thorne after the game, who sounds like he wishes he could have asked more.

In more than one way, the O’s take on the personality of their bench leader, Buck Showalter. The manager has never been one to steer completely clear of controversy and not speak his mind. Close observers will remember him digging at the Yankees and Red Sox in a Men’s Journal article shortly upon arrival in Baltimore.

One of Machado’s salient points in his rant is, if he charges the mound, he’ll get suspended “for a year,” he said—not really, but a long time, like the five games he got in 2014 for throwing a bat—while a pitcher who intentionally throws at a hitter maybe gets a game or two.

And to think, the Orioles still have two more games to play in Boston this week.

Ubaldo? U bet! On the heels of a 9-3 drubbing in the series opener at Cincinnati’s The Great American Ball Park (okay, we have serious problems with that name) the lovable, but ever-unpredictable Ubaldo Jimenez delivered a dominant effort, shutting down the Red Stockings over 7 and 2/3 innings. The most fun part of the night? When Adam Jones—ignoring a team pieing ban—celebrated the Jimenez’s stalwart performance with a strawberry pie to the kisser during the on-air, post-game interview.

Ubaldo has been known to string together both good and bad outings and we hope Wednesday is a sign he’s about to get on a roll. We also hope this means more post-game dessert action from our star centerfielder.

Trey Mancini’s magic bat. Trey Mancini, the young Orioles slugger, tied a Major League record earlier this week while rocking two home runs in the O’s 11-4 win over Toronto Sunday. A late-season call-up last year, those two dingers gave Mancini seven homers in first 12 games of his career, becoming just the third player ever to achieve that feat.

In fact, Mancini’s bat was so hot, two of his teammates—Craig Gentry and Manny Machado—grabbed his Louisville Slugger C243 and crushed subsequent home runs in the same game.

From Buck Showalter: “So Trey hits his second home run and Gentry grabs his bat and says, ‘I’m going to give that bat a try’ [and he] hits a home run. Manny says, ‘You know what? Give me that bat’ and Manny hit a home run so all of them with Mancini’s bat — I’ve never seen that before.”

Ravens Land Monday Night Game in Baltimore. Five years is a long time without a Monday Night Football appearance. But mark your calendars—the Ravens will host the Houston Texans at M&T Bank Stadium four days after Thanksgiving—just one more reason to be grateful come turkey season. The just-released 2017 schedule also has our birds opening up at The Jungle against the Bengals and then, circle your calendars again; the Steelers arrive in town in Week Four.

We don’t know a lot about the Arena Football League. Just being honest here. We’re still getting up to speed on the Baltimore Brigade, our new hometown entry in the indoor league. But we did see that Brigade defensive lineman Dexter Davis was named Defensive Player of Week after posting three sacks, two forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in the team’s 52-49 win over the Cleveland Gladiators. Hey, nothing wrong with having two great pro football teams in Charm City. Nice work Brigade and kudos to Dexter.

Save the Trees. This is what frustration looks like to O’s fans: Chris Davis breaking a bat over his knee after a strikeout. While we admire the passion, we’d caution Chris to find a better way to channel his negative emotions. He does strikeout quite a bit (a trade-off for all the homers and RBIs) and something’s going to give eventually—either his knees or the folks who make his bats.

O’s make a great first impression on Opening Day.
Here’s to next Monday being as good as the last one: Opening Day at Camden Yards. More than 45,000 fans in the ballpark. Cal in the front row. The weather held up nicely all day. And, just before 7 p.m., with the stadium’s fancy new LED lights flashing and Mark Trumbo rounding the bases, the scene on the field and in the stands was pure jubilation.

The Orioles made an indelible first impression this 2017 baseball season. Trumbo (happy to have you back) smacked a game-winning home run to left field in the bottom of the 11th inning, shortly after closer Zach Britton found a measure of redemption against the Toronto Blue Jays, pitching a scoreless ninth and 10th, after not getting a chance to throw in a eerily similar situation in the O’s final, playoff-exiting game of 2016. And Manny Machado, our dear third baseman, dog-lover, and best bud of teammate Jonathan Schoop, wasted no games making a play worthy of a Gold Glove.

In the end, the lasting image of the day might have been the empty Gatorade coolers near home plate—thrown in celebration—and their icy contents melting into the dirt, as players and staff headed to the clubhouse.

The O’s beat the Jays 3-2, and they have now won their last seven Opening Day games, all under Buck Showalter. Two nights later, they beat Toronto 3-1 against a gorgeous sunset backdrop, so tonight the team welcomes the Yankees on an undefeated streak.

Michael Phelps sports a goggle tan.
Boy, he looked tan, didn’t he? Baltimore’s Olympic hero — and his sunburned red face — made the Internet rounds later on Monday night, when CBS’ broadcast of the NCAA men’s basketball championship game between North Carolina and Gonzaga showed Phelps’ sporting what some reporters with too much time on their hands deemed a “goggle tan.”

The memes took no mercy.

But don’t feel bad. This may be a case of what goes around comes around. Just 48 hours before, on April Fools’ Day, Phelps tweeted out to the Internet that he was making another Olympic comeback in 2020 in Tokyo. He’s not, for the record, he later said.

Manny sports Skittles.
If accessories make the outfit, then consider the aforementioned Machado red-carpet worthy. He’s apparently a big fan of Skittles and, inside the self-designed Air Jordans he wore on Opening Day, are insoles with pictures of the rainbow candy on them. Plus, the candies are personalized with the letters M, Y, and K, for his name, his wife, Yainee, and his dog, Kobe. Turns out Manny’s wife gives him a goody-bag of Skittles for every road trip. The shoes also boast the number “305,” in homage to the area code of Miami, where Machado played in high school. Swag on.

Adam Jones talks education.
If there’s any week to go heavy on Orioles news, it’s this one, especially when a face of the team like Adam Jones spends the day between the O’s first game and their second (a 3-1 win over Toronto on Wednesday) talking about the value of education to a group of kids from the local Boys & Girls Club.

The Orioles, Jones and his wife, Audie, the former Roland Park girls basketball star, made a $75,000 donation to the youth organization for the fourth straight year. Jones never went to college, because he pursued a major league career right out of high school in San Diego, but told the kids “education is the backbone of anything.”

Baltimore Brigade’s first season starts tonight.
It was a relatively slow news week on the Ravens front—the team welcomed free agent center Nick Mangold for a visit to the Castle (he left without signing a contract), the club traded defensive lineman Timmy Jernigan to the Eagles, and it signed wide receiver Michael Campanaro to a one-year deal. Those are humdrum developments compared what’s happening tonight: the debut of the town’s newest football team, the Arena Football League’s Brigade, as it kicks off its inaugural season in Washington, D.C. Here’s some more info about the team, which will host its first home game on May 7 at Royal Farms Arena.

Even manager Buck Showalter got in on the action, telling The Sun, “the thing I loved about it the most is that there was a Yankee fan trying to get into the field of play that he took it away from. That was probably the highlight for me.”

USA defeated the Dominican Republic 6-3 and went on to conquer Puerto Rico in the final, 8-0, to become the World Baseball Classic champions. U-S-A! U-S-A!

Keeping up with the Ravens.
With all the recent changes to the Ravens roster, let’s make sure we are all up to speed:

Hello: Running back Danny Woodhead, safety Tony Jefferson, and cornerback Brandon Carr.

Bye-Bye: Fullback Kyle Juszczyk and center Jeremy Zuttah are heading to San Francisco. Receiver Kamar Aiken is headed to Indianapolis. Defensive backs Shareece Wright and Kendrick Lewis were waived and safety Ladarius Webb was released.

Welcome Back: Quarterback Ryan Mallet, receiver Mike Wallace, linebacker Anthony Levine Sr., and defensive tackle Brandon Williams. (We’re particularly excited about Williams, both for his on-field performance and his killer dance moves.)

Good news for the Flacco-Pitta bromance fans: Tight end Dennis Pitta—Flacco’s favorite target and BFF—is staying in Baltimore. Pitta restructured his contract taking a pay cut for both the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Last year, Pitta led the league in tight end receptions (86) after being forced to take a two-year hiatus due to a hip injury. According to Ravens salary-cap expert Brian McFarland, Pitta’s cut will save the Ravens $2.5 million in cap space.

Lady Terps headed to the Sweet Sixteen.
Fear the Turtle! Despite receiving a lower than expected third seed, Maryland women’s basketball team continues to shine as they clinched their 13th NCAA Sweet Sixteen spot after defeating West Virginia 83-56 on March 19. West Virginia had a five-game winning streak going into the contest but the Maryland squad proved the Mountaineers were no match. At the end of the first half, freshman guard Destiny Slocum lands a buzzer-beating, three-point shot from beyond half court.

This marks the Terrapins 25th appearance in the NCAA tournament. Since 2002, coach Frese has led the team to eight Sweet Sixteens, six Elite Eights, three Final Fours and in 2006, the NCAA title. The Terps are set to face off against the Oregon Ducks in Bridgeport, CT on Saturday, March 25.

Under Armour inks deal with MLB for uniforms in 2020.
Kevin Plank’s sports apparel empire has had tentacles in almost every major sport—and now it can add baseball to that roster. In its first major professional sports uniform deal, UA will take over for Majestic Athletic as the official on-field uniform provider for Major League Baseball starting in 2020. New Era will continue to provide hats for the league.

Based on the flashy uniforms that Under Armour has produced for University of Maryland, Northwestern, and Team USA, baseball teams in 2020 will likely get quite spruced up. We see many flag patterns in our future.

Ryan Mallett says he’ll be ready to fill in for Flacco on Sunday.
These haven’t been the best few weeks for the Ravens offense, which is why you might see the team switch things up on Sunday against the Jets. Ravens backup quarterback Ryan Mallett practiced with the team this week as Joe Flacco was nursing a right shoulder injury. Both head coach John Harbaugh and new offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg seem to think that Flacco will be ready come game day, but Mallett says he is prepared either way.

“You’ve got to be ready at a drop of a hat,” Mallett told The Baltimore Sun. “Something can happen during a game, any week of the season. So you’ve just always got to be ready.”

Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad speaks at Morgan State.
After becoming the first Muslim-American woman to compete and medal in the Olympic games wearing a hijab, fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad came to Morgan State University to discuss race in sports and culture.

The symposium, titled “The Impact of Negative Images on Black Women Athletes,” also featured ESPN’s Jemele Hill, former WNBA All-Star Kara Lawson, and former Washington Post columnist Lonnae O’Neal.

“When I qualified [for the Olympics] . . . immediately, my life and my experiences in sport just kind of felt bigger than me,” Muhammad said according to The Sun. “I feel the same way when we think of firsts in swimming with Simone Manuel being the first African-American woman to medal in an Olympic swimming event. Those moments in our history are so much bigger than we are.”

But Muhammad was very candid when talking about how she is treated differently compared to some other athletes on Team USA. “As a black woman and as an African-American Muslim woman . . . everything we do is under a microscope,” she said. “We have to watch what we say. We have to watch how we act. We have to watch what we tweet. We’re being policed more than others. Michael Phelps laughs during the medal ceremony. . . Even with Ryan Lochte, it was ‘Well, boys will be boys.'”

Muhammad continued to come back to the importance of sharing her narrative with the goal of inspiring young athletes.

“I remember being a kid and being told that I didn’t belong in my sport,” she said, “For me, it has always been really important to try to reach our youth, specifically to let them know there is no limit to what you can do as long as you’re willing to work.”

With spring training under way, we’re so looking forward to the start of pre-season, not mention, ditching work for the first game at Camden Yards. As Adam Jones said yesterday after the news that broke that Fowler was returning to Chicago: “We’re moving on. We’ve moved on, he’s moved on.”

Poly wins first City D-1 championship.
Making their first appearance in the Baltimore City Division I championship game, No. 2 Poly made program history by beating No. 9 Dunbar 64-43 on Wednesday night at Coppin State. “It’s a culmination of a lot of hard work and preparation,” head coach Sam Brand told The Sun. “We knew it would be tough and it was at first. But I think our guys knew it was our night. We knew that this year and this time was ours and I’m proud of the way we responded to the moment.”

“Let’s Go O’s! Let’s O’s! Let’s O’s!!!”

Believe it or not, the familiar Orioles rallying chant echoed throughout empty Camden Yards during Wednesday’s surreal “closed to the public” contest versus the Chicago White Sox. And it started right away.

“O-R-I-O-L-E-S”

When the O’s batted around in the first inning and exploded for six runs, highlighted by Chris Davis’ 3-run first inning home run, dozens of dedicated Orioles fans—sneaking peaks through the left-center field gates—could be heard all the way into the press box behind home plate going crazy. If nothing else, the O’s and White Sox players realized they were not entirely alone despite an official, announced paid attendance of “zero” later in the game.

In fact, the strange thing about today’s game was not what wasn’t heard, but what was—everything.

Literally, you could hear the ball smacking into the gloves of O’s second baseman Rey Navarro, shortstop Everth Cabrera, and first baseman Chris Davis during an early, inning-ending, 5-4-3 double play. Outfielders could be heard calling for fly balls, umps making third-strike calls, White Sox and O’s players cheering their teammates from the dugouts. There were also fans positioned as usual atop the Hilton and Hyatt hotels across the street, with a “GO ORIOLES” banner—visible in the ballpark—even hanging from one upper-level room deck. The only people in the stands were a couple of scouts in the first few rows. The paid attendance was announced as “zero.”

Later in the game, another chant of “Give me an ‘O,’ Give me an ‘I,’ Give me a ‘R’ … went up from the fans standing out in left field as well as a “Man-ny! Man-ny! Man-ny” chant after Manny Machado’s two-run homer made it an 8-2 game.

Also, foul balls could be heard loudly ricocheting and rattling in the sea of vacant field box seats. But no beer or hot dog vendors, of course. No Oriole Bird. And O’s relievers in the center field bullpen looked lonelier than ever.

After two postponements in two days at Camden Yards in the wake of protests around the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray in police custody, the Orioles and Major League Baseball decided they needed to squeeze in the final game of the O’s-White Sox series this afternoon before Chicago left town. The first pitch was moved from 7:05 p.m. to 2:05 p.m. Wednesday—at least in part to comply with the curfew in place in Baltimore following Monday’s riots in the city.

Meanwhile, this weekend’s Orioles series with Tampa Bay, scheduled for Baltimore, has been switched to Florida, where the O’s will wear their white uniforms and play as the “home” team.

In his pre-game press conference, Orioles manager Buck Showalter expressed his deep concern for the city and said that baseball should not be the priority at this time in Baltimore. But he also acknowledged that baseball and sports have the potential to help bring cities together.

“Every city has challenges,” Showalter said. “Down the road, there is [also] the chance that our city could be better because of this.”

“It’s not an easy time for anybody right now,” the O’s Adam Jones said. “It doesn’t matter what race you are. We need this game to be played, but we need this city to heal first.”

For the most part, players appeared very relaxed before the game during pre-game warm ups and batting practice. But Showalter acknowledged, “This isn’t something we prepare for.” He said the team pumps in sound during spring training games to simulate the noise of a big league park—to practice communication skills between outfielders, for example. “That’s what we prepare for,” Showalter said. “Not this.”

He also joked that he was concerned about the umpires hearing “all the sweet nothings” that typically are expressed in the O’s dugout, but go unheard.

Jim Palmer, outside the MASN booth before the game, recalled once playing before less than 1,000 fans in 1965 in Dodger Stadium where the Angels first played their home games. “There had been a Sunday rainout and it was the first game of a Monday doubleheader,” Palmer said. “There were 655 people there. I was in the bullpen, I counted them.” Still, a bigger crowd than today at Camden Yards.

John Denver did play during the seventh-inning stretch and there was music in between innings, including one attempt at humor—a blast of the ’80s classic “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode.

In the first MLB game to be played with no audience, the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox 8-2.