Cleaning out my notebook

A common offseason activity for baseball media is flipping through pages of the last notebook used in search of tidbits that can be posted during slow times.

Any newsy or interesting nuggets that were missed or held. Notations that serve as reminders for later use.

I’m also reminded again that my handwriting looks like I’m wedging a pen between toes on a numb left foot.

Here’s a sampling of what I think that I found:

* A popular opinion inside the clubhouse is that Jordan Westburg provides some of the best at-bats on the team. He might string together the most among the bunch, which really impresses when you consider that 2024 was his first full season in the majors – not counting his time spent on the injured list.

Asked to describe Westburg, Ryan O’Hearn agreed with a reporter that “steady is a great word for it.”

“Very steady – in the clubhouse, on the field,” O’Hearn said. “He’s obviously a really good player, All-Star third baseman. He brings a very even-keel demeaner.”

Westburg’s departure from the lineup with a fractured hand was as big as loss as any other on a team racked with injuries.

Former bench coach Fredi González noticed that Westburg didn’t generate as much attention nationally as some teammates.

“He’s not as recognized, but we recognize him,” González said.

“It’s a blue-collar at-bat. It’s a blue-collar game that he plays. He’s not gonna be flashy, he’s not gonna be a guy who steals 50 bases, but he’ll steal a base when he has to. He’ll put the ball in play. He’ll get a big hit when you have to, make a great play defensively. We recognize it.

“Hopefully he gets a bobblehead like everybody else got one. We appreciate him a lot.”

(I underlined “bobblehead” for some reason.)

There’s also the intangibles that make Westburg an important part of the team.

“He’s a quiet leader,” González said.” He doesn’t say much. He just leads by example.”

Westburg sat at his locker after Game 2 of the Wild Card series, a blank stare on his face. He knew the media would want him, too, and he waited.

“It’s going to sting a little bit,” he said. “It hurts the heart.”

* Manager Brandon Hyde’s media session the day after the Wild Card loss began with a question that presented a challenge because the response had two sides.

Was the season a success?

“I mean, yes and no,” he replied.

He’s right. The Orioles made the playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 1996-97. They were the host team in the best-two-of-three series. But they didn’t repeat as division champions or make a deep run in the postseason. The felt the sting again of champagne and disappointment.

“For me, I think successful to get into the playoffs,” he said. “Successful from a lot of adversity that we faced in the second half and still got the No. 1 Wild Card seed, host two home playoff games. So that was a success. When you go to spring training, you want to try to win the division. You want to try to get to the playoffs. We got to the playoffs.

“Unsuccessful, that we didn't … we had higher expectations than not winning a game in the playoffs this year. So that's disappointing.”

* Zach Eflin enjoyed his time with the Rays but was happy to be traded near the deadline.

Eflin went from a seller to a team that could get him back to the playoffs. And he had an easy transition to a new clubhouse.

“It’s been great, obviously,” he said. “As you know, there’s a lot of really cool personalities on the team. It’s a lot of fun to be part of, and especially when we’re winning. These past couple weeks have been a lot of fun. Everything’s amplified when you win and lose, and being on the winning side of that has been a treat and a lot of fun.”

* Two egg rolls, one quart egg drop soup, one order crab rangoon, shrimp fried rice, beef lo mein.

Sorry, that’s my Chinese food order.

* The Orioles miss “a Nelson Cruz type.”

I’m interpreting me to mean a big playoff-experience bat from the right side.

A free-agent signing or a trade could fill that void. Right field might be vacant with Anthony Santander approaching free agency. There’s also the designated hitter spot, but the Orioles must consider it for some young in-house hitters like Coby Mayo and Heston Kjerstad.

Cruz retired with a career .343 on-base percentage in 19 seasons, but he also brought the power. Gunnar Henderson led the Orioles this season with a .364 OPS, followed by rookie Colton Cowser at .321.

* I began working at the Baltimore Sun in 1987 as a sports clerk in the Anne Arundel County bureau. I was one of the “zone things,” as a Calvert Street reporter derisively called us during a union meeting while supporting the two-tier pay scale that kept us from being treated as equals. We used the name for our softball team.

I eventually became a reporter covering high school and Anne Arundel Community College sports, moved up to “small colleges” and the first season of Baltimore’s Canadian Football League team, and was promoted to the Orioles’ beat full-time in 1997. The rest is history.

I’ve come across many characters over the years, and none was more enjoyable to work and hang out with than A.A. County Sun columnist Pat O’Malley.

O’Malley dated back to the old Arundel Living paper before the name change. He had a popular sports radio show on WNAV in Annapolis that he hosted from his Severna Park home. He was a former Loyola High School and Loyola College baseball coach. Dundalk native Mike Bielecki pitched for O’Malley before beginning a 14-year major league career and told me during the 2,131 game at Camden Yards, when he faced the Orioles that night with the Angels, how much he owed his former college coach for his success. O’Malley also was a part-time Orioles scout, and he was inducted into the A.A. County Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

O’Malley got under the skin of high school coaches and officials with his blunt criticisms and sarcasm. He was a must-read, absolutely hilarious and also easy to spot on the road, especially for police officers, with his “Dinger” license plate. He claimed that’s the reason why he’d get pulled over. He hated the term “tater” for a  home run, but loved “dinger.”

The paper’s merger hurt O’Malley. The uptown sports editors didn’t find him nearly as amusing, vowed to reel him in, removed his personality from his copy and made it dry and ordinary. They also ditched his weekly “Prophet Pat” column, when he predicted high school football scores and basically set betting lines without encouraging wagering. Readers loved it. They did not. And hey, who are we writing for except our editors?

The last page of my notebook has the Barranco Funeral Home scribbled on it.

A former Orioles scout texted me with the news that Pat died late Sunday night, appropriately after watching the Dodgers-Mets game at his home. He took out the trash before going to bed and never made it back inside.

A mutual friend who used to edit O’Mallley from our Pasadena office inside the clock tower building on Route 2 said it best. The world is little less colorful today because Pat isn’t in it.