Chris Davis, the once-proud slugger who by then might as well have had his albatross of a contract hanging around his neck, trotted down the orange carpet from center field on Opening Day 2019 to a mix of cheers and boos. By his third strikeout, in the sixth inning, boos were all that was left.  

They rained down from a crowd of more than 44,000 at Camden Yards, on a day that’s usually a celebration in Baltimore no matter the score. This was different. When a little-used utility infielder pinch hit for Davis late in the game, the crowd let out a roar louder than anything Davis had heard all day. 

He could have ducked out quietly afterward. Instead, he stood at his locker, answered every question from the media, while wearing a gray T-shirt reading “Courage.” I was there.

“I don’t think anybody’s feeling sorry for me right now,” Davis said. “I understand the frustration. Nobody’s more frustrated than I am.”

He was ready to turn it around. He never did. But on Saturday, more than six years from that low, Davis went into the Orioles Hall of Fame at Camden Yards, alongside former pitcher Storm Davis and the late scout Jim Russo. In an on-field, pregame ceremony before the O’s hosted the Philadelphia Phillies, Davis heard only cheers, as if the organization and the city could finally exhale over one of the most dramatic career arcs in franchise history. 

It’s worth remembering why there was once so much good noise about Davis. After arriving from the Texas Rangers in a 2011 trade as a 25-year-old, the 6-foot-4 left-handed-hitting first baseman spent 10 seasons in Baltimore and put together a series of enduring highlights, including clobbering 11 career home runs onto Eutaw Street, which is still tied for most in Camden Yards history. 

In 2013, Davis led the majors with 53 homers—still the franchise record—along with 138 RBIs and got his only All-Star nod. Two years later, he led the league in home runs again, making him the only player in Orioles history with two 40-homer seasons, as the Orioles, coming off 14 straight losing seasons, made three playoff runs in five years.

“Crush” was so beloved, in fact, that during 2016 free agency, Jimmy’s Seafood publicly offered Davis, his kids, and his future grandchildren free crab cakes for life if he re-signed. 

In one of the last big deals made by former owner Peter Angelos, the Orioles signed Davis that January to a seven-year, $161 million contract, the largest in franchise history, with deferred payments now stretching to 2037, when Davis will be 51—Baltimore’s answer to Bobby Bonilla. But almost as soon as the ink dried on the deal, Davis’ production fell off. His body started to deteriorate and he lost his form and confidence at the plate. Then-manager Buck Showalter told him it was hard to watch. 

He struck out a career-high 219 times in 2016, hit .215 in 2017, then hit a career-worst .168 in 2018, which was one of the worst seasons by a qualified hitter in major league history. By 2019, he’d go 0-for-54, the longest hitless streak by a position player ever recorded—an ordeal that included that painful Opening Day when he was repeatedly booed. 

Later that season, Davis sat in the visitor’s dugout before a game in Washington, took off his hat, and found clumps of his own hair inside it because of the stress. “It tore me up,” Davis said during an extensive interview with Ryan Ripken last week. “It’s so hard when you can be elite…and then it just leaves. It’s super frustrating and it’s confusing.” 

Davis has said since that he spent the end of his career masking a back injury he never fully addressed. Spinal injections in one spring training once left him unable to rotate his torso for eight weeks. He pushed through it until a torn hip labrum and bone spurs ended his career for good in 2021.  

The contract didn’t cause the decline, but it gave frustrated fans a price tag to point to and fueled public doubts— including from O’s Hall-of-Famer Jim Palmer, who questioned Davis’ work ethic on TV. There was also a 25-game suspension for amphetamines in 2014, after Davis’ longtime therapeutic-use exemption for the ADHD medication Adderall lapsed for one season.  

But maybe the lowest single moment came in August 2019, in a blowout loss to the Yankees, when Davis and then-first-year manager Brandon Hyde got into a heated exchange in the dugout physical enough that teammates and coaches had to hold Davis back. He addressed it himself two days later.  

“I hit a breaking point,” he said. “It’s going to happen when you have that much frustration. You’re going to have episodes where you have to let it out, unfortunately.” He wished it had happened somewhere private, he said, “but it happened, and I can’t go back and change that.” 

By the time he retired in 2021, Davis carried what felt like a big burden. “When I left, it was really hard because I felt like I had let a lot of people down,” he said Friday, inside the Warehouse at Camden Yards. “I was beat up, physically, mentally, emotionally.”  

He stayed almost entirely away from the sport for a couple of years, needing the distance. “I always kept up with the Orioles, but I felt like I needed that time to just reset and regroup.”

Now, he sees those years differently. “The hard parts, they help me appreciate the good times even more,” he said, “the good years when we were winning baseball games and going on playoff runs and all that stuff.” 

Davis, who turned 40 in March, is now on the field most for youth sports: volunteering as a hitting and infield coach for the baseball team at Liberty Christian School outside of Dallas-Fort Worth, where his three daughters attend, and coaching and driving them to softball games.  

It’s in this context that he got the call about the Orioles Hall of Fame selection, something he wasn’t sure would ever come, given how his playing days ended. But last year, at Camden Yards for Adam Jones’ own induction, Jones told Davis flatly he was going in too, if only because he’s the franchise’s single-season home run king.  

Davis didn’t buy it until Bill Stetka, the team’s alumni director, called him this spring, while Davis was standing on a practice field in Texas, where his 8-year-old daughter, Grace, was scrimmaging. He told Stetka he’d call him back. They connected again that night, and Davis got the news he was in the O’s 2026 Hall of Fame class. 

“It’s a huge honor,” Davis said. 

While Davis never made the comeback everyone wanted to see on the field, this weekend, he made a different one—back to Baltimore. 

He and his family never lived in the city full time, but after 10 seasons, they feel like part of the community all the same. He and his wife, Jill Davis, donated $3 million in 2019 to fund a cardiac lab and operating room at the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, named for their oldest daughter, Evelyn, who was born with a heart defect. 

The Davises returned to the hospital this week to scoop ice cream and visit patients, nurses, and doctors. “Just doing something special for them is something we care about,” Jill said.

On Friday, at a luncheon inside the Warehouse, Tommy Hunter—the pitcher traded to Baltimore alongside Davis in 2011—introduced him, and Davis hosted Showalter and a room full of old teammates for dinner. 

“We had a bunch of guys that had stuff to prove. We had a lot of guys that were from other organizations that had been released,” Davis said Friday. “We leaned into that mentality, and I think it kind of goes hand in hand with the mentality of the city of Baltimore. This is a blue-collar city.” 

On Saturday, Davis was welcomed to the field at Camden Yards during a pregame ceremony. Showalter and a handful of former clubhouse mates—Matt Wieters, Zach Britton, Darren O’Day, and former hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh among them—watched from behind home plate as a highlight video played on the stadium’s scoreboard. After a deep breath, a suited-up Davis delivered brief remarks to early-arriving fans, many there to see and hear him. 

“It’s been an emotional last few days to say the least,” Davis said, before thanking his family and friends for being there. “It’s not about the journey, it’s about the people that you walk the journey with. I’m so thankful to have had such a good group of guys to walk that journey with me.  

“It was a big deal to bring winning baseball back to Baltimore. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everybody coming out, being here. It means the world to me, and I hope y’all enjoy the game.”  

Hunter then slipped the signature O’s Hall-of-Fame green jacket over Davis’ broad shoulders. 

The O’s lost to the Phillies 5-0, but Davis, watching from a suite with Showalter and his old teammates, didn’t seem to mind. He stayed until the last out, then took selfies and shook hands with fans as they left—some of the same people, or people just like them, who years earlier had wanted him gone. 

“You got to keep going,” Davis told a television audience during an appearance in the MASN broadcast booth in the third inning of Saturday’s game. “This game is so hard. You’re going to deal with adversity. You’re going to deal with failure…You have to keep your head up, you have to think about positive things, you have to do things the right way and just keep going.” 

Orioles public address announcer Ryan Wagner kept saying what he always has: “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome…” We couldn’t blame him, or anyone else, for wanting Opening Day to be the same joyful scene it has always has been for so many different people.

But on Wednesday night at Camden Yards, Wagner’s words fell on no ears.

As Orioles manager Brandon Hyde exited the dugout along the first-base line and players followed behind him around 7:22 p.m., the fans that Wagner was addressing weren’t there. Not in the green seats. Not on Eutaw Street grabbing a pre-game Boog’s BBQ sandwich. Not in a downtown parking garage trying to rush to see the first pitch. Not anywhere, except maybe listening on the radio or watching at home.

Officially, it was the Orioles 2020 home opener against the visiting New York Yankees, but the only thing about this one that resembled any of the past openers was the players on both teams wearing fancy pro uniforms—and maybe that those damn Yankees hit a few home runs early and often.

When the Orioles’ Asher Wojciechowski threw the game’s first pitch, it was hard to know anything significant happened. And when, on the second pitch, the Yankees’ second baseman DJ LeMahieu connected for a home run over the right field scoreboard, from the press box, all that was heard were a few echoes of cheers from the visitor’s dugout.

Later, when a lazy foul ball went into the seats, all I heard was the crack of the baseball against the concrete walkway as it landed. We also heard fake crowd noise after the Orioles scored a run, and saw Major League Baseball staff cleaning baseballs. At one point, I realized, shouldn’t the Oriole Bird be here somewhere?

But only the players from the two teams, the umpires, roughly two dozen reporters like me, a handful of photographers and MASN camera operators, and team staff and security guards were actually there. Maybe a few hundred people in all, each having their temperature taken before entering the stadium and wearing masks if they weren’t on the field playing before an empty stadium on a warm summer night.

“It’s just different,” Wojciechowski said of the environment after the Orioles lost 9-3, via a Zoom video call with reporters. “It’s just weird.”

From what we’ve seen from televised games so far, it might have felt less strange watching at home, with announcers talking over the action, ambient crowd noise, and some teams even placing cardboard cutouts of season-ticket holders behind home plate, a very cool idea.

But there’s a hollowness to being there in person. There’s no such thing as home field advantage. You can hear ambulances driving outside. It’s like a vampire sucked the energy from the place. A lot of players have always thanked the fans for being there, and now you can really see why. “There’s no energy,” Hyde said. “You really have to create the energy in your dugout, at a distance.”

Unfortunately, as we know, the fanless scene had happened here before (and will again this year so long as the Orioles play home games this season). The last time was during the height of the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police five years ago, a moment that was revisited during pregame ceremonies, along with a special tribute to team and fan favorite Mo Gaba, who passed away at age 14 after a lifelong battle with cancer on Tuesday.

Today, the backdrop is different. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown normal life upside down in many ways. Despite that, Major League Baseball and the other major professional sports league are attempting to put on seasons, for entertainment if nothing else. And baseball’s effort—with teams traveling to different cities like everything is normal—has already come with challenges officials hoped wouldn’t arrive this soon.

Originally, the Orioles were supposed to open their abbreviated home season against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night (after playing them twice in Miami following their season-opening series in Boston), but earlier this week, more than a dozen Marlins players and staff tested positive for COVID-19 after being in Philadelphia, forcing a last-minute scheduling change that put the Yankees in Baltimore for two games.

The Orioles, after flying from Boston to Miami, spent an entire day in the Four Seasons hotel (Hyde recommends the room-service cheeseburger there) while awaiting word on if and when they would play next. They flew back to Baltimore on Monday night and got word Tuesday about playing the Yankees instead. “It’s 2020,” Hyde said. “We’re constantly adjusting.”

Take the story of often-beleaguered slugger Chris Davis, for instance. He spoke to the media on Tuesday about how, despite all the safety protocols—like staying apart in the clubhouse—and just arriving back home after the 24-hour roundtrip to Miami, attempting a season was still worth all the trouble.

“Honestly, the baseball aspect is really what gives you a release,” Davis said. “To be around the guys, to play the game you love, to be out on a baseball field, it takes you a little bit away from everything that’s going on around you—even when you have handwashing stations at the end of dugout and the trainers are spraying hand sanitizer everywhere. There’s enough of a break in between the white lines to give you peace of mind, and allows you to sleep a little better at night, at least there is for me.”

Then the next afternoon, Hyde announced that Davis would be “unavailable” for the home opener, and he hasn’t been around the team the last two days. As per the Orioles policy, you can make your own assumptions on why that is, but a COVID-19 positive test is reasonable. Davis worked out with the team Tuesday night and was penciled in the lineup as designated hitter until sometime Wednesday.

“It’s definitely an unusual year, in every way,” Hyde said. “There’s a lot of things that are really important outside of baseball right now. We’re happy to be playing, but we do know what’s going on outside of our bubble.”

I looked at a picture I took of Opening Day at Camden Yards last year. Fans sat in just about every green seat on a sunny day. The orange carpet lay through centerfield. You could imagine the pomp and circumstance. It felt like I was looking into a time capsule.

It will all come back. We don’t know when, but it will eventually. Until then, though, we’re left with strange scenes that force us to make sense of what we’re seeing.

We think of a few words Hyde uttered the other night from his office at Camden Yards. Someone asked about reports suggesting that Major League Baseball would start playing shorter seven-inning doubleheaders instead of the usual nine-inning game once a day, given the scheduling re-shuffling that was already happening with a COVID-19 outbreak among one team, less than a week into the season.

“This year…” Hyde said, his voice trailing off before he sighed.

And that’s really all that was needed to be said.

Orioles’ first baseman Chris Davis and his wife, Jill, have been visiting the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital (UMCH) for three years. It was during one of those visits that their attention was drawn to a new project within the pediatric division that was going to be a big undertaking, and they decided they wanted to help.

Monday, their contribution became public, as the two announced a $3-million donation to UMMC—the largest amount ever from a Baltimore sports figure. The gift is inspired in part by the Davises’ daughter, Evie, who was born with a ventricular septal defect in 2018.

“We experienced it on a very small scale,” Jill says. “We already have a soft spot for the hospital and its kids. That just made it more realistic to us.”

The Davises are enthusiastic philanthropists who work with many different organizations and causes in the Baltimore area. For the past three years, they have hosted “Crush’s Homers for Hearts,” a home run derby event that benefits the UMCH Children’s Heart program.

Jill says that part of the reason that the Davises don’t have a foundation of their own is because it would require them to hone in on one specific cause rather than casting a wide net. But this past summer, around the all-star break, she and Chris decided they wanted to do something big and “unexpected.”

“This is a cause that is close to our hearts,” Chris said in a press release. “Everyone at the hospital has inspired our family.”

Officially, the Davises’ donation will support funding for what will be known as the Evelyn Kay Davis Hybrid Catheterization Suite—a space that will allow doctors to double their capacity in relation to patients and procedures. Heart surgeries and operations on infants are often intricate, and the ability to be as advanced as possible—as well as retain top talent—is invaluable for the hospital.

“As an institution, we went about investing in human talent needed to invest in progress like this,” says Mohan Suntha, president and CEO at UMMC, regarding the hospital’s commitment to a pediatric heart care wing. “Chris and Jill have been unabashed ambassadors for our program.This will impact generations in the state of Maryland.”

The Davises typically prefer to keep their donations and philanthropy private. But given Jill’s background in nursing—having studied in Dallas, worked at Texas Scottish Rite, and volunteered at UMCH—the couple was willing to make an exception in this case.

“It was too much of a good thing to skip out on,” Chris says. “I understand that—it’s something for us to be proud of. Not everybody knows what goes on in Baltimore. We want people to jump on and be aware.”

Unless he knows something about Fort McHenry’s future that we don’t, John Angelos—the Orioles top executive and son of Peter, the team’s principal owner—appeared to put all of the rumors of Baltimore’s beloved baseball team moving out of town someday soon to bed last week.

“No, no,” Angelos—the Baltimore native, a trial lawyer like his father, who is in charge of the Orioles day-to-day business—went on record saying from a big comfy chair during a panel discussion at Visit Baltimore’s annual meeting at M&T Bank Stadium. It was as good a time as any to refute the speculation.

“As long as Fort McHenry is watching over the harbor, the Orioles will be in Baltimore,” Angelos said in his first public comments since last month’s buzz that the team was either looking to relocate (and even had a likely new home in Nashville or Las Vegas) or would be for sale (which, reading closely, wasn’t ruled out in Angelos’ wonderful anthropomorphic statement.)

The questions stem from a confluence of uncertainties including 90-year-old Peter Angelos’ reported declining health and an unknown (at least publicly) ownership succession plan; the rebuilding state of the club; the ongoing legal dispute over television rights fees with the Washington Nationals; and, most prominently, the fact that the Orioles haven’t yet signed an agreement to play at Camden Yards after their current lease runs out in two years.

Those still scarred from the Colts’ middle-of-the-night move to the Midwest more than 30 years ago might say they’ve heard a claim like Angelos’ before, only to experience the opposite.

“I have not any intentions of moving the goddamn team,” the Colts’ then-owner Robert Irsay said during an infamous press conference, standing alongside former mayor William Donald Schaefer in January 1984 at BWI Airport. “If I did, I will tell you about it, but I’m staying here.” Two months later, fearing state seizure of the team, the Mayflower trucks packed with Colts gear and office equipment rolled out of town amid snowflakes, leaving the city sensitive to relocation rumors.

But the present circumstances are different and not as immediately concerning. Both the Colts and Orioles were seeking a new, joint stadium back then—the O’s already have a beautiful, fully capable home now, which ultimately arose from those talks—though the future, again, is uncomfortably unknown.

The Orioles’ lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority states the team can’t move from Baltimore until the current 30-year term ends in 2021, and the team has a five-year renewal option. But negotiations on a new agreement have been held up, according to a letter Governor Larry Hogan sent to Major League Baseball last year, due to the O’s never-ending multi-million dollar legal battle with the Nationals over the rightful owner of a years’ worth of MASN revenue.

Despite the money and politics involved, many fans are optimistic. It’s hard to imagine anything other than baseball happening at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, aside from a few concerts. And color me skeptical that general manager Mike Elias and assistant GM and former NASA engineer Sig Mejdal would have taken jobs here if they knew they’d be moving anytime soon. Their aptitude for gauging probabilities and risk-reward ratios is too good for that.

In any event, and thankfully, season one of this nascent, ballyhooed build-by-numbers revival is now finished. The O’s long baseball year ended on Sunday with a 5-4 loss to the Red Sox in Boston. Fifty-four wins. One hundred and eight losses. The team would have ghosted into the offseason, had it not been for this Steve Wilkerson spectacular catch, navigating one of Fenway Park’s sharp old-timey features while taking away a home run in centerfield. “Greatest HR robbery ever,” dude.

The play speaks to one major takeaway from this year: We can’t say the 2019 edition of the Orioles quit, even if players sometimes felt like they wanted to.

Sure, there was the Chris Davis mid-game blowup in the dugout (after a fielding gaffe, of all things). Davis would have done something he’d later regret to first-year manager Brandon Hyde had big Mark Trumbo and hitting coach Don Long not intervened. “That was really kind of the breaking point,” Davis said later, and frankly, we don’t blame him. His season started with a chorus of boos, a historic hitting slump, and ended with 139 strikeouts, a .179 batting average, 12 homers, and continued talk about his albatross of a contract, which has three years, $51 million (and $42 million in deferred payments in the 15 years following) still to go.

There were also the MLB-record 305 home runs that the Orioles pitching staff allowed, a number that demolished the previous mark of 258 (and a rate of almost two per game.) The Yankees’ Glayber Torres hit 13 of them, and the Astros’ Carlos Correa hit the longest homer tracked in Camden Yards history, 474 feet to centerfield.

The Baby Birds’ weekly transaction report resembled a yo-yo of players to and from Baltimore and the minor league affiliates in Norfolk, Bowie, Frederick, wherever. The O’s used 38 pitchers this season. In the statistics that most non-analytics folk are familiar with, only John Means finished with a winning record (12-11) and a close-to-respectable earned run average (3.60). Wilkerson threw five innings, and he was not the only position player to take the mound. Which is to say, the O’s are still looking for help at the game’s most important spot.

But—and this might be the optimists’ view—wasn’t this season not as bad as you thought?

The Orioles somehow won 54 games. That was anywhere from one to five less than the Las Vegas sportsbooks’ preseason predictions, but the overall record was better than last year’s brutal, franchise-worst 47-115 number. And that team had expectations of another potential Buck Showalter-led playoff run.

There’s some more good news: One of the few holdovers from the Buck era, first baseman Trey Mancini, is still with us. So is second baseman Jonathan Villar, the only Oriole to play in all 162 games. Means was a surprise all-star. Stories and possible parts of the rebuild emerged like outfielders Austin Hays and Anthony Santander (San. Tan. Dare.), who famously entertained a group of about 4,000 kids from the United Kingdom in leftfield in the dog days of summer. The Brits are apparently more grateful for a free ball than us. (Speaking of that, good for the O’s for extending foul-ball netting into the outfield.)

There’s hope you can believe in, too, namely in catcher Adley Rutschman, who the O’s drafted first overall out of Oregon State University in June. His highlights in the minor leagues made this summer somewhat bearable as the big club’s losses piled up, but also embodied the idea that this Oriole-ball project is going to take time.

Only recently did Elias begin to make sweeping front office personnel changes, as expected, firing 14 people last month (including Showalter’s son, Nathan, who was somehow still on staff as a scout), and hiring his own people like new director of player development Matt Blood. “I anticipate many more hires and additions to our baseball operations department as we proceed into the offseason,” Elias said.

Mancini, the most defined of the O’s puzzle pieces, told us something last year that continues to ring true. “It’s a process,” he said of the rebuild. “It’s not going to happen overnight. 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.”

Unfortunately, is right. Losing more than a hundred games a year, no matter how much you’re paid to play, coach, or watch a kids’ game, isn’t easy on anyone’s health. Take one night a few weeks ago, the O’s fourth to last home game of the year. It was around 10:30 p.m., and at the start of the bottom of the ninth inning, the Orioles led the Toronto Blue Jays by four runs. Maybe a thousand fans were left in the stadium. It felt almost like an open practice.

With the game’s outcome seemingly decided and a newborn baby at home, I left the press box, and headed down the stairs to get to the team’s clubhouse a little early. The Oriole Bird had the same idea. The mascot soon emerged from a nearby staging room in the bowels of Camden Yards with a big black-and-orange flag that he or she waves after wins, and the feathered animal of joy jogged down a hallway toward the field.

But soon, as I watched on a small television with a few team employees and stadium security guards, relief pitcher Miguel Castro had walked the bases loaded. One run scored first. Then, someone named Randal Grichuk hit a crushing, two-out grand slam into the mostly empty left-field stands that put the Blue Jays ahead 10-9.

In a sad yet terribly appropriate and telling image, the Bird came running back down the hall. The O’s ended up losing by 11-10 in a game that took more than four hours to finish. It was as demoralizing a defeat as we’ve ever seen, and a reminder of how much time there might be before the O’s consistently win again.

Chris Davis is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad month. Given how stuffed baseball’s history books are, it takes something truly remarkable and special for players to supplant themselves within their annals. Unfortunately for Davis and Orioles fans, Davis has done so for all the wrong reasons.

He’s gone 53 consecutive at-bats and 61 straight plate appearances without a hit—the worst such stretch in Major League Baseball History for a position player. Davis’ atrophy is unprecedented, and considering his large salary tag, he’s left fans at Camden Yards in a state of paralysis when it comes whether to boo or cheer when he comes to the plate. On one hand, you have to feel for the guy; on the other, this is his (very well-paid) job.

But! There is some light at the end of the tunnel. And when, inevitably, Davis does get a hit, the city of Baltimore will rejoice, and, thanks to restaurants and bars across the city, celebrate with free stuff. They’ve gotten a bit cheeky, promising specials and celebrations for when a Davis at-bat does not end with him sheepishly walk back to the dugout. We compiled some of the best promotions to take advantage of for what is sure to be momentous occasion.

Hair of the Dog

There’s a scene in the Will Ferrell-starrer Semi-Pro where, if Ferrell’s Flint Tropics score 125 points, everyone in the stands gets a free corn dog. Hair of the Dog in Federal Hill is taking a similar approach for Davis’ first hit: Corn dogs! 1649 S Hanover St. 410-814-0342

Lee’s Pint & Shell

There are no two words more pure in the English language than “open bar.” Lee’s Pint & Shell knows this, and they’re planning on celebrating Davis’ first hit by opening the floodgates. The rules: you need to be there at the start of the game. When Davis does get a hit, you get a two-hour open bar including Smirnoff Crushes and Natty Boh, effectively turning those jeers into cheers. 2844 Hudson St. 410-327-2883

Bartenders Pub

The special Bartenders offers has stood long before Davis’ streak, but it’s still centered around his production or lack thereof. Every time Davis gets a hit, the bar will give away a Dr. Pepper shot, an eight-ounce Miller Lite pony with a shot of Amaretto. The bar popularized this concoction, and this practice has drawn some national attention. Unlike the other spots offering deals, Bartenders plans on continuing this tradition past when the streak is broken. 2218 Boston St. 410-534-2337

Power Plant Live

Though it might not be fitting at the moment, Davis’ nickname is “Crush,” so the promotion that Power Plant Live is running is apt. They’re gotten in on the fun, promising 1,000 free Smirnoff Orange Crushes when Davis gets a hit. They’re willing to up the ante, too—if it’s a home run, the number increases to 1,500. 34 Market Pl. 410-727-5483

The Penthouse Club Baltimore

Look no further than The Penthouse Club as evidence that support for Davis is coming from all sorts of places. On the day that Davis gets a hit, the gentlemen’s club is offering free lap dances. We’ll leave it at that. 615 Fallsway 410-528-1117

Give him credit. Chris Davis, the once proud slugger and now overpaid fallen hero, stood at his locker after the Orioles’ home opener and answered the inevitable questions.

Of course the media, the conduit to the fans, wanted to know what the player formerly known as Crush thought about the fact that a good number of the announced 44,000-plus in attendance at Camden Yards booed him—loud, uncomfortably, and repeatedly—during the O’s 8-4 loss to the hated Yankees. The foul sounds started in pregame introductions, as Davis trotted down the traditional orange carpet from centerfield to a mix of cheers and boos. And the jeers intensified after each of his three strikeouts in the first, fourth, and sixth innings.

Then things reached a pointed crescendo in the bottom of the eighth inning. Little-known utility infielder Hanser Alberto, playing in his fourth game in an O’s uniform, pinch hit for Davis, the 33-year-old former MVP candidate who’s in his ninth season here. A thunderous, positive roar erupted from those still watching.

“I mean, it’s not something that I was really expecting,” Davis said afterward, with a throng of cameras and reporters surrounding him. “At the same time, I heard it a lot last year, and rightfully so. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, I understand the frustration. Nobody’s more frustrated than I am.”

How has it come to this? Well, it’s been a few seasons in the making, and the unravel has been fascinating.

Davis led the majors in home runs in 2013, when he finished third in American League MVP voting. He was the home run king again in 2015, albeit while also leading the league in strikeouts.

Three years later, last season, he recorded one of the worst hitting seasons in baseball history, hitting a career-worst .168, and he’s now a bad 0-for-17 with 11 strikeouts to start 2019. At times, he seems as far away from hitting a baseball as one could imagine.

This is not what anyone wants to see from someone in the middle of a seven-year, $161 million contract to do exactly that. And, in the past, some, like the O’s beloved Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Jim Palmer, have questioned his desire to put in the work to change.

But, man, the public shaming of Davis yesterday was tough to watch and hear. For boos to rain down on the guy the way they did after every at-bat of the home opener, with still 150-plus games to go this season? I’ve never been one to say that a paying fan can’t voice frustration with any player or vent anger for whatever reason occasionally, but it certainly doesn’t do anyone on the field any good. It seems almost like a more New York or Philadelphia thing to do.

Davis has been relatively open about his struggles at the plate—last year he talked with MASN’s Roch Kubatko about hitting into shifts, trying to bunt, his apparent 20/10 vision, and whether his ADHD diagnosis and treatment has anything to do with his hitting problems. He addressed the problems again at FanFest in January, and he seems to genuinely want to turn things around. You can only guess what thoughts are racing in his head as he tries to square the bat on a ball headed his way at 90-plus miles per hour, much less while he’s surrounded by a cacophony of anti-support.

“It’s very easy to shame or boo people from an outside perspective,” the Orioles young leader, Trey Mancini, said after Thursday’s game, shortly after he patted Davis on the back with encouragement after his media session. “But you never really know until you go through it. . . . [Chris] is in there every day working on things. He’s a professional. Look at the back of his baseball card and what he’s done in his career. He’s an incredible hitter and still is. I still believe that.”

“To feel that in front of your home fans, I mean, I can’t even imagine,” said yesterday’s starting pitcher Alex Cobb. “I get all sides of it. Chris works really hard. He’s a great guy. He’s one of the better teammates that I’ve had in my time in the big leagues, and I know he cares so much. I do feel for him. [But] I understand the fans’ frustration as well.”

Sure, had O’s ownership not given Davis the monster contract in January 2016 after he led the majors with 47 home runs, he’d probably have been traded long ago with Manny, Britton, and the rest of the Buck Showalter-era stars. Had he performed a bit better the last few years, maybe the O’s would have won more games. But it’s hard to pin all the faults of a team on one player, though Davis even alluded to the idea that he was a buzzkill on Thursday. “Especially a day like today,” Davis said, “the kind of game that we were having. Really had them on their heels the whole game and it was a frustrating day for me personally and the team collectively.”

The Orioles went ahead early on the second pitch of the game via a Jonathan Villar home run to right field, then scored two more runs on a bases-loaded balk and a wild pitch from Yankees’ starting pitcher James Paxton in the top of the first inning, which ended with Davis striking out swinging. The O’s eventually led the Yankees 4-2 behind a strong start from Cobb, before reliever Mike Wright threw a two-out, two-strike pitch to the Yankees’ Glayber Torres, who crushed it for a three-run home run. Luke Voit hit another three-run homer in the ninth for the final margin.

The Baby Birds are now 4-3 on the young season, good for second place in the A.L. East standings, and they play the second in a three-game series with the Yankees on Saturday night.

Perhaps the reception Davis got is more a signal that many fans have embraced the Orioles rebuild plans, and want the beleaguered slugger out of the way. That’s ultimately a good sign for new general manager Mike Elias and company. If things keep going like this, the O’s could conceivably just cut Davis, but, considering the contractual commitment involved, it’s in the team’s best interest to get the most from the player they can, to see if the new analytics-minded regime can do anything to revive his career.

As Davis even said at his locker, wearing a gray T-shirt that read “Courage” on the front in red block letters, “I’m going to be here for the foreseeable future.” He’s got four years left on his deal and you’ll hear his name long after that, since Davis is due to receive New York Mets/Bobby Bonilla-like deferred annual payments until the year 2037. (He’ll be 51 years old by then.)

“I’m going to continue to play him, and I’m going to continue to support him and find the right match-ups for him,” first-year manager Brandon Hyde said, and he was also surprised the response to Davis’ strikeouts. “I haven’t been around here, so I wasn’t aware of fan reaction. I’m not really concerned about it. I’m going to support the guys on the club. It is what it is. I’m going to continue to stay positive with him.” Hyde also correctly pointed out the hitting woes haven’t seemed to affect Davis’ defense at first base.

But Davis certainly understood what the fans were getting across.

“I don’t think anybody’s feeling sorry for me right now,” he said. “I think people are ready to see me turn it around, and I’m ready to turn it around.”

The first impression of this Orioles season was the stunned silence from the crowd at Yankee Stadium during player introductions of our dear visiting team. So many new names, they didn’t know who anyone was. Or maybe it was simply apathy. Only Chris Davis’ name and likeness elicited a few boos.

At the same time, first-year manager Brandon Hyde felt a little bit differently, as he stood on the third-base line and started to soak in the reality of the situation. It’s the start of, well, everything new compared to last year’s edition of the Orioles. Most of the players; there were seven new starters, and 11 of the 25 in uniform made their first Opening Day roster. All of the coaches. The general approach to baseball. The expectations. “When they say your name,” during introductions, Hyde said afterward, “that kind of hits you a little bit.”

It was an appropriate welcome to the Orioles’ 2019 baseball season, and came ahead of an expected result: A loss, 7-2, in New York to the talent-laden Yankees, one of this year’s World Series favorites, as usual.

The Baby Birds, meanwhile, at the start of an ambitious rebuild plan under the leadership of a new data-driven front office regime, are the longest of long shots to win the title (it sounds silly even to write that phrase, “win the title”). Odds are as big as 2,000-to-1 at last check of the Las Vegas sports books. A few free-wheeling, or desperate, souls have placed that wild bet.

Back here in reality, here’s three big takeaways from the O’s season-opener:

Say it with us, the theme for 2019! “We’re trying to elevate the talent level of the organization.”

The mantra for this season is not exactly something you’d print and put on the back of a t-shirt for a Little League team, much less a Major League one. But is it the truth. New Orioles general manager Mike Elias said the words once again, during a second-inning appearance in the MASN broadcast booth.

Translation: This year is not about winning. This season is about the next three or four seasons as much as it is 2019.

This can be a hard concept for a fan to accept the day after the first game of a six-month, 162-game schedule. But Elias and the O’s leadership have and will continue to preach patience in their long-term vision for sustained success, of building a strong minor league system, developing players, making a hard run at international scouting, and hitting on draft picks (hopefully high ones).

We still think Adam Jones was worth having around—he hit a home run yesterday, by the way, for Arizona—but “we don’t want to be a one-year wonder,” Elias says (and poof, images of the 2014 Orioles, and Nelson Cruz belting 40 home runs then leaving in free agency that offseason, come to mind). That’s a blueprint that’s worked in his previous stops in Houston and St. Louis, both teams that won World Series championships while he and numbers wizard, O’s assistant GM Sig Mejdal worked there.

Time will tell exactly how hard the games are to watch this season. Given the “talent level of the organization” relative to the rest of pro baseball right now, after the dismantling of last year’s core amid a historically bad year, there might be 100-plus losses again.

Thursday’s start, which included a 428-foot three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning by Luke Voit, one of the cartoonish mammoth Yankees (sunflower seeds, much?), off the bearded Andrew Cashner, was not a great sign. But as best you can manage, keep the long term in mind.

The Bright Spots

There were a few.

Trey Mancini, three years removed from being a rookie and now the grizzled veteran of this team, looked like it. In the lineup as designated hitter and batting fourth, he went 3-for-4, scored the Orioles first run and knocked in their second.

Third baseman Rio Ruiz, a 24-year-old, drove home Mancini for that first score in the top of the fourth inning and in the bottom half made a nice defensive play, stopping a line drive.

Shortstop Richie Martin, who last season played 118 games in the minors for the Oakland A’s affiliate in Midland, Texas, and was one of two O’s making his major league debut, helped turn a double play. Reliever David Hess was effective.

The highlight of the day was probably Joey Rickard’s diving catch in right field. Overall, the O’s defense looked pretty good.

Chris Davis, um . . .

He picked up where he left off. The strikeouts continue. Three of them. Already.

Davis batted seventh in the O’s order, a move Hyde made for a reason, and was pinch hit for in the ninth inning. “I’m going to try to do everything I can to take pressure off him,” the manager said of the guy with $92 million and four years left on his contract, coming off one of the all-time worst hitting seasons in baseball history. (Right. No pressure.)

Davis’ story is fascinating. One day we’ll really find out how Crush’s stroke and confidence completely unraveled, but for now, he’s a representative part of what might be the real O’s theme for 2019: Hope.

Davis is our primary emotional connection on the current roster to recent glory days. (Remember, Jimmy’s Seafood offered Davis, his children, and grandchildren free crab cakes for life for a reason.) We hope he can find some kind of respectable form to stave off the internet memes and comments that began instantly upon his first strikeout yesterday.

And, for the next six months, we hope the O’s do the best they can, give us some fun and enough reasons to watch, while we believe in the promise of a better future.

This isn’t personal. Chris Davis is a nice guy. We featured the chiseled, handsome (um, former) slugger in our annual O’s preview in 2014 and like everybody else desperately wanted the Orioles to lock him up with a long-term deal after his 47-HR, 117-RBI season in 2015.

But boy, yeah, be careful what you wish for.

As fans certainly realize by now, Davis is in the midst of an epically bad year. A year marked not by peaks and valleys, but valleys and ravines. Maybe the worst year ever in major league baseball history. We think ESPN analyst Dan Szymborski was the first to make the case, pointing out last week that Davis is on pace for an fWAR statistical season [Wins Above Replacement] that would rank him 81,892 out of 81,892 player-seasons since 1901. By a significant margin.

In fact, since Szymborski’s deep dive into Davis’ putrid performance—a MLB-low .150 batting average and just 15 RBIs—things have only gotten worse. He struck out three times Monday in an 0-5 outing against the Red Sox Monday and then got sat for the past two games.

How bad have things gotten? Bartender’s Pub in Canton has decided to give away free shots to the entire bar any time Davis gets a hit. Co-owner Danny Coker, a die-hard Orioles fan, says he wanted to do something to reward his regulars that take in these bleak baseball games night after night. The O’s are on track for 116 losses and obviously Davis isn’t the only problem—just the most glaring.

“Remember that 13-3 game against Toronto?” Coker said. “We literally turned it off in the bar to watch NCAA track and field. Just to watch anything else. That got us thinking, we’ve got all these great customers and I’m a nut baseball fan, we’ve gotta do something to make it easier to go through this crap.”

Coker’s solution was that any time Davis gets a hit, each patron will get a free Dr. Pepper shot, or what he calls “an old Highlandtown treat,” a mix of amaretto and Miller High Life. Though the promotion technically started Monday, Davis hasn’t yet been in the starting lineup.

“Do I hope he goes 4-4? Hell yeah!” says Coker, who owns the bar with his wife Dana. “It might not be great for business, but anything to keep Orioles fans happy. This makes it a little easier to digest. And maybe we can all catch a good buzz for god’s sake.”

You certainly don’t have to be Jim Palmer—who called out Davis for his failure to work during the offseason with hitting coach Scott Coolbaugh—to recognize that Davis is tying himself into knots at the plate, letting good pitches go by while chasing balls way out of the strike zone at bat after at bat.

“[Davis] is so wound up psychologically, you can see it in his swing. Hopefully he hears about this, laughs a bit, and loosens up,” Coker said.

The worst of it is that the O’s still owe Davis something akin to $92 million over next four years. His deal is complicated; with deferred payments, the team will pay Davis until 2037, at which point he’ll be 51. And hopefully out of this slump.

Additional reporting was contributed by digital editor Jess Mayhugh.

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.

London calling.
It’s only a seven-hour direct flight.

The NFL formally announced this week that the Ravens will be one of eight NFL teams to play a game in London next year. Overseas games are big business for the league, which has staged 17 games in the United Kingdom since 2007, most in front at least 83,000 fans at Wembley Stadium, where soccer is typically played.

Joe Flacco and friends will be there either Sept. 24 or Oct. 1, 2017 against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Whatever happens, hopefully no one makes like Paul Rudd in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and leaves a bad impression across the pond.

As for this year, after losing to the Patriots on Monday night and releasing veteran returner Devin Hester, the Ravens can still make the playoffs. They just need to win their last three regular-season games (vs. Philadelphia on Sunday, at Pittsburgh on Christmas Day and at Cincinnati on New Year’s Day), or even lose one and get some help from other teams losing. That would avoid a dubious first: missing the playoffs in two straight years for the first time in coach John Harbaugh’s nine seasons.

Get your tea and crumpets ready, #RavensFlock.

Next season, we will play a road game vs. Jacksonville at London’s Wembley Stadium. pic.twitter.com/SqYDeaWk7L
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 13, 2016

Pugh, Trump meet at Army-Navy game.
Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh met face-to-(hair?) with President-elect Donald Trump in the bowels of M&T Bank Stadium last Saturday at the 117th Army-Navy football game.

Pugh shared details of the brief exchange with reporters on Wednesday at City Hall. She greeted Trump as he got out of his car and she hand-delivered a letter that details what she hopes are common interests: improving parts of the city’s infrastructure.

Pugh offered Baltimore as “the perfect place to target” federal money for the type of upgrades Trump has touted he will make happen during his presidency. The meat of the letter focused on transportation around a redeveloped Port Covington and a proposed expansion of the Howard Street rail tunnel, upgrading aging water and sewer systems—please, not another sinkhole!—and strengthening citywide internet capabilities.

In typical lightning-rod fashion, when he arrived inside the home of the Ravens during the first quarter, Trump drew some cheers while protesters outside voiced their opinions and officials boosted security for the visit. On air with CBS television during the game, which Army won 21-17 to snap Navy’s 14-game win streak in the series, Trump said of the play on the field: “I don’t know if it’s necessarily the best football—but it’s very good—but, boy, do they have spirit.”

So there’s that. But at least sports brought a Democrat and a Republican together for a few minutes, and gave the city an audience.

With @realDonaldTrump in Baltimore I delivered a letter noting importance of our infrastructure needs & need for investment of federal funds pic.twitter.com/61OsajKvtQ
— Catherine Pugh (@MayorPugh50) December 10, 2016

O’s, kids have fun at holiday party.
The Oriole Bird slipped into his Santa suit and hat—where does he get these things?—and joined Orioles players Chris Davis, Darren O’Day, Caleb Joseph and Tyler Wilson, and 80 outpatients from the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital, at the team’s 38th annual charity holiday party on Tuesday.

The kids and adults (well, baseball players are really kids, too) hit the arcade games and shared lunch at Dave & Buster’s at Arundel Mills Mall. Chicken nuggets, pizza and fries were on the menu. Davis even poured a few drinks at the bar: punch and lemonade. And he later joked about how fun it was to get “dominated in games by kids that are half your age.”

Davis and his wife, Jill, a former nurse who worked in a children’s hospital in Texas, have partnered this year with UMCH and they will serve as an ambassadors for the hospital. The Davis’ plan to raise awareness of the hospital’s programs (last year it cared for 40,000 children) and childhood illnesses, in addition to donations that Baltimore’s $161 million dollar man and spouse have already made to the hospital’s NICU unit.

A holiday cheers to that. Now, Santa Bird, we love you and your outfit, but how about that starting pitcher or two we’ve been waiting on the last few years?

The Orioles were robbed of Gold Gloves, Cy Young nod.
There were clearly a lot of surprises this week and, while this one seems minor in the grand scheme of things, Orioles fans were shocked with the news. For the first time since 2010, no Orioles were awarded with Gold Glove awards. This is especially jarring since third baseman Manny Machado had the highest fielding percentage and the second-fewest errors at his position. The decision not to award Chris Davis, who we saw make some impressive catches at first base this year, is a bit more understandable considering his 10 errors to winner Mitch Moreland’s two.

But the real crime is that closer Zach Britton wasn’t even named a finalist for the Cy Young Award, when he didn’t blow a save all year. Granted, relievers don’t normally factor in, but his 2016 season was exemplary with a perfect 47-for-47 in save opportunities, a league-leading 0.54 ERA for pitchers who have worked at least 50 innings, and a span of 43 appearances without a single home run (from April 30 to August 24). Needless to say, manager Buck Showalter is not pleased.

“That’s a real poor reflection on the people who are evaluating him,” the skipper told MASN. “This guy had maybe the best year in the history of relief pitching. He should have finished in the top three in MVP, OK? He should. There’s nobody in baseball who’s more valuable to their team than Zach Britton is to the Orioles.” Preach!

One possibly silver lining? Quite literally, Mark Trumbo received the 2016 Silver Slugger Award for one of three American League (AL) outfield positions, the first Oriole outfielder to win the award since 2013. And, possibly best of all, Showalter was once again named a finalist for AL Manager of the Year with some stiff competition in the Indians’ Terry Francona. The winner will be announced next Tuesday, November 15, but we all know who gets our vote.

Orioles don’t make QO to catcher Matt Wieters.
Fan favorite and hometown boy Matt Wieters may not be wearing an Orioles uniform next year. While the team made a qualifying offer to Trumbo, they passed on the chance to extend the $17.2M, single-season offer to Wieters this time around. The catcher struggled a bit this past season with a .243 average and fell well shy of the above-average offensive number he has posted in prior years. Though he was an All Star, hit 17 home runs, and had solid fielding, the team likely wasn’t willing to pay big bucks based on his age, offensive production, and future injury risk. But Wieters, now a free agent, should have his fair share of suitors.

As far as the Orioles, they may not have to look very far for a replacement since Chance Sisco was named as the best position player in the club’s minor league system by Baseball America. The 22-year-old spent most of the season at AA Bowie before a promotion to AAA Norfolk, hitting for a combined .317 with six homers, 28 doubles, and 51 RBIs.

Tatyana McFadden wins fourth-consecutive New York City marathon.
We’ve got a real-life Superwoman in Clarksville native Tatyana McFadden. After a stunning performance at the Olympics in Rio, the Paralympic athlete returned to the states to dominate at the New York City marathon on Sunday. It is her fourth-consecutive title, finishing the wheelchair race in one hour, 47 minutes and 43 seconds. Not to mention that she completed the Grand Slam by winning in London, Boston, Chicago, and New York. The New York Times beautifully recounted McFadden’s multi-burough race, in which she thrived on the uphill climb of the Queensboro Bridge and stayed focus throughout:

McFadden pushed well ahead of the field at the start, before Schär, Amanda McGrory and Susannah Scaroni caught up by Mile 6 in Brooklyn. The pack stayed tight until the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. Koch, a former New York mayor, had a trademark line — “How’m I doin’?” — and McFadden had an answer. Just fine. She even loves the crosswind. Makes it even tougher. Here she continued to pass the elite male wheelchair racers, including her coach, Adam Bleakney, a four-time Paralympian. What did he say to his star racer? “Not a word,” Bleakney said. “She was going too fast.”

Terrell Suggs had to cut gefilte fish out of his diet.
Yes, you read that correctly. Sure, this time of year is when NFL players really get strict about their exercise regimen and dietary choices to slim down for the season. But, when talking with the Associated Press this week, Terrell Suggs revealed a bizarre indulgence. “I like my fried chicken, my pizza, my peaches, and my gefilte fish. I had to cut all that out,” he said. Jury is still out on whether or not Suggs actually considers the Jewish whitefish a guilty pleasure, but he is certainly known, among other things, to have a sense of humor. Or, as Ravens tackle Timmy Jernigan puts it: “He brings a special type of energy with him. Oh, yeah. Dude is a freak.”

Zach Britton saves American League’s All-Star win.
Though we really shouldn’t be surprised, our very own Zach Britton closed out a 4-2 American League victory with a scoreless ninth inning in Tuesday’s All-Star Game. Britton is a perfect 27-for-27 in save opportunities this year and go to show off his skills for the last three at-bats of the game, ending with a double-play grounder that sealed the AL’s victory. In doing so, he became the second O’s pitcher to earn a save in the All-Star Game since Don Aese in 1986. More disappointing, however, were the Orioles position players, who combined for an 0-for-6 performance at the plate. One silver lining? Mark Trumbo reached on an error and had an impressive showing at the Home Run Derby the night before, clocking 30 dingers and making it to the semi-finals. Regardless, the moral of the story is that, with the American League’s win, the Orioles will have home-field advantage when they (inevitably) make it to the World Series this year.

Athletes + dogs = cute.
This formula is a no-brainer and one that we recently tested out when we visited two Orioles and their dogs at Camden Yards. (Check out the photos in the current July issue of Baltimore magazine.) And, as if we needed further proof, there were two news items relating to athletes and their pets this week. The first was that Ravens center Jeremy Zuttah and wife Heran included their dog Ace as a groomsman when they got married last month. Ace, donning a black-and-white doggie tux, put in some extra training at the Downtown Dog before walking down the aisle with Jeremy’s brother. “He’s awesome,” Heran told BaltimoreRavens.com. “I just could not imagine getting married without him.”

Plus, the Orioles announced this week that they’ll be giving away a bobblehead featuring Chris Davis and his English bulldog, Samson on August 20. The bobblehead—with Davis’s alter ego Crush and Samson with a bobbly head himself—will be given out to the first 25,000 fans ages 15 and older. That same night, the beloved Orioles pet calendar will go on sale at the park, with proceeds benefiting the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS).

Pokémon Go takes over everywhere.
I’m extremely hesitant to classify this as a sport. In fact, I’m hesitant to write about Pokémon Go at all. Age-wise, I completely missed this boat and I’ve heard far too many weird stories about people nearly getting hit by a car due to Pokémon overindulgence. But, alas, it’s a thing. And these creatures(?) are seemingly everywhere in Baltimore. They’ve been hanging out with the Kooper’s Chowhound Food Truck. Patterson Park is apparently crawling with them. There have been some lurking on the water in Harbor East. Local app Loople is hosting a Pokémon bar crawl this Saturday. I am honestly afraid to think which ones could be near me right now.

Good luck catching them or whatever, but just remember to look up every once in a while.

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.”

1. Hyun-soo Kim is a perfect fit for the Orioles.
There’s a new hon in town, and he also happens to be an Iron Man. The Orioles on Wednesday reportedly agreed to a two-year, $7-million contract with South Korean outfielder Hyun-soo Kim. The O’s hope the soon-to-be 28-year-old’s statistics from the Korea Baseball Organization —Kim is a career .318 hitter and had 28 home runs and 128 RBIs last year—translate to the major leagues. Projected as a leftfielder, he also played in 141 of the Doosan Bears’ 144 games a season ago, and has earned a Cal Ripken-like reputation for durability in a decade of pro ball. Some have even called him the Korean Iron Man. As first impressions go, this is pretty good.

Meanwhile, the object of much attention, slugger Chris Davis, remains on the free agent market, although Jimmy’s Famous Seafood pulled out all the stops to see that he re-joins the O’s sooner rather than later. The restaurant offered Crush, his kids (he has one daughter), and potential grandchildren free crab cakes for life as a reported seven-year, $150-million deal from the O’s was on the table as well. Where do we sign?

Dear @CrushD19,
Please come back to the
@Orioles. If you do, free #crabcakes for life. And ur kids. And their kids. pic.twitter.com/XHLr8Swa35
— Jimmy’s Seafood (@JimmysSeafood) December 10, 2015

2. The Ravens QB carousel continues.
After the Ravens first blowout loss of the year, a 35-6 defeat to Seattle at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, John Harbaugh mentioned “next year” in his post-game press conference. By Monday, he told reporters some younger players would get more chances in the final three weeks of the season. With a 4-9 record, things are basically over. And on Tuesday, the team made a move with an eye to the future, signing free agent quarterback Ryan Mallett to a contract through the 2016 season.

Mallett, a one-time starter in Houston, was famously cut by the Texans earlier this season after missing a team charter flight to Miami. He had to fly commercial, and he also overslept for a team meeting previously. “The best thing probably was for me to be cut,” Mallett said Wednesday. “It was a piece of humble pie, but it digested real quickly.” Whether the 6-foot-6, 245-pounder learns the offense in time to play for the Ravens this season remains to be seen. Joe Flacco’s first backup, Matt Schaub, is slowly recovering from a chest injury and the Ravens seem to have settled on Jimmy Clausen for the rest of the way if needed.

Perhaps this is a good time to pause and appreciate Flacco some more. Maybe his durability alone in his first seven NFL seasons, and 10 games of his eighth, was worth the big contract. Hurry back.

3. Niumatalolo-gate
Navy football supporters were a bit uneasy in Annapolis last week and early this week, as coach Ken Niumatalolo flirted with overtures from Brigham Young University about its open head coach position. Rumors of mutual interest between the sides percolated ahead of Saturday’s Army-Navy game. The Midshipmen took care of business against their rival, winning 21-17 in Philadelphia, to beat Army for the 14th straight time and improve to 10-2 this season. But Niumatalolo soon headed to Utah to meet with BYU officials, calling the opportunity “just different.” The winningest coach in Navy football history and a national coach of the year candidate is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which owns and operates Brigham Young. His son, Va’a, is a sophomore linebacker there, and his other son, Ali’i, would likely join him there if dad took the job.

But he didn’t. Navy announced Wednesday that night Niumatalolo was staying. “It was a long and agonizing two days, probably the hardest two days of my life, but the Naval Academy has been my life for the last 18 years and I love it here,” he said.

This will go down as one of the greatest videos of all time. Thank you for everything, Coach! @NAVYCoachKen pic.twitter.com/829qQ39cxL
— Connor Stalions (@CStalionsUofM) December 13, 2015

4. Steve Smith wants “healthy Achilles’” under the tree.
All I want for Christmas is a healthy Achilles’, a healthy Achilles’, a healthy Achilles’. So says injured Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith, who flew in from Charlotte to join several Ravens at an 11th annual charity shopping spree on Monday night at a local Target store. He sure sounds like a guy who wants to come back and play next season. That would be a gift in itself.

5. Donald Trump gets a Ravens wig.
We hate to give the controversial presidential candidate any more attention, but a meme that attacks his hair and points out some of his terrible business decisions? We’re on board. Yesterday, writer David Rappoccio at Uproxx redesigned every NFL logo to include Trump’s likeness—or, in some cases, his bullish attitude. We have to say that the Ravens logo might be among the most accurate. He basically sports a bird atop his head anyway.

The Orioles insist they’re still in the hunt for Davis. (And reliever Darren O’Day, to whom they’ve made a competitive offer). I guess it’s always good to have a backup plan.

3. Terps hire new head football coach.
The Terps have got their man. After firing Randy Edsall on October 11, the 3-9 team had been in the hunt for a new head football coach. Lots of high-profile names came up: Tony Dungy, Mack Brown, former MD quarterback Frank Reich. But in the end, it was Michigan defensive coordinator, 37-year-old D.J. Durkin, who landed the job. While not exactly a household name, Coach Durkin has a few things going for him. Michigan’s defense was one of the best in the nation. Plus, he was a graduate assistant under Urban Meyer and a coordinator under Jim Harbaugh. If you can’t get the best, get a guy who learned from the best? Reports indicate that interim coach Mike Locksley is unlikely to return to the team.

4. Navy football racks up the awards.
Navy cruised to a 7-1 conference record (9-2 overall) it’s first year in the American Athletic Conference and it now has the hardware to show for it. Senior quarterback Keenan Reynolds was named AAC offensive player of the year—and is on the shortlist for the Heisman Award—and Coach Ken Niumatalolo was co-named coach of the year. We’re sure the rest of the league hates them already.

5. Dundalk Owls make first trip to State Championship.
Let’s focus on the positive, shall we? With junior quarterback Darrius Sample leading the way, the Owls had an unlikely and incredible season—and made it to the Class 3A football final for the first time. Alas, all good things must come to an end, as they were overmatched last night at M&T Bank Stadium by an experienced Damascus team, losing 55 to 14. But, while we’re seeing the glass half full, let it be known that Damascus stud running back Jake Funk, who scored seven touch downs last night (no, that isn’t a typo) is on his way to College Park next year to play for the Terps. D.J. Durkin must be licking his chops.