Ox’s Airing of Grievances, 7/16/23
Weekly Airing of Grievances:
Greetings. Welcome to a small corner of the E52 site that has been (sorta) carved out for me to air out some grievances and provide a fresh take on some of the cool, weird, and down-right stupid things I’ve seen over the last few days as it relates to Baltimore, sports, and Baltimore Sports.
For those that don’t know me, my name is Ox, or OxPro for short. If you’re in tune to Orioles, Ravens, or Milwaukee Bucks Twitter communities, then you’ve likely seen me talking/tweeting too much about something related to any of those elite organizations.
As for my credentials, I was once a Nik Caner-Medley Maryland Man of the Week in 2020 on the boys’ Exit 52 Podcast (it was a slow sports year). In addition to that I used to write my co-ed kickball team’s weekly recap emails. I’ve used the weight of those accolades to leverage an opportunity to contribute to the Exit 52 blog team. That’s right folks, ESPN faces very uncertain times with layoffs and cuts, but the E52 juggernaut just keeps on rollin’.
Tremendous timing for me. I start this whole thing on what is quite literally the most boring week of the yearly sports calendar. I think the powers that be at E52 figure that it’s probably best to drop this thing now, in case it bombs. I have a few thoughts in my crosshairs so let’s get to it:
THE WORST THING OF THE WEEK I’ll always start with the worst thing first, and wow did someone tee it up for me this week. Let’s turn our attention to Seattle’s KJR Radio 93.3 FM and take a look at something named Dave “Softy” Mahler. By now most of you have read and heard about his harassment of our beloved Mountain, Felix Bautista. Not since Jim Tomsula’s press conference fart have I seen something more awkward. BTW: the Tomsula video is suspiciously scrubbed from YouTube and very hard to access.
The bad news here, and I know we are all pretending it’s not anything, is that Felix may have gotten rattled by the bright lights in Seattle, or perhaps by Softy himself. I’m not sayin’, but I’m just sayin’. He did get a pretty easy save on Friday night, but the lights shine brightest in October so we will have to wait and see.
Bautista’s All-Star performance had me cancel my plans to try to call into Softy’s show (if you called him, I wanna know how it went). But hopefully karma is real, because I know the O’s social team is ready for what will be a very proper retaliation.
EDITOR’S NOTE: So was Felix last night against Miami.
THE BEST THING OF THE WEEK: Adley Rutschman.
THE SECOND BEST THING OF THE WEEK: Not sure how many fans here follow in the poker community, but if you do, you know that there are typically a few players with local ties playing late in the $10k buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event. The most notable local would be 2012 winner, Greg Merson. But, it appears that we may have a new notable legend on our hands:
Allow me to introduce you to Ryan Tamanini.
Ryan is from the Baltimore Area. Ryan played in this year’s Main Event. He was given an entry into the tournament by a friend in a group chat if he agreed to split any winnings 50/50 with one additional stipulation…
Ryan had to sport a circle beard for the duration of his time in the tournament. A circle beard is where you sport one full circle of hair on your head from sideburn to sideburn and through the top of your head and down the bottom. Basically one strip of hair all the way around your head. Don’t allow my explanation to do it justice, just look at this.
It is fierce, it is strong, it is mighty. It’s the circle beard. After surviving the first seven days of the tournament, Ryan finally busted in 20th place out of a record 12,000+ entries. Not bad when you don’t have to pay with anything other than your dignity. Congrats to Ryan for really killing it in Vegas.
TRADING CARD OF THE WEEK
Now circling back to Adley. This week’s card of the week is below. I like to browse and look at expensive cards on the internet, but I ALWAYS circle back to this one. It’s an Adley Rutschman National Treasures, autographed FOOTBALL CARD. If you didn’t know it or forgot, King Adley was a kickoff specialist in 2016 for the Oregon State Beavers football team. In 2020, someone who is absolutely brilliant thought it was a good idea to create a football card for him. It’s on sale right now on Ebay for $1,499. Someone please buy it for me or yourself.
DID YOU KNOW – This teaser trailer from the 2005 movie, War of the Worlds, was filmed in my hometown of Parkville, MD? Shoutout Bob from Parkville.
A QUICK NOTE ON MY ATTIRE – I just realized I am writing this blog with a Jorge Mateo Jersey T-shirt on. In an effort to get out in front of any pictures that may circle the web, it is mine, and I am handling the situation. So, if you feel like I whiffed on my first swing at a legit blog, now you know why. I’ll do better next week.
The wave is unnecessary,
Ox