Mercy! The Orioles have given up so many home runs this season—105 and counting—that even the typically ebullient Gary Thorne, who is supposed to tell us what’s going on, was left speechless the other night.

“I . . . I don’t know,” the play-by-play voice of the Orioles on MASN said live on the air Wednesday when the Yankees’ Gleyber Torres hit another out of Camden Yards—his ninth homer against the O’s this season. Then Thorne delivered a demoralized, monotone version of his signature call, “Goodbye! Home run!” He’d seen enough.

Then it happened again. Two innings later, when Torres hit another dinger off reliever Gabriel Ynoa, Thorne’s reaction was correctly identified below as “dies inside.” It was Harry Doyle-esque.

So it goes for the Orioles, and even the 70-year-old, Emmy Award-winning Thorne, a 33-year baseball broadcast veteran who, as good broadcasters do, has endeared himself to much of the fanbase in 13 seasons working O’s telecasts.

We were afraid something like this might happen, in the first full season of a much-ballyhooed, publicly-stated franchise rebuild.

The O’s not only seem to be Torres favorite team to hit against (he only has two home runs against any other this year), but everyone’s.

On Monday, in the first of a four-game homestand against the division-leading Yankees (again?!), starting pitcher David Hess — who has allowed a major-league worst 17 home runs alone — gave up the team’s 100th, as the O’s pitching staff became the quickest in major league baseball history to achieve the undesirable feat.

It’s still May, there’s four months to go in the season, and the O’s unfortunately are on pace to obliterate an infamous low-water single-season record of 258 home runs allowed by the Cincinnati Reds in 2016.

To hear first-year manager Brandon Hyde describe the situation, some of it might be avoidable.

“There’s definitely a pitching plan [and] it’s definitely not throw the ball in the middle part of the plate, and we just continue to do it,” he said the other night. “That’s inexcusable at this level.”

But some of it may not. When a team decides to overhaul the roster from top to bottom and plan for the future while sacrificing the present, without a bonafide ace, and sends pitchers to and from the minors as if day-trading stocks, this is what happens. It’s hard. Even Gary gets exhausted.

Other than players and coaches, there are few people associated with a professional baseball team who see more pitches, hits, and outs than its local television play-by-play announcer.

And in our case, we’re blessed to have Thorne, a former lawyer—in his younger years, he was assistant district attorney in his native Maine—who has called national games and many sports in addition to baseball for the last five decades. (As a kid, I remember hearing him do hockey games on ESPN and locally for the New Jersey Devils.)

He and analyst and Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim Palmer are one of the best local broadcast teams in any pro sport. In fact, right now Thorne is teaching a remote class on broadcasting for Arizona State’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

It’s a craft, and dedicated fans here know Thorne’s quirks, character, ties, and sometimes irreverent commentary. Some might even know his drink preferences: a glass of GTS cabernet sauvignon, or a finger of bourbon over a single ice cube. And his favorite book: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

“I read it at least once a year because it’s such a concise, yet total picture of human life; battling the elements, winning, and then suffering the loss and surviving both,” he told fans earlier this year.

In addition to his signature in-game phrases like “mercy,” following a notable play, Thorne signs off a broadcast by bidding us “adieu, adieu,” for a win, or just one “adieu” for a loss.

About a third of the way into the season, so far the O’s have a baseball-worst 15 wins and 35 losses, a last-place status many observers expected. But how it’s happening is nonetheless painful. The home runs? We knew it was possible, but it hurts to see so many balls flying into the hunter green seats at Camden Yards, off the bats of the other team.

Thorne, as good voices do, spoke for a lot of the fans.

The Ravens cross the Atlantic to face the Jaguars.
This is the first time Baltimore has played overseas as a part of the NFL international series. This is the 11th consecutive year the league has hosted regular season games at Wembley Stadium, part of an agreement that runs until 2020. Although the Ravens are entering this game as the underdog—this will be Jacksonville’s fifth game played at Wembley—the streets of London are engulfed in a purple haze with Ravens double-decker buses, crazed fans, and former Ravens players (We see you Reed, Smith, Ogden, and Lewis).

Kick-off is at 9:30 a.m. our time—we know, it’s early—but there are still ways fulfill those game day rituals. WJZ-TV will broadcast the game for the Baltimore area but fans can also live stream on Yahoo and BaltimoreRavens.com.

If going to the bar with your best buds is the usual move, there are a few that will be opening early to accommodate the early kick-off like Lee’s Pint & Shell at 8:30 a.m. for $3 mimosas and $1 oysters. Or grab breakfast at any of The Greene Turtle locations at 9 a.m. for $6.99.

Fans at OPACY get a surprise.
Inspired “Hide a Book Day” and Goodreads, a social media network for book lovers, MASN broadcaster and avid reader Gary Thorne signed and hid some of his favorite books for unsuspecting fans to Monday’s game against the Boston Red Sox.

Manny Machado saves the day again.

Third baseman Manny Machado has rescued the Orioles offense time and time again this season and last night’s win over Tampa Bay was no exception. Despite fighting the flu, Machado came ready to play knocking out a two-run homer—his 33rd of the season—in the first inning.

Gabriel Ynoa also pitched a career-high eight innings of one-run baseball game in the 3-1 win over the Rays. Although the Orioles are out of the race, they are still fighting hard to avoid their first losing season since 2011. 

National Lacrosse Hall of Fame Inducts New Members.
Tomorrow, the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame will be inducting nine new members and longtime Johns Hopkins and UMBC coach Don Zimmerman will be among the honorees. Zimmerman will be honored for his coaching achievements that span over five decades from 1978-2016.

During his seven seasons as head coach at Hopkins, he amassed a winning record of 73-15, and another 164 wins as head coach at UMBC. He has already been inducted to three other halls of fame, so adding one more should be a cakewalk for the legendary coach. 

Through a slew of struggling seasons, the Orioles have seen a lot of turnover: traded players, a plethora of managers, and even, yes, some bandwagon fans.
But, flip on the TV and, game in and game out, you’ll hear two consistent voices: the play-by-play from Gary Thorne and color commentary from Jim Palmer.
So, what has it been like for them to call losing season after losing season and then, finally, experience that rekindled Orioles magic last year?

“If anything, those past years were a disappointment,” says Gary Thorne who came on board in 2007. “But you never try and fool anybody. You try to be honest, but positive, because there are always memorable moments no matter the losing record.”

Thorne swears he’s not a homer, but admits that any broadcaster would want the team they’re covering to win. He adds that it was especially hard on former Orioles Palmer and Mike Flanagan to watch their team flounder.

“I’ve gone through very dismal years,” Palmer says. “But we’re always prepared as broadcasters. And when you work with Gary Thorne, he can make a haircut sound exciting.”

Even still, the excitement of the 2012 season was exhilarating for both commentators.

“It was the way they won those 93 games,” Palmer says. “All those one-run games, extra-inning games, Chris Davis pitching. We started winning series, winning on Sundays, winning the rubber game. Every game was meaningful.” 

Thorne says that his production team at MASN didn’t do anything different last year per se, but there were obvious advantages.

“You smile a lot more,” he says. “And you don’t have to reach for stories. They’re right there in front of you.”