Ox’s Airing of Grievances, 7/24/23
Weekly Airing of Grievances:
Apparently last week’s introductory blog wasn’t bad enough to get discontinued on the E52 site, so I’m back at it again this week with another weekly “airing of grievances”
It’s been quite a weekend in Birdland and we will get to that, but first please allow me to air this out:
I was out watching the Orioles Thursday win in extra innings with a friend and we found ourselves deep in a conversation about today’s society and how over the last 20 years, despite the increased ability to throw your opinion out to the masses, our level of shame has seemingly withered to zero. You’d think it would make people more cautious about what they’re about to tweet, knowing that if the right person finds it, you will get absolutely toasted online. But nope, we don’t seem to care. I have an equal level of hatred and respect for that type of ignorance.
This was spurred by the fact that every single day we see someone, somewhere, throw out the largest monstrosity of a take without any true consequences. And not only that, but with zero desire to want to take accountability when that take inevitably becomes more worthless than a penny laying tail side up on the ground.
Listen, I think we’ve all been known to fire off more than a few horrible takes, I had one about King Felix in my last blog. The accountability piece is where we all need to start to look inward. Whether you’re a stat projection website that gives the O’s a 2% chance of making it to the playoffs this year, or you’re a former self-proclaimed Red Sox fan that is now calling yourself an Orioles fan, I think we all just want to see some of these people, hat in hand, just step up and say “yeah that was horrible, that’s on me.”
But sports media isn’t built that way. Admitting you were wrong more than likely isn’t going to get your tweets any more likes, and your website any more hits. It will only lessen the impact someone’s brand has on the internet.
So with all of that said, I am begging you, the next time you have something to say about a Brandon Hyde lineup choice, please think twice, because I am going to be on the prowl looking for some of the worst takes out there this week. If you’re willing to tweet it, the social contract of posting on the internet states that you’re fine with me sharing it.
THE WORST THING OF THE WEEK: I must admit, there ain’t a whole lot of bad to talk about this week. Vibes from Birdland are clearly immaculate with a two-game lead in the AL East. Most is quiet in Owings Mills, with a few small “wtf” moments in regards to the running back room. Nonetheless, good vibrations are on both fronts. But as my entire persona seems to run on complaining about something pretty much all the time, I am going to direct everyone’s attention to Camden Yards for a brief moment, specifically the team store.
I mentioned in my blog last week that I own a Jorge Mateo t-shirt. I won’t dog him here even though he could probably be a WTOTW candidate every week. I just want to make note that in May, when the man was red hot, I bought his t-shirt to beef up my collection. With that being said, I spent time last week at Camden Yards looking for a new t-shirt.
For what it’s worth, I consider the shirsey the most reasonable of items to purchase in the team store. Forget the fact that I’m 33 years old and am buying a 21 year old’s t-shirt. That isn’t the point. It’s about relevancy and showing respect to the current brand of O’s baseball. If you whiff on your first shirsey, you can dust yourself off and try again for a price that isn’t going to break you in half. In my opinion, it’s a foolproof team store item. Or so you would think…
To put it plainly, the team store at Oriole Park in the warehouse just needs to be fixed. Its set up like a museum, where everyone walks into one entrance and is pushed through like a herd of cattle. Stopping to think about making a purchase or taking a second to browse the t-shirt rack could literally get you stampeded. Don’t even think about turning around for something unless you have a death wish. The entire layout of the place needs reconsideration. I knocked a 7 year old kid to the ground because I went against the grain to find a Felix Bautista shirsey and they didn’t even have one (a crime in and of itself). Before I started walking out I grabbed the first XXL shirsey I could find and paid and left. I looked at it when I took it out of the bag and it was Cedric Mullins. Respectable accidental choice. Two hours later he would be holding his groin while rounding third and hasn’t played in a game since. I am dreading having to go back for a third time.
If we’re all lucky, at some point (hopefully very fucking soon), the O’s will find themselves trying to figure out what to do with $600M of state funding and they decide to make the very necessary upgrades to the team store.
THE BEST THING OF THE WEEK: The O’s taking three out of four from the Rays at the trop will be taking the cake this week (as if there were any other options). We could talk about so many different things about what happened the last four days in Tampa, but everything begins and ends with Gunnar Henderson.
The one quote that echoes so loudly for me while I was watching Gunnar do everything this weekend is when I once heard Steve Smith loudly say, “Big players make big plays in big games!” It’s all I’ve been thinking about watching Gunnar these last few days. The team and the fans have been waiting months for him to ‘arrive.’ Marching into the Trop this weekend, heart on his sleeve, carrying much of the load on offense and defense, he let us all know that he’s ready for the rest of his team to lean on him when the stakes are highest. When October rolls around, I am certainly going to be glad he’s on our side.
RUNNER UP BEST THING OF THE WEEK: Brandon Hyde managed his tail off all weekend. He treated this series like it was a playoff series and I think we can all agree that we appreciate it. Toast to Hyder and his staff for pushing the envelope at the Trop for four straight days.
TRADING CARD OF THE WEEK: Going to switch it up to show you guys something out of my personal collection. I pulled this Randy Arozarena autographed card out of a pack of cards I bought a Target about three weeks ago. Given the way the Orioles had him in a straight jacket for the majority of this weekend I figured its fitting to share this with the crowd.
Bonus: I am giving this card to a random follower on Twitter (of myself and the E52 Pod) who can tell me the name of the former Oriole who went on the IL because he fell asleep in a tanning bed. (@therealoxpro)
(note this card pictured is not mine – but I have the exact same card, I am just out of town right now and cannot take a pic of my own)
FINAL THOUGHT: We are approximately 5 weeks away from Fantasy Football draft season. If your commissioner is anything like mine, he’s playing golf in his free time and pretending that the important shit doesn’t exist. Be sure to put pressure on your league commissioners to get a draft date set in stone before it’s too late. Thank me later. With that said, hopefully everyone’s upcoming week is as good as the Orioles were last week.
The wave is unnecessary,
Ox