Memories of Melvin Mora as MASN airs more Orioles moments

The sports shutdown is depriving us of live broadcasts - arm wrestling, for instance, is impossible at a six-foot distance - and networks are digging into their vaults for classic games to feed starving fans.

The Mid-Atlantic Sports Network keeps airing Orioles wins from as far back as the 1970 World Series. You can count on an exciting finish rather than heartache. Nerves won't be frayed.

Yesterday's menu included the four-run, eighth-inning rally to defeat the Yankees on Aug. 13, 2014 at Camden Yards. An inning that began with the Orioles down 2-1 before Jonathan Schoop's solo shot off Dellin Betances and Adam Jones' three-run homer off Shawn Kelley.

The ballpark was rocking, as it did so many times while the Orioles marched toward their first division title since 1997.

The broadcast gave us another look at the choreographed handshakes between Schoop, Manny Machado and Nelson Cruz. The outfield celebration after the final out, with Jones, Nick Markakis and David Lough colliding in midair. The pies delivered to a hero's face, with Schoop receiving two from Machado and Delmon Young during his postgame interview.

"You have to do something good to get vanilla," Schoop said.

The top of the ninth included Mark Teixeira's trip back to the dugout for a new bat that should have been waiting for him on the on-deck circle and manager Buck Showalter's icy stare that dropped the temperature about 20 degrees.

Chris Davis was playing third base because Machado injured his right knee two nights earlier and would undergo surgery to repair a torn ligament. Davis would be suspended the following month. Nick Hundley was behind the plate because Matt Wieters was recovering from Tommy John surgery.

And this team still won the division and reached the American League Championship Series.

Melvin Mora threw out the ceremonial first pitch, with his quintuplets joining him on the field. Jones caught it and the former teammates embraced.

The scene reminded me of two things: Mora's incredible 2004 season that tends to get lost, and the media trying to gather more details about the quintuplets before they were born.

Mora slashed .340/.419/.562 with 41 doubles, 27 home runs and 104 RBIs in 140 games in 2004, placed 18th in Most Valuable Player voting in the American League and won his only Silver Slugger Award. His average is the highest posted by an Orioles player since the franchise moved to Baltimore.

Cal Ripken Jr. slashed .340/.368/.584 in 1999, but he appeared in only 86 games.

Batting averages don't matter anymore? Try telling that to someone who hit .340.

Mora's wife, Gisel, gave birth to the quintuplets 10 weeks before their due date on July 28, 2001 at Johns Hopkins Hospital - daughters Genesis (1.51 pounds), Jada Priscilla (1.88) and Rebekah (1.88), and sons Matthew David (2.01) and Christian (2.48).

"I was nervous," Mora said two days later while media surrounded his locker. "I knew it was too early. The longer she could wait, the better the babies would be. But she couldn't wait any longer.

"I can touch them, but I'm afraid. They're so tiny. I didn't want to see them. My wife told me they were so tiny. I drank some water and took a deep breath and said, 'I've got to see my babies.' "

Asked if he could tell them apart, Mora hesitated before saying, "Yes, three are girls and two are boys."

"I'm happy," he said, "because they're here and they're part of the Baltimore Orioles."

There was an innocence about Mora that we found endearing. And perhaps the best example came when we asked him about Gisel's pregnancy.

Was she taking fertility drugs?

Mora explained that his wife was given some "special vitamins" in Venezuela, which led me to joke, "Note to self: Cancel doctor's appointment in Venezuela."

I checked with Gisel while working on a story for The Baltimore Sun and she said, "No, he's confused. They were fertility drugs."

Mora was the subject of trade rumors at the deadline and his growing family added intrigue to the story. Mora was called into manager Mike Hargrove's office while we were interviewing him about the quintuplets and everyone shared the same thought. They traded him just as he had returned to the team.

It can be a cold business.

Mora returned a few minutes later with a big smile on his face.

"Did you think I was traded? No, I'm still here," he said.

Hargrove and vice president of baseball operations Syd Thrift wanted to congratulate Mora. And a teammate placed a package of 68 diapers in Mora's locker while he was gone.

* The 2000 team finished in fourth place with a 74-88 record, but Ripken collected his 3,000th hit on April 15 in Minnesota. The anniversary passed yesterday.

Ripken entered the game needing three hits and collected three singles, the last off Twins reliever Héctor Carrasco. Ripken was playing in his 2,800th game, because round figures were all the rage.

Ripken became the 24th player to reach the milestone and the first to do it in the month of April, according to the Hall of Fame.

Bonus points if you remember that Calvin Maduro, who later worked for the Orioles as an international scout, was the starting pitcher that night.

(Jesse Garcia was the second baseman, which I mention only because it's my first reference to Jesse Garcia in many, many years.)

Ripken missed two months of the 2000 season with a back injury and played one more season before retiring. And any thoughts that Hargrove had about Mike Kinkade replacing Ripken at third base, including a brief benching in 2001, vanished like a burp in the wind.