MASN's 2nd Annual Oriole Bloggers Day

If the Delmarva Shorebirds games in Greenville and Greensboro were the slices of bread, MASN's Oriole Blogger Day in Baltimore this past Sunday was the pulled pork on my BBQ sandwich.

Metaphors aside, the second edition of this event was, once again, a chance to meet my fellow bloggers face to face, watch the O's play and get a rare crab cake (remember, I live in Atlanta) up in the MASN suite.

We met up with Todd Webster outside of the home plate plaza and he took us up to the MASN suite to hang out for a bit before the game and pretty soon we were taken up to the MASN booth to chat with Gary Thorne and Mike Flanagan. I asked Mike Flanagan specifically if he had seen any issues with fellow lefty Mike Gonzalez's delivery...well, I could recap but God bless Anthony and James over at Oriole Post who recorded the entire Q&A with Mike and Gary. The video can be seen here with my question and much more.

After that, it was back to the suite to watch the game and chat with my fellow bloggers about all things baseball. Jim Hunter stopped by to shake hands and speak with us all, as well as MASN's Steve Melewski and Oriole PR Monica Pence, who I specifically thanked for getting me some good information for the Unofficial Baltimore Oriole Spring Training Visitor's Guide.

In a nice surprise, Andy MacPhail came down to the suite for a quick Q&A and hung around for almost 10 minutes. Again, thanks to Oriole Post, you can listen to the audio here.

Last year, I marveled at Rick Dempsey's color coded score keeping system and had to ask him about it this year. Rick was nice enough to explain what his markers meant:

Orange - all hits for either team are coded with Oriole orange
Green - walks. Because once you walk you're "ready to go" on the basepaths
Blue - strikeouts. Because "when you strike out, you're blue"
Purple - hit by a pitch. Because "when you get hit by a pitch, you get a big purple mark on you"
Red - RBI

And again, Todd Webster took us down to the MASN truck so we can see where all the magic happens. I still have no idea how they keep track of all those screens on the fly.

The game? Well, the O's hung around until late and then surrendered some runs in the 8th to lose 5-2 to the Blue Jays. But what I'll remember most is chatting with Anthony from Oriole Post, talking about mid-coast Maine with Todd Webster, discussing the relative worth of Garrett Atkins with Dan from Camden Crazies or picking Matt Sadler's (from Baltimore Sports Report) brain about getting minor league press credentials.

Again, an enjoyable time and a real treat, especially for writers like me who reside in the Oriole diaspora.

Other recaps and/or blogs represented:

Anthony and James from Oriole Post (http://oriolepost.com/)
Stacy and Duck from Camden Chat (http://www.camdenchat.com/)
Chris from Baltimore Sports and Life (http://baltimoresportsandlife.blogspot.com/)
Pete from The Wayward Oriole (http://www.thewaywardoriole.com/)
Matt and Clark from Baltimore Sports Report (http://baltimoresportsreport.com/)
Dan from Camden Crazies (http://camdencrazies.com/)
Kevin from Oriole Card "O" The Day (http://oriolescards.blogspot.com/)
Michael from Bird's Watcher (http://birdswatcher.com/)




Apologies if I missed anybody...

MASN Oriole Blogger Night: The Whirlwind Tour

Thanks to MASN, especially the PR team of Todd Webster and Kristen Hudak, for including me among several Oriole bloggers invited up the Camden Yards on Tuesday for Oriole Blogger Night. Coming up from Atlanta, I am pretty sure I took the long distance award but I wouldn't have missed this for anything. Drove up to my Dad's place in southern Virginia Monday night, drove to Baltimore Tuesday morning, back to southern Virginia after the game and all the way home yesterday. It was my own personal version of The Cannonball Run. (I even brought beer back...the boys are thirsty in Atlanta...(OK, I'm mixing my Burt Reynolds movies a bit)...but that's a story for another blog...) Thank God it wasn't rained out!

We assembled outside the stadium with Todd before the game and then headed up to the booth to see Gary Thorne and Buck Martinez. Below are three soundless, "Blair Witch Project" quality video snippets of the booth. Try not to get nauseous.

First, the Oriole Blogosphere pours into the booth. You'll see Amber Theoharis off to the right and Gary Thorne as we enter:




Second, Amber comes in to say a quick hello.




Here comes Buck Martinez! Since there's no sound, I'll just tell you that Gary Thorne's voice is not the product of a bunch of perfectly aligned settings on a studio soundboard; the guy has some serious pipes and delivered his answers to our questions in those same dulcet tones you hear on TV. Buck and Gary fielded questions and, as it turns out, they read none of the collective bloggers work. I could have sworn that Gary said he only has time to read "reputable sources". Ouch! That's OK Gary, we like you anyway. Thanks to those guys for taking a few minutes out of their work day to speak with us.





Anyway, after that is was outside to watch a bit of the O's Xtra Pregame Show:

And then back upstairs to enjoy the game from the MASN suite. I have been to the luxury suites at Turner Field a couple of times before. These suites were nicer. Good crab cakes too.

Many people showed up in the suite during the game. Rick Dempsey came up for nearly the whole game, keeping very detailed score throughout the game. I chatted with Rick for a second, shook his hand, thanked him for being nice to my son at Spring Training a few years back. Class act, this Dempsey. Glad I named the blog for him!

Rick hard at work...

...on his painstakingly detailed, color coded score cards.

Al Bumbry made a brief appearance although I did not talk to him. Jim Hunter was rather personable and talked with some of us for awhile. I met MASN's Steve Melewski, again really nice guy. Roch Kubatko came down to chat. I inadvertently caught this mildly uncomfortable exchange between Roch and Duck from Camden Chat...more on that over here. (Roch was actually really cool to everybody...that comment is tongue-in-cheek... ;-) )

Andy MacPhail announced the impending arrival of Matt Wieters which sent the MASN reporters scrambling out of the suite...

Todd took a few of us down to the bowels of Camden Yards to see the MASN production truck. Very impressive.




Did I mention it was Jason Berken's major league debut and the Orioles won 7-2? Really, it could not have gotten much better.

It was really great meeting so many in the Oriole blogosphere whom I have merely e-mailed in the past. There were three people from Camden Chat (Stacey, Duck, Jonny Pops) , Anthony Amobi from Oriole Post and Oriole Magic, James Baker from Oriole Magic, Matt from Roar from 34, Neal Schafer from The Loss Column, The Wayward O (Pete Brush), Zach Wilt from Baltimore Sports Report and Chris Stoner from Baltimore Sports and Life. I'm sure I missed somebody but those are the people I remember meeting.

edit: After reading the full post on Camden Chat, I think that Ken Brotzman form NumerOlogy/Oroles Card "O" the Day was there too. I thought he was a fourth Camden Chatter. Like the work Ken!

All in all, well worth the combined 24 hours on the road over the course of three days.

I'll post some more snapshots and such over the weekend. But there's more! Wayward O recounts his experiences, Stacey from Camden Chat details the event and Anthony Amobi will have a recap up (with expected great photography) soon. Ken recaps the event at Oriole Card "O" the day, Neal has a write up over at The Loss Column and James Baker has his take over at Oriole Magic.

Thanks again to the MASN team for making this happen and for everyone involved with MASN to take time out of their work day (that point was not lost on me) to make a bunch of uber-fans feel at home.