Now that all of the other MLB teams have had their Opening Day fun, it is time for the country to focus on the final two teams to start the 2010 MLB season, the Orioles and Rays. It's almost like the anti Yankees/Red Sox matchup that aired Sunday on ESPN. I'm not really sure why they scheduled the O's and Rays to start a day later than everyone else, but it doesn't meant that I'm any less excited about the start of a new season. The schedule makes even less sense for the O's since they will now have to play 17 consecutive days before their first off day of the season on April 22. I don't know when the Rays first off day is; this is an O's blog and you will need to check a Rays blog if you want that kind of information. It does suck to not be able to make my yearly, "we're tied for first place joke", but at least the Yankees and Jays are already 0-1.
There is plenty of optimism in Birdland this year as we get our first full season of former top prospects Matt Wieters, Brian Matusz, and Nolan Reimold. We also have some veteran free agent/trade acquisitions like Kevin Millwood, Mike Gonzalez, Miguel Tejada, and Garrett Atkins to bolster the outstanding young core of guys like Nick Markakis and Adam Jones. There are plenty of question marks as there seems to be every season, but I think this is the year that things start to turn around for the O's. I'm obviously a die-hard fan which probably leads to unreasonable optimism at times, but I predict that the Orioles will be 77-85 this year. I highly doubt that we will be fighting for a playoff spot just yet, but to get 13 games closer to a .500 record than last season will be a significant improvement and real progress for the young club. If they could get 13 games better again in 2011, they would be 90-72 and definitely in the wild card hunt. If the O's can go 77-85, they should also be able to creep out of the AL East cellar, passing at least the Blue Jays in the Division standings. How's that for optimistic?
With the start of the Orioles season, I am also going to officially launch a new mini collection on the blog that I have hinted about a few times over the past couple of weeks. I am now officially collecting Orioles autographs that picture the player wearing an orange uniform. I'm calling it the Orioles Orange Uni Auto Mafia, or OOUAM for short.
Any orange uniform will do, whether it's a Minor League affiliate card like the Tillman above...
Although Orioles orange unis are preferred...
They can be found on current players...
Players from the recent past also wore them...
So did players in the 90's...
And the 80's...
And the very early 80's.
In recent years, the Norfolk Tides have represented the Orange very well.
And the Orioles have mainly worn them in Spring Training.
I have more OOUAM pictures that I will share from time to time, and I will also add my "have list" to the site, but if you have any orange uni autographs sitting around, please send them my way!
This is the major difference from my other collection: I will not pay for orange uni autos unless I still need them for my overall collection. This will be all in-person autographs or cards that I can get in a trade .
Now that the new mini-collection has launched and I've said my piece, I just hope that the Orioles can pull off a win tonight.
Let's Go O's!
