Last year was last year. This season marks the beginning of a new era of Orioles baseball, one defined by exciting young players and a front office on the analytical vanguard. Though expectations may be tempered, excitement still abounds for the Orioles’ April 4 home opener against the notorious New York Yankees. And while nothing quite compares to sitting in the outfield bleachers, nursing a drink from the newly minted Flying Dog Taphouse in Camden Yards, and thanking God for making you a country boy, these food and drink specials are the next best thing.

101 Baltimore
The battle between Baltimore and New York will not solely be contained to the baseball field. This Fed Hill hangout is staging a hot dog faceoff between iconic New York hot doggery Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs, which you might recognize as the fourth best food option at any given Six Flags or highway rest stop, and our very own Polock Johnny’s. Wash down all of the eats with $5 Union drafts and $15 buckets of Boh. Before you know it, it’ll be time for another dog. 1118 S Charles St. #101, 443-682-9480

Banditos
Mere blocks from the iconic B&O Warehouse, this lively Mexican cantina is the perfect place to root, root, root for the home team. The beer will be cheap and plenty ($5 32oz big beers, $15 buckets of Natty Boh), and nothing pairs better with a triumphant victory—or is more palliative to a post-loss broken heart—than a plate of tacos. 1118 S Charles St., 443-835-1517

BMore Around Town
Dying to drink in a parking lot? If so, you’re in luck. Tailgating pros BMore Around Town are hosting a traditional tailgate in the Camden Yards lot, with an open bar, boozy snowballs, an open buffet, and freshly shucked oysters. Tickets range from $50 to $125. 152 W Ostend St., 443-865-5935

Don’t Know Tavern
This neighborhood sports bar is known to get pretty lively for O’s games. Sip on their drink specials ($5 22 oz. Miller Lite Drafts, $ 15 Miller Lite or Coors Light Buckets, $3 Blue Moons), grab a barstool next to one of the regulars, and admire the majesty of a well-framed pitch, a quickly-turned double play, and the other minor beauties of America’s past-time. 1453 Light St., 410-539-0231

Flying Dog Pregame at the Hilton Baltimore
An annual staple, this pre-game celebration will prove that the best part of waking up is a full beer in your cup. Organized by Flying Dog Brewery, the festivities begin at 10 a.m., when you can get an early start by sampling an array of the area’s finest craft beers with hundreds of new friends. 401 W Pratt St., 443-573-8700

Gameday Firehouse
While the bar’s proprietors may be firefighters by day, this Pigtown bar-cum-firehouse is aflame with O’s pride. Baltimore’s bravest will be serving up $5 Absolut Vodka crushes, $3 16-oz. domestic cans, and $2 Budweiser and Bud Light drafts. To wit, a power hour will be held from 10 a.m.-11 a.m.—let’s hope Chris Davis can learn a thing or two. 1202 Ridgely St., 410-234-0734

Jimmy’s Seafood
Although this Dundalk institution is more known for their Ravens events, their opening day bash is equally impressive, boasting an open bar, a full buffet, and three hours of live music. Tickets start at $25 for kids and go up to $180 for a full VIP experience. 6526 Holabird Ave., 410-633-4040

Max’s Taphouse
This Fells Point drinking hole’s party is the most fun you can with orange and black clothes on. More than 15 specialty beers will be on tap, complemented by a menu of ballpark favorites. Be warned, the pregame will quickly transition to the post-game, as the revelry is an all-day affair. If you can withstand the full day, even Cal Ripken, Jr. would be impressed. 737 S Broadway, 410-675-6297

Nando’s
Don’t chicken out on Baltimore’s unofficial holiday. Instead, head to this downtown temple of poultry, order a $3 foamer, and go to town on 24 wings, a towering plate of fries, or hummus, covered in their world-renowned Peri-Peri sauce. 421 West Baltimore St., 443-681 3675

Pep Rally in the Plaza
From noon to 2 p.m., Downtown Partnership will turn Center Plaza into the capital of Birdland, replete with lawn games, food trucks, and free beer courtesy of iHeartRadio while supplies last (don’t fret, this will be supplemented by another bar with wine and beer, since the free beer will invariably be drank dry). 120 W Fayette St., 410-244-1030

Pickles Pub
Surprisingly this is one of two places that you can drink during a 6 a.m. breakfast buffet on Thursday. Spitting distance from the Brooks Robinson statue, Pickles will feature free food until 8 a.m., and $3 Deep Eddy cocktails and Orange Crushes until 9 a.m. 520 Washington Blvd., 410-752-1784

Red Star
Located in the shadow of the Homewood Campus in Charles Village, this recently opened bistro presents a more mellow option, away from the hoi polloi. You’re an adult, after all, and drinking before the sun comes up would require months of preparation to steel your body for battle. Instead, swill $3 pints of Guinness Blonde and $5 orange and grapefruit crushes in relative tranquility. 3224 St Paul St., 443-948-5539

Sliders
For the 27th consecutive year, Baltimoreans will rouse themselves from the warm embrace of sleep and make the pre-dawn pilgrimage to 771 feet away from Camden Yards to start the day off right. Drink specials (be sure to try the new Fancy Clancy Pilsner!) will be served at all 10 of the bars on location. Food is free from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. and ante-meridiem drink specials abound. 504 Washington Blvd., 410-547-8891

Wayward Smokehouse
Barbecue, baseball, and beer are the holy trinity of spring. Luckily, this Federal Hill hotspot has all three in spades. Come join the Orioles faithful for $5 Miller Light and Coors Lights pounders, $5 Union Craft Brewing drafts, and $6 specialty Oriole bombs. 1117 S Charles St., 410-223-2269

Chris Davis is sweating. Outside it’s another frigid January day fit only for penguins and polar bears, but inside Camden Yards last season’s Most Valuable Oriole has just finished his morning workout, a term that means something different to him than it does to you and me.

During the offseason, he puts in four to six hours in the gym four days a week. Two days from now, 15,000 fans will bundle up for a trip to FanFest, where they’ll fawn over the slugger and daydream of opening day, which in this current snowy and shivery reality seems like an unattainable mirage. Davis knows it’s not.

“Today was lower body,” says the chiseled 28-year-old. “It was miserable. I really enjoy the gym, but there are always things that you don’t enjoy doing. Those are the things that put you at the top. There are days I don’t want to focus on shoulders, or hip mobility, or flexibility, but I know it’s going to pay off in the long run. We usually start out with cardio and conditioning. Some days we’ll focus more on lifting. I’m not going to give away all my secrets, but there’s no doubt I’ll be in shape when we get to spring training.”

A month later, in a ballpark that seems a world away, Davis steps to the plate in the third inning of the Orioles spring training home opener in Sarasota, FL. The temperature is a blissful 71 degrees, and most fans wear hats to shield themselves from the bright sun. Davis digs in, waves his 35-inch, 33-ounce bat like it’s a toothpick, then calmly blasts a double, scoring two runners to give the O’s the lead. No doubt he’s in shape.

Baseball, as everyone who’s ever played it knows, is a hard game. A game of failure. No one understands this more than Chris Davis, who, at times before becoming the Orioles single-season home run king and morphing into a superstar called Crush, often could barely make contact with the ball.

“Everybody in their life is going to struggle at some point,” he says in the nearly empty Oriole Park clubhouse. “It’s how you bounce back. There were times when I was extremely frustrated. I was almost lost. But I always kept my head up, I always stayed positive. There’s a reason why I’m still here.”

Close your eyes and imagine a typical Texas town. What you’re probably picturing—a small city of farms, ranches, and three high schools where football is religion—is Longview. Davis grew up in the community of roughly 80,000, about 120 miles east of Dallas, and still thinks of it as home. When Chris was 3 years old, his father, Lyn, noticed that his son could toss a ball in the air and hit it with a Whiffle bat. He started him in tee ball the next year and served as his primary baseball coach until he got to high school.

Davis was a big kid, 6-foot-3, 215 pounds when he graduated from Longview High. A former quarterback on the football team and current shortstop on the diamond, he was drafted by the New York Yankees with the third-to-last pick of the 2004 draft. But like just about every boy in the Lone Star State, Davis dreamed of becoming a Longhorn, so he passed on the pinstripes and enrolled in the University of Texas on a baseball scholarship.

It was in Austin that Davis first tasted failure. While he added 10 to 15 pounds of muscle and was “stronger than I’ve ever been,” that power didn’t translate to the field. After fall of his freshman year, he transferred to Navarro Junior College, coached by Skip Johnson.

“He was happy-go-lucky, really a guy that worked at it. But he tried too hard,” Johnson says in a Texas twang. “Chris had power to all parts of the field that wasn’t polished yet. He’d swing too hard. But he always loved to play, loved to have fun and compete.”

Davis credits Johnson for helping him mature both on and off the field, and to learn to respect the game. The men are still close friends and go hunting together in the offseason.

After a stellar season at Navarro, Davis was drafted in the 35th round of the 2005 draft by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, but again didn’t sign, betting that he would be a higher pick the following year. The gamble paid off. In 2006, his beloved Texas Rangers took him in the fifth round and offered him a $172,500 bonus. This time he autographed the contract.

“I didn’t come from a lot of money, so I thought that was a good chunk of change,” says Davis, whose father works at a family-owned furniture store and whose mother, Karen, is an adjustor for Farmers Insurance. “I was excited, but it wasn’t so much about the money as it was getting an opportunity to play and feeling like I was ready.”

Davis tore through the minors, treating pitchers like he did that tee ball in the backyard of his childhood home. The Rangers called him up in June 2008. He hit a home run in his first start, but his inaugural at-bat the night before wasn’t quite as glamorous.

“I came up as a kid with a lot of power,” says Davis, who made his MLB debut at 22. “I remember my hitting coach in Single A told me, ‘You only get one chance to hit the first pitch you see in the big leagues for a home run.’ Of course I go up there thinking, ‘I’m gonna go deep my first at-bat because there’s no other way to go.'”

The pitcher had other ideas. He threw Davis a slow sinker, low and inside, the kind of nasty pitch that gives rookies night sweats.

“I was so jacked up that I hit a little nubber off the end of my bat to third base,” Davis says, laughing. “I beat it out. So my claim to fame was I hit 1.000 in the big leagues for a day, which I thought was hilarious.”

The can’t-miss kid, playing for his hometown team in the majors, it seemed so tidy—like a script from a movie. Perhaps the baseball gods thought it was a little too perfect.

“Do you know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It’s 25 hits. Twenty-five hits in 500 at bats is 50 points, okay? There’s six months in a season; that’s about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week . . . you get a ground ball with eyes, you get a dying quail—just one more dying quail a week and you’re in Yankee Stadium.” —Crash Davis – Bull Durham

Suddenly, after a lifetime of ground balls with eyes, Chris Davis couldn’t get that dying quail. In 113 games with the Rangers in 2009, he hit just .238, and, in 2010, just .192 with one lonely home run. In both seasons, he shuttled between the majors and minors. When Texas finalized its postseason roster in 2010, Davis wasn’t on it.

“I always thought, ‘I have the talent, that’s going to take me as far as I want to go,'” he says. “But when they take your confidence, you really find out what you’re made of. I wasn’t taking care of the things that I needed to take care of off the field that I needed to be successful on the field. Not that I wasn’t working hard, but my heart just wasn’t in the right place.”

If Davis wasn’t a drunk, he certainly was a drinker. Beer, liquor, he’d down whatever you gave him. His routine was ballpark, bar, bed; ballpark, bar, bed. His life had become a Groundhog Day.

“I thought that, as long as I worked hard and was a good person, things were just going to work out,” he says. “I was going hard at both ends. I would drink, I would go out. I’m a guy that you’re not going to have to kick in the butt to motivate, but you’re going to have to pull the reins back to make sure that I slow down. That was how I drank. I’m going to work out, I’m going to play a game, and then I’m going to go home and drink hard. I didn’t understand how to do it the right way.”

Watching Texas in the 2010 World Series as a spectator was a wakeup call. Davis’s teammate, Josh Hamilton, won the AL MVP that season after some much publicized battles with drug and alcohol addiction. Now sober and devoutly Christian, Hamilton became a mentor of sorts to Davis.

“He was just a young kid trying to figure some things out,” says Hamilton, now on the Angels. “I talked with him about where I was in my life and the things that were important to me. I let him know about my faith and the path it takes me on. We discussed some things in my past and the consequences my actions had. Mostly, I reinforced how much preparation it takes to play this game. You can’t cheat yourself or be unprepared. It will show. He always kept an open mind and allowed faith to come into his life.”

Davis, who was raised Baptist, says, over time, sports grew to become his god. He credits his renewed faith with his renewed happiness in baseball, and in life. These days, Davis says he rarely drinks.

“I started dedicating my time not just to me, but to my family,” he says. “I made sure that the way I treated people was the way I wanted to be treated. You realize what’s important when something that has been so important to you your whole life is taken away from you. You realize that someday this game is going to be taken away from you.”

Around this time, Davis met his now-wife, Jill, at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Dallas. “I went down to the Dominican in the offseason of 2010, and she ended up coming down there and staying with me for a month,” he says. “I didn’t have any family down there, and we really grew as a couple. I thought, ‘If this girl is willing to come to a foreign country and hang out with me, she’s worth it.'”

A year later, he proposed over a candlelit dinner on the beach in Maui, and the couple married in 2012. They’re expecting their first child, a baby girl, any day now.

“We all have the choice to live our lives in a certain way,” says Davis, who reads the Bible daily and has several passages tattooed on his body. “We’re not called to judge, we’re called to love.”

Still, his clearer focus off the field didn’t lead to better results on it. In 81 games with the Rangers in 2011, he hit just three homers. At the trade deadline in July, he was regarded by most as an afterthought in a deal that sent Tommy Hunter to Baltimore for Koji Uehara. Davis was elated.

“I already bought [an Orioles] hat and a T-shirt,” he told MLB.com at the time. “It really does feel like a fresh start.”

“Man that ball got outta here in a hurry. I mean, anything travels that far oughta have a damn stewardess on it, don’t you think?”
—Crash Davis – Bull Durham

Ed Ebner is wearing a Chris Davis jersey, and he’s not alone. Davis’s No. 19 is the most prevalent jersey at FanFest, and quite a few young women are wearing “I have a crush on Crush” T-shirts.

“He seems to be a player that I can have faith in,” says Ebner, an O’s season ticket holder from Prospect Park, PA.

No one could have imagined this adulation when Davis became an Oriole. Andy MacPhail, then the O’s president of baseball operations, was enamored with Davis’s potential, and refused to trade Uehara for Hunter straight up. When he offered to throw in about $2 million, Texas agreed to part with Davis.

“Sometimes you’re better off when you’re not in a pennant situation,” MacPhail says. “This was a good ballpark for him to hit in, plenty of opportunity for him to play. We knew he was going to get at-bats. He could rest assured that if he goes 0-4, he’s not going to be out of the lineup tomorrow.”

“There were times in Texas when I had a terrible game, and I would sit the next day,” Davis says. “There were other days when I had a good game, and then I sat the next day. It got into my head. I kept thinking, ‘Am I ever going to get an opportunity to just go?'”

It came here. He emerged in 2012, when he hit 33 HRs, and exploded in 2013, when his 53 dingers and 138 RBIs led the majors.

“I’ve known Chris for a long time and seen him mature and grow as a player,” says teammate and friend Darren O’Day. “His talent has always been obvious. What I think has changed in Chris is he’s gotten much better in terms of his mentality. He’s figured out how to come back from a bad at-bat, or a bad swing, and be ready for the next pitch. He’s figured out that failure is part of the job and he’s bringing a more consistent approach in his head to the batter’s box.”

Davis’s seemingly sudden success and mesmerizing power brought whispers of steroid use. He’s repeatedly denied ever using anything illegal, but the chatter hasn’t dissipated. “There was a time last year when it was frustrating,” he says. “It comes with the territory. People are always going to question you when you’re successful, whether it’s in baseball or anything else.

“For so long, baseball had such a black eye with steroids. A lot of people were hurt that guys were using them. I get it, I understand. I was a fan. I was there when McGwire and Sosa were hitting balls out every other night. Hopefully, it will die down over the next few years. I think baseball has done an outstanding job of implementing a drug-testing policy and a list of banned substances. We have all the information that we need.”

Davis does swear by one PED—performance enhancing drinks.

“I don’t eat a lot of garbage food,” he says. “Trust me, there are nights when I’ll go crush hamburgers, but, for the most part, I try to take good care of my body. I don’t take a lot of vitamins, I don’t take a lot of supplements. After I work out, I want to feed my body what I just deprived it of, so I’ll make protein shakes using almond milk, protein powder, and strawberries, bananas, apples, pineapple, stuff like that. It gives you a lot of vitamins in a quick little shot.”

His strength inspires awe amongst his workout partners. Former Oriole Brady Anderson is one of them.

“He can toy with weight, but the numbers really wouldn’t do justice to how strong he is,” Anderson says. “What puts it in perspective is watching him break the bat and hit a home run. He hit a ball in Yankee Stadium where the centerfielder jerked backward, which made me laugh. It was a dead center home run on a ball that he didn’t hit very well. That’s what separates him.”

A free agent after next season, Davis appears poised to be a fixture in the middle of a major-league lineup for years to come. Whether it’s in Baltimore is the key question. “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it every day: I love being in Baltimore,” he says. “This has really felt like a second home to me. It’s hard not to fall in love with this city and this fan base.”

Judging by his reception at FanFest, the feeling is mutual. Davis plays the game with confidence and humility, not fear or arrogance. Perhaps that’s why he was an All-Star last year, while Bull Durham‘s Crash only sniffed “The Show.”

He’s hungry. After devouring a turkey sub for lunch, he heads back to the weight room for yet another mid-winter afternoon training session. There’s always more work to do.

Essay by Jon Miller, 40-year veteran broadcaster, and the Orioles play-by-play man from 1983 to 1996.

“As a teenager in the 1960s, I was an Orioles fan primarily because of Brooks Robinson. It wasn’t Brooks’s statistics per se, it was the whole persona. I used to love to go to the Oakland Coliseum in the late 1960s really because I wanted to see Brooks. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He looked like somebody who didn’t want to be anywhere else—the way he ran onto the field, fielding grounders over to first. He was having the time of his life; there was a joyous aspect. He would inevitably make some spectacular play for which he was famous. He never disappointed. He would dive, charge a bunt, pull off a barehanded pick-up; he would do it all fluidly and beautifully. He turned playing third base into a ballet. The Orioles were also the best team going at the time. They had great players in Brooks, Frank, Boog, Davey Johnson and all those great pitchers, Mike Cuellar, Dave McNally, Jim Palmer—it was really a great team to watch. That’s what drew me to them.

I came to Baltimore in 1983 and stayed through 1996. Before that, I had done Red Sox games, and what I remembered was that, in Boston, there was a real feeling of negativity surrounding the Red Sox. No matter what good things they did, people were pessimistic. Here I come to Baltimore, and, the year before, the O’s lost in a pennant race, which was sort of a bitter disappointment. But what really stood out to me was, the day before opening day, the team had a workout, we all got into these buses and caravanned down to Harborplace, which was a fairly new thing at the time. We get down there, and I believe there were 40,000 to 50,000 people jammed into that area, as if the team had won it all the year before. It was a rally for opening day. There was a whole different feel from Orioles fans than I had encountered from Red Sox fans. Wild Bill led the fans in a couple of rousing cheers. It really gave me goosebumps. I couldn’t wait for opening day.

That team did not disappoint, obviously, and those Oriole cheers continued in the ballpark; Rick Dempsey would often do it from right outside the dugout. It was a scene that was unique to all of baseball. What I didn’t realize, even though they won the whole thing in ’83, was that we were all too close to the end of the run of that great group of players—near the end of Jim Palmer, and Ken Singleton, who had been a great run producer, really his last good year was 1983. A lot of those guys were getting older, and it was, ironically, when Cal Ripken was blossoming. But it was almost the end of that era. The next year, only Eddie and Cal had good years. Some players were older and near the end of their careers. In ’85, they signed free agents, which was a new thing for them. The pitching, which had been the foundation, started looking old for the first time. The team hit well, but the pitching turned very poor. They weren’t even a contender. In 1986, they fell completely into disrepair and had a losing record for the first time in 18 years. The plunge had begun in earnest [capped off by] the 1988 season when we lost 21 straight games to lead off the year, obliterating all records of futility.

But one of my most memorable times occurred in that year, when they came back from a road trip and their record was 1-23, which sounded worse than if they hadn’t won at all somehow. But the fans, through a grassroots level, had formed their own special night at the ballpark. It all started a week-and-a-half prior on a radio station [98 Rock]—a woman called in saying she felt so bad for the guys, every time she turned on the TV, The Tonight Show was making jokes about the Orioles. She said, “I just wish I could tell them all that we’re still behind them. It hasn’t affected our affection for them. They’re still our Orioles, and we love them.” The DJ, Bob Rivers, said, “Maybe you should all go to the game when they get home Monday.” He became sort of the point man for the whole thing. There was this huge run on tickets for that game—they ended up calling it “Fantastic Fan Night”—and it was an extraordinary outpouring of affection. The sold-out ballpark had the same feeling as the World Series that night, and they destroyed the Rangers 9-4. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a game where the fans were the ultimate difference.

I miss Camden Yards. It’s such a great place. I remember the first time we saw it in 1992 when we took the buses over to the ballpark and, instead of just waiting for our bags, everybody to a man on the ball club walked through the tunnels to get a look. It didn’t even seem real. There were just a few lights on; it was nighttime. There was the big warehouse, which just hovered over the scene. The place looked beautiful and surreal at the same time. I also miss watching Cal Ripken and knowing his name would be in the lineup every single day. Cal was a lot of fun to watch—he was always tinkering with his batting stance and never felt like he was a big star. He was always looking for a better way and was out there for every batting and infield practice. He was a stickler for preparation. I don’t think any of us will see anything like that ever again.

After that, there was such a long period of futility, and Orioles fans were not used to that. I think there was just a lot of, not just despair, but ultimately anger that things could have turned out so poorly. Then, all of a sudden, this team showed it’s for real in 2012. As we got into the summer and they kept on doing it and you saw Buck Showalter’s magic, the crowds came back. Not with a Wild Bill Hagy cheer, per se, but with entirely new things. This thing was dormant, but these fans’ affections had never left, they were just waiting for any reason to be unveiled again.”

This is your 30th year as the Orioles athletic
trainer? What career events stand out for you?

Yeah, when people say
it, it doesn’t really ring as 30 years, if you know what I mean. It seems like
it has gone by so quickly and so many things have taken place. So when I hear
the number I kind of step back and think, ‘Gosh, it really doesn’t feel like
that.’

I mean, first, I think I’ve just
been blessed to be doing something I love. I think there’s nothing better than
that. I’ve been blessed to be two things: in a professional that I love as an
athletic trainer and around the game I love, baseball, because I played it
growing up as a kid and later.

As far as
events go, I mean, gosh, it’s really hard. I mean, obviously, whenever we’re in
the post-season those are really things that stick out in your mind because you
had a successful season, and a lot of times that translates into you had a
successful season in terms of not too many injuries to get there, so that’s
kind of good.

Um, other
events . . . actually, this is not really an on-the-field event, but when I was
able to go to Cooperstown for Cal Ripken Jr.’s induction ceremony and to hear
him mention me in his acceptance speech was kind of really pretty special. It
was kind of emotionally overwhelming for me. So, I mean, there’s a lot of
events, and it’s hard to pick one, but certainly those would rank near the top.

I understand that you
and Cal are very close. 

Yeah, in many ways, and it’s probably because in
1978 in Bluefield, West Virginia, which was our rookie ball team at the time,
his first day was my first day.

Aw, really? Do you
remember how you met? 

Not really. He was just another one of the guys on
the team. I’m sure we just met when they reported, you know, in the clubhouse.
I’d love to say I remember 1978 clearly, but I’d be lying if I did. We became
friends both professionally and personally, really. I mean, our families sort
of grew up together and when you’re families are growing up, you talk about
things other than baseball. We used to spend a lot of time talking about
parenting and the kids and all those kinds of things. So, yeah, we did become
very close friends that way, and our friendship has remained. Sometimes we just
spend a lot of time on the phone talking to each other.

In some ways, there
must have been a lot of pressure on you to help him maintain the streak. Obviously,
if he ever got injured, he was going to miss a game. Did he have any close
calls? 

I mean there were. I mean, you know one in
particular was a sprained ankle way early on but the streak wasn’t really an
issue then. One was a knee injury later—gosh, I’m bad on years—when we had a
little incident on the field with the Seattle Mariners that didn’t go well, but
he played through it. But, you know what? Well, first let me answer the
question in this way: No, there wasn’t really any pressure that way. The streak
wasn’t really any pressure, at least for me it wasn’t, because, when you’re
inside this arena and an injury happens, I don’t think about how much a player
makes, I don’t think about streaks, none of those things, I’m just
concentrating on what I can do to best get that player back on the field and
healthy.

Now, as far as Cal was concerned,
he was probably one of the easiest to work with just because he was one of the
first players—and this goes back to minor league days—to ever quiz me and ask
me about the body and how it functioned and how he could keep it in condition.
And he did a great job of that. We used to talk about that stuff all the time.
So, that, along with what I would say is his high skill level, kind of kept him
away injuries that a lot of guys get, you know, so . . . that was kind of
long-winded, I’m sorry.

No! It’s okay! 

Am
I explaining this right? When you’re inside, you don’t feel the external
pressure that people think you do because you’re so focused and concentrating
on doing the job at hand. And during that time, I would never think about it
unless someone else brought it up.

And part of my philosophy has
always been, there are 25 players on the team. So, however you want to rank
them, I treat number 25 the same way as I treat whoever someone would consider
are the number-one and number-two players, you know? Because, in our world, I
see them all as someone with an injury or an illness and you need to take care
of it. Everyone deserves the same kind of health care—oh, I shouldn’t say that
word in this day and age! So that’s kind of how I’ve approached it. So maybe
that’s why I don’t feel that external stuff.

What was the most
serious injury you’ve ever come across?

Well, I know you’re probably not
going to like this answer, but I usually answer that question this way: The
most serious injury for me is the one that’s right in front of me at that time.Because that’s where my focus is at
the time. Obviously, I’ve had things like pitchers get hit in the head. You
know, Mike Mussina way back, he took a line drive in the head. It ended up
looking worse than what it really ended up being. Those kinds of things when
you have collisions and guys are down and they’re not getting up. Those are not
good. And obviously, the one that everyone’s thinking about is Manny Machado.
So, in my mind, it’s hard to sift back through the files and say, ‘What was the
worst or least’ because I really, truly mean this in the heart: The most
serious for me is the one I’m dealing with at that point.

Speaking of Manny
Machado, how’s he doing? 

Well, you know, right after surgery, he underwent
rehab, and it was a program the doctor and we had all put together and he
followed it very well. He’s been a very, very diligent hard worker, very
Cal-like in many ways, you could say.And his rehab really went well, and he got here [to spring training] and
he’s really on what we call a functional level now. He’s doing a lot of
baseball activities. And we’re doing some things running-drill wise to help
correct his gait a little bit and prevent anything like that from happening
again. But he’s progressing very well. He works very hard, but he’s an absolute
joy to work with. So, it’s coming along very, very well.

Can we expect to see
him in the starting lineup on Opening Day? 

Ha, you know what, I don’t
commit that way. I’ve never thought it’s fair to the player, fair to the
organization, actually maybe even fair to the fans and to me, to say, ‘This is
when you’re going to be ready,’ because people in rehab progress at different
levels and different speeds. And with a guy like Manny, or any rehab, every day
is a new day for me to evaluate how we’re doing and what we’re going to do that
day and how we’re going to progress. Some people progress quickly and others
are slower. I can just tell you that Manny is doing very well, and I don’t
think there’s going to be any extreme delay in his getting back, but the most
important thing is to get him back on the field safely.

I read that you got
injured playing baseball as a kid and that’s when you decided you wanted to be
a trainer. True? 

Wow, you really did some digging! Actually, it was in high
school. It was later than that a little bit. I was a pitcher. When I think
about it back then, the other thing is that I always had a fascination for
anatomy. I probably drove my mom nuts because I was always bringing animals and
fish home and cutting them up and looking at them.

She was probably
wondering if you were a serial killer.

Yeah, right?! So when I did get hurt
. . . I started playing in college but the elbow kind of preventing me from
getting any further, and I sort of had an interest in what was going on—I
really didn’t think about it at the time—but I had this other interest in
anatomy and the two things kind of combined themselves in a way. And, at the
same time, the profession of athletic training was kind of exploding. So I had
some mentors who kind of blew me in that direction and said, ‘Hey, this might
be something you’re really interested in.’ So, yeah, at a very early, young age
I just kind of kept pursuing it, and kept pursuing it, and finding a place to
go to school to pursue it, and just on from there. I’m not going to lie to you,
it was absolutely sheer luck that I ended up working in the game that I really
love. It worked out great.

I read that you treat
the training room as a sanctuary for the players. 

I’ve always said,
‘There’s something magical when you put a Band-Aid on a person.’ And that’s
obviously a metaphor of sorts. There becomes a bond between you. These players
have a lot of pressures on them all the time. They’re under a lot of scrutiny
all the time. And I’ve always enjoyed the fact that they can feel like the
training room is a place where they can come not only to get treated for an
injury, but a place to come and relax, if they need to and talk. Sometimes you
find out a lot about them and they gain a lot of trust in you. So yeah, there
can be a lot of times when that training room is full of players and no one
really needs anything in terms of treatment, but we’re just there kind of
talking and shooting the breeze, and you can see them relax a little bit. And I
know there are other places where that is not allowed. I know there are other
places where, the only time you can be in the training room is if you’re being
treated for an injury. I’m not like that. I like to feel like I’m treating the
whole person, in a way, not just physically but spiritually, mentally, and
emotionally. It’s a place where they can come and relax, and it feels relaxed
that way.

So you’re a little
bit of a father figure to some of the players? 

[Laughs] Uh, you know, I’m
probably of that age. A lot of these players are closer to my younger kids’ age
than to me, so. . . and we don’t
exactly listen to or agree on to the same music that’s played in the training
room all the time. It’s funny you say that because a player not long ago—I mean
just days ago or something, and I don’t even know how this conversation came
up—he said to me, ‘Well you’re like a dad to us,’ and I thought, ‘Whoa.’ And
then I also heard, ‘And you’re like a grandfather to us,’ and I said, ‘Okay,
that’s enough.’ But I guess, in many ways, that’s true. I’m proud of the fact
that they feel they can come to me with even off-the-field issues that I can
help them with in any way possible. I kind of take pride in the fact that
they’ve always had that trust in me that they can basically talk about
anything, and if I can help them, I’m going to help them.

I’m sure they’re
happy to have somebody there to talk to who has some experience. 

I hope so.
It’s not a whole lot different than parenting, really, in many ways.

We lost a member of Orioles royalty this year when Earl Weaver passed away on a Caribbean cruise at the age of 82.

The cruise was baseball-themed, which seemed fitting for the
notoriously feisty Hall of Famer who managed the Orioles for 17 seasons.

Yes, his salty tongue got him ejected from the game 91 times
(including once in both games of a double-header!) but, more
importantly, Weaver was a great manager: He racked up five 100-win
seasons, six AL East titles, took the Orioles to the World Series four
times, and won one championship in 1970.

He entered the Hall of Fame in 1996 and, just last summer, a statue
of him was dedicated in the flag court at Camden Yards, along with other
Orioles legends.

On that hot summer day in June, Weaver peppered his acceptance speech
with humor and graciousness: “To the sculptor, Toby Mendez, thanks for
making me look like Buck [Showalter],” he said. “This, naturally, is a
dream come true.”

“The one thing about Earl Weaver, he did not want to be your
friend. . . . But whether it was Don Buford, Al Bumbry, Brooks Robinson,
or myself, he was loyal by putting your name on the lineup.” —Jim
Palmer

Pamela Wood

Glen Burnie

“I love floppy hats, and I’m not sure why exactly because they’re kind of tacky and sometimes they’re really ugly. But I’ve always loved them, so I always try to go on floppy hat night. Last year floppy hat night was my 10th wedding anniversary. There was no question we were going to celebrate by going to an Orioles game. We went all out: got a car service, went to dinner, splurged and got tickets right behind home plate. The game was not great, but it didn’t matter. The sweetest part was that my husband, Earle, surprised me and got our name on the scoreboard, which is kind of cheesy but very sweet. It was the best date I ever could imagine—if they’d have won, it would have been perfect.”

---

Johnny Laing

Dundalk

“Everybody on the team, even the Lew Fords and the Ryan Flahertys, contributed. They did what they had to do to make it happen, and the pitchers stepped up. I’ve been wearing the same hat for 15 years—I bought it in 1997—and to see it all come together, finally, was amazing. I listen and watch every game. If I’m working, I listen. If I’m home, I watch. It was so beautiful to see it all happen. I’m almost about to cry. My favorite Orioles moment? When I got my Oriole tattoo.”

---

Pat and Joe Watkins

Timonium

Joe and his wife, Pat, have been married 47 years. When he began “courting her,” he took her to games at Memorial Stadium. “I remember when they came back in ’54. I was 11,” Joe says. “I remember going down to the parade, and I’ve been attending games ever since. . . . Last year, the most exciting game was the Boston series at the end of the year, because that was getting us to the playoffs. It was wonderful that it was a Baltimore crowd, full of enthusiasm. So often we went and it was a Boston crowd. We scored six runs in the first inning. It was one highlight after another.”

---

Matt Martindale

Hanover

“It was Brooks Robinson statue night, and, before the game, Brooks talked and mentioned all the different players he played with. When they showed Earl Weaver, he was getting choked up. Everyone has such respect for Brooks Robinson, and he’s got so much love for the game, that to me was the most memorable part of that game. I was getting choked up, my dad was getting choked up. It was awesome.”

---

The Powell Family

Canton

“Taking my kid to his first game was pretty memorable,” says patriarch Dave Powell. “We went to a game against Cleveland on a Saturday afternoon. It was a million friggin’ degrees outside, we’re sitting in the bleachers. He was running around yelling until his face turned red. I think Jackson went to five games. The Orioles do a pretty good job of keeping it interesting for the kids. In the bleachers, the Bird’s always around. We were just looking through his Orioles shirts the other day [in February] and he got excited because he thought we were going to a game that night.”

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.”

---

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.”

---

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.’”

---

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.”

Wei-Yin Chen

Position: Pitcher

The Orioles lefty—who is a Taiwan native signed out of Japan—may need an interpreter to speak to his coaches and the media, but his games needs no translation. In Chen’s first year in the majors, the starting pitcher threw 192 innings and struck out 154 batters. Though he lost momentum down the stretch, his ambition never wavered. “It doesn’t matter if you speak the language or not, his work ethic speaks for itself,”

Matt Wieters told MLB.com.
In fact, Chen spent the off-season in California training with Brady Anderson, muscling up and strengthening his bullpen sessions.

---

Chris Davis

Position: First Baseman (and occasional pitcher)

Though Davis had previously played with the Texas Rangers, his first season with the Orioles had to be the most memorable. Of course, there was the May 6 game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park when he came in as a relief pitcher in the 16th inning, becoming the first position player in the AL to be the winning pitcher since 1968. And then there was his amazing late-season stretch, homering in six consecutive games, and ending the season with 33 home runs, more than any other Oriole.

---

Manny Machado

Position: Third Baseman

The Orioles promoted 20-year-old Manny Machado to the major leagues on August 9. The next day, he hit his first and second home runs. The world took notice of the youngster on September 12 against the Tampa Bay Rays. With two outs in the top of the ninth, Evan Longoria bunted up the third base line and, after the ball dribbled towards Machado, he barehanded it, pump-faked, turned, and threw out Rich Thompson who was rounding third. The 2-2 tie was preserved and we won off of a Machado single. Not bad for a kid who can’t legally have a beer.

---

Brian Matusz

Position: Pitcher

We admit that we kind of fudged this one since Matusz became a starting pitcher for the Orioles back in late 2009. After some struggles and an injury, he was demoted to the bullpen last year, but, as a reliever, the lefty struck out 19 batters with a 1.35 ERA in 18 appearances. Out of the bullpen, he didn’t allow a single inherited runner to score. “With experience, every rookie is going to go through hard times,” Matusz said. “It’s just a matter of being able to shake it off.”

---

Nate McLouth

Position: Outfielder

Nate McLouth has been around the league for years, earning a Gold Glove and playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves, but last year was his first with the Orioles. His late-season start provided great defense and a spark in the leadoff spot after Nick Markakis got injured. McLouth was especially crucial in the postseason, with a .308 batting average and five RBIs in six playoff games. In December, the Orioles re-signed the free agent to a one-year agreement. “He’s a baseball player,” Showalter told MLB.com. “You all know that’s about as high a compliment as I can pay a guy.”

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.”

On August 8, an Orioles pitcher named Johnson made his first career start in his hometown of Baltimore. A journeyman prospect, he recently had been called up from the minors in the midst of a pennant race. Certifiably awful the year before, the O’s were surprise contenders this season, captivating a city starved for winning baseball. 

Johnson was spectacular, and the O’s cruised to an easy victory. It was his first Major League win.

No, we’re not talking about Dave Johnson, although we could very well be. In a crazy twist, Steve got his first big-league win at Camden Yards 23 years to the day after his father Dave earned his at Memorial Stadium, another remarkable bridge from the Orioles “Why Not?” 1989 team to their storybook 2012 one.
“It was unbelievable the way it worked out,” Steve says. “Being a part of the team, to see the city get behind us, there’s nothing that can beat it.”

As an analyst for MASN, Dave wears a lot of O’s hats: fan, former player, team employee. Now he’s a proud papa as well.

“I enjoyed last year in multiple ways,” he says. “I’m really happy that all Steve’s hard work paid off, that this happened for him in his hometown.”

1. Oct. 8, Camden Yards, ALDS Game 2
Orioles 3, Yankees 2

Before the season, not even the most O-ptimistic fan could have envisioned 48,187 euphoric fans screaming at the top of their lungs from the first playoff pitch to the last.

“It was so loud the place was actually shaking,” catcher Matt Wieters said.

2. Oct. 11, Yankee Stadium, ALDS Game 4
Orioles 2, Yankees 1

Fittingly, Baltimore’s last victory of the season came in extra innings. The team’s remarkable 16 straight extra-innings wins epitomized its never-say-die attitude. 

In the 13th, J.J. Hardy’s RBI double sent the sulking New York faithful quietly to the exits.

3. Oct. 5, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, AL Wild Card
Orioles 5, Rangers 1

Fifteen years after its last playoff victory, four different Orioles recorded RBIs to propel the team to a wild-card win. Joe Saunders started, and three relievers finished off the win. “These guys genuinely like each other and respect each other,” manager Buck Showalter said. “They don’t have that disease of ‘me.’”

4. May 6, Fenway Park
Orioles 9, Red Sox 6

More than five hours into an epic game, Showalter, having used his entire roster, sent designated hitter Chris Davis to the mound to pitch. After Adam Jones homered in the 17th, Davis induced a double-play ball to become the first AL position player to earn a win since 1968.

5. Sept. 6, Camden Yards
Orioles 10, Yankees 6 

The Orioles unveiled a statue of Cal Ripken Jr. on the anniversary of the shortstop’s Iron Man record-setting game. The atmosphere inside Camden Yards harkened back to that historical night as well. A sold-out crowd brought postseason energy, and the team responded by blasting six homers to beat the hated Yanks.

6. Sept. 18, Safeco Field
Orioles 4, Mariners 2

After a doubleheader’s worth of baseball—in one game—reserve catcher Taylor Teagarden blooped a single in the 18th inning to give the O’s a key
pennant-race win. “It was a crazy deal,” Teagarden said. “Sometimes you just get thrown into these situations and you don’t have time to think. You just have to react.”

7. Apr. 6, Camden Yards
Orioles 4, Twins 2

Opening Day in Baltimore is always a citywide celebration of baseball and the coming of spring. The sellout crowd that watched Jake Arrieta pitch a gem under sunny skies had no idea what magic the ensuing 161 games would bring, but on this warm spring Friday, a 4-2 start was satisfying enough.

8. Aug. 10, Camden Yards
Orioles 7, Royals 1

The Chosen One picked his second game to announce his presence with authority. One night after making the most anticipated Orioles debut since Matt Wieters in 2009, Manny Machado hit his first two career home runs. “I was fortunate, and I took it in as much as possible,” he said.

9. Sept. 13, Camden Yards
Orioles 3, Rays 2

Those who played hookie from work to catch this Thursday afternoon businessman’s special made very good use of a sick day. Manny Machado’s hit in the 14th inning gave Baltimore a walk-off win over division rival Tampa Bay and snapped the O’s streak of 14-straight losing seasons.

10. Sept. 26, Camden Yards
Orioles 12, Blue Jays 2

The O’s blasted a team-record tying seven home runs, and when 20-year-old Machado and 42-year-old Jim Thome both went deep in the 5th inning, they became the first teammates in AL history with an age difference of more than
20 years to homer in the same inning.