Don Long took his seat on one of the buses parked at the Ed Smith Stadium complex on March 12, assuming that he wouldn't rise again until arriving in Fort Myers for a night game against the Twins.
The trip lasted about as long as it takes to fill out a lineup card.
The bus made four left turns and was back in camp. The Orioles were on the verge of a sports-wide shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We left and literally got around the corner and somebody got a call and they turned us...
My father would have turned 80 today, but Stage 4 esophageal cancer took him away from his family and friends in January 2019, leaving us heartbroken that he's gone but also relieved that he didn't suffer.
The sentence is harder to type than I imagined. I had to pause in the middle of it.
We wouldn't have been able to talk baseball this year, at least in the traditional sense. Every conversation over the phone included a mention of the Orioles. Same with every visit, which on a few occasions...
The boredom and mind-numbing, stay-at-home routine during the pandemic has led to some interesting and amusing entertainment ideas on Twitter, a place that often should be shut down or rationed in visits to avoid breathing in the pollution.
The idea of wearing a mask should have started there.
A recent thread was created with baseball players, famous for their years with a specific team, referred to in jest as another organization's legend. Players that fans might have forgotten actually wore...
Orioles outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. no longer has MLB The Show to distract him from baseball's lengthy shutdown and uncertain future. He had a blast guiding his video team to a fifth-place finish and a playoff berth as the organization's representative and earning top honors as manager with the current roster. Now he's back to full-on pandemic life like everyone else.
Smith isn't ready to offer advice to Orioles manager Brandon Hyde or think about the next phase of his professional life....
The Orioles would have been wrapping up a three-game series this afternoon in Toronto if the coronavirus pandemic hadn't short-circuited the season.
Thirty-six games already would be in the books, assuming there were no postponements. The Orioles would enjoy an off-day Thursday, along with the rest of us, and host the Angels for a weekend series.
This is how it's supposed to be playing out.
The baseball world stopped spinning on March 12 with spring training camps shut down and players in...
As a young boy growing up in Severn, I used to believe that I'd have all the answers as soon as I reached adulthood. No more confusion and anxiety. Life would be much simpler.
If my parents were so smart, I'd naturally become wiser over the years.
Boy, was I dumb.
Part of my job at MASN and MASNsports.com is to field questions, but I've got plenty of my own. And the coronavirus pandemic won't lighten the load.
For instance:
* Would the team that wins the World Series this year celebrate it...
The last trip to the mound by Miguel Castro in an exhibition game resulted in three batters faced and three strikeouts. He left on such a high note that it should have come with a safety net.
There's no real momentum in baseball. It's been described as the next day's starting pitcher. And any drops of it would have evaporated since Castro received his congratulatory handshakes and hugs in the visiting dugout at the Yankees complex in Tampa.
Castro blew through the Yankees on March 6, learned...
Players stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic are adapting to life away from baseball. A shock to the system.
They've been playing the sport since they were kids. For fun and later as a profession. Their body clocks are wired to it.
The shutdown can challenge them both mentally and physically.
"It just reminds me of a lockout or a strike, but with more consequences," said former outfielder Eric Davis, in his 12th season as a Reds special assistant.
"When you have a lockout or a...
Miguel Castro vowed back in February to return home to the Dominican Republic following the 2020 season, with no fears or trepidations created from the previous month's robbery that almost cost him more than just a couple of gold chains.
The Orioles reliever made the trip much sooner than he expected with sports shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic. And he's using the time to help people who are less fortunate, still immersed in his community rather than hiding out or keeping a lower...
While Eric Davis was undergoing colon cancer surgery and chemotherapy treatments in 1997, one of the most popular players in franchise history - a member of its Hall of Fame and satisfier of pit beef cravings - would be subjected to a similar procedure and regimen in the exact same summer.
Davis was diagnosed in June during the first of his two seasons in Baltimore. Former first baseman Boog Powell, who played in four World Series with the Orioles and was voted Most Valuable Player in the...
Trey Mancini is finding strength during his health crisis from family, friends and teammates who keep offering their love and support. Who have been propping him up without violating orders for social distancing.
His girlfriend, Sara, held his hand as the doctor in Baltimore passed along the diagnosis of Stage 3 colon cancer. "Squeezing it, actually," he wrote in The Players' Tribune.
Inspiration also comes from former Orioles outfielder Eric Davis, who learned in June 1997 that the...
The symptoms and signs began as a curiosity and evolved into concern.
Trey Mancini would become fatigued while performing drills in spring training, having to push himself through them. He tried to dismiss it as a product of growing older. He braced for news that he was experiencing something far less serious than colon cancer - a diagnosis that rocked the entire Orioles organization and led to his March 12 surgery in Baltimore.
The story progressed to the point where Mancini began undergoing...
The Orioles enter another day with no baseball on the agenda. No clue if or when there's going to be a second spring training and season with an assortment of changes applied to it.
Five years ago today, they played a game with no fans at Camden Yards. An oddity that was disturbing on another level.
There were a couple of humorous moments, which we sought out in an attempt to provide some balance to the tension. Caleb Joseph tipped his cap to the imaginary crowd and pretended to sign...
If the 2020 baseball season unfolds later this summer, Trey Mancini doesn't expect to be part of it.
Making his first comments beyond a tweet since his surgery on March 12 to remove a malignant tumor from his colon, Mancini confirmed that he's been undergoing chemotherapy treatments since April 13 that will last for six months.
"If baseball returns in 2020, it will probably be without me," Mancini wrote in The Players' Tribune.
"I want everybody to know that I'm OK. I know reading...
If you sense that I'm giving you a quizzical look this morning, well, scroll down for verification.
Or maybe the headline gave it away.
This is the latest coronavirus edition. We could use the distraction and a few smiles.
Extra credit awarded for expanding on "none of the above" by making a prediction.
The season is going to start: A. In June B. In July C. In 2021 D. None of the above
Games will be played: A. Exclusively in Arizona B. In Florida and Arizona C. In no more than five states D....
At the risk of rubbing salt into an open wound caused by the sports shutdown, the Orioles are supposed to be playing the Royals tonight to begin a four-game series at Camden Yards. I would have spent the following weekend in Chicago for the three-game set against the White Sox, as the season rolled merrily along.
A year ago today, the Orioles were in the middle of a series against the Twins in Minnesota that treated them with concrete gloves. No kidding.
The Orioles were swept by a combined...
Wade LeBlanc expected to be pitching for a new team this season rather than becoming a stay-at-home dad. He was waiting to be placed on the 40-man roster, bypassing the opt-out date last month in his contract. But he retains status as an invitee to spring training despite the camp's closure and a sports shutdown with no known date to reopen.
I've found it interesting how players are maintaining their focus on the season, with the Orioles keeping everyone connected and dispensing information...
Another weekend is passing without sports, unless we're counting the NFL draft.
I'm on the clock again, challenging myself to come up a few more Orioles who were misunderstood or unfairly labeled. Who didn't completely earn their reputations.
For example:
* Albert Belle wasn't always a menace to the media and actually was a popular teammate.
Let's start with the second part. I'm not saying that Belle was loved by everyone who wore the uniform during his two seasons in Baltimore, but...
A world that no longer simulates normalcy during the coronavirus pandemic keeps tossing pitcher Wade LeBlanc in directions he couldn't imagine.
From a professional standpoint, he settled for a minor league deal with the Orioles on Feb. 3 after the Mariners declined his $5 million option. He made $2.5 million in 2019 and is supposed to earn $800,000 this summer if he's on the club.
The bonding process with teammates was interrupted in spring training with the March 12 shutdown. He participates...
If questions about the 2020 baseball season could be used as currency, I'd be able to afford all the toilet paper in the land.
I'd also make donations to the Maryland Food Bank and assorted charities, but there would be lots and lots of toilet paper.
I'm wondering exactly how a late start is going to impact the trade deadline.
Does it still exist? Does the date get pushed back?
The Orioles traded veteran pitcher Andrew Cashner to the Red Sox on July 13, 2019 for two Rookie-level Dominican...