[1/9/25: Editor’s Note: Sadly, former Orioles pitcher Brian Matusz—who is profiled in this April 2010 piece—passed away earlier this week. He was 37 and his cause of death is still under investigation.

“A staple in our clubhouse from 2009-2016, Brian was beloved throughout Birdland, and his passion for baseball and our community was unmatched,” reads a statement released by the Orioles on Jan. 7. “He dedicated his time to connecting with any fan he could, was a cherished teammate, and always had a smile on his face.”

Read on for our interview with Matusz and four other emerging players after their rookie season, in which he discussed getting called up to the majors, his first time on the mound at Camden Yards, and what he loved about living in Baltimore.]

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It’s amazing how quickly this city changes from purple to orange. Nowhere is this more evident than FanFest, held just one week after the Ravens were ousted from playoff contention. On an unseasonably warm afternoon in January, more than 12,000 O’s fanatics filled the downtown Convention Center to get photographed with The Bird, wait in staggeringly long lines for autographs, and even get a chance to chat with one of their favorite players.

Around 4 p.m., there was an unmistakable buzz surrounding the main stage. A safe assumption would be that it’s one of the veterans up there—maybe Nick Markakis or Brian Roberts—waxing poetic about his years on the team. But once you get past some of the standing-room-only crowd, it’s quite the opposite: five baby-faced newcomers.

“This is the largest crowd we’ve had here all day,” says emcee Jim Hunter. The crowd laughs, but there’s something serious going on here.

These five players—Brad Bergesen, Matt Wieters, Nolan Reimold, Brian Matusz, and Chris Tillman—showed so much promise during their rookie 2009 season that Orioles fans are banking on them. To Orange-and-Black Nation, these five represent no less than the very future of the team.

“There is no question of the talent these young guys have,” says Orioles pitching coach Rick Kranitz. “If you’re looking at championships down the line—and that’s why you play the game—that’s what these guys can bring.”

For a team that has had (gulp) 12 consecutive losing seasons, even hearing the word championship can inspire much-needed hope. Each player came up through the Orioles minor leagues and ended up with impressive numbers last year: Bergesen notched 65 strikeouts in 19 games, Wieters drove in 43 runs, Reimold hit 15 home runs, Matusz won five out of seven starts, and Tillman (the youngest, at just 21 years old last season) struck out 39.

But baseball stats aside, there is something intangible that all five of these players bring to the Orioles clubhouse—an enthusiasm and energy only seen in rookies, the kind of energy that could propel a team to victory.

“You need that breath of fresh air, to see their eyes wide open when they walk onto the field,” says second baseman, and nine-year veteran, Brian Roberts. “It keeps it in perspective and makes you realize that our future is very, very bright.”

“You need that breath of fresh air, to see their eyes wide open when they walk onto the field. It keeps it in perspective and makes you realize that our future is very, very bright.” —Brian Roberts

LIKE MANY FUTURE MAJOR-LEAGUERS, most of the O’s newcomers grew up loving the game of baseball. Bergesen, now 24, remembers spending many summer days in his hometown of Fairfield, CA, trading baseball cards with friends. Twenty-six-year-old outfielder Reimold started out playing shortstop in Little League in Greenville, PA. Catcher Wieters, 23, spent every night he can remember sitting in front of the TV with his dad in Goose Creek, SC, watching their beloved Atlanta Braves. And Matusz, 23, says he feels lucky that his childhood passion turned into a pitching scholarship at University of San Diego.

Only Tillman, now 22, says he wasn’t that into baseball as a kid growing up in Anaheim, CA. “I know it sounds weird, but I grew up by the beach and just wanted to surf,” he says. “I didn’t even get into pitching until my first couple years of high school.”

But, one way or another, they all made it to the big leagues. All baseball players remember what it’s like getting called up to the majors, whether the news is delivered on the bus to a game or actually on the field. Matusz admits he had to hold back some tears when he got the call.

“I had just pitched a shutout inning in Double-A in New Britain,” he says. “The manager pulled me to the side and said, ‘That’s it.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and he said, ‘You’re pitching in Detroit in three days.’ I remember I couldn’t stop shaking and I called my dad right away.”

A debut for any baseball player is a big deal. But, in Baltimore, there might be some added pressure because of how devoted the fans are to the players, even before they enter the majors.

“For as long as I can remember, the fans here have always had a huge interest in their farm system,” says Orioles president Andy MacPhail. “Partly because of the geographic proximity of these minor league teams, but partly because they’re just so invested in the future.”

This was certainly the case when the highly touted Wieters made his debut on May 29 to a sold-out stadium of fans and masses of media outlets in the clubhouse. There was a palpable excitement in the air. Heck, there was even a rainbow over Camden Yards.

“I was just thinking, ‘Don’t do something to embarrass yourself,’” Wieters recalls. “When you come up with that sort of hype, you want to hit a home run every time. But this game’s too tough for anyone to C5 do that, so you just have to go out there and play like you know you can.”

This philosophy worked for the catcher, as he finished his season strong, batting .362 and earning 14 RBIs in the month of September. Also playing in Wieters’s debut game was Bergesen, though he didn’t come up with that same level of expectation. Affectionately known as “Bergie” in the clubhouse, he made his debut earlier in the year and proved to be arguably the Orioles’s most dependable starting pitcher.

“I never looked at myself as an ace, that was always [Jeremy] Guthrie,” Bergesen says. “I just always wanted to work hard and go deep in games.”

He continued to do just that until a line drive hit him straight in the leg on July 30. Bergesen thought his shin was broken at first, ran off the field into the clubhouse, and collapsed when his leg gave out from under him. Though an MRI revealed no bone fracture, the injury ended his season.

While fans were heartbroken to see Bergesen go, it made way for Matusz, or “B-Matt,” to get on the mound. For his debut, 27 of Matusz’s closest friends and family filled the seats in Camden Yards. And they were not disappointed. He earned a win in that game and went on to win five more starts and strike out 38 batters. But, despite that success (or more accurately, because of it), the Orioles shut him down on Sept. 14 to preserve his arm for 2010.

“I felt healthy, so I didn’t want to stop throwing,” he says. “But I knew it was coming. They always told me right around 160 innings they would shut me down. At least I won my last three games and ended on a positive note.”

Matusz’s best friend on the team is fellow West Coast resident Tillman. They always sit next to each other in the dugout, and, when one player is out signing autographs, fans always ask where the other one is.

Tillman, whose teammates call him “Tilly,” was called up on July 29 last year and had a pretty streaky season. In one five-start span in August, he posted a more than respectable 3.34 ERA, but he only ended up winning two of his five starts.

“Last season was a lot about me getting the jitters out,” Tillman says. “I have to be more consistent and throw more strikes, and that comes  with maturity.”

The player that blew everyone’s expectations out of the water was outfielder Reimold. He quietly debuted on May 14 and ended up having a stellar season: He led American League rookies in home runs, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and walks.

“I always expect big things from myself,” Reimold says. “I would have been surprised if I didn’t do that well.”

Unfortunately (and pretty impressively considering his accomplishments), Reimold was dealing with the pain of a frayed Achilles tendon for most of the season and was shut down in September to recover. Before his season got cut short, Reimold was a major contender for AL Rookie of the Year.

FOR YEARS NOW, THE ORIOLES ORGANIZATION has been encouraging fans to be patient: Yes, the team has floundered. Yes, it’s been a painful winning drought. But look to the farm system! That’s our future.

Last year, the future arrived en masse—the Orioles had a total of nine rookies on the roster.

“These guys were the final result of a blueprint planned out years ago,” says hitting coach Terry Crowley. “But to have that many come so soon was even more than we were expecting.”

The group already felt comfortable, as all five played together at some point, whether in Norfolk, Bowie, or the Arizona Fall League, which Orioles manager Dave Trembley says helped them from day one.

“They all automatically fit in very well in the clubhouse,” Trembley says. “They genuinely like each other, and you can tell because they’re always together.”

It’s not often that a team gets an influx of top-tier rookies all in the same season. From a player’s perspective, that camaraderie made adjusting to the majors a lot easier.

“It was great when I came up because the rookies were able to give me advice about what they just went through,” Wieters says. “Plus, the veterans don’t pick on you as much when you start to outnumber them.”

Of course, the young players admit, there was some ritual hazing, some expected (like an Adam Jones pie to the face after an accomplishment) and some pretty unexpected (like being forced to answer very personal questions over a microphone in the front of the entire team bus). “With rookies around, the clubhouse gets a little bit sillier,” Crowley admits.

The large group of young guys also serves to remind the older players what a privilege it is to play this game at the highest level. And all five first-year players admit they had plenty of goose-bump moments in 2009.

“You can’t get much better than hitting your first major-league home run off of a Hall-of-Famer in Yankee Stadium,” says Reimold of his May 20 rocket off Mariano Rivera.

The other players, not surprisingly, count their experiences playing against the Yankees as some of their most awestruck. Bergesen remembers it really got to him when he walked out to the bus with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez one day.

“I didn’t think it was going to hit me that hard,” he says. “But to realize you’re on the same playing field as these guys is crazy.”

Likewise, growing up in Colorado, Matusz’s favorite player was the Diamondbacks’s Mark Grace. Grace, now retired and doing color commentary, called a game last season when Matusz pitched against the Rangers.

“I brought my Mark Grace jersey up to the radio booth before the game,” Matusz says. “We talked for half-an-hour and it was pretty special. I ended up winning that game, too.”

Through it all, the five young players were able to form a strong bond. During the season, they all lived in Canton, and some hung out at the ESPN Zone or ate crabs during downtime. Bergesen, who’s been married for about a year, and Reimold, the mellowest of the five, say they preferred to hang at home. But they all adopted a strong appreciation for Baltimore.

“I love it here. There’s a different lifestyle living in a city,” Matusz says. “Each neighborhood has its own character and you can see how much people really love their city.”

Two of them were already familiar with area: Bergesen’s wife grew up in Catonsville, and Wieters’s sister lives downtown. But some guys admit that they were a bit nervous coming to a town that wasn’t exactly known for racking up baseball pennants.

“You know, just looking at the Orioles record, I wasn’t sure how the fans were going to be,” Tillman says. “But Baltimore has some of the most supportive and loyal fans in the league.”

“The rookies gave me advice about what they just  went through. Plus, the veterans don’t pick on you as much when you start to outnumber them.” —Matt Wieters

AND NOW, ALL EYES ARE ON 2010. The rookie season was surreal and amazing and it flew by all too quickly. But now these guys won’t be sneaking up on anybody. And there’s a reason why the phrase “sophomore slump” exists.

“These kids are going to have to learn when the league starts adjusting to them,” MacPhail says. “Our job in the off-season was to get veteran players around them to prepare them even further.”

The Orioles president was probably referring to acquisitions like 13-year veterans Miguel Tejada and Kevin Millwood. Tejada, a former O’s shortstop, will move to third base and boost the core of veteran players. Young pitchers are already excited to learn from longtime hurler Millwood, who comes to Baltimore from the Texas Rangers.

Also important for the rooks is recovering from nagging 2009 injuries. Bergesen says that his shin feels back to normal. (Ironically, the pitcher strained his shoulder while shooting a TV commercial in December and had to sit out some of spring training.)

Following the end of last season, Reimold had surgery on his Achilles tendon and was doing rehab well into the winter. “I’m feeling good now,” Reimold says with the understated confidence that characterizes most of his answers. The outfielder is almost abnormally relaxed and composed in an interview, much like his attitude at the plate. Nothing seems to faze him.

“Nolan has a blue collar approach to the game,” Trembley says. “He has a keen eye and can hit home runs to all fields. He’s improving his outfield play, and left field should be his position in the coming years.”

Then there’s Wieters, the guy with the most fanfare. He’s tall at 6’5” and carries himself like he’s been in the majors for years—probably because of all the extra media attention. Crowley calls the pressure on the catcher “unfair,” but says he’s handled himself well despite it.

“Wieters will be the Orioles catcher, and a good one, for the next decade or longer,” Trembley says. “He’s got a big upside, hits for average and power, and doesn’t get rattled.”

As for the future of our pitching staff, a tumultuous subject throughout Orioles history? Well, there’s hope there, too. Once a few kinks are worked out, Kranitz believes the team will have a successful starting rotation.

“Bergesen relies on the ability to get a ground ball, which is huge. Ground balls can’t go over the fence,” he says. “Matusz is a total four-pitch package—and all of them have quality. Tillman is the baby of the group, but I can envision him in the next couple of years being an absolute jaw-dropper.”

If all of this sounds like it falls under the category of typical April optimism, that’s because it does. Every spring, as flowers bloom and temperatures climb, Orioles fans all around the city start feeling a sense of expectation, usually crushed by the time the All-Star break rolls around. But something, genuinely, feels a little bit different this season. Maybe that infectious rookie enthusiasm that Roberts was talking about has rubbed off, but 2010 just feels like the year the team can finally make some noise. Or at least get over the .500 hump.

“A couple years ago, it was frustrating to think of this as a rebuilding process,” Roberts says. “But I don’t think of it like that anymore. I don’t feel like we’re as much rebuilding as we are preparing to win.” Soon, maybe fans will still be wearing orange in October.”

Sports Illustrated names Michael Phelps “The Greatest Olympian of All Time.”
And we’re not going to argue with that. The Baltimore aquaman has 28 career medals, including 23 gold (see above photo). Number two on all-time medal list is former Soviet Union gymnast Union Larisa Latynina, who took home 18 medals, including nine, in the 1950s and 1960s. But is he done? Phelps said he’s retired, but he has also said that before and he’s been equivocating lately, too. Here’s the what Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, a friend and golfing partner of Phelps, told SI in their Dec. 26 issue (keeping in mind UA has Phelps signed to a long-term deal):

“I know what Michael is going to say about Tokyo: ‘I’ll be 35 years old, I can’t stare at the black line anymore.’ I understand. But Tokyo is going to be a great Olympics. He said he was retiring after London, when he was 27, with the lung capacity of a Great White Shark. You can bet I’m going to be nudging him as best I can for the next four years. I think he believes he is retired now. Three years is a long time to rest.”

‘Tis the season to be jolly. ‘Tis also football season.
The Ravens travel to Heinz Field Christmas afternoon with nothing less than a division title and a playoff berth in the balance. We don’t want to go around denigrating another city’s football team this time of year, but we do expect the Ravens will deliver some well-deserved coal to all those Steeler stockings hanging in the Pittsburgh locker room.

Added to laundry list of questionable Steeler activities over the years—head coach Mike Tomlin attempting to trip Jacoby Jones on a kickoff, for example—Pittsburgh had its own hushed-up Deflate-gate scandal this season following a game with the New York Giants. Fortunately for the Steelers, however, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell quickly moved to sweep the episode away, learning from the New England episode that cheating scandals are gigantic headache and not exactly good PR for the league. The fact that the family owners of Giants, the Maras, and the family owners of the Steelers, the Rooneys, are related (note actress Rooney Mara) may have also played a role in the nothing-to-see-here-folks approach by the NFL.

Matt Wieters may not be going that far away.
We knew there was little chance the free-agent O’s catcher would stay in Baltimore. All things considered, the team’s signing of Welington Castillo to hold down the receiving duties until highly touted minor league star Chance Sisco is ready for The Show looks like a good deal. That said, Wieters, a class act on and off the field, will be missed here. Recent rumors have him headed down I-95 to Washington. As painful as it would be see the big guy in a red cap with a “W” scrawled across the front, it would give us a chance to track his career and occasionally watch him play on MASN.

The man who stole the Colts from Baltimore died this week.
William Hudnut III often gets credit for revitalizing downtown Indianapolis. In the early 1980s, one of the things then-mayor Hudnut pushed for was the construction of the city’s Hoosier Dome football stadium. As longtime Baltimoreans recall, before the stadium had even been completed, Hudnut had hooked easy mark Robert Irsay, persuading the Colts owner to steal the team away from Baltimore in the middle of the night in 1984. Hudnut, it turned out, moved to the Washington, D.C. area in the 1990s, even serving briefly as mayor of Chevy Chase in the mid-2000s. The 84-year-old Hudnut died this week of congestive heart failure while in a Rockville hospice center.

Remarkably, even Indianapolis TV stations refer to their city’s theft of the Colts as “that scandalous night” when “Indianapolis stole the Colts unannounced.”

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.”

5. Buck Showalter critiques baseball movies for Esquire.
One thing we really miss about baseball season is hearing manager Buck Showalter’s one-liners during post-game interviews. His brash, quick wit caused even the most stoic reporters to giggle in the background. Luckily, Esquire magazine is producing a series where they ask real-life coaches what they think of watching their fictional counterparts on screen. We think it’s no coincidence that they tapped our own Showalter first to get his opinion on baseball movies, drawing from his knowledge as a player and manager. The results are amazing.

We learn he has a deep disdain for the movie Moneyball, calling it “complete fiction” and saying that Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s portrayal of Oakland A’s manager Art Howe “was so far off that it was comical.” He was a great actor, but whoever was coaching him just had no idea. Maybe they just didn’t care. Maybe most of the people watching it just didn’t notice.” He then softened a little, talking about his affinity for Kevin Costner in movies like Draft Day and Field of Dreams, though, he says, the latter didn’t have enough baseball. Showalter liked The Natural because “Robert Redford looked like a hitter.”

But the best part has to be the end, where Showalter admits his favorite baseball movie is The Sandlot. “That was me growing up,” he says. “That’s realistic. We were in the back wearing tennis shoes, hitting homemade balls. If you hit it too far, it goes in somebody’s yard and you’re screwed; the game’s over . . . Although they killed it (in a bad way) with The Sandlot 2. That movie was terrible.” Buck, never change.

Honorable mention: For the second week in a row, we have a bit too much news to fit into five segments, so our honorable mention (pun kind of intended) goes to Ed Reed, who will be inducted into the Ravens’ Ring of Honor during this Sunday’s game, becoming the ninth member of that elite group. “Home is here. Home has always been Baltimore,” Reed told BaltimoreRavens.com. “My heart has always been in Baltimore. It will always be in Baltimore and at M&T Bank Stadium.”

STICK TO A ROUTINE
Matt Wieters, catcher

“I
like to get to the ballpark the same time every day. It’s just a matter
of going through my routine, get in the hot tub to get loose, go
through my extra work.”

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MAKE IT A BUBBLE
Steve Pearce, outfielder

“Whatever works the previous day, you try to carry it over. I have stuff that
I do. Going up to bat with gum, blowing bubbles on deck, little stuff like that.”

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SAVE MY SEAT
Darren O’Day, pitcher

“We have goofy handshakes in the bullpen. Plus, Jim Johnson won’t let anybody sit in his seat. The second seat from the right should say ‘King James.’”

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BURN YOUR CLOTHES
Lew Ford, outfielder

“If you had a big day, I don’t think I’d wash my underclothes, which is kind of gross. If you’re in a slump or something, you throw everything away. Burn it.”