Monday June 30, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3962

Day one is in the books at Liberty and our 12 golfers avoided some electricity in the air and had a great afternoon despite the 93 degree temperatures.

Our host for the week is an awesome 18 hole facility called Ivy Hill.

Everything we need is at our fingertips. The practice range is plentiful, the short game area and sand traps are adjacent to the range and there's a massive putting green with enough room for 18 holes of putting practice.

We retire inside into the cool temperatures of the restaurant for lunch and our mid-day "Huddle", where we have several college-age students running our gospel discussions with the campers.

In the afternoon, we played a 6-hole scramble to work on some things we reviewed during the morning session.

We are one of only a few sports that have to leave the Liberty campus to work on our craft this week. We are beyond blessed to have connected with the fine folks at Ivy Hill.

God is great indeed.

We have chapel service tonight from 7:30 pm to 9:30 and then I'll try to find a cool, safe spot to enjoy a coffee and watch the O's beat the Rangers, 8-4.

Our coach's ministry Huddle is from 10 pm to 11 pm. Hopefully there are some O's fans in there who don't mind an occasional update or two on the game.

I did see today where the Steelers traded for Jalen Ramsey.

Eh, I don't get that one.

My guess is tight end Jonnu Smith is the piece they really wanted and Fitzpatrick had to be the guy they disposed of to get him.

Fitzpatrick had a nice first season with Pittsburgh a few years back but he hasn't been all that great since.

Ramsey is a career malcontent.

I don't know the reasoning behind the whole thing. I know money matters, cap wise. But Jonnu Smith is the central part of the deal, I'm guessing.

Anything that makes the Steelers worse delights me though.

---

well, it's better than losing 2 of 3

I'm asking right now for a bit of leniency this week if you'd provide some to me. I'll be following sports, but not like I'm usually able to under normal circumstances.

My week is jam packed with some exciting and fulfilling fun. I'm a golf instructor at the FCA national camp at Liberty University for the next four days. Over 1,100 young men and women are on site participating in 11 different sports and activities. Our golf program has 12 boys, which is a perfect number for instruction and group teaching.

Watching the Orioles sweep the Rangers in Texas will take a back seat to my golf coaching responsibilities until Thursday afternoon.

The good news...we will have some Happy Hour contributions this week. The bad news...you'll have to wait until around 5:30 pm to check them out.

Hey, you know the saying: It's 5:30 pm somewhere.

This is our first year at Liberty University. The FCA national camp was held at Kutztown University for three decades. Simply put, the camp required "more" everything: More space, more rooms, more fields, more dining capacity and a bigger auditorium for the nightly two hour worship service all players and coaches attend.

I haven't seen anything like Liberty University in my life. It's an amazing campus. In reality, it's built almost like a small town. Everything is perfectly in place. Kutztown was a fantastic host site for the camp. Liberty just has more of what the camp needs to continue to grow.

Once again this year our main chapel pastor is Heiden Ratner, a dynamic, powerful leader of his own church (WALK) in Las Vegas. Ratner is one of the more gifted people I've ever been around. I didn't say gifted "pastors" or "speakers". He's one of the more gifted "people" I've encountered. His spirit and enthusiasm are contagious, no matter if he's talking about faith, college basketball (he played at James Madison once upon a time) or the Las Vegas Raiders, where he currently serves as the team chaplain.

If you're a believer in prayer, I'd be blessed to have you pray for our golf program this week. Ask God to keep us all safe and healthy throughout the week and to bless our campers with the ability to lock in and focus not only on the golf instruction they receive, but the spiritual messages they'll be hearing over the next four days.

I've been around long enough to know that the devil is always hard at work behind the scenes trying to be disruptive and creating turmoil on occasions when God's glory is flying high.

"I'm not going to just allow 1100 impressionable young men and women to show up in Lynchburg, Virginia and learn about the Lord without putting up a fight of my own," the devil will say. So there will be illness this week, injuries, home sickness, anxiety and other moments of misfortune. I call it "spiritual warfare" in simple terms. But the good work we all do at the camp will overcome whatever the devil throws our way.

"Watch and see what happens," I told Brett, a camp huddle leader from the Philadelphia area last night, as we chatted outside of the Vines Center. "We'll win out in the end. Make book on it. This will be the best week of camp we've ever had and it will drive the devil crazy!"

For those who believe in prayer, I appreciate you asking for our golf camp to be blessed abundantly this week. Thank you.

---

So, is Dean Kremer the O's most valuable trade commodity as June turns to July and the deadline starts appearing in the future?

I'm not here to say the O's should trade Kremer.

I'm simply asking if he's the team's most valuable trade piece, that's all.

Kremer had another exceptional start on Sunday in the 5-1 win over Tampa Bay, going 7 innings and allowing just 3 hits and 1 run. He's now sporting a 4.27 ERA on the year. He's not Bob Gibson or anything, but he's been very good-to-excellent for most of the last six weeks.

If Kremer isn't the team's most viable pitching candidate to be dealt, then Keegan Akin fits that bill. Akin was solid again on Sunday, lowering his ERA to 2.92 in one inning of work. Sure, it was 5-1 at the time and the Rays were halfway to the airport in the 8th inning, but he has been the club's most reliable bullpen arm all season.

There's no telling what Mike Elias is going to do in July. Conventional wisdom says Elias isn't going to ship off a bunch of key pieces just because the team is 46-60 and going nowhere fast. Mullins might go. O'Hearn might go. They're both disposable.

But when your starting rotation isn't good to start with, why would you jettison two of the (only) guys you can (mostly) trust every time they take the mound; Kremer and Akin?

If Zach Eflin wasn't hurt and was pitching well, he would have fetched something moderately valuable at the deadline, even though he's a free agent this winter. Alas, Eflin isn't getting the Orioles anything except maybe 4 round trip Southwest Airlines tickets and a big bucket of Cracked Pepper sunflower seeds.

And, frankly, they might not even get the seeds. Eflin's struggling and hurt. You don't get a whole lot in return for those guys.

#DMD reader/contributor Chris P. e-mailed me yesterday and asked if Ramon Laureano might have some trade value next month. I just don't see how that's possible. I mean, could you get "something" for him? Eh, maybe. But it's not going to be anything earth shattering. And that's even if someone would take him.

Now it's off to Texas to take on the Rangers for three games in a series that begins this evening. The O's starting rotation for those three is interesting; Rogers, Morton and Sugano. They also face Jacob deGrom on Wednesday evening. I'm sure he's licking his chops at the thought of facing Baltimore's wildly inconsistent offense for the second time in a week.

If the Birds can win 2 of 3 with that trio of starters going for them and having to face deGrom again, maybe there's life in Tony Mansolino's crew after all.

Following the series with the Rangers, the O's head to Atlanta to face a vastly underperforming Braves team. Could we see a 5-1 week from our orange and black feathered friends? That would be awesome. But I'll sign off on 4-2 right now and not bat an eye.

Beating the Rays two of three was a nice way to bring a 3-3 week to a close.

How about something better this week, though, boys?

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

orioles week in review

Week Record: 3-3

Season Record: 36-47

AL East Standing: 5th (12 GB of NYY 7 GB of WC)

Player of the Week: Ramon Laureano - .444 AVG HR 4 RBI 3 DB 4 BB

The Orioles ended the week on a positive note securing a series win over the Rays, but only managed to tread water on the whole. Despite a historic 22-run explosion on Friday, the O’s split the two home series this week and failed to gain any ground in the Wild Card race.

The Orioles opened the week with a shutout victory, driven by a brilliant pitching performance from Trevor Rogers, who delivered eight scoreless innings of three-hit ball for his first Orioles victory. Jackson Holliday powered the offense, going 3-for-5 with a homer and 4 RBIs. Andrew Kittredge finished the combined three-hit shutout for a 6-0 win.

On Tuesday Baltimore fell short in a frustrating extra-innings affair. Despite a five-run seventh inning comeback with homers from Gary Sanchez, Ramon Urias and Ryan O’Hearn, the O’s bats were silenced otherwise. Defensive miscues proved costly as the Rangers scored the winning run in the tenth inning, handing the Orioles a tough 6-5 loss.

The bats were almost completely silent on Wednesday when Jacob deGrom nearly no-hit the Orioles, holding them hitless until Colton Cowser’s leadoff single in the eighth inning. Texas cruised behind homers by Josh Jung and Jonah Heim, taking the series with a 7-0 win.

The opener with Tampa on Friday brought some wild swings. The O’s overcame a 6-0 deficit to score 22 runs. Gary Sánchez led the onslaught, finishing 4-for-5 with a home run and 4 RBIs. Colton Cowser notched a career-high three doubles, and every Orioles starter contributed either an RBI or scored a run in the 22-8 win. The second-highest scoring game in Orioles history.

The Orioles’ bats cooled significantly on Saturday, managing just seven hits. Zach Eflin’s struggles continued as he surrendered four runs in the first inning to his former team before leaving with lower back soreness, pushing his season ERA close to 6.00. Ramón Laureano hit a late two-run homer but it was to little avail in an 11-3 loss.

Dean Kremer was brilliant again in the rubber match, pitching seven shutout innings with six strikeouts. Ramón Laureano and Colton Cowser combined for an early run, while timely RBI hits from Gary Sánchez, Cedric Mullins, and Coby Mayo secured a comfortable lead. Félix Bautista sealed the 5-1 win and the series despite yielding a ninth-inning solo home run.

There were a few candidates for Player of the Week. The offensive explosion meant several bats had hot weeks. On the mound, Dean Kremer and Trevor Rogers both delivered outstanding starts to help secure wins.

Gary Sanchez had his best week as an Oriole, hitting .364 with two homers and eight RBI.

However, it was Ramon Laureano’s week to snag the honor. The outfielder hit .444 and reached base more than half the time, with a homer, four RBI, three doubles and four walks.

Down on the Farm:

AAA Norfolk went 3-3 against the Gwinnett Stripers this week. Jorge Mateo paced the offense during his rehab stint as he prepares to rejoin the Orioles.

Top prospect Samuel Basallo managed just two hits on the week, but one was a monster 444 ft homer on Sunday and he also managed to walk eight times and finish the week with a .500 OBP.

Down at Chesapeake, Tyler O’Neill hit a homer as he works his way back from injury.

Catching prospect Silas Ardoin batted .455 on the week with two doubles and a triple.

On the mound, pitching prospects Blake Money (23), Levi Wells (23), and Nestor German (23) all had impressive outings.

Question of the Week –

What is wrong with Zach Eflin?

After a solid start to the 2025 season, Zach Eflin has suddenly fallen off a cliff. Over his last three starts (June 16 at Tampa Bay, June 21 at New York Yankees, June 28 vs. Tampa Bay), Eflin's performance dramatically declined, marked by alarming shifts in underlying metrics and pitch effectiveness.

He did leave the game with lower back soreness and looks headed for the injured list, so perhaps the decline will be solved with some time off.

Examining the underlying stats shows that while Eflin hasn’t lost his overall control, when he has missed he has missed in the heart of the plate, leading to an elevation of long balls allowed. Over this disastrous stretch where Eflin has allowed 17 earned runs in just 9 innings, he has both been hit more often and been hit harder.

Previously manageable contact turned nightmarish for Eflin, whose hard-hit rate jumped from 40% to nearly 55% in this span, while average exit velocity surged from around 89.7 mph to 93-94 mph. This has translated directly to an unsustainable spike in home runs, jumping from 1.68 HR/9 to an alarming 6.0 HR/9.

Interestingly, Eflin maintains good overall command (Location+ around 108). However, recent misses have gravitated dangerously to the middle of the plate. During these three starts, pitches classified as "heart-zone" increased significantly, doubling his season baseline and allowing hitters to demolish such mistakes.

Another worrying season-long trend has been the decline of Eflin’s curveball.

Once an effective weapon, the curveball has been crushed this season. Opponents are slugging .919 against his curveball with a hard-hit rate of 46.7% compared to just 20.7% last season.

The spin rate and movement numbers are pretty similar to past seasons, which suggests that Eflin may just be failing to locate the curveball as consistently this year.

Eflin’s strength has always been his pinpoint control and miniscule walk rate. While he has maintained the ability to limit walks, this season he has made far too many mistakes over the middle of the plate as opposed to around the edges and that has cost him dearly.

With an ERA approaching 6.00, Eflin has put the Orioles in a tough position. Just a month ago Eflin looked like he could be one of the top trade chips at the deadline.

With the season looking lost there was at least hope the O’s could reload for next year by fleecing a team in desperate need for an effective starter. These past three weeks have thrown a huge kink in that plan.

The front office will need to hope the rest and recuperation can help Eflin right the ship and figure out how to prevent these bad misses that are leading to loud contact.

Hopefully he can return in time to re-establish his value and net the team some pieces that can contribute in 2026.

Sunday June 29, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3961

back to the lab again

There was good news and bad news regarding local baseball on Saturday.

Conventional wisdom offers that you always start with the bad news first. I guess that's because you get that out of the way and then get the good news and it's all "up" from there.

So, the bad news first.

One night after demolishing the Rays in Baltimore, 22-8, the O's themselves got blistered on Saturday, falling 11-3. It's precisely the kind of follow-up to a promising night that drives us all batty about this particular edition of Orioles baseball.

Good tonight.

Terrible tomorrow and the next day.

Good again sometime this coming week, followed by "awful" again.

It's as certain as the sun setting in the West with the Birds of 2025.

Something else that's becoming quite certain is Zach Eflin stinking it up on the mound. Yesterday he didn't even make it to the 2nd inning, allowing 4 earned runs and throwing 28 pitchces before getting yanked after Tampa Bay's first inning of work.

In fairness, Eflin would have stuck around for more fun, but he was experiencing lower back tightness. I guess I believe that.

His last three starts have been bad. In fact, "awful" called and said, "Man, you look terrible."

He allowed 12 hits and 7 earned runs in Tampa Bay on June 16.

The Yankees roasted him for 10 hits and 6 earned runs in just 3 innings of work in the Bronx on June 21.

And then yesterday he got dinged for 5 hits and 4 earned runs in about 18 minutes of work.

As the great Eminem says in the song Lose Yourself, "...it's back to the lab again, yo, this old rhapsody".

Something's wrong.

Both with Eflin and the Orioles.

I'm going to guess Eflin makes an injury list visit here sometime soon to get himself reset. There's no way he's "this bad" without having some sort of physical ailment. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But I think we'll see him in the blue medical tent soon.

As for the Orioles, we know there's something "off" with them.

They're just not able to put together any kind of good stretch of positive play. Yesterday's loss in front of 30,000 plus at Camden Yards was just another in a long line of blow out losses this season. The O's now stand at 35-47 on the season.

Six weeks ago or thereabouts, I mapped out a route for the Birds to work themselves back into consideration for an A.L. Wild Card spot.

I surmised that at the 70-game mark they somehow had to be 30-40 which, as it turned out, is exactly what they were after a promising weekend home sweep of the Angels.

I then added on to that by suggesting that in order to be relevant in the second half of the season, the O's had to then be 48-52 after 100 games. Doing that would pretty much bring them back to .500 and then, from there, they could easily join the post-season chase by playing just 5 games above .500 in July and August.

Alas, that 48-52 mark seems almost entirely out of reach at this point.

They're 35-47. They would need to go 13-5 over the next 18 games to get to 48-52. That seems almost impossible for this team to accomplish given what we've seen of them recently.

Baseball is so much fun when your team is good.

It's the perfect companion for the summer months. The Land of Pleasant Living is even more pleasant when the Orioles are in the midst of a favorable season.

Baseball isn't much fun when the team stinks.

And, yeah, that's the bad news. The Birds are in danger of being an afterthought by the All-Star break unless they get their poop together.

If they're still wallowing in last place by the time mid-July rolls around, we'll be forced to do what we've been accustomed to doing here in Charm City for a majority of the last 25 years. That is, sinking ourselves into Ravens training camp.

Me? I'd rather be watching the Orioles night after night.

No disrespect to the Ravens, of course. We love them too. But pre-season football is like a dental visit. It's only nececessary because it's necessary.

If we're not watching meaningful baseball in July and August, dare I say it, the summer dries out pretty quickly around here. At least that's my mileage.

Oh, right, I owe you some good "local baseball news".

I know what you're thinking: "What on earth could be good?"

Gavin Sheets hit a game-winning 3-run homer for the Padres yesterday in their 6-4 win over Cincinnati.

The Baltimore native and ex-Gilman grad now has 13 homers and 49 runs batted in on the season.

Hopefully he can have a similar season in Baltimore in 2026.

That's where we're at, unfortunately. Talking about "next season" already and it's not even July.

Saturday June 28, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3960

we you did it!

Just after 4 pm yesterday, John K. sent in a $96 contribution to DMD2.0 with a note that said, "I hope this gets you close to the 99% figure you are looking for."

It turned out John's $96 contribution was "the one" that did, indeed, put us at 99%. I was on the road when the e-mail and his contribution hit the books, so it took me a few minutes to get it all put together and confirm it. But at 4:14 pm, it was official.

Just after 6 pm last night, true to his word, my friend Ed sent in the promised 1% contribution he offered last week if we reached 99% of our desired goal. And, as he vowed to do on Thursday, he also contributed an extra 1% to the cause because we were able to hit 99% yesterday.

So, instead of 100% of our goal, we reached 101% of it.

Anyone want to help us reach 105%?

I'm kidding.

So, you all did it.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This has been an incredible one month in the life of Drew's Morning Dish.

I owe a huge thanks to the man who helped me put this together and guided me through the whole process of the "request for support". It was Matt, in fact, who coined that very phrase a couple of months ago when I, a tad unconvinced at the time, agreed to the campaign and the concept of asking all of you to contribute to the website in lieu of creating a paywall.

"It's very simple," Matt said. "It's a request for support. It's not a demand. It's not a threat. It's not anything except a request for people to support what you do."

I was concerned about it. But I trusted that he was right. And in the end, he was.

I'm proud to say I was right, too. I never wanted to do a paywall here. I always wanted this to be a place you can visit whenever you want and stay as long as you want and it costs you nothing.

I knew we'd reach our goal. I also knew not everyone would contribute and I had to come to terms with that, too.

In a perfect world, every person visiting here today would have contributed $48 and helped support this website. That said, nothing's perfect. And it only took me a day or two -- along with some sound philosophical advice from Matt -- to come to grips with the idea that a lot of people would help and some people wouldn't help.

"Think of it like you think about golf," Matt said. "If you brooded over every bad golf shot you hit you'd never get a good night's rest," he stated. "Just think about the great shots you hit. If you focus on the great ones and forget about the bad ones, you'll benefit a lot more from that mindset than focusing on the bad shots and bad scores."

So I'll just keep saying "thank you" to all of you who contributed to the cause, whether you were the funny guy who sent in $1.00 or someone who followed the protocol and sent in $48 or someone who contributed more than $48 (there are a lot of you who did that) or Ed who put up a significant amount of money to help us go from 99% to 101%.

In a weird twist, I know virtually every name of those who contributed because Venmo and PayPal both show your name. I don't "know" all of you, personally, but I certainly feel indebted to each and every one of you who contributed to the project.

This was a remarkable month for me and the website. When I started this back in August of 2014, I had no real idea what I was doing and had no idea I'd still be here doing this on June 28, 2025.

God is great, indeed.

Jeremiah, 29:11 -- "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."

I didn't know what was going to happen on August 25, 2014, but God sure knew.

I can't thank you all enough.

We've been blessed here with great marketing partners over the last 11 years.

We've also been blessed with awesome writers and contributors as well.

And I'm forever grateful for Tony Young, George McDowell and Mike Herb for their expertise, support and willingness to answer the phone at midnight or 7 am or any other time of the day/night.

Over the last month, those of you who have been regular, semi-regular or just occasional readers of #DMD have also come through in the biggest way possible.

You're getting your day in the sun today.

I appreciate all of you who contributed to the cause more than you can possibly know.

We'll keep giving our best effort here.

When we launched the "request for support" campaign, Matt told me, "You're going to be energized more than ever when this is all done and you see the fruits of your labor pan out in your favor."

He's right.

Thank you for the energy.

Thank you for believing in Drew's Morning Dish.

I'm beyond grateful.

---

I do think it's important for me to address something that appeared in the Comments section yesterday since it (now) indirectly impacts what we've done here at Drew's Morning Dish.

Someone here made a reference to Royal Farms and their withdrawal as a marketing partner at #DMD.

I addressed it a few months ago but I'll remind everyone here today that we have nothing but positive commentary to offer about our 13-year run with Royal Farms.

It's true, obviously, that in late January they reduced their marketing expenses in this area and Drew's Morning Dish was collateral damage of that decision.

But Royal Farms was always great to us here at Drew's Morning Dish. They were always great to me, personally. I have nothing but fond thoughts about Royal Farms.

They made a business decision. It happens. But I want to be very clear that we parted company with them on amicable terms and there's zero bad blood between this website and Royal Farms.

I'm indebted to them for 13 years of support.

I hope that clears up any potential misconceptions or "stories" out there about the way Royal Farms left the scene here at #DMD.

It's all good.

Here's where I will also remind you that Longshore Coffee is very good and their website is www.longshorecoffee.com if you're interested in ordering their great coffee!

---

The Birds reached the halfway mark of their '25 season last night with a 22-8 win over Tampa Bay in their 81st game of the season.

You could say, that is if you weren't soft and had a sense of humor, that the O's -- ahem -- "made their point" last night with that emphatic 22-8 victory.

Oh, and Flyers fans, don't rush for your calculators to see if my math is right. There are 162 games in a baseball season. The Orioles have played 81 games thus far. 81 plus 81 = 162.

Last night's thumping of Tampa Bay puts the O's at 35-46. They are, quite obviously, in last place in the American League East.

It goes without saying the first half of the campaign has been abysmal for the most part.

There have been a few bright spots and bright moments along the way, but it's mostly been lousy to watch night after night.

It's all about expectations. And we expected more from this particular group of varsity lettermen.

The first half of the season included a managerial change, a handful of injuries to key players, a number of guys largely underperforming, and an inconsistent starting rotation.

Other than that, everything went pretty well.

Bright spots? Jackson Holliday for sure. Prior to this season, there were major concerns about his viability as an everyday player. Those concerns, I think, have been dismissed. Holliday is doing everything we figured he would do. He's not Ryne Sandberg or Roberto Alomar just yet, but he's starting to resemble the expected quality of a 1st round draft pick.

Keegan Akin has been solid. Honestly, he might be the team's most valuable trade piece at the deadline. A lefty in the bullpen who can get people out in tight spots? Someone will take him for sure.

Ryan O'Hearn has enjoyed a nice campaign also. A playoff contender might take him at the deadline but there won't be a line at the door for him.

Gunnar Henderson has been good. With the bat, that is. He hasn't been great, mind you. But he's been good. His glove needs a refresher course, though. His defense is not really a strong point. Like, at all. There are stories bubbling "out there" that Brandon Hyde and Henderson bumped heads because the manager mentioned his shoddy defense on more than one occasion. Well, if the shoe glove fits...right?

Without question, Ramon Laureano has been the surprise of the season thus far. It was Tomoyuki Sugano who owned that distinction for a few weeks at the start of the season, but now he's getting roasted like a marshmallow at the campfire every time he takes the mound.

Ramon Urias has also been a decent contributor when called upon. He plays a lot because Jordan Westburg only stays healthy for three weeks, days hours before he gets hurt again. When Urias gets in the game, good things usually follow along.

The O's made a managerial change a month ago because Brandon Hyde got tired of seeing guys jake it and decided to call them out in the clubhouse after games. The new guy, Tony Mansolino, has guided the team to improved play in his short tenure, but there was virtually no way the Birds could continue to go through the motions with him the way they did with Hyde in his final days.

At some point, the players had to start playing. Once they successfully got the manager fired, the spotlight then fully turned to them.

They've been better under Mansolino. They're not scaring the Dodgers or anything like that, but their play has (slightly) improved since Hyde got the boot.

And even though they're still 11 games under .500 as of this morning, there's still a breath of hope that maybe, somehow, just maybe, the second half of the campaign will see a change in fortune for the battlin' Birds.

Baseball is a marathon. The O's didn't run the first half of it very well, but they're still running nonetheless.

It's time to make up some ground. A lot of it.

Friday June 27, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3959

ten weeks for that?

There were two trains of thought on Thursday when the NFL announced a 10-week suspension for former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker.

"They gave him 10 weeks...for that?"

And then others said, "They gave him 10 weeks...for that?"

Some folks couldn't believe Tucker got 10 weeks for something that was never prosecuted by law enforcement.

Some folks couldn't belive Tucker got 10 weeks for something as inappropriate as the behavior he was accused of by more than a dozen local massage therapists.

One of the women involved in the story told the Baltimore Banner yesterday, "He got ten weeks and I have to live with [that] for the rest of my life."

OK, that might be a little overly dramatic. After all, with that kind of statement, anything less than life in prison wouldn't have been sufficient.

"He got a 3 year suspension and I have to live with [that] for the rest of my life."

You know what I'm trying to say. I can see where someone might think 10 weeks wasn't enough of a punishment, but let's also keep in mind there are people in our country involving themselves in far more hateful, personal and damaging crimes than what Tucker supposedly did in Baltimore.

I get that the women involved were victimized, if the Banner story and the details of Tucker's involvement are indeed true. I keep saying that because I think it's the only way to categorize an incident that has so many questions left unanswered.

And I believe -- as probably most people do -- that Tucker had to receive some sort of punishment from the NFL. There was just no way they could look the other way, nor should they have. I know he's "our guy" and all, but the story and the women who were impacted deserved scrutiny and a punishment for the offender.

But I also believe it's fair to remember we're not talking about murder or armed robbery. Balance. Balance is what we're looking for, I guess.

The league obviously conducted their own research, most of which was probably first brought to light by the Baltimore Banner back in late January. And that research gave the NFL enough ammunition to sit Tucker for the first ten weeks of the 2025 season.

Now, it's sorta-kinda important to point out that it's not really a 10-week suspension because Tucker is currently without a team. But the suspension begins with Game 1 of the 2025 regular season. So if he doesn't sign with someone this summer and is still a free agent in week 1, he's effectively serving a suspension even though he's not really working in the NFL.

I'm not a suspension expert or a human resources professional but that seems like just about the best kind of suspension you can get if you're going to get suspended.

That said, Tucker's reputation has been tarnished for a period far extending 10 weeks. He'll wear that scarlet letter like Hester Prynne.

There's really only one question left in the whole Tucker-massage saga. To some, it's the second most important subject after the health and well being of the massage therapists who were allegedly victimized in the case.

How much did the Ravens know before the story broke last January?

The tentacles to that question (and the answer) are also dangling.

If they didn't know, how could they be that naive? There were social media posts floating around for five years or more hinting at some nefarious behavior by Tucker and specifically referencing massage therapy locations.

If they did know, how long before last January did they know?

Did they know in 2018? 2020? Or did they not learn of it until, say, 2023?

And if the Ravens did know before this January, did they discuss it with Tucker upon learning of the allegations?

All of this is an indirect way of asking: Did the Ravens continue to employ Tucker even though they knew about all of this stuff?

Tucker's on the hook for his own behavior. Yesterday he got the punishment the league believe was justified for those actions. Your mileage might vary on whether 10 weeks was too much or not enough for something that was never once reported to the police and was certainly never investigated as a criminal matter.

But the Ravens are on the hook for potential crimes of a different sort. They're not on the hook for "real crimes", but they are on the hook, potentially, for attempting to hide or sweep away a very serious story that impacted the very community that has tirelessly supported them for nearly 30 years now.

What Tucker did -- if true -- was bad. And wrong. No two ways about it.

But what the Ravens might have done is just as wrong on the level of community trust. Had Tucker been a back-up safety out of Southern Missouri University, would the organization have protected him the way they -- allegedly/apparently -- protected their future Hall of Fame kicker?

I'm not sure we'll ever know the answers. Quietly, the Ravens tell inquiring folks they didn't know about the Tucker story. If you believe them, you believe them. If you don't, you don't. But they insist they didn't know anything about the allegations until late January like everyone else in town.

I just don't know if I fully believe that. But anyway...

There's also one other lingering question that was making the rounds on social media last night. Would the Ravens have cut Tucker back in May if the NFL would have told them, "We're not going to suspend him. We've found nothing substantive enough to suspend him."?

I contended all along they simply couldn't continue to employ Tucker, no matter what the NFL decided.

I didn't think his spotty performance in 2024 was even a consideration. I just didn't see how the club could let him trot back out there to kick for them given the story the Banner wrote and given Tucker's denial of the allegations. While that story was "unsolved", for lack of a better term, Tucker was no longer employable by the Ravens.

Cutting him might have been the right thing to do, but it was also the absolute only thing they could do at that point.

Had Tucker fallen on the sword right away in late January and apologized and done the perp walk everyone in town wanted him to do, then maybe, just maybe, there would have been a way for the Ravens and Tucker to creatively carve a path for him to return in 2025.

But once Tucker essentially called those 15 women liars, there was no turning back.

And now the only question left is the one that was ignited yesterday.

10 weeks........for that?

---

We are closing in on the completion date of DMD2.0, with three days remaining until I close the curtain on the project we kicked off back on June 1.

Time flies when you're having fun.

For those who are curious, we're at 97.2% of our desired contribution goal. If we get to 99% by June 30, we're getting a 1% contribution from #DMD reader Ed to take us over the top and get us to full goal.

Ed's the man, though. He sent me this yesterday.

"DF, if you get to 99% by 5 pm tomorrow (today, Friday), I'll do a 2% contribution and you'll finish at 101%. If you don't get to 99% until Saturday or Sunday, you'll still get my 1% but only my 1%. Rally the troops! Good luck my friend."

OK, so I'm rallying.

Come on troops!

First, thank you Ed for that kind gesture. Your 1% contribution is more than enough. But 2% would be great.

If you're reading this right now and you haven't participated in our "request for support", would you please contribute your two-year, one-time contribution of $48 to help keep #DMD rolling along like the well oiled machine that it is?

Will sent in his $48 yesterday along with an additional $20 and said, "I don't know why it took me so long to do this. I feel bad about it. I read the Dish every day and love it. I just didn't get off my a** and send you the money. So there's an extra $20 for you. Go Hall!"

The extra $20 was nice, but certainly not necessary. I'm not trying to coax anyone into giving more or sending along a gratuity of any kind.

A lot of people have given more than $48 and I appreciate all of them doing so, for sure.

But more than anything, what I'm really trying to do is get everyone who visits here regularly to participate in the DMD2.0 project and send in their $48 contribution for a two year period.

So if you reading this right now and you haven't yet contributed and you'll send it in today before 5 pm, you'll be helping out in an even bigger way. Your $48 will matter. And if we get enough $48 contributions by 5 pm, you'll be helping add another 1% to the kitty thanks to my friend Ed.

I'll be on the road at 5 pm tonight but I'll post something in the Comments section and give you all an update. I'll even give a 12 noon update today, how's that for attention to detail?

Thanks to all of you who have contributed thus far. And thank you, in advance, to anyone waiting until the end to make the game-winning basket for us.

You can contribute your $48 in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

faith in sports

This entry, today, isn't necessarily sports-connected, directly, but it's one of my favorite videos from the "I Am Second" series and one that I use quite often.

In fact, I'll show it next Monday to all of the campers who are attending the FCA National Golf Camp that I'm helping to run June 29 through July 3 at Liberty University.

Eric Metaxas is a conservative radio host and author who offers incredible insight into faith and religion. This video below is, I think, his 10 minutes "greatest hits" compilation.

I don't want to spoil what's in there. I want you to watch it for yourself. But the points he makes about faith and religion are more spot on than Jacob deGrom's control on Wednesday night in Baltimore.

Please take 10 minutes today to watch the video below.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment.

Thursday June 26, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3958

almost perfectly inept

During my abbreviated, weekly appearance on Glenn Clark Radio yesterday, I joked with the talented show host about the O's and their prospects for eventually getting no-hit this season after some dude we've never heard of held them hitless for 5 innings on Tuesday night in Baltimore.

"You know we're getting no-hit at some point this season," I said to Clark emphatically.

"One hundred percent," he confirmed in agreement. "It's definitely happening at some point."

Clark then mentioned the O's were facing Jacob deGrom on Wednesday evening at Camden Yards.

"Eh, he's right handed," I said. "It won't be him."

"I don't know," Clark replied. "He's having a really good season."

"Nah," I said again. "Not him. Not tonight."

It turned out I was right.

But only barely.

I was really far more wrong than I was right. Yes, deGrom failed to no-hit the Birds. But he might as well have, in all reality. He took a perfect game into the 7th inning, then finally gave up a hit to Colton Cowser to lead off the 8th inning and that was that. deGrom left the game with 7 strikeouts and 1 hit allowed in 7 full innings of work.

Predictably, the O's went down without issue in the 8th and 9th to lose, 7-0.

I'll say it again and you can agree or disagree. I'm sure Clark agrees with me. At some point this season, the Orioles are going to get no-hit.

It's just a matter of time.

I don't know why it's such a sure thing, other than that's three times in the last week that they were sorta-kinda in danger of getting a no-no throw on them.

Last Saturday in New York.

Tuesday in Baltimore.

Wednesday in Baltimore.

It feels like there were one or two other occasions earlier this year where some pitcher tossed four or five no-hit innings at the Birds, but maybe I'm just dreaming that one up.

Well, there was that one game last week where they had 7 hits in two innings and were leading 8-0 in Tampa and then didn't get a hit for the rest of the game but we've struck that game from our 2025 Orioles scrap book. It doesn't exist. It didn't happen.

So, that's three times in less than a week where I stopped what I was doing (although last night I was actually watching intently for whatever reason) and focused on the game because I thought there was a chance they were going to get no-hit.

I don't know what's going on, other than there's a bunch of guys on the team who don't hit very well, consistently, and are prone to nights, weeks and, well, months where they look inept.

In his last 38 games, Cedric Mullins is hitting .175 with 8 walks and 45 strikeouts. 38 games is basically a quarter of the season. When a starting -- and important -- player on your team is hitting a buck seventy five for 25% of the games (roughly), that's a problem.

And I'm not picking on Mullins to pick on Mullins. But he's a guy who has really dropped off over the last 6 weeks. His trade value is probably next to nothing now.

For all of the bluster about Jordan Westburg and his impact on the club -- and I'm one of those guys who think Westburg's a key piece -- the oft-injured 3rd baseman is hitting just .222 on the year and his on-base-percentage is really bad (.281). When Westburg contributes, he's usually the difference in a win or a loss. The problem is, obviously, he doesn't contribute enough. And he gets hurt a lot.

Sugano and Eflin started out the season as mound warriors and now we hold our breath whenever they make a start. Charlie Morton was a league laughingstock for a month and now he might be our most effective starter, although Dean Kremer would dispute that I'm sure.

Trevor Rogers looks like Clayton Kershaw these days. Last August he was a joke.

It's weird. This guy was great in April, now it's June and he's terrible.

That guy was terrible in April and now he's a rock star. But he's pretty much the only one.

The Birds are sporting a record of 34-46 after last night's fiasco, for those keeping score at home. To reach that magical mark of 48-52 at the 100-game mark, they will have to go 14-6 over the next 20 games.

A record of 14-6 is really good baseball for any team, first place, third place or otherwise. And I just don't know if 14-6 is feasible with this team, at this point.

Who am I kidding? Of course it's not feasible.

But onward they go. They're off today, thankfully, and then the Rays come to town on Friday for a big weekend series. I mean, I might as well just say it. They really need to sweep Tampa Bay.

A sweep of the Rays would get them to 37-46. They're in Texas next week for 3 more games with the Rangers. Then they're in Atlanta for three.

Somehow, just somehow, if they could go 7-2 in those nine games, that would get them to 43-48 and they'd have a puncher's chance of posting that aforementioned 48-52 record I've been going on about for a month or so.

I know what you're thinking and you're right.

"You're living in fantasy land, Drew. They're not going 7-2."

I know, I know.

I'm trying to keep the faith, but it's starting to wane. Quickly.

---

I received several e-mails and saw a lot of Twitter back-and-forth on Wednesday about the Orioles Pride Night event last night at the ballpark.

I don't really think there's anything I need to say, want to say, or should say about it. The Orioles and a number of teams in Major League Baseball feel it's important to support their local LGBQT community and I think that's a good thing. I honestly don't follow it enough to know all the bells and whistles behind what they do, how it works, etc.

Is it controversial? Maybe. Does a segment of their fan base take exception to it? Yes, they do, if you believe what you read on the internet, at least. But give the O's some credit for saying, "We don't care, we're doing it because think it's the right thing to do."

If there's a part of our community that feels empowered and supported because the baseball team put together some sort of promotional game for them, I think that's a good thing.

I'd love to see "Jesus is Great Night" at the ballpark, too, where the team promotes the great work of Jesus during his time on Earth and supports Him and the love he had for all people. That one probably won't happen, I know.

But in the same way they actively promote and take pride (no pun intended) in supporting the LGBQT community, I'd love to see the Orioles take that same stance, if you will, while supporting and promoting Jesus.

I mean, it seems only fair. I know the team has a "Christian Faith Night", and that's awesome. But it would certainly be powerful to see the franchise come right out and say, "We know a lot of you think Jesus was great and we're here to say, 'Come on out to the ballpark tonight and enjoy an evening where we celebrate Him with you.'"

To borrow, sort of, a famous line from Michael Jordan: "People who love Jesus buy baseball tickets, too."

All that said, I know why "Pride Night" is distinctly important to the Orioles organization in particular and I'm mainly just glad the franchise is doing something of value in the community, period. The on-field product is lousy this year. But that shouldn't stop the Birds from trying to be a champion off the field.

---

OK, so it's time to start putting our foot to the pedal with the DMD2.0 and knock this last 4.6% out and reach our goal.

Can a bunch of you help me today?

We're at 94.4% after a sllllooooowwwww Wednesday, but we're closing in on reaching 99%, which will automatically get us to 100% because friendly #DMD reader Ed has pledged to pick up the final 1% himself.

So we're gunning for 99%. Can we get it done today, please?

I'm going to go ahead and ask the question. The obvious question. The one a great number of you don't have to answer, thankfully.

"If you haven't yet contributed, why haven't you?"

I don't need to know the specifics. I guess I'm just asking for the sake of making you have that conversation with yourself.

If I heeded the advice of many over the last 5 years or so, there would be a monthly paywall up at #DMD and you'd either pay $3.99 (or more) a month for #DMD or you wouldn't gain access to it.

It would be like the scene from "Caddyshack" when Danny Noonan yanks back his dollar bill after saying, "Well I ain't paying 50 cents for no Coke" and Mike DiNunzio says, "Well then, you ain't gettin' no Coke."

You might have objected to a paywall here. Heck, I own the place and I objected to it. But that said, if I implemented one and you elected not to pay it, you wouldn't be reading these words right now.

Instead of charging you $3.99 a month or whatever it was, I'm simply asking you to forego going out to Chipotle with your family of four ONCE over the next two years and just contribute that $48 to #DMD instead.

I'm eternally grateful for how many of you have done that so far. And a significant number of you have gone above that $48 with donations of $100, $200, $201, $250, $500 and Ed has pledged to donate 1% himself once we reach 99%.

Thanks to all of you for helping.

I have said all along this way -- the "honor system" I keep calling it -- is the best way to do this. You all have showed me this was the right way to do it. I won't go as far as saying you've restored my faith in humanity or anything quite that dramatic, but I knew if I asked you that you would follow through and help out.

But if you're one of those who hasn't yet contributed, I'm asking today.......why not?

I don't need to know why you haven't. That's between you and you.

But if your reason is "I just haven't gotten around to it", today, hopefully, is the day you get around to it.

I'd love to get to 99% today.

The goal is to reach 100% by June 30.

We're as close to our goal as Jacob deGrom was to a no-hitter last night.

Can we finish it off?

You can contribute your $48 in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

We’re just about at the halfway mark of the MLB season, so let’s take a look around the league at the current division leaders and teams in a Wildcard spot. This week we’ll review the American League and next week we’ll dive into the National League.

In the American League, the Yankees, Tigers, and Astros currently lead their respective divisions. The Tigers are running away with the AL Central with a 9.5 game lead over the 2nd place Guardians, and currently have the best record in the American League.

They are a well-oiled machine and are playing very good baseball, with offensive production coming from their entire lineup and a very strong starting rotation led by Tarik Skubal, the favorite to win this year’s AL Cy Young Award.

In the AL East, the Yankees have a slim lead over the Rays with the Blue Jays not far behind. The Yankees are 3-7 in their last 10 games and are having trouble producing runs outside of Aaron Judge.

The rotation in New York has been solid even without Gerrit Cole this year, and they have a good lineup on paper, but their offense has been stagnant for most of June.

The Rays are looking dangerous and are a team you do not want to play come October. Tampa Bay always seems to have a young competitive team. I’m not sure how they do it, but they draft and develop prospects unlike any other. They sit 1 game behind the Yankees.

The Blue Jays are playing well and are getting consistent contributions from Vladimir Guerrero Jr, Bo Bichette, and utility man Ernie Clement. The rotation has been good even with Max Scherzer landing on the injured list after pitching 1 game and Kevin Gausman struggling most of the season.

Former Oriole Anthony Santander has been a huge letdown for Toronto with a .179 batting average and 6 home runs and is currently on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation. The Blue Jays are 2.5 games behind the Yankees.

We’ve seen some strange things in the AL West this season, with the division early on looking to be a 2-team race with the Mariners and Rangers to now having the Astros leading the West with a 4.5 game lead over Seattle.

The Astros have a great rotation, and a scary back end of the bullpen led by Maryland native Josh Hader, who has a 1.78 ERA and 20 saves. The offense has been good but not great. Free agent acquisition Christian Walker needs to get going and Yordan Alvarez, the power hitting DH, needs to wake up.

Jose Altuve has been his usual self and Jeremy Pena is having a career season with a .326 batting average.

For the Mariners, it’s the same old story with them. Their pitching rotation is fantastic, but the offense can’t put runs on the scoreboard.

Maybe the story is slightly different this year. They can’t score runs outside of Cal Raleigh, who has hit the most home runs by a catcher before the All-Star break, and we’re still 2 and a half weeks away from the break.

The front office in Seattle has done a lot to try to fix the offense, such as trading and later signing Jorge Polanco before the 2024 season, and trading for Randy Arozarena at the trade deadline last summer.

To the Mariners credit, they have been good recently winning 7 of their last 10 games, but they fluctuate so much where they might go 3-7 in their next 10 games, then 7-3 again in the 10 after that. With a little more consistency and production on offense, I think the Mariners can take the AL West from the Astros.

The Rays are in the top Wildcard spot followed by the Blue Jays and Mariners. In that race, there are 5 teams that are 3.5 games or less behind the Mariners for the last Wildcard spot.

This race is going to come down to the wire and make for an interesting trade deadline period. With the addition of a 3rd Wildcard team, less teams will be sellers creating more demand for good players on bad teams.

I expect the Tigers to be aggressive at the deadline. They’ll most likely add another strong arm to solidify their bullpen. Depending on what the Blue Jays do from now until the trade deadline, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bo Bichette get dealt to the Tigers on his expiring contract.

The Tigers have the #1 ranked farm system in baseball and have the ammo to bring in players to help the club and their dreams of a World Series in the Motor City.

Players of the Week –

Position Player: Switch hitting 2nd baseman Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks went off last week with a .517 average, 3 homers and 9 RBI. Marte currently owns a 1.032 OPS which is the 3rd highest OPS in baseball behind Aaron Judge and Cal Raleigh.

Ketel Marte is underrated in my opinion and is one of the best 2nd basemen in the league. He reminds me of Jose Ramirez, the switch-hitting 3rd baseman with the Cleveland Guardians, who is also deemed by many to be underrated.

Marte has spent almost all his career in Arizona and has always been consistent at the plate as well as being excellent on defense.

There was an ugly incident in the Dbacks game on Tuesday night at Rate Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, where a fan yelled a derogatory comment to Ketel about his mother, who passed away 2 years ago in a car accident.

During a pitching change later in the inning, manager Torey Lovullo checked on Ketel and put his arm around him as Ketel wiped tears from his face. I don’t know what the fan said or if he had knowledge of Marte’s mother passing.

It doesn’t matter either way.

Simply put, don’t bother attending a game if you plan on acting like a jerk and yelling obscenities to players. They are humans too, not zoo animals. MLB announced yesterday that the fan has been banned from all ballparks indefinitely.

Pitcher: Garrett Crochet had a phenomenal week on the bump for the Red Sox as he made 2 appearances, throwing 13 total innings with 18 strikeouts and 3 walks while allowing only 1 run.

He did only record 1 win out of those 2 appearances. In the no decision he had, Crochet didn’t allow a run and went 7 innings, which I’m sure is frustrating for any starting pitcher to go that far and receive no run support.

I’m interested to see Crochet’s 2nd half of this season. For those who don’t remember, Crochet started his career with the White Sox as a reliever and then converted to a starter last season and threw 146 innings.

This year, he’s already at 109.1 innings. So that’s something to keep an eye on in Boston.

To compare innings, let’s use Corbin Burnes, our former ace, and his innings pitched last year. Burnes pitched 194.1 innings for us. His career high is 202 innings, and he won his Cy Young with 167.

How far do the Red Sox let Crochet go this year? I don’t think Crochet goes over 190. That’s a big jump, but does he go say 3 or 4 more starts than last year and get to 170 innings?

I think 170 is a good progression for him, but the Red Sox position in the standings will be a big factor in their ultimate decision.

Rookie: Jacob Misiorowski, MLB’s 65th ranked prospect, was called up by the Milwaukee Brewers on June 12th and has been unreal thus far. In Misiorowski’s first career start he had a no hitter going into the 6th inning and was pulled as a precaution after awkwardly slipping on the front part of the mound.

The 6-foot 7 righty’s repertoire is highlighted by his high velocity fastball which is consistently over 100 MPH. In his debut, his maximum velocity reached was 102.2 MPH.

Yesterday, Misiorowski outdueled Paul Skenes and the Pirates going 5 innings while allowing 2 hits, 2 walks, no runs and striking out 8 Pittsburgh hitters.

The Brew Crew get another solid arm in their rotation that is already very good as they look to chase down the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central, who sit 2.5 games up on them.

Debut: The Cincinnati Reds called up their #1 ranked prospect Chase Burns, who was drafted 2nd overall in the draft last year out of Wake Forest and made his debut Tuesday night against the Yankees at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

Burns started his highly anticipated debut by striking out the first 3 batters in the 1st inning, which included Aaron Judge, then recorded the first 2 outs in the 2nd inning by striking out Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt.

So, in his first ever MLB game, Burns struck out 5 consecutive batters, 3 of them being former MVPs. That's the first time that's happened in the last 50 years./p>

Burns ultimately did allow 3 runs but had a no decision. Very impressive stuff from the youngster, and like the Brewers, the Reds add a talented arm to an already solid rotation.

Games of the Week --

Friday, June 27th: San Diego Padres vs Cincinnati Reds (Dylan Cease vs Nick Martinez)

Both of these teams are in the hunt in their divisions and also less than 2 games out of the last Wildcard spot in the National League. After losing a 4-game series to the Dodgers, the Padres have turned it around and have won 3 of their last 5 games in series against the Royals and Nationals. Cincinnati just won a series against the Yankees and are playing all around great baseball. Dylan Cease has struggled this season with a 3-6 record and will look to get back to his usual self and earn a win Friday night.

Saturday, June 28th: Seattle Mariners vs Texas Rangers (Bryan Woo vs Kumar Rocker)

The Mariners travel to the Lone Star State and look to keep their stretch of good baseball going and win a series against their division rivals. Bryan Woo has been a solid starter for the Mariners with a 7-4 record and 3.12 ERA and will face a Rangers team that has struggled this year on offense. Kumar Rocker had a lot of hype around him when he was drafted 3rd overall back in 2022 out of Vanderbilt, but he hasn’t pitched well this season with an ERA close to 7. Depending on what version of the Mariners offense he sees, he could have a good outing for the Rangers.

Sunday, June 29th: Philadelphia Phillies vs Atlanta Braves (Ranger Suarez vs Spencer Strider)

The Phillies currently lead the NL East by a slim margin and will look to increase their lead this weekend as they take on the Atlanta Braves and Spencer Strider. Strider is still trying to get back on track as he’s not been as dominant as usual since returning from Tommy John surgery. Ranger Suarez on the other hand has been great with a 2.08 ERA and a 6-2 record. The Braves don’t look the same this year and even with getting Acuna and Strider back, they haven’t played well this season and are nearly 10 games back in the NL East.

Wednesday June 25, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3957

o's minor league player of the week

It’s time to highlight the O’s farm system a little bit and announce our DMD Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Week.

This week, there were several worthy candidates down on the farm, but the ultimate selection belongs to the Orioles’ top-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, C Samuel Basallo.

Basallo, 20, had another terrific week for the AAA Norfolk Tides, hitting .333 (6-18) with two doubles, a home run, four RBI and four runs scored over five games played. In addition, he also walked three times and posted a .429 OBP and 1.040 OPS for the week.

The week was simply a continuation of a wonderful season that Basallo is putting together for the Tides. Over 48 games this season, Basallo is putting up terrific numbers. He is hitting .271 with 15 home runs, 34 RBI and 33 runs scored. He has also drawn 28 free passes against 46 strikeouts. Overall, he is sporting a very nice .378 OBP and a robust .968 OPS.

Signed as an international free agent in 2021 out of the Dominican Republic, Basallo is the unanimous top prospect in the Orioles’ system, but the biggest question surrounding him isn’t his bat, it’s whether or not he can handle the catching workload of the big leagues.

Thus far this season, he has played 16 games behind the plate, 12 games at first base and has served as the designated hitter for 18 games. Needing to work on his defense behind the dish, more specifically blocking, the more time he can get behind the plate the better and seeing him catch in three of the five games he played in this week is promising.

Obviously, it was only a matter of time before Basallo received our nod as DMD Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Week, but this week’s selection also coincides with a troubled catching situation in Baltimore.

As all O’s fans know, Adley Rutschman is currently on the IL and is not expected back until after the All-Star break. In addition, Maverick Handley is also currently out on the 7-day concussion list leaving Chadwick Tromp serving as Gary Sanchez’s back-up behind the dish.

We know the fans are pushing for a Basallo promotion to the show, and I do believe that call will likely come at some point this season, but not quite yet. Should Rutschman end up missing even more time after the break and the O’s battle their way into a playoff push, that call may come before rosters expand later this summer for Basallo.

This contribution for today's edition of "Happy Hour" was provided by Josh Michael.

Answers to the 5 baseball events from today's edition of #DMD.

1. On June 25, 1976, Toby Harrah played all 18 innings of a doubleheader for the Texas Rangers and did not have one fielding chance in either game at shortstop. That was never done before June 25, 1976, and it has never been done since, either.

2. Rafael Palmeiro was a great hitter, of course, but he didn't drive in 10 runs in a game, ever.

3. Mark Teixeira had three consecutive doubles twice in his career, but never had four consecutive doubles in one game.

4. Alex Bregman has been involved in three triple plays in his career but never participated in two in the same game.

5. On June 25, 2021, in New York, Aaron Nola of the Phillies tied the MLB record held by Tom Seaver by striking out 10 consecutive batters.

---

weird stuff has happened on june 25

Don't ask me how I discovered this stuff.

I mean, you can ask me. It's just that it's not top secret or anything. The internet, you know, can tell you just about everything you need to know.

Now, if you want to play along with this today, you have to vow not to go to Google for the answers.

Please.

Don't Google these answers. Play along and see if you can figure out which two of the five moments below didn't happen on June 25.

Editor's note: You wanna have some fun this morning or you want me to lament and break down how the O's threw away a game they had in the palm of their hand last night?

Fun wins out.

OK, so here goes.

I'm going to give you these five baseball moments, all of which occurred on June 25. Two of them are true. Three of them are not. You just figure out which three are not true.

June 25, 1976-- Toby Harrah of the Texas Rangers plays both ends of a doubleheader against Boston and in those 18 innings he does not field one ground ball or fly ball. It's the only time in Major League history a shortstop played both games (full) of a doubleheader without a fielding chance.

June 25, 1988 -- Rafael Palmeiro of the Cubs accomplishes something that was never done before that date and hasn't been done since that date. In four consecutive at-bats, he knocked in one run with a single, two runs with a double, three runs with a triple and four runs with a grand slam in Chicago's 20-3 win over Pittsburgh. The 10 RBI are 2 short of the all-time single-game record.

June 25, 2010 -- Mark Teixeira of the Yankees hits four consecutive doubles in New York's 11-9 win over Cleveland. No player before or after has hit four consecutive doubles in the same game.

June 25, 2018 -- Alex Bregman of the Astros starts a triple play in the field in the 4th inning, then lines into a triple play at the plate in the 7th inning, becoming the only player in MLB history to be involved in two triple plays in the same game.

June 25, 2021 -- Aaron Nola of the Phillies ties Tom Seaver's 51-year old record by striking out 10 consecutive New York Mets in a 2-1 loss in New York.

No Google.

As they say at Ravens games, "Don't be a jerk" and use Google to spoil the fun for yourself.

Throw your answers into the Comments section. I'll post the two that are true and three that aren't in "Happy Hour" later on today, along with Josh Michaels' "O's Minor Leaguer of the Week" as well.

---

OK, we won't ignore what happened last night. We want to act like it didn't happen, but we can't.

It was bizarro-night at the ballpark.

The O's were getting no-hit by some dude you've never heard of for six innings. All you need to know about Jacob Latz is that he throws left-handed. Now you know why the Birds couldn't get a hit for six innings.

Anyway, Ramon Laureano finally scratched out a hit in the 7th. No-no is gone-gone.

Twelve minutes later, the O's had erased a 4-0 deficit with three straight home runs from Sanchez, Urias and O'Hearn to take a 5-4 lead.

Ballgame, right?

Wrong.

In the 8th, Gregory Soto couldn't hold a base runner to save his life and Gary Sanchez couldn't throw one out for a million bucks and the Rangers turned a walk and two stolen bases into a sac fly and a 5-5 tie.

Seranthony Dominguez then gave up the game-winning run in the 10th with the aid of two wild pitches.

The Birds had the tying run at 3rd with one out in the 10th but Carlson (strike out) and Holliday (fly out) couldn't produce the big hit at the right time.

It's worth mentioning, I guess, that the Rangers stink. They're 39-41 and pretty much treading water in the A.L. West. And, yes, I know the O's record is worse than 39-41. But Texas is a lousy team.

Anyway...

That's three games in less than a week the O's have given away after having it all but wrapped up. Last Wednesday they led the Rays, 8-0, but squandered that advantage on the way to a stunning 12-8 loss.

Sunday in New York, they led the Yankees, 2-1, in the bottom of the 8th, but couldn't hold on from there while losing, 4-2.

And then last night they were 87% favorites to win after taking the lead, 5-4, but couldn't get the job done.

Last night's loss dropped the Birds to 34-45.

Reverse those three games, just for fun, and the Birds are 37-42 and five games under .500 instead of 34-45 and 11 games under .500.

You'll recall I've been pressing the Birds to be 48-52 at the 100-game mark if they hope to be buyers at the trade deadline. They've now played 79 games. In order to get to 48-52, they need to go 14-7 over the next 21 games. It's not looking good, is it?

---

I enjoyed Mark Suchy's trip down "caddie memory lane" yesterday in our "Happy Hour" feature. I also caddied at Caves Valley for two summers about 20 years ago when I was battling some elbow issues and wanted to stay around the game while I rehabbed my injury.

In those days at Caves, caddies couldn't wear shorts (they can now) or sunglasses (they can now) and couldn't accept post-round tips (they can now).

Now, I'll be the first to say the no-tipping rule was mostly followed. I'll leave it at that.

I remember looping in a foursome of a group of guys who were in town from upstate New York. I got their bag(s) for two straight days and had the same two guys (I specifically remember one of them was "Marco", but I don't recall the other name) for 36 holes, which was kind of fun.

When you get the same bag two straight days, you get to know their personalities and their games. It's a much easier second round when you get someone you had the day before.

In those days, the nines were reversed from the way they are routed in 2025. On day one, standing by the clubhouse waiting to walk down to the first tee, Marco handed me a couple of his clubs from the practice facility and I started to clean them off.

"There's going to be some big money on the line over the next two days," he said to me. "If we win these two matches, you will benefit from it."

Nothing else needed to be said. This was going to be serious golf and "my guys" needed help to win. And if I helped, I'd get a little something extra.

On day one, Marco and his friend who teamed up together won the match 3-up after 18. As we walked to the clubhouse, one of the guys who lost said, "Double it tomorrow?"

Marco quickly agreed.

On the 3rd hole (what is now #12) the next day, one of the guys in the foursome who was playing against Marco and my other player took what I thought was a suspicious drop after hitting his 2nd shot into the water.

"What happened there?" Marco said to me as I came over to help him with his shot.

"Hosel rocket," I said. "He's in the water. But I don't think his drop is in the right place."

Editor's note: "Hosel rocket" is another way of describing a shank without saying the word "shank". No one says "shank" out loud.

I looked over to see his opponent standing near the water's edge about 100 yards from the green instead of 160 yards or so out, where I thought his ball entered the (then called) hazard.

"That cheating f**k," Marco said.

He hit a bad shot short of the green and barked over to his opponent.

"Hey! Your drop is back here!" Marco yelled as he pointed back to a spot about 50 yards or so from where he was standing.

His opponent was unfazed. He played a wedge from where he originally (incorrectly) dropped the ball, and, as fate would have it, rolled in an improbable 15 foot par putt a few minutes later. Marco failed to get his ball up and down from the front of the green and he lost the hole to a par.

On the 4th tee, a heated discussion ensued. Marco accused the other guy of cheating. The other guy brought up some story from months earlier when they played together at Winged Foot.

And then the other guy said, "It's not about the money. What do I care about a hundred dollars a hole?"

"Then make it two hundred," Marco said.

"Make it five hundred," the other guy snapped back.

"Done deal," Marco said.

It was very tense for the rest of the day.

Marco made a lengthy putt on the 17th green (now #8) to go 1-up and plus $500 in the match.

"Double it on this hole?" his friend in the other twosome said as we walked from 17 green to 18 tee.

"Of course," Marco said without breaking stride.

At 18, Marco hit his tee ball into the left fairway bunker. We walked up to his ball together and it was nestled down in the sand a bit. It certainly wasn't a fried egg or anything like that, but it was far from a great lie. And it was also fairly close to the front lip of the trap. In my somewhat expert opinion, I quickly surmised there was no way Marco could get the ball on the green from that position in the bunker.

I took the other bag over to the right side of the fairway to help Marco's playing partner, who had not been much of a factor all afternoon.

By pure accident, and for reasons I don't know, I turned around casually to see if Marco had hit his shot yet and when I wheeled around, he was at the top of his backswing.

Except he wasn't anywhere near the front of the trap. He was in the middle of it.

I assumed he had hit a shot already that deflected off the lip and went backwards in the bunker. There was no other explanation for Marco's position in the trap. Well, there was one other explanation. He had moved his ball. But I knew that didn't happen.

Marco made great contact with his shot from the fairway bunker and came up just short of the green.

I helped his teammate with his shot, then walked over to Marco to collect his club and clean it off.

"Nice shot," I said. "You there in two or three?"

Marco shot me a look.

"I'm there in two," he said.

I didn't say a word. We just kept walking.

I was about 95% sure he wasn't there in two shots. Or, perhaps he had only hit two shots, but he didn't hit his second one from the original location of the ball in the bunker. I wasn't 95% sure of that. I was 100% sure of it.

"I hit my 6 iron from the bunker to here," Marco said as I cleaned off his sand wedge.

I didn't respond.

"Are you hitting four?" his playing opponent said.

"No! I'm hitting three," Marco said. "What is it with you guys? He (pointing to me) asked me the same thing back there a minute ago."

"Take it easy," the other guy said. "I just asked you what shot you were hitting. Relax, Marco."

"Don't tell me to relax," Marco said. He shot me a uneasy look that said, "I think you guys know something was weird with that second shot."

I knew at that point Marco had moved his ball.

But I couldn't prove it.

And I was starting to feel like Marco knew that I knew.

Marco's opponent rolled a 50 foot putt about 10 feet past the hole. Marco chipped on nicely to four feet or thereabouts.

The other opponent was out of the hole. Marco's playing partner had about 20 feet for par and he missed.

It was now down to Marco and his playing opponent who questioned him about the number of shots he had taken.

The opponent made his par putt. He slapped his caddie a loud "high five" and produced a huge smile, saying, "Finally made a putt that matters!"

I can still remember to this day that I wanted Marco to miss his putt. If he makes the par putt he winds up winning $500 on the day. Missing it would make the match a tie but would cost Marco $500 overall because he was up $500 after 17 holes and they were playing this hole for $1,000.

I didn't want Marco to win, even though I knew, or assumed, at least, that Marco winning $500 would benefit me in some way.

He rolled it in like Ben Crenshaw.

"Yessssss!" he said rather loudly. I wouldn't classify it as a scream, but it was loud enough to let everyone know it was an important putt in a meaningless (supposedly) game of friendly golf.

As we trudged up the hill from the green, Marco discreetly and smartly walked up behind me and jammed his hand in my right pocket, leaving folded up bills in there at the same time.

"I appreciate what you did for me today," he said, quietly.

He didn't say, "I appreciate you."

Or, "Thanks for the good work out there."

He didn't say, "I enjoyed the last couple of days with you. Next time we're here I'd love to have you caddie for me again."

He said, very specifically, "Thanks for what you did for me..."

I took that as "Thanks for not questioning me in front of those guys about that shot out of the bunker at 18."

Later on, I pulled two $20 bills and a $100 bill out of my pocket. Back then, a $50 tip was a lot. $140 was pretty much what I usually got for carrying two bags over 18 holes from the club.

That was the final straw in my mind. A $140 tip was definitely hush money.

And the remarkable part was the four guys were once again best of friends by the time we reached the bag drop and I headed off to the parking lot and they retreated to the bar for a post-round beverage.

"That was a great putt there on 18," one of the defeated two said with a slap on Marco's back.

"I needed that!" Marco replied. "I'm still hurting from what you guys did to me at the member-guest. I had to take my kid out of college!"

They all laughed and wandered off.

I've always wondered what really happened that day. I think I know. I'm pretty sure I know.

Marco wanted to win so bad he moved his ball 10 or 15 feet back in the bunker to give himself a better shot. He did it so quickly and creatively that no one but me noticed it at all.

I've always wondered, too, about that comment he made to me as we walked back to the clubhouse.

I think he knew that I knew.

---

We're at 93.5% in our DMD2.0 campaign. We had a slow Monday. I'm blaming it on the heat.

I'm going to take a respite from the project today and tackle it with more energy tomorrow.

By now, you know what's going on. We're asking you to consider a one-time contribution of $48 to #DMD.

Your $48 contribution is our answer to a paywall, like the one you see at ESPN+ or the Baltimore Sun, for example. Rather than ding your credit card every month for $4.99, I'm asking you to just give me $2.00 a month up front for the 24 months.

So, if you haven't yet done it, will you contribute today, please?

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Tuesday June 24, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3956

Jump in the Wayback Machine with me, and let’s journey to the Spring of 1991.

I was what some people might call a rather itinerant worker (aka irresponsible, unreliable, lazy, etc.). The causes and conditions that made me that way are another story for another venue, but that’s just how I was.

I was hanging out at one of my usual watering holes when a guy walked in wearing khakis and a red t-shirt that had a small white inscription on it. It read Caves Valley Caddie. My interest was piqued, as I was recently unemployed again.

We struck up a casual and friendly conversation, and I inquired about his shirt. Did he work there? He said he did, and he said the club had recently opened and that they were looking for more caddies.

This is where I have to admit that I’m a rather poor golfer. I really had no exposure to the game until after high school. I spent one summer on the grounds crew at Towson Golf and Country Club, and we were allowed to play the course on Monday evenings. That was where I played my first full 18 holes.

My lack of ability didn’t diminish my appreciation of the game. And like many rank amateurs, I would hit the occasional good shot that would make me understand why people could fall in love with the game.

I asked my new friend if there were any requirements about playing ability for caddies, and he assured me there weren’t. He told me that as long as I had an understanding of the basic rules and an ability to carry two bags for 18 holes, I would probably get the job.

The next day I was in the caddymaster’s office. It turned out that we had actually played some high school basketball against each other. We made some small talk and the next day I was standing on the first tee, following a group and training under one of the more experienced caddies.

Thus began the first job I ever truly loved. For the next two years, I took as many loops as I could get. There were many days when I carried two bags for 36 holes. The money was good and I was in great shape. Plus, I was outside, enjoying one of the finest golf courses imaginable.

As time went along, I came to know that course intimately. I might be a bad golfer, but I was a solid caddie. I knew the contours and breaks of the greens. I knew what the best line of approach was off the tee. I could look at where a tee shot landed and know almost the exact yardage for the second shot.

There were plenty of good players, most of them members. There were lots of hackers, out on a corporate outing, nervous about playing in front of some stranger carrying their bag. Those were the people I could relate to. I’d assure them that I was a bad golfer too, and to just relax and enjoy the beauty of the course. I wouldn’t judge them at all.

It’s funny how there are still moments I can remember all these years later.

There was the low-handicapper who had a bit of an arrogant attitude and was basically ignoring whatever little advice I gave him. He didn’t ask frequently, and I didn’t offer. By the 6th hole, he was already visibly upset with his play. He must’ve been 5 or 6 over at that point, which was well below what he claimed his standards to be.

He had a 15-footer for birdie on the 6th green. He walked around, studying every possible angle. I had seen this putt plenty of times before. While your eyes told you it was left-to-right, the opposite was actually true. When he finally asked for my input, I told him that.

This led to a lengthy debate with him telling me that I didn’t know anything about golf or this course. So, he struck his putt on his line, and when it broke right-to-left and he missed by 3 feet, he finally acknowledged that he should probably listen to my advice moving forward. I just smiled as I picked up his bag.

There was the first Member’s Championship in October of 1991. I was particularly pleased to be requested by (name withheld) to caddie for him. I’d looped for this gentleman on several evenings, when he’d come out by himself and tee off around 5 p.m. or so and we’d speed around the course before darkness settled in.

The format was match play, and in the opening round, (name withheld) pulled off something I’ve never seen duplicated in any round of golf, before or after.

On the sixth tee, he striped a beautiful drive down the center-right side of the fairway. His opponent hit a nice shot, and was slightly behind us in the fairway. He proceeded to hit a pretty second shot to the center of the green.

(Name withheld) had about 145 yards or so to the flag, as memory serves. He pulled an 8 iron and hit it perfectly, so perfectly that it took one bounce on the green, turned right, and disappeared into the hole for eagle.

I was stunned and amazed and thrilled. This was the first time I’d ever seen anyone hole out a shot from so far away. After some high-fiving and laughs, we retrieved his ball and went to the seventh tee.

My player proceeded to birdie the par 5 seventh hole and the par 3 eighth hole to take a commanding advantage. We were brimming with confidence as we made the turn.

On the tenth hole, (name redacted) hit a perfect drive down the center, leaving a pitching wedge into the green from about 110 yards away.

He hit a high-arcing wedge right to the middle of the green. The ball bit and spun left, catching the break perfectly. We had an ideal vantage point to watch it roll, almost like a perfectly struck putt, 20 feet or so, dead into the center of the cup.

Yep, that’s right. Two eagles from the fairway in five holes.

My player closed out that match soon thereafter. Unfortunately, we lost in the next round. It would’ve been cool to caddie for the very first club champion, but alas. Golf is funny like that, I suppose.

I spent some time this morning taking the aerial tour of the golf course on the Caves Valley website. I haven’t set foot on the property since 1994, and a lot has changed over those thirty-plus years. The nines have been flipped, for one thing, so that instantly confuses my memory of the place.

But the spectacular beauty of Caves Valley remains unchanged. The woods, the hills, the elevation changes, the attention to detail, all of that is still at its core. What the founders envisioned has become the reality.

I still play an occasional round of golf. I’m not any good, but that doesn’t bother me in the least. I live close to Greystone Golf Course, and sometimes, on a random Monday evening, my oldest son and I will go walk on around 6 p.m. and play 9 holes and get a bite afterwards.

Greystone is a difficult course for hacks like us. But there are some views on the back nine as sunset approaches that make me remember how I came to appreciate being on a golf course on a beautiful summer evening. That appreciation began at Caves Valley.

As I root around in the pockets of my golf bag, searching for tees and markers, I always look for my Caves Valley ball repair tool. I remember grabbing one for a keepsake all those years ago. It’s silver, with their distinctive logo etched on the face.

I’ll put that tool in my front left pocket and remember the millions of steps I took around that course in 1991 and 1992. I learned an awful lot about golf and golf etiquette and the rules of the game at Caves Valley.

Best of all, I learned something about myself and about integrity and the simple value in just showing up every day. Golf is funny that way. It teaches you things and you don’t realize it while it’s happening.

I’m still waiting to see another eagle from the fairway, though.

This "Happy Hour" contribution was provided by Mark Suchy.

---

crazier things have happened

OK, so this little exercise requires the help of someone in the same room as you.

Trust me, it will be fun. And it will take a grand total of about 10 seconds.

Just nudge them and say, "Hey, can you read something to me? It will take 10 seconds of your time."

They'll think you're crazy. Just repeat it again. "Seriously, I want you to read something to me. It will take 10 seconds."

And then let them read the snippet below while you lay back in your favorite chair and close your eyes. You'll have to do a little imagining of the setting that you're in. Maybe throw on a lightweight jacket or a hoodie, even.

If you really want to set the stage the right way, make yourself a hot chocolate and sip on that as well.

Now, imagine that on this night you're dreaming of, you're up in New York. Not, not in the Bronx. You're in Queens. The Mets are hosting Game 1 of the World Series.

Say what you will about New York and all. And it has its warts for sure. But it's also a place where sporting events take on new life when teams from the Big Apple are involved.

The World Series is special. Always.

But the World Series in New York? Incredibly special.

OK, are you comfortable in your chair? Hoodie on? Hot chocolate in your hand?

Let's put your friend to work.

Lay back in the chair, get comfortable, and imagine you're out on your deck or patio with a few friends and you're watching Game 1 together this October.

And, now, have your friend read this to you in their best Joe Buck voice:

"Welcome to Game 1 of the World Series here on FOX. We think we have a doozy of a series on tap for you and we most certainly have an unforgettable storyline for tonight's series opener.

Trevor Rogers was an afterthought in Baltimore heading into the 2025 campaign. After being acquired last July by the Orioles, he was quickly banished to the minors after a series of unsettling starts and didn't even make it north to Baltimore to start the 2025 regular season.

But by mid-June, Rogers was back up with the big league club after a rash of pitching injuries and once he was in Baltimore, he never looked back. Rogers compiled a 10-3 record for the O's in 18 starts over the last half of the season and produced a sparkling 2.74 ERA in 107 innings pitched.

He became the catalyst for the Baltimore resurgence after the All-Star break and was brilliant in two starts in the ALCS, shutting out the Yankees in Game 2 in New York and then tossing a 4-hit masterpiece in the Game 6 win over New York last Thursday night that sent the Orioles to their first World Series since 1983.

Settle in, folks, and get ready for a great night of baseball here in Queens. The first pitch is just minutes away."

I know you're probably laughing.

Your friend definitely thinks you're nuts.

Both of you most certainly think I've lost my mind.

Dream a little. It won't hurt you.

---

I've played golf in a lot of hot weather in my life. We all have our idea of what "hot" is, I suppose. To me, anything in the upper 90's is hot.

It's akin to a baseball being thrown. 92 is fast. 95 is really fast. And 100 is, like, WOW!, fast.

92 degrees outside is hot, but it's not uncomfortable.

95 is really hot and can wear you down pretty quick.

100...now that's really hot.

I don't mind hot weather. For golf purposes, at least, I'd always rather play when it's 97 as opposed to, say, 37, which is the general temperature in March when my high school team gets out on the course and starts practicing.

"It's an outdoor sport," I say to them all the time when there's a mild complaint about playing in the cold.

I probably repeated that line 20 times yesterday at the BMW Championship Media Day at Caves Valley.

"I can't believe we're going out to play in this," a friend said as we gulped down waters and iced teas before venturing out to the course.

"Eh, it's an outdoor sport. Just drink lots of water. Like 4 or 5 times more than you think you should. And you'll be fine," I said.

Now that's not to say that everyone enjoys playing in those kind of temperatures. Yesterday's weather was similar to the weather in Omaha the week of the U.S. Senior Open I played back in 2021. It was 100 degrees nearly every day out there, all week, and several established Champions Tour players showed up on Monday or Tuesday for their practice round, walked 9 holes, and immediately withdrew from the tournament.

Yesterday was not an afternoon for the meek of heart.

Patrick Cantlay, who won the '21 BMW at Caves, joined us via ZOOM for a 15-minute Q&A with NBC's Jimmy Roberts, who served as the day's media host.

Denny McCarthy was brought in for a live Q&A about the BMW Championship. The Maryland native fielded questions about the course and returning to the Baltimore area to compete for one of golf's most prestigious non-major titles.

Local political officials were on hand to discuss the economic impact the tournament generates for the greater Baltimore area.

And officials from the Western Golf Association were on hand to enlighten everyone about their outstanding Evans Scholars program that sends high school age caddies to the college of their choice. In 2025, the Evans Scholars program -- which receives a large portion of the net proceeds from the BMW Championship in August -- will send 1185 kids to college who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it.

The golf tournament is a huge "win" for our area and the state of Maryland as a whole.

As for the course, they are probably 25% of the way finished in setting up the sky boxes and concession stands. It was interesting to see the property in its "developmental" stage yesterday. Workers, trucks, equipment. It was totally cool to see it all unfolding right in front of you.

The golf course itself? Remarkable. Beyond outstanding. But then again, I've probably played Caves Valley 40 times and I don't think I've ever seen a blade of grass out of place.

They have changed a number of green complexes and re-structured the 5th hole entirely (old #14). Holes #2 and #12 are normally par 5 holes that will play as par 4's for the 50 PGA Tour players who make the field at the BMW. That change was made in an effort to get the scoring down from the crazy 27 under par total that Cantlay and DeChambeau shot back in 2021.

The rough was "up" yesterday, in the 4" range, I'd say. It wasn't quite Oakmont CC rough, but it was still a problem.

This year's scoring will all be about one thing: the weather.

If it's hot and sticky all week and the course dries out and plays first and fast, you might see something in the 16 under par range win the event. If there's some rain throughout the week and the course plays soft and generous, you're going to see 20 under par at the very least, if not a shot or two higher.

You can try anything you want to make these modern golf courses tough. Narrow the fairways, grow the rough, mow the greens down to the wick. Try what you want, but the players are just too good.

We played a very forward set of tees yesterday, so my score was no judge whatsoever. I was 3 over par for the first 12 holes (we started on hole #7) and then I caved in to just goofing around on the greens and trying to stay in the shade more than actually playing golf.

By the time we reached the front nine, my phone said the temperature was 100 on the nose. Had Caves officials come out at that point and said, "You guys wanna call it a day or keep playing?", we would have made it to the clubhouse so fast it would have made Joey Logano proud.

All in all, though, it was a great day. This area deserves a significant PGA Tour event and now we have one. There were some nit-picky but important things that went wrong back in 2021 that are hopefully rectified this time around. Caves Valley is the perfect venue for a championship of the BMW's magnitude.

And, yes, tickets are still available.

---

We managed to make it over the 90% mark yesterday in our DMD2.0 campaign. We had one contributor chip in $201, in fact, which helped us get to a total of 91.2% of our goal with less than a week remaining.

We're trying to get to 99% by next Monday, at which point #DMD reader Ed has vowed he'll kick in the remaining 1% all by himself.

My business consultant, Matt, was "frustrated" (his words) that I didn't "ask the question" yesterday, but I told him I was confident we might be able to get this done without me forced to do that.

So, even today, I'm not asking "the question" that Matt wants me to ask all of you.

I think we should just keep chugging along. We still need 7.8% more contributions to hit that 99% mark. I'm feeling better about it than I did, say on Friday of last week. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's the deal:

I assume by now every single person reading this knows what DMD2.0 is and knows what we're doing. However, on the outside chance that you don't, here's the very quick "skinny" on it all.

In lieu of a paywall here, we're asking you to make a one time contribution of $48, which covers two years of #DMD. It breaks down to 5 cents a day, basically.

For 46 cents a week, you get #DMD "delivered" to you every day.

We've added an afternoon "update feature" called "Happy Hour" which you will see here around 5 pm or so several times a week.

We're adding a regular podcast feature as well, "Live from Parkville", that will air as soon as I get a necessary piece of equipment delivered to my door that was supposed to arrive on Thursday, June 19 but is apparently in Piscataway, New Jersey still. At least that's what the internet tells me. As soon as we get that piece of equipment in (I might drive to Piscataway soon, it would be quicker than getting it delivered, apparently) we'll be starting "Live from Parkville".

And we're working on additional writers to our website, including a return by Dale Williams to cover Maryland basketball this coming season.

Your $48 contribution is our answer to a paywall, like the one you see at ESPN+ or the Baltimore Sun, for example. Rather than ding your credit card every month for $4.99, I'm asking you to just give me $2.00 a month up front for the 24 months.

So, if you haven't yet done it, will you contribute today, please?

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Monday June 23, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3955

captain woods, perhaps?

OK, so with yesterday's win at the Travelers Championship, Keegan Bradley is now officially a viable option to play for the U.S. Ryder Cup team this fall.

That's Captain Keegan Bradley, remember.

I'd personally go as far as saying Bradley is "in". The top 6 in the U.S. standings make it automatically and the next 6 generally get "the most consideration".

Bradley might not be in the top 12 yet (he was 17th before yesterday's win...the updated standings come out later today), but that pretty much doesn't matter now. He's "in" as a captain's pick, if nothing else. Or should be, at least.

Social media lit up on Sunday afternoon with commentary about Bradley's win and the prospects that he'll add himself to the team with one of his picks in late August. Part of that commentary also included the topic of someone else stepping up to serve as the captain of the matches in an effort to allow Bradley to focus on playing against the European team at Bethpage.

A lot of folks in the golf world think Tiger Woods would be the perfect candidate to replace Bradley.

It would be an interesting plot twist for sure. Tiger was rumored to be the heavy favorite to originally be the captain at Bethpage, then shocked the PGA of America with an out-of-nowhere withdrawal last June just a few weeks before they were going to formally announce his captaincy.

Me? I'm not so sure. While I will say that Woods the captain would probably be better than Woods the player, I think the real issue is more about removing Bradley from a spot he seems perfectly capable of handling.

The whole story about Bradley getting the gig was bizarre. He didn't even interview or audition for the role. The PGA of America just called and said, "Hey, you wanna be the captain?"

I didn't think making Bradley the captain was a weird move, but I thought giving him the role without going through the interview process was a strange move indeed. But he's a terrific player, still, and commands the respect of all of the American PGA Tour players.

Keegan as the captain has grown on me over the last six months or so. I think he's the right man for the job.

So, I say just keep Bradley as the captain even if he does wind up playing in the matches. If he feels the need for another assistant captain to help him out, that's great. Add someone, whether it's Tiger or another player of high caliber.

That said, when Tiger Woods wants to be involved in something related to golf, you're never going to find someone in the sport say, "No thanks, Tiger. We don't need your help or your involvement. Maybe next time."

Here's the one reason why Tiger the captain might work. At this point, the only thing left to do is basically pick the additional players and then configure the pairings and motivate the team at Bethpage.

And it would seem those are the nuts and bolts of the captain's job that really interest Tiger anyway.

All of the behind the scenes minutiae of being a captain -- the uniforms, the press responsibilities, the travel plans, team meal planning, making sure the wives have something to and so on -- is probably not something that would have appealed to Tiger. He has people who have people and those folks hire minions to do all of Tiger's daily planning and grunt work.

The last thing Woods wants to do is sit in a board room somewhere and say, "OK, on Friday, I think we should wear gray slacks and a dark blue shirt with a white pullover if it's chilly. And on Saturday evening, I don't want a lot of starches at the dinner. Let's do a nice grilled fish and some fresh vegetables for the boys." That's just not his thing.

But all of that stuff is done now. Uniforms are picked out. Media responsibilities for Ryder Cup week are scheduled already. Travel, team meals, hotel rooms -- all of that is on skates.

So, if Woods did accept the role now, part of the "deal" could, in fact, be that Bradley gets to make captain's picks, still. In the end, if Bradley wanted to add, say, Jordan Spieth or Russell Henley, Tiger would just nod his head in affirmation and say, "Good pick..."

That said, I think Bradley the captain is a better option that Tiger the captain, even if Bradley the captain has to play a match or two before the Sunday singles.

But if Keegan doesn't think he can captain and play, I can see the sensibility in adding a "co-captain", basically, who will run the team hand-in-hand with Bradley.

You could do worse than Tiger for that role, I suppose, but if you're going to add a co-captain, you should think long and hard about that choice.

Oh, and it also stands to reason that just because golf analysts and social media experts chirped about Tiger serving as the team's captain in lieu of Keegan, it doesn't mean he'd actually be interested in assuming the position.

The bigger topic is the one that's now officially in the crosshairs after yesterday's win at the Travelers. Bradley is a very viable "playing captain" option at this point.

The U.S. team is lacking some firepower for sure.

Bradley will make the team better. That's a definite.

But if Keegan can't or doesn't want to captain and play, would Tiger step in and help the American team beat their rivals from Europe in late September?

Tiger at Bethpage? The fans would sure love it.

The American players would probably love it as well.

The Europeans might not care for it, though, which makes it even more attractive to consider.

---

The O's just completed a key 13-game segment of their season at 7-6, losing 2 of 3 to St. Louis, sweeping the Angels, splitting with Tampa Bay and then losing 2 of 3 to the Yankees in New York.

The Birds had Sunday's game in the Bronx in the palm of their hand but couldn't get the game's final six outs, surrendering a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the 8th en-route to a 4-2 loss.

There's not a huge difference between going 8-5 and 7-6 in those games, but it sure would have felt better to win 8 of 13. I always used to tell my golfing friends there's a big difference between a tournament score of 76 and tournament score of 77. I don't know why that it is, but it just "feels" way better to shoot 76 than 77.

Alas, these next 18 are really big if the Birds hope to have a puncher's chance of reaching the All-Star break as potential "buyers" at the trade deadline.

They open with three against Texas at home starting tonight, then host the Rays this weekend for three. It's off to Texas next week for a rematch with the Rangers followed by three at Atlanta. The Birds then finish up with six home games against the Mets (3) and Marlins (3).

At a minimum, the Birds need to go 12-6 in those 18. That would bring them to 45-50 at the break and give them, still, a thought that a second half surge could make things interesting in September.

If they somehow only go 10-8 (or worse) in those 18 games, September probably won't matter much.

This week alone, the Birds need to figure out a way to 5-1 or 4-2. Those are really the only ways they can make a dent in that quest to go 12-6 over the 18-game span.

Editor's note: A 6-0 record would also work this week, but we're trying to be realistic here.

The injury bug continues to plague the team, with Rutschman now on the DL and Jordan Westburg (I know, you can't believe it) suffering a hand injury in New York on Saturday that kept him out of yesterday's game and could sideline him for a game or two of the Texas series.

This week isn't the biggest one of the season for the O's or anything like that, but it's certainly a crucial set of six games. Anything in the 5-1/4-2 range does them well. Anything less than that hurts.

It won't feel like September out there tonight, but it will resemble September, just a little. If you know what I mean.

OK, we're in the final full week of our DMD2.0 project and we're chugging in the direction of our contribution goal. However, another slow day on Sunday has us sitting at 88.7%. If you weren't around over the weekend, #DMD reader Ed has pledged to take care of the final 1% himself if we get to 99% by June 30.

We still contributors to the cause. In my regularly-scheduled call with Matt, our business consultant, on Sunday night, he said, "Now is the time for the real "ask", even though I know you're uncomfortable with it.

We talked about the real "ask" several times before the campaign started because Matt, accurately as always, told me there would come a time when I had to uncomfortably remind the readers of something I probably didn't want to remind them of.

"You have to do the 'ask' on Monday," he told me last night.

Matt won't be happy with me on this, because on the call last night I agreed to do it today.

But I slept on it and I'm not doing it today. And I'll just leave it at that.

That said, I do still need a bunch of you who are regular readers to come through and join the others who have contributed. It would really help us.

I assume by now every single person reading this knows what DMD2.0 is and knows what we're doing. However, on the outside chance that you don't, here's the very quick "skinny" on it all.

In lieu of a paywall here, we're asking you to make a one time contribution of $48, which covers two years of #DMD. It breaks down to 5 cents a day, basically.

For 46 cents a week, you get #DMD "delivered" to you every day.

We've added an afternoon "update feature" called "Happy Hour" which you will see here around 5 pm or so several times a week.

We're adding a regular podcast feature as well, "Live from Parkville", that will air as soon as I get a necessary piece of equipment delivered to my door that was supposed to arrive on Thursday, June 19 but is apparently in Piscataway, New Jersey still. At least that's what the internet tells me. As soon as we get that piece of equipment in (I might drive to Piscataway soon, it would be quicker than getting it delivered, apparently) we'll be starting "Live from Parkville".

And we're working on additional writers to our website, including a return by Dale Williams to cover Maryland basketball this coming season.

Your $48 contribution is our answer to a paywall, like the one you see at ESPN+ or the Baltimore Sun, for example. Rather than ding your credit card every month for $4.99, I'm asking you to just give me $2.00 a month up front for the 24 months.

So, if you haven't yet done it, will you contribute today, please?

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

orioles week in review

Week Record: 3-4

Season Record: 33-44

AL East Standing: 5th 12 GB of NYY, 6.5 GB of WC)

Player of the Week: Colton Cowser - .308 OBP 3 HR 8 RBI 1 SB

The Orioles faced a challenging week against division rivals, splitting a four-game set in Tampa Bay before dropping two of three to the division leading Yankees. The O’s showed flashes of promise but ultimately battled inconsistency.

The uneven week keeps them at the bottom of the AL East, now twelve games behind the Yankees and 6.5 games out of the Wild Card, with nine teams ahead of them.

Despite the returns of Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg, the injury woes continued with Adley Rutschman being shut down until at least the All-Star break with an oblique injury and Westburg forced out again with an injury to his hand from diving into second base.

The week started poorly as Zach Eflin was hit hard last Monday by his former team, giving up seven runs on twelve hits over five innings. Tampa’s Ryan Pepiot struck out 11 Orioles over eight dominant innings, allowing just four hits. Rutschman provided Baltimore’s lone run with a solo homer in the eighth in the 7-1 loss.

On Tuesday, Dean Kremer posted a solid outing, allowing just one run in five innings before the bullpen delivered four shutout innings. Colton Cowser broke a 1-1 tie with a 5th inning homer, while Jordan Westburg went 3-for-5. Félix Bautista earned his 15th save, ensuring the victory.

The O’s looked set to build on that momentum Wednesday when they jumped out to an early 8-0 lead. However, that only set up a devastating collapse, with Trevor Rogers coming apart in the third inning and the bullpen igniting as Tampa Bay staged the largest comeback in MLB this season with 12 unanswered runs. Cowser homered again and Gunnar Henderson doubled in a run, but it wasn't enough as the Rays stormed back for a stunning 12-8 win.

Cowser's hot streak continued on Thursday as he delivered a clutch three-run homer to break a 1-1 tie in the sixth. Charlie Morton continued his impressive turnaround, holding Tampa Bay to one run over six innings. Bryan Baker escaped a critical bases-loaded jam in the eighth before Bautista secured the save, securing a series split.

The Birds opened their weekend series at Yankee Stadium by handing New York ace Max Fried a rare defeat. The O’s took an early 2-0 lead before the Yankees stormed back, going up 3-2 on an Aaron Judge homer. Then Coby Mayo drove in the tying run and Ramón Urías added insurance with a solo homer before Gunnar Henderson drove in one more for a 5-3 win. Felix Bautista locked down his 16th save with a one-two-three final inning.

The Yankees struck back emphatically on Saturday, shutting out Baltimore behind Clarke Schmidt’s seven no-hit innings. The Orioles offense managed just one hit on the day and Zach Eflin struggled again, allowing six runs on ten hits in just three innings in the 9-0 loss.

In the rubber match on Sunday the O’s again let a late lead slip away. Ryan O’Hearn and Colton Cowser delivered early RBI hits, giving Baltimore a 2-0 advantage. Dean Kremer kept the lead intact with another solid 5.2 inning outing, but Bryan Baker surrendered a decisive two-run double to Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the 8th and the Yankees bullpen closed out the 4-2 win, sending Baltimore home with a series loss.

Despite the losing week there were several candidates for Player of the Week.

Gunnar Henderson got on base at a .500 rate this week, drawing six walks and a hit by pitch.

On the mound, Dean Kremer delivered two solid starts, amassing 10.2 innings with just two earned runs with eleven strikeouts and just three walks.

Charlie Morton continued his strong recent form with another strong start as well, throwing six one-run innings with seven strikeouts and no walks.

Felix Bautista looked in vintage form earning two saves with three shutout innings and five strikeouts.

But, the honor this week goes to Colton Cowser, who has bolstered the offense since his return from injury. This week he got on base at a .308 clip, hitting three clutch home runs and driving in eight.

Down on the Farm:

The Norfolk Tides split their six-game series in Memphis, ending the first half at 30-43. Outfielder Dylan Beavers had another strong week, extended his on-base streak to 18 games, while reaching base at a .500 rate with two homers and four RBI. Samuel Basallo continued his power surge, slugging his team-best 15th homer while batting .333 on the week.

On the mound, Brandon Young returned from injury with five strong innings in a Friday victory, allowing one run with five strikeouts and zero walks. Chayce McDermott also delivered a decent five innings as he builds back up, limiting Memphis to one run on four hits with four strikeouts and four walks.

AA Chesapeake endured a 2-4 road series against Erie. Enrique Bradfield Jr. starred in an 11-inning thriller, doubling twice and stealing a base to spark a crucial 6-5 win on Friday. Unfortunately he left Sunday’s game with another injury.

Braxton Bragg had another strong outing after an injury scare, allowing one run over 4.1 innings with five strikeouts to lower his season ERA to 1.30 with 72 Ks in 55.1 innings.

Sunday June 22, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3954

the sunday q and a

OK, I'm going to completely fall on the sword here and just say, "I'm sorry." That's it. Nothing more.

Over the last month, I've probably received 50 e-mails for a typical Q & A here and I just haven't dedicated a day or two to fielding a significant number of those e-mails.

I'm sorry.

But I'm going to try to get a bunch of them answered over the next week or so. Fortunately, some of the e-mails were "evergreen" and are still relevant even now, two or three weeks later. Unfortunately some of them were more pressing, time wise, and wouldn't fit in here now.

Before we get started today, I'd like to give a quick shout-out to #DMD reader "Ed", who e-mailed me yesterday and said, "I'm in for the final 1% of your DMD2.0 project. You only have to get to 99% and I'll pick up the other 1%."

I e-mailed him and let him know how much that 1% would be, just so he had the chance to say, "Wait, I can't do that."

Instead, he said, "That's fine. I'm in for the 1%. You get to 99% and I'll get you that 1% to get you to your 100% goal."

So that was a great Saturday morning e-mail to receive, obviously.

We didn't do much in terms of progress yesterday. It's been a slow few days. We're up to 86.9% now, which leaves us 12.1% shy of the magic 99% mark that Ed referenced in his e-mail.

I'll admit, 12.1% seems pretty easy to get, but then I realize we've barely done 12% over the last 7 days. We're getting down to the nitty-gritty now. I'm hoping to end the campaign on June 30.

So, we're asking you for a $48 contribution to cover the next two years of #DMD.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Bill P. asks -- "Mike Elias at the end of the '25 season. Does he get the axe or will he be brought back for '26?"

DF says -- "Well, I'd lean towards "he's back" for '26, but it's always fair to remember that owners typically want to hire their own people and the David Rubenstein-led ownership group inherited Elias, they didn't hire him.

Some of his return (or not) probably depends on what happens over the next three months. If the O's continue to play improved, decent baseball and finish somewhere around 75-87 or thereabouts, that's probably good enough for Elias to return next season.

Finishing at 75-87 basically means the O's played .500 baseball (or even a little better) in June, July, August and September.

But if they somehow completely throw a shoe and finish at 65-97, then, I don't know, maybe Rubenstein and Company take that opportunity to say, "We're going to bring in our own guy/gal."

Odds? I'd say it's 70% he's back next season and 30% that Elias is not in Baltimore in 2026."

Ramey asks -- "If they made the rough five inches deep everywhere and made the greens as fast as they possibly could and then played the U.S. Open at Mount Pleasant, what would the winning score be?"

DF says -- "28 under par. They'd have a wedge, sand wedge or lob wedge into all 13 of the par 4 holes. Six of those par 4's (#2, #3, #8, #12, #13 and #16) could be driven off the tee with the right ball flight. #2, #8 and #12 might not even require a driver to reach the green off the tee.

Both par 5's could be reached in two shots with an 8 iron or so.

The golf course is just way too short. Heck, they had Oakmont ramped up to 7,400 yards with 5" rough, and they played the final round in the slop, and the winner was still under par.

And, honestly, 28 under par (at Mount Pleasant) might be a few shots too low. It could be more like 32 or 33 under par."

Mike P. asks -- "OK, let's set the stage. You get the call on Thursday night that someone has WD'd from the U.S. Open at Oakmont and they want you to be the playing-marker on Friday. In other words, you get to play the course in tournament condition with fans there, TV cameras on, etc. I know you're an accomplished player. What do you honestly think you would have shot there on Friday of U.S. Open week?"

DF says -- "I think I have a pretty good grasp on this one since I was at Oakmont on Sunday and saw it in all of its glory. And I've also had this exact same (or very similar) conversation with a bunch of my golfing friends over the last week.

I don't see any way I would break 100 unless I drove the ball great and hit, say, 10 of the 14 fairways. If you can hit the fairway at Oakmont off the tee, you have about a 30% chance of making a par (if you're not a PGA Tour player, I'm saying). If you miss the fairway, you have about a 10% chance of making a par.

So, let's pretend you (me) hit 10 of 14 fairways. You'd make, I think, 3 or 4 pars. At the most, you'd make 5. Let's just say 4 pars for sake of discussion.

And I'm saying that as an early 60's guy who doesn't hit it anywhere any longer. If I drive it 270 on a hole, that's a beast of a hit for me these days. 260'ish is more my speed, at best.

If you're someone younger who hits it a decent (280 or more) distance off the tee, your mileage might vary on the number of pars you'd make on the 10 fairways you hit. I'm just saying, basically, that hitting the fairway at Oakmont does not, in any way, guarantee you a par.

On the other 6 holes where you hit the fairway but don't make par, you'd make bogey on three of them and double bogey on three of them. So in those 10 total holes where you hit the fairway, you'd be 9 over par.

On the four holes where you missed the fairway, you're making double-bogey at all four, at a minimum. So you've played 12 holes and you're 17 over par.

I don't think you're making par on any of the four par 3's. I actually think you're likely going to play the four par 3's in 7-over par at a minimum.

That's 24 over par for a score, so far, of 94 on a par-70 course.

And that's pretty much if everything goes right for you off the tee on the 14 non-par-3 holes. If you were driving it all over the place, you'd be in big trouble.

This is all a short way of saying you'd be a huge underdog to break 95 there if you're a 3 handicap or less. Anything in the 80's would be remarkable golf. Anything in the 90's would be outstanding.

The over/under I'd be comfortable with, gambling wise, would be 102.5.

I'm fairly certain I'd have a great shot at shooting something around 92 if I were driving the ball well that day. But I'm also quite 92 could be a pipe dream. There's always the prospect of a "7" or "8" on a hole to throw you off.

Breaking 100 would be virtually everyone's goal. I think any kind of competent player could cobble together a nine-hole score of something around 45 or so, but they also might bounce back with a 55 or thereabouts on the next nine if something goes wrong off the tee or on the greens."

Dan Wilbright asks -- "DF, tell me how the Ravens don't finally win the whole thing this year? This team is stacked from top to bottom. This has to be their year, right?"

DF says -- "Well, the easiest way they don't win it is Lamar gets hurt. I mean, if he gets hurt in week 7 when they're 6-1, they'll finish 9-8 if they're lucky. And they'd certainly be impacted in a terrible way if something happens to Derrick Henry as well. If two or three receivers get hurt, they're also in trouble.

In short, injuries are the easiest way for them to fall short in 2025. That's a no-brainer statement.

But if everyone stays healthy...how do they fall short?

Because they fail to win one game, that's how. They go 14-3, K.C. or Buffalo goes 13-4. Ravens beat (Denver?) in their first playoff game after having the bye. They host K.C. or Buffalo in the AFC title game and -- we've seen this before -- the Ravens play great, make plays, get a few bad flags, fumble when they shouldn't and somehow lose 27-24 on a last second field goal.

I hate to say it, but there's some history starting to build for the Ravens (the Lamar-led Ravens, at least) that suggests they can't win the big one.

I hope that changes this year."

Kathy Z. asks -- "Hi Drew, for the last couple of summers you've given me a playlist of four or five albums to download and take with me for summer tunes at the beach. (I think you know my husband, he's a golf professional in Maryland). We're heading to O.C. the first week of July and I was hoping to get some new tunes from you. In the past you've given me some great tips like Pete Yorn (Love him!), Keane (still listen to that CD all the time), David Gray, the Counting Crows and the Goo Goo Dolls (we saw them in concert last year). So any new music tips for our beach trip would be appreciated! Thanks Drew!"

DF says -- "Hi Kathy, I'm going to go back-of-the-rack for you and see if any of these are "beach hits" for you in 2025. Let's start off with Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy" album. If you're not a Warren Zevon fan, this will turn you into one I think. Everyone knows him for "Werewolves of London", but that's about his 15th best song, honestly. He was very underrated.

This one is 20-plus years old now but it's an amazing album by the Gin Blossoms called "New Miserable Experience". It was their Mona Lisa as a band. Five or six outstanding songs and a bunch of others that were "B sides" and worthy of applause. I don't know how bands like this put together an amazing album and then can't come close to topping it again, but this was the best album ever by The Gin Blossoms.

One more "oldie but goodie" for you would be "In The Blood" by Better Than Ezra. This might not have been quite their Mona Lisa, but it was close. They put out some very good music in addition to this album, but this one got them started and it was a doozy of an album. One of my top 25 favorite albums ever.

Now, for some relatively new stuff that you might like. Royel Otis is a duo from Australia that has an awesome indie, pop sound and would be great "beach music" in my opinion. Think a combination of Ra Ra Riot and The Go Go's. They are relatively new. I think they started recording music in 2019. Try their "Bar and Grill" album. It has their hit, "Oysters In My Pocket" on it plus some other catchy songs. Let me know if you like this one!

Last but certainly not least is Tristan Prettyman. She's from San Diego. Probably been around since 2007 or so. Maybe you've heard of her. Think Joni Mitchell meets Sheryl Crow with a little bit of Carrie Underwood mixed in, maybe. I'd suggest listening to her album "Hello", which is probably close to 20 years old now. The song below, "Madly", is one of the best from that album.

I hope these are all newbies for you or, at the very least, take you back down a good memory lane. Please let me know what you think and enjoy the beach."

Saturday June 21, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3953

By the time August 1 rolls around, I assume Gary Sanchez will be an ex-Oriole.

But we'll always remember June 21, 2025.

If not for Sanchez recording a base hit in the 8th inning earlier today at Yankee Stadium, the O's would have been no-hit today by two New York pitchers.

It's bad enough not being able to get a hit in 7 innings off of Clarke Schmidt. I mean, he's not terrible or anything like that, but he's also not Tarik Skubal, Paul Skenes, et al.

The O's were going through this motions in this one fairly early, trailing 3-0 after two innings and 6-0 after three frames on a sultry summer day in the Bronx.

As the innings moved along, the only remaining drama was the bubbling no-hitter story. Down in order in the 5th, 6th and 7th went the Birds.

When Colton Cowser flew out to end the 7th, "no hitter talk" was officially on.

Thankfully for the Birds, Aaron Boone was more worried about his pitcher's health than a no-no on a Saturday afternoon in late June. He brought in JT Brubaker to start the 8th inning and Sanchez promptly singled to help the Birds avoid a potentially embarrassing evening at the Manhattan steak houses they'll scatter to around 7:00 pm or so.

The final from New York was 9-0. It just wasn't the O's day. Zach Eflin got roasted like a pig at a graduation party, allowing 10 hits and 6 earned runs in three innings. Nothing went right from start to finish.

The only saving grace was the Sanchez single and the fact that the Yankees sorta-kinda stopped trying midway through the game once it was obvious the O's were in Roberto Duran mode.

In football, a 48-7 loss stings, and it dents your ego much differently than does, say, a 17-13 loss. It eats at you for a few days, maybe even until the following Sunday.

In baseball, a 9-0 loss is pretty much the same thing as a 3-2 loss. You didn't score enough runs points...so you move on and play again tomorrow.

At least they didn't get no hit.

Thank you, Gary.

---

is there anything more lame?

Before we get to this morning's topic, we'd be remiss if we didn't tip our collective caps to the battlin' Birds, who used their "punt" lineup against the Yankees last night and still scored more points than them, winning 5-3.

You sorta-kinda knew it was going to be a good night when Gary Sanchez, of all people, came up with a 2-point single in the top of the first inning to haunt his old club. His two hits on the night ballooned his average all the way up to .205, in case you're not a box-score-checker.

And, to be fair, one of the guys in the punt lineup, Gunnar Henderson, did come off the bench and produce a huge 8th inning RBI single to extend his hitting streak to 14 games and finalize the scoring at 5-3. But Henderson, Rutschman and O'Hearn were all non-starters last night against New York's outstanding southpaw, Max Fried.

Fried wasn't his usual Cy Young self, fortunately, and the O's nicked him for those two quick first inning runs before Tomoyuki Sugano gave them right back in the bottom of the first. Sugano also gave up a home run to Aaron Judge in the 3rd inning before leaving the game in the 4th having already thrown 89 pitches and looking like he'd just run 5.6 miles at Army boot camp.

I don't know what Sugano's story is, but there are stories bubbling out of the clubhouse that he might not be the toughest guy on the planet. We'll have to follow that one more as the weather heats up and the games take on added importance.

There was also a bizarre moment in the bottom of the 4th inning when the home plate umpire called New York's D.J. LeMahieu out at the plate on a throw from right field and the Yankees asked for a review. And that review, at least to virtually everyone who saw it, showed LeMahieu was actually safe. That would have given New York a 4-2 lead.

Except somehow the replay official didn't see it the same way everyone else did. "The call on the field stands...the runner is out."

I always say this: I'd much rather have good fortune than bad fortune. But that was really good fortune. Anyway, it was 3-2 until the O's tied it in the 6th on a Coby Mayo point-batted-in single, setting the stage for a 7th inning Ramon Urias homer to the short porch in right that gave the O's a 4-3 lead they wouldn't relinquish.

Sugano's shaky start notwithstanding, Baltimore pitching was excellent on Friday night in the Bronx. Five relief pitchers went 5.1 innings without allowing a run, giving up just 3 hits along the way.

It's "baby steps" time, still. Win a few here and there, lose one or two. Win a few more, lose one. And so on. The O's are continuing to chip away at returning to that .500 mark.

With last night's win, they're now 33-42. There's still a lot of baseball left.

Oh, and I'll go ahead and mention it. The Yankees are mired in a nice, deep June swoon these days. I'd love to see that continue for a couple of more days at the very least.

I can't think of anything more lame in sports -- and I mean that, in all of sports -- than intentionally throwing a baseball at another player.

It's almost becoming a nightly theme in MLB.

On Thursday night in Los Angeles, the Dodgers hit Fernando Tatis Jr. with a pitch. An inning later, San Diego hit Shohei Ohtani with a pitch.

The benches cleared. The managers barked. Tempers flared. No one really wanted to fight. Baseball players are notorious for that, as we all well know.

But instead of fighting, they do something worse. They start throwing at one another.

It happened again last night in Los Angeles in a game involving the Astros and Angels.

You can bet someone from one of those two teams is throwing at someone either tonight or tomorrow in that series.

Give hockey players credit. You slash a guy behind the play or go after the other team's leading scorer with a quick slap across his wrists and you're going to have to fight for your life later on in the game.

When they get mad in the NHL, they fight it out. It's not the greatest look in the world, but, if we're allowed to say this in 2025, it's at least the "manly" thing to do.

Throwing a baseball at another guy -- particularly because it wasn't his fault your player got hit by a pitch -- is, well, we won't say exactly what it is, but it's not the manly thing to do. I'll just leave it at that.

This, you might remember, also happened last year between the Orioles and Yankees and lasted throughout the bulk of the summer.

And the absolute worst part of it all is when teams are forced to speak about it and they go back to the lame, tired take of "Well, they started it by (doing this)....."

"You hit our star player, that's why we threw at you."

"Yeah, but you hit one of our guys last night, remember?"

"Right, we did, but that's because you guys hit our shortstop in the opening game of the series."

"How about when your power hitting first baseman bat flipped after that grand slam the other night? You think we were letting that slide?"

"The only reason he bat flipped was because your pitcher hit him with a pitch in that series we played against you 3 weeks ago. Remember?"

"That's true, but we only did that because you guys threw up and in on us throughout that whole series 3 weeks ago. Remember?"

"Maybe we did. But that's because you guys hit our third baseman back in April."

It's.....exxxhhhhaaauuusstttting.

They're all 14 year olds.

But that's how baseball works.

Everything gets remembered and filed away.

Nothing is ever forgiven. No one can, heaven forbid, "make a mistake".

The Padres-Dodgers feud is going to erupt when those teams meet again in mid-August.

It's been boiling for a couple of years now. The Dodgers are the kings of the west. The Padres are the little brother starving for attention. They had big brother beat last October in the playoffs and then choked away a 2-1 series lead in the NLDS and lost 3 games to 2.

The Dodgers always get the girl. The Padres get left at the altar.

And now, San Diego thinks L.A. is targeting them and their star players and throwing at them.

So the Padres retaliate by going after Shohei, who might be a Top 10 "nicest man on planet Earth", if such a list exists.

It's so lame and tiring, these beanball wars.

Is there anything in sports more lame?

And, no, I'm not counting Stephen A. Smith or the girls in the WNBA trying to hatchet Caitlin Clark every night.

Those two stories stand on their own for other reasons.

---

We had a few friends check in yesterday with contributions to DMD2.0, but we didn't move the needle very much in total. Either way, thanks to guys like D.R. and K.H. for their support, along with a handful of others, including Rick in Charleston S.C. who says he keeps up with Baltimore sports through Drew's Morning Dish.

"I left Roland Park in 2017 to retire down here in Charleston," he wrote yesterday. "I was a listener of your show and followed you when you started the Morning Dish but didn't really read it every day until I moved to S.C."

"It's my first order of business every morning after taking the dog for a quick walk," Rick continued. "I make my coffee and read the Morning Dish. Thanks for keeping it real and giving those of us who escaped to the South a piece of Baltimore every day."

We've now reached 85.8% of our goal, with the campaign hopefully ending on June 30.

In case you just flew in from Pluto and don't know what we're doing, we've been running a "request for support" campaign here throughout June as part of a DMD2.0 "rebirth" if you will, aided by a business consultant we retained to help us navigate through this project.

Our consultant's plan included the implementation of a paywall and a modest monthly contribution of somewhere around $4.00 that would come off of your credit card. If you're a reader of any major newspaper in the country these days, you're likely familiar with the process. You pay a small monthly fee and you're given access to their content.

In the old days, you put a quarter in a machine and retrieved the newspaper out of the box and on you went.

If you did that for 26 days (not counting Sunday), you spent somewhere around $6.00 for your newspaper each month. Eventually, they raised the price to 50 cents a day and you spent $12 a month on the Baltimore Sun.

At some point a decade or more ago, smart folks just said, "We'll only charge you $3.99 a month for the newspaper and it will come right to your computer's inbox."

And so it began, the "paywall era" in our country.

I said "no" to the paywall when our consultant listed it on his "recommendations" e-mail.

I've gotten into too many times here already, so I won't list all of my objections and reasons why I said no. I've always maintained that #DMD would be free, thanks to our great marketing partners, both past and present.

But Matt convinced me a "request for support" would be an acceptable "back up plan".

So, in lieu of asking you to sign up for $4.00 a month for the next 24 months, I'm instead cutting that in half, basically, and asking you for a one-time contribution of $48 for the next two years.

It's that simple.

We're using the "honor system" here.

If you're reading this right now and haven't yet contributed, I'm asking you to do so. That said, I'll never know if you do or don't contribute.

I hope you will, though. Every $48 helps us continue to improve #DMD and provide you with the best Baltimore sports commentary you'll find anywhere on the internet.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Friday June 20, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3952

the worst loss......ever?

I read Mark Suchy's Happy Hour piece yesterday on the O's Wednesday night collapse against the Rays and some reflection on that 30-3 shellacking the Rangers put on the Birds in Baltimore a long time ago.

We often encounter moments and say, "That's the worst......ever."

Or, "that's the best.......ever."

Worst ever.

Best ever.

I don't know exactly how we figure it all out.

It's like these goofs who use the term "instant classic" when it wasn't even a "classic" at all. What's the difference between a "classic" and a "really good game"?

Anyway...

Such's piece got me to thinking last night.

What's the "worst loss" I've ever seen? And I mean, personally. Not on TV. I mean there, in the building, at the stadium, etc.

I've seen my fair share of "big" losses, particularly when I was on the radio from 2002-2014 and had unlimited access to the Orioles (when they willing to let me in to watch) and the Ravens (who were always willing to let me in to watch).

I saw Flacco throw that pick six to Polamalu in Pittsburgh in the 2008 playoffs (played in 2009). I was there. That was a heart breaker. But, as I recall, it was a tough loss and all, but it hardly qualifies as the "worst loss ever" for me.

I was there the next year, too, when the Ravens were up big at the half and choked that game away in the final 30 minutes. That was the night Boldin got hit right in the numbers with a throw near the goal-line and couldn't hang on to it. Anquan Boldin didn't drop many balls thrown his way. I gave him a pass -- no pun intended -- for that faux pas. Bad loss? Sure. Worst loss ever? Not even close.

I was in New England on "Billy Cundiff Night", which some folks in The Land of Pleasant Living also refer to as "Lee Evans Night".

I remember it well. It was painful.

Worst loss ever? No way.

For starters, there was no guarantee the Ravens were going to win even if Cundiff makes that kick to send the game to OT. So that one hardly qualifies as "worst loss ever" material.

I've told this story before about that game but it bears repeating. The end zone where all of that action happened late in the 4th quarter happened right below me in the Gillette Stadium press box. I remember Evans catching that pass from Flacco and taking a step or two and my row of Baltimore media folks letting out an audible yell (totally against the rules) as it looked like the Ravens were going to the Super Bowl. A split second later, the ball was bouncing on the ground and no one knew what happened.

Did Evans spike the ball?

Was it somehow dislodged from his hands?

What just happened?

The pass was ruled incomplete (Man, that was a really close call there. I do think the refs got it right, but it was super-duper close to being a TD) and the Ravens still trailed by three.

Right before Billy Cundiff came on for the three-foot putt that he never misses, like, ever, I got up to run to the bathroom in the press box. We were on the 3rd floor and the bathroom was on the 2nd floor. I remember saying, "I'm going to run down and take a leak and grab a drink and make it back up here before overtime starts."

I started to go downstairs as Cundiff trotted into position for the kick.

For some reason, some weird reason, I said to a co-worker, "You know what...I'm going to just wait here for a second and make sure nothing goofy happens with this kick."

Five seconds later, the ball was in the air and that 3-foot putt that Cundiff never misses was ----- missed.

But what I remember the most about that game wasn't the Lee Evans "drop" (or whatever you want to call it -- I don't really think it was a "drop" but that's just the easiest way to reference it) or Cundiff pull-hooking the game-tying 32-yard field goal attempt.

What I remember vividly was Cundiff standing at his locker with roughly a dozen TV cameras suffocating him and 12 more reporters standing there with the tape recorders and notebooks out, ready to pounce.

"Just let me get dressed and I'll be right with you guys," Cundiff said quietly.

Sam Koch, stationed right next to Cundiff, politely asked a row of reporters to move back and "give the guy some room to breathe".

Finally, Cundiff turned around, finished tying his tie and said, "I'm ready."

I think it was Brent Harris of then Comcast SportsNet who had the nerve (and I mean that in a positive way, not like "he had some nerve asking that") to say, "Billy, what happened on that kick? Can you take us through it? What went wrong?"

And Cundiff never missed a beat. No excuses. No hesitating. "I just missed it," he said. "Everything was fine. Snap was fine, hold was fine. Sam did a great job. I just missed it. I make that kick all the time. Every time. I didn't make that one."

It was an incredible moment of accountability.

"I just missed it. It's all on me," Cundiff said a moment later when another reporter tried to position the question differently in hopes of getting a more analytical response.

"You saw it. I missed it badly to the left. Just didn't hit the kick the way I wanted to. I don't know. But it's on me."

So, while that was certainly maybe the toughest "scene" I've ever witnessed -- personally -- in sports, I don't put that loss up there was the worst one I've ever seen with my own two eyes.

That AFC Championsip loss to the Chiefs in January of 2024 was a tough one to absorb. I mean, we were going to the Super Bowl that year. Until we weren't. Thanks for nuthin', Zay Flowers.

But it wasn't "worst loss ever" material, either.

Some people will reference the 15-6 playoff loss at the hands of the Indianapolis Colts in January of 2007. Now that one certainly gets some heavy consideration from me as a "worst loss ever" candidate. It was really the first time since 1984 that the Colts returned to Baltimore to play a NFL football game that mattered.

Indianapolis had played in Baltimore prior to that, sure. But never in the playoffs. Never with something big on the line.

I remember my friend Kevin Byrne told the scoreboard operator to put "INDY" up there in lights instead of "COLTS". I thought that was a real touch of class from Byrne and the Ravens organization. There was only one "COLTS" and they were the Baltimore Colts, not the Indianapolis Colts.

That Ravens team went 14-2 in 2006. Much like the Ravens in 2023, Baltimore was destined for a trip to the Super Bowl. We were going. No one was beating us.

And then the offense flatlined and Peyton Manning did his thing and Adam Vinateri kicked 5 field goals to eliminate us.

That one was tough. Really tough.

In fairness to the other team in town and their tough nights, the Orioles haven't been good enough in forever for any of their "big" losses to matter all that much.

I was in New York on "Nate McLouth Night" when the O's fell to the Yankees in the 5th and deciding game of the 2012 ALDS.

It was a Chamber of Commerce evening in the Bronx, if those even exist. The weather was perfect. We took the train up from Baltimore, arriving in the late afternoon, just in time for a pre-game beverage or two. Everything was awesome except McLouth's fair-ball-they-ruled-foul and the O's losing to the Yankees.

Worst loss ever? No chance. Great game? Yes. But that was 2012 and the Orioles were just happy to be in the playoffs after what felt like 100 years of October-less baseball.

I was in Camden Yards for all four (yes, four) losses to the Royals in 2014 and 2024. I'm just now realizing the O's have played the Royals twice in the post-season and have yet to beat them. Not once.

Those were tough losses to take, but none of them crushed me.

The Ravens have lost a lot more tough games over the last 20 years or so so because they've routinely been very good on the field.

The Orioles were a league laughingstock for probably 18 of the last 25 years. Expectations for them have been so low over the last two decades that almost no loss impacts our community in a terrible, crushing way.

Which brings me to my "worst loss ever". Granted, this one is very personal to me. It probably means nothing to you, unless you were a Baltimore Blast fan back in the day.

The 1988-89 MISL Championship Series had our Blast "dream team" facing the San Diego Sockers. I call it our "dream team" because two teams went out of business in the summer of 1988 and we picked up some really important pieces to add to an already talented team; Kai Haaskivi, Carl Valentine and Mike Sweeney from Cleveland, along with David Byrne from Minnesota.

We won Game 1 of that series at home, then the Sockers stole Game 2 when Steve Zungul knocked the ball down with his hand before dribbling an overtime game-winner past Scott Manning to even the series at 1-1.

The format back then was 2-3-2, and the Sockers won Game 3 and Game 4 to take a 3-1 series lead. Having already lost to San Diego in the Finals in '82-83 and '84-85, this was going to be the toughest of the three defeats because of the team we had assembled in the off-season.

But in Game 5, with our backs against the wall, we staved off elimination in front of a raucous San Diego Sports Arena crowd, 6-3.

Editor's note: Of all of the wins I ever saw in my 17-year Blast tenure, the Game 5 win in the '88-89 Finals is still my number one. Even bigger then winning the championship in '83-84. Beating the Sockers in their building that night was unreal.

We demolished them in Game 6 at home, shutting out San Diego 7-0.

That set the stage for Game 7. In Baltimore. Demons to be excorcised.

The arena was a madhouse. There was ZERO chance we weren't winning that game. It was our night, finally, at home, and we weren't going to squander it.

In a shocking turn of events, the Sockers built a 6-1 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Then it got fun.

We made it 6-2 early in the quarter.

Then we hit two quick ones a few minutes later to make it 6-3, 6-4. There was still eight minutes left in the game.

Two minutes later, Domenic Mobilo scored again to make it 6-5. The building was on fire. The Sockers were reeling. We were certainly going to tie this game and then either win it late in regulation or in overtime.

Kai Haaskivi hit the crossbar.

Carl Valentine sizzled one just wide of the far post that Rusty Troy narrowly missed tapping in for the tying goal.

We threw everything but the kitchen sink at the Sockers.

But they wouldn't budge.

Final score in Game 7: San Diego 6 - Baltimore 5.

Even though we returned to the Finals the very next year (again, against San Diego, and, yes, losing once again), I always thought we, as a franchise, never really recovered from losing that Game 7 at home in heartbreaking fashion in the 1989-89 playoffs.

It was a little like the Falcons blowing that 28-3 lead in the Super Bowl. That franchise has still not recovered from that fiasco.

I don't know that the Blast franchise (in the MISL days) really ever recovered from failing to win that Game 7 at home.

Without question, that's the worst loss I have ever personally seen.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Such.

---

PGA Tour player Wyndham Clark spoke for the first time since damaging two lockers at Oakmont CC last Friday in the wake of missing the cut at the U.S. Open.

Clark hadn't made himself available this week at the TOUR event in Connecticut, but agreed to speak after his round yesterday.

When asked about the damage in the locker room and his role and comment on it, Clark authored one of the all-time worst apologies in the history of apologies.

"Yeah, I mean, I've had a lot of highs and lows in my career, especially this year...some lows. I made a mistake that I deeply regret. I'm very sorry for what happened," Clark said. "But I'd also like to move on, not only for myself but for Oakmont, for the USGA, and kind of focus on the rest of the year and things that come up."

Let's stop for a second and go back to the PGA Championship in May, where Clark, after hitting a bad drive, wildly threw his club behind him, striking a sponsor sign and nearly hitting a volunteer on the rebound.

Here's what Clark, the 2023 U.S. Open champion, said after that incident: "As professionals, we are expected to remain professional even when frustrated and I unfortunately let my emotions get the best of me. My actions were uncalled for and completely inappropriate, making it clear that I have things I need to work on."

"I promise to better the way I handle my frustrations on the course going forward, and hope you all can forgive me in due time."

OK, so the May incident didn't really teach Clark anything. Except, I guess, it's fair to point out that his emotional theatrics at Oakmont were "private" and not done on the course for all to see.

But, still, that's a flimsy excuse to say the least.

Let's quickly break down his "apology" from Thursday.

"Yeah, I mean I've had a lot of highs and lows in my career especially this year...some lows."

And? Your point is? It's golf. Of course you've had highs and lows. What on earth does that have to do with anything? You mean when you win the U.S. Open everything's great and when you miss the cut at the U.S. Open everything stinks? No s**t, Sherlock.

What does the votality of golf have to do with you wrecking the locker room? Did you mean to say, "I'm a sore loser, if I'm being honest. And when I played poorly on Friday and missed the cut, I couldn't handle it. So I took out my frustrations on two lockers and did some pretty signficant damage to them, which I'm really disappointed about. It's a terrible look for me, both as a professional player and a former U.S. Open champion."

Telling people you've had highs and lows and that's why you snapped? Come on, bro. Come up with something better.

"I made a mistake that I deeply regret."

What mistake? What happened? Did you put a booger on a volunteer's back? Did you call someone working at the driving range a "low life loser" because they gave you Bridgestone balls instead of Titleist balls for your practice session? Tell us what we already know. You damaged two lockers in the locker room. Say it. Please.

"I'm very sorry for what happened."

Again, we'll ask. What, exactly, happened? Why can't you say it?

"But I'd also like to move on..."

I'm sure you would. Of course you would. You'd like to "move on" and not have anyone ask you about the tirade and the damage you caused to one of the most historic locker rooms in American golf.

"But I'd also like to move on, not only for myself but for Oakmont, for the USGA and kind of focus on the rest of the year and things that come up."

You want to move on for Oakmont and the USGA? Why? You think they're embarrassed or something? Neither of them had anything to do with your behavior.

Who wrote that apology for Clark, a 12 year old?

Please tell me it wasn't a real-life "PR firm" that specializes in crisis management.

It was a 12-year old. Right?

"I'd like to move on..."

I'm sure you would.

Hopefully the USGA gives you a week to reflect on it next June when the rest of the players are at Shinnecock and you're "moving on" at your home watching the U.S. Open on TV.

---

We'll still moving along in the final stages of our DMD2.0 campaign. Thursday was another slow day but I'm certainly not losing hope that we're eventually going to reach our goal of 100%.

We're now at 83.9%, which is still something to smile about in my book.

That said, time's running short.

I want to end the "request for support" campaign on June 30. That's a week from this coming Monday.

More than anything, I guess, I want to be right that "my way" of doing this actually proved to be successful.

Is it a little personal for me? Yes. It is.

I've been badgered to start a paywall here for a while now. Nothing significant. Trust me, you wouldn't miss the $3.99 or $4.99 I ask of your credit card every month.

But I've consistently refused to do that. And I'm not doing it, no matter what happens with this campaign. If we wind up at 90%, we wind up at 90%.

That said, I sure would like to get to 100% so I can say "I told you so" to some folks who insist the honor system won't work and a paywall is the way "the business world does it now".

Alas, I've done a little praying on this subject recently. I haven't asked God to help me get to 100%. Instead, I've asked Him to help guide people's hearts in the right direction, whatever that might be.

If you're guided in the direction of helping us with the one-time contribution of $48, I'd be very grateful.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

faith in sports

I have an amazing circle of friends, both near and far. Many of you reading this are personal friends.

With a wide array of friends given their age, interests and locations, it's only natural to have a wide array of beliefs when it comes to faith and the life we live.

I've had a lot of discussions over the years about Jesus. Some of my friends believe in Him, others flat-out don't, and many aren't really sure what to believe. They believe, but only sorta-kinda, if that makes sense.

Most people in general probably fit one of those three categories; believe, don't believe at all, sorta-kinda believe.

I always find a way to show them this video below or at least allow them to hear the testimony of Tim Tebow in order to make a better evaluation about Jesus.

God is very obviously using Tim Tebow for the purpose of spreading the good word here on Earth. Tebow played football at the University of Florida for that reason and that reason alone. Urban Meyer thought he was the reason Tebow decided to go to Florida. Maybe he was, in fact. But Tebow was a football player because God wanted him to be a football player and wanted him, specifically, due to work here on Earth.

If you've never seen the Tebow "316" video, please watch it. I show this once or twice a year here at #DMD. It's an amazing account of Tebow's career and the number "316" and the significance of it. I watch this video at least once a month myself. Sometimes I'll just put it on in the car and listen to it on a long drive.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment here ever Friday.

Thursday June 19, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3951

As I sat transfixed last night, watching in disbelief as the Orioles blew an 8-run second inning lead to the Rays, I kept trying to think of similar collapses I’d seen in my lifetime of following this ballclub.

I was there once upon a time when the Texas Rangers scored a staggering 30 runs in the first game of a doubleheader. One of my more vivid memories of that game was the fact that the Orioles actually led at one point, 3-2.

But they were outscored by 28 the rest of the way. That’s pretty bad. I left sometime around the 4th inning of the second game with the Rangers up by about 7 runs. I’ll bet Dave Trembley wishes he could’ve left. If my memory serves, he was fired the next day, ushering in the Juan Samuel era.

There was a Saturday afternoon game in the Bronx back in 1991 that a few buddies and I ventured up to witness. Sam Horn hit a majestic homer into the rightfield upper deck and the Birds built a 6-run lead. We were letting those Yankees fans have it.

And then Kevin Hickey came on in relief and got absolutely shelled.

I can still see Kevin Maas blasting a Hickey softball out into the bleachers. We made our way to the exit shortly after that, at the urging of some NYPD officers.

But the game that kept coming to mind the most happened on August 6, 1986 at Memorial Stadium.

The Orioles entered that game with a record of 59-47. This was the first full season under Earl Weaver since he had returned in the middle of the ’85 season. It appeared that Orioles Magic was making a renaissance under The Earl of Baltimore’s guidance.

That night, the Rangers had jumped out to a 6-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 4th inning. Third baseman Toby Harrah hit a grand slam in the 2nd inning off of Orioles starter Ken Dixon, and the Rangers had tacked on 2 additional runs.

In the bottom of the 4th inning, the Orioles roared to life. Left fielder Larry Sheets hit a grand slam off of Rangers starter Bobby Witt, and then, incredibly, designated hitter Jim Dwyer hit another grand slam, this one off of Rangers reliever Jeff Russell. The Orioles suddenly had a 9-6 lead.

In the bottom of the 6th inning, the Orioles right fielder, Lee Lacy, hit a 2-run homer off of another Rangers reliever, Mike Mason, to make the lead 11-6. Only 9 outs were needed to get to win number 60 and stay in the thick of the AL East race.

Not so fast, my friends. In the top of the 8th inning, Orioles reliever Rich Bordi surrendered a solo shot to the Rangers third baseman, Steve Buechele.

A few batters later, Texas first baseman Pete O’Brien launched a 3-run homer off Bordi, and it was suddenly a 1-run game. Bordi then allowed back-to-back singles before Weaver mercifully trudged to the mound to pull him.

Nate Snell walked out of the O’s bullpen and promptly allowed a 2-run double to the Rangers DH, Larry Parrish, and suddenly, inexplicably, all of the Orioles Magic that was flowing around the old ballpark had vanished.

The Rangers would tack on a solo run in the top of the 9th to cap off a remarkable 13-11 win. Everyone in Birdland was stunned.

To add a little more insult to the injury of that night, the Orioles would lose again to Texas the following day, 9-8. Thus began a remarkable slide to a 24-40 finish, as the Orioles limped to last place in the old AL East standings, finishing 73-89. Earl Weaver would retire for the second time at the conclusion of that lost campaign.

The point? Baseball is a crazy game.

Every team is subject to the highs and lows that a season brings, and each loss, no matter how disturbing or troubling, counts the exact same at the end of that year.

Some losses hurt more than others, to be sure. But this year’s edition of the Orioles has a chance to respond to that debacle last night and not let it determine the remainder of the season. They were up 8-0 and looking at their chance to get inside of 10 games below .500 for the first time in months.

Now, they have to pick themselves up, dust themselves off, and continue their work. If nothing else, they gave me yet another reason to keep watching the games. That has to count for something, right?

Perhaps it’s best to let Earl Weaver have the final say here about why we love baseball the way we do.

“You can’t sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.”

This edition of "Happy Hour" was contributed by Mark Suchy.

---

blowing an 8 point lead ain't cool

In the 2nd inning of last night's game in Tampa Bay, the Orioles erupted for eight points runs. They hit three homers in the inning.

The two radio guys (I honestly can't keep up with who does what these days, so I really don't know who they were) were giggling and laughing and knee-slapping their way through the whole thing.

Frankly, I even thought it was getting kind of funny as the lead went from 3-0 to 4-0 to 5-0 to, finally, 8-0 on a Ramon Laureano "Earl Weaver Special".

"Maybe we're gonna throw up a 20-spot on these guys tonight," I said to a friend of mine.

Yeah.....well.....not so much.

In fact, after going up 8-0, the Birds couldn't even put up a 9-spot.

The final: Tampa Bay 12 - Baltimore 8.

It was only the third time in team history the Orioles blew an 8-0 lead and lost a game.

To make it even worse, and more bizarre, the O's had a hit in the first inning and six more in the second inning. For Flyers fans who don't have a calculator handy, that's 1+6 = 7 hits. 7 hits in 2 innings.

Take a guess how many hits the Orioles finished with last night?

Go on. Take a guess.

No, not 13.

No, not 10.

They finished with.........7 hits.

That has to be some sort of modern day record for offensive futility. 7 hits and 8 runs in 2 innings. No hits and no runs in the next 7 innings.

Trevor Rogers was gifted an 8-point lead that even Greg Norman couldn't lose. But Rogers didn't make it out of the 3rd inning, giving up 3 runs and throwing 71 pitches in 2.1 innings of work before being graciously lifted by Tony Massimino.

The bullpen wasn't much better than Rogers, sadly.

Scott Blewett wasn't awful, but he gave up a run in the 4th to make it 8-4.

Yennier Cano started the 5th and got lit up like a doobie at a Grateful Dead concert. He gave up four runs to the Rays before Mansarino mercifully removed him from the game.

Seranthony Dominguez actually looked like a pro pitcher in his 1.1 innings of shutout work.

Andrew Kittredge, sadly, didn't look quite like a pro anything in his inning of duty. He got the first two guys out in the bottom of the 7th, then produced a collapse that would make Jean van de Velde shudder in disbelief, allowing four earned points runs on a single, a wild pitch, a walk, and then three more singles.

The O's then crawled into the fetal position in the 8th and 9th innings, going out in rapid-fire order, 1-2-3, to end what really was (is) one of the worst regular season losses in a long, long time.

On Twitter afterwards, I remarked that it wasn't quite as disheartening as the Mother's Day Massacre at Fenway Park, but it was in that neighborhood.

You can lose 24-2 to the Reds and it just "wasn't our day".

You can lose 15-3 to the Yankees and, well, you know, "they're not called the Bronx Bombers for nuthin'".

But when you race out to an 8-0 lead and you can't hold on to it. Come on man, that's amateur hour stuff.

Editor's note: I know it's Tony "Mansolino". I was just poking fun at the dude who got viperish the other day because of a typo and a misspelled name. It's all good. Just having some fun.

Anyway, that was a brutal one to give away last night to the Rays.

You just can't cough up those games that are handed to you on a silver platter in the 2nd inning. That was a win and a 32-41 record that quickly dissolved into a loss and a 31-42 mark. They all add up at the end of the season.

That one, last night, might leave a bruise for a while.

Our DMD2.0 campaign is a little bit like the O's in Tampa Bay last night. In other words, we were up 8-0 early and now we're starting to sputter as the game goes on.

"I mapped this out for you from the beginning to end and it's going almost exactly as I said it would go," our outstanding business consultant, Matt, told me last night during our weekly call to assess the campaign.

He's right. He's almost always right, actually. But he's right. He said we'd go gangbusters at the start and then things would level off and there would be days of very little activity before it picked up again near the end.

Yesterday was our slowest day, contribution wise, since we started our push for support back on June 3rd. We're still doing great overall, at 82.6% of our (hopeful) goal, but we need to "score some runs" between now and June 30 in order to hit our desired number.

"There are people who simply won't contribute for whatever reason," Matt reminded me last night. "Those people you're just not going to reach. But there are also consumers of your product that are on the fence or just haven't supported you yet who will pull the trigger and do it once you hit their hot button. There are a lot of those people in your world at your website."

I guess he's right again.

I don't know how to discover what would motivate you to help support our website here if you haven't done so already. But I'm hoping I can.

If not, we're still friends. But we'd be better friends if you helped with your 5 cents a day contribution. Is that fair to say?

Seriously, we're putting our best foot forward here to make the second full decade of #DMD as good as the first one was, and I hope you do see the value in what we bring each and every day.

As Matt reminded me last night when I was bemoaning a very slow day, contribution wise, "There are a lot of people who love what you do and come to the site every day that won't support you monetarily but they're still going to visit and read and support you in that way. Come to grips with that."

So I'm coming to grips with that.

And, like Matt suggested, I'm now just appealing to those of you who would consider or have considered supporting us with a $48 contribution in lieu of a monthly paywall of $3.00 or $4.00.

If you can support what we're doing here, that would be awesome. We need to do 18% more, roughly, over the last two weeks of the campaign (roughly) to reach our goal.

I hope you all (contributors or not) have enjoyed the "Happy Hour" addition to the site. Thanks to our friends Mark Suchy and Josh Michael for their input thus far. I look forward to seeing more from each of them in the future. And you can be a "Happy Hour" contributor as well if you so choose. E-mail me at 18inarow@gmail.com to discuss how you can have your work presented here at #DMD.

I'll end today's edition with the same question I've asked since Tuesday, June 3rd. We're looking for a one-time $48 contribution, in lieu of a paywall, from anyone who visits #DMD regularly (whatever "regularly" is to you, I suppose).

We're effectively asking you to sign up for a 2-year subscription at $48, but you're on the honor system. If you do it, I know because I see the payment transaction. If you don't do it, I certainly don't know.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

The Red Sox and Rafael Devers saga came to an end on Sunday when Devers was traded to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Kyle Harrison, Jordan Hicks, James Tibbs III (Giants 4th ranked prospect), and Jose Bello.

We were all aware of the situation in Boston involving Devers refusing to play 3rd or 1st base after injuries to Alex Bregman and Tristan Casas. The Red Sox front office appeared to have had enough of this and dealt him to the Giants with a return that raises some eyebrows.

Kyle Harrison was expected to be a 4th or 5th starter in the rotation, however, the Red Sox immediately optioned him to Triple A. Harrison has potential to be good, but I think he averages out as a back of the rotation starter.

Jordan Hicks is a converted starter to middle reliever and has struggled last year and this year, and most likely will be a low leverage arm out of the bullpen.

Outfielder James Tibbs III is the biggest prize from the deal. Tibbs was drafted 13th overall in 2024 and will start off in Double A. Tibbs is now the 6th ranked prospect in Boston’s farm system.

The last player, Jose Bello, was pitching in the Arizona complex league out of the bullpen with a solid 2.00 ERA across 18 innings. At 20 years old in the complex league, he is a couple of years away from possibly being a contributor to the Major League club.

Former longtime catcher and 3-time World Series champion with the Giants, Buster Posey, was named the Giants President of Baseball Operations last fall and has been very active since entering that role.

He brought in big names last offseason with Matt Chapman and Willy Adames, which have solidified the left side of the infield defensively. However, Adames has struggled at the dish this season.

They now get one of the best left-handed bats in baseball with Rafael Devers, which they desperately needed. I’m indifferent on this trade from the Giants perspective.

You get a great bat, no doubt about that, but how will Devers fit in your clubhouse? Devers did say in his introductory press conference that he’s happy to play anywhere the team needs him, which throws more salt in the wound for the Red Sox.

The Giants will also have to eat his entire contract, which is a 10 year, $313.5 million deal which he signed in 2023. That contract and his attitude is what really makes me hesitant on saying this is a slam dunk ”win” for the Giants.

The entire situation was handled poorly by Devers and the Red Sox front office. If you sign Devers, your franchise 3rd baseman, to a 10-year deal, you need to have a conversation with him before bringing in a Gold Glove 3rd baseman in the offseason to take his job.

That being said, Devers acted like a child during the first two months of the season by refusing to play 1st or 3rd base after his teammates went down with injuries. I would imagine his teammates weren’t too upset after hearing he was traded.

Who would want to play with a teammate knowing he doesn’t have your back and won’t stick up for you?

In summary, the Red Sox just cleared a lot of cap space and got some decent players along with one very good prospect while also removing a toxic player from their lineup.

Shohei Ohtani made his first pitching appearance since having right elbow surgery back in September of 2023 this past Monday. Ohtani pitched 1 inning against the Padres and did reasonably well for a guy pitching for the first time in almost two years.

The velocity on his sinker was sitting around 100 MPH which is a good sign, although he did have some command issues with it. Given that Ohtani has only thrown bullpens and simulated innings, this was rated as a good outing for him.

He did give up a run on 2 hits in his inning of work, but he made up for it at the plate that night going 2 for 4 with a double and 2 RBI. Ohtani made his pitching return sooner than many expected, and the Dodgers need starting pitching help.

Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and rookie Roki Sasaki are all on the injured list. That’s $61.6 million of the Dodgers payroll this season on the injured list, which is mainly the Glasnow and Snell contracts.

Getting Ohtani back in the rotation is a huge boost and is probably the only guy in baseball that will go through what is somewhat of a multi-week rehab assignment at the Major League level.

Players of the Week –

Pitcher: Clarke Schmidt of the Yankees was nails this past week, making 2 appearances against the Royals and Angels while not allowing a run. In those 2 appearances, Schmidt pitched 13.2 innings with 10 strikeouts and 3 walks.

Schmidt only recorded 1 win in those 2 starts as the Yankees have been struggling on offense recently. They did get Giancarlo Stanton off the injured list last week, a big bat with lightower power and former MVP back in 2017 with the Marlins. The recent struggles for the Yankees have allowed the Rays, Red Sox, and Blue Jays to creep closer in the AL East.

Position Player: Elly De La Cruz went on a heater this past week for the Reds and had a 4-game homer streakstretching from last Wednesday through Saturday. This past week, along with his 4 homers, he had 7 RBI and a stolen base while also batting .429 in that span.

Cruz is a superstar player and can do it all at a very high level. The bat is no question elite, but I also believe he is a Gold Glove caliber shortstop with his range and the best infield arm in the game.

Cruz has the hardest infield throw in MLB history at 99.8 MPH back in 2023 and more recently he reached 98.3 MPH this season. I think everyone knows from my past posts that I’m pulling for the Reds in the NL Central. The Cincinnati offense is going to have to lean heavily on Cruz to make a run for a wildcard spot.

Rookie: Andy Pages of the LA Dodgers makes another appearance as the Rookie of the Week after batting .381 with 3 homers and 9 RBI. Pages started some drama against the Padres on Monday night after getting hit by a pitch from Dylan Cease and giving him a stare down while still standing in the batter’s box.

For a moment, Pages looked as if he was going to walk towards the mound, but he thought better of it and stayed put. Cease looked back at him with a look on his face that suggests he was probably thinking “who is this guy and who does he think he is?”

Pages got the last laugh on Tuesday night after going 4 for 4 with 2 homers and 3 RBI, which also secured a series win for the Dodgers. To me, Cease didn’t appear to intentionally hit Pages and there really wasn’t anything prior to that episode that would warrant Cease to throw at him.

The drama continued Tuesday as Fernando Tatis Jr of the Padres and Shohei Ohtani of the Dodgers were both hit by pitches, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was ejected from the game right after Ohtani was hit by Randy Vasquez.

This has been a heated rivalry, and the Padres still have a sour taste in their mouth from last postseason after getting eliminated by the Dodgers.

Games of the Week –

Friday, June 20th: Boston Red Sox vs San Francisco Giants (Hunter Dobbins vs Hayden Birdsong)

What are the odds that we get to see Rafael Devers take on his old team this soon after getting traded, especially given the Giants are in the National league?

I can see Devers in the first inning of this game jogging out towards 1st base with a smile on his face looking at Alex Cora and the Red Sox dugout. With everything that’s happened with Devers and the Red Sox this year, this game and series will most likely reach its boiling point which will lead to benches clearing.

Will the Red Sox take the high road and not let Devers antics get to them? I think that’s possible, but for Devers he surely won’t take the high road and be the better man. He’s shown all of us he’s not that type of player.

Saturday, June 21st: New York Mets vs Philadelphia Phillies (Griffin Canning vs Mick Abel)

The Phillies will host the Mets this weekend as they sit a few games back of the Mets in the NL East. Griffin Canning has been a pleasant surprise for the Mets and has a solid 3.80 ERA this season. Mick Abel has been fantastic through 4 starts of his rookie season in Philly with a 2.21 ERA along with 2 wins.

The Phillies can really do some damage this weekend if they pull off a series win or a sweep against the Mets but they will most likely be without Bryce Harper as he’s still on the 10 day Injured List.

Sunday, June 22nd: Detroit Tigers vs Tampa Bay Rays (Casey Mize vs Zack Littell)

I like this pitching matchup and it’ll be interesting to see if the Tigers can outlast the Rays playing outside in Florida in the middle of June. The Rays have a very good young team that will have their hands full with Casey Mize, who has been very good this year with a sub 3 ERA and 7-2 record.

Wednesday June 18, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3950

#dmd orioles minor league player of the week

We are going to take a look at the Orioles’ farm system a little bit as we highlight this week’s selection for the DMD Orioles’ Minor League Player of the Week.

This week, there were several worthy candidates on the farm, but the ultimate selection belongs to the Orioles’ 10th ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, RHP Nestor German.

German, 23 ,has enjoyed a terrific start on the mound for the O’s AA affiliate, the Chesapeake Baysox. During his June 13 start, the 6-foot-3 right hander stifled the Harrisburg Senators’ (Nationals) lineup by tossing six shutout innings, while allowing just one hit, one walk and striking out six. He was fairly efficient, needing just 80 pitches to complete the six frames.

The start marked the second straight shutout performance for German, who tossed 5.2 scoreless frames in his previous start against the Akron RubberDucks (Guardians). In that start, he once again allowed just one hit and one walk, and he also added four punchouts.

German was promoted to AA in the middle of May and in his five starts since that promotion, he has shown why he is ranked as the 10th best prospect in the farm system. Since being promoted to Chesapeake, he has gone 3-2 with a 3.46 ERA with 24 strikeouts over five starts and 26 innings pitched.

In addition, he has held batters to a .201 batting average and a .544 OPS. It’s also worth noting that three of his five starts have seen him not allow an earned run.

The 11th round selection in the 2023 draft out of Seattle University has starter stuff and is quickly showing that his development in the farm system is working. His numbers at Seattle University were nothing to write home about (in three seasons he never produced an ERA under 5.90), but obviously the Orioles’ saw the potential German possessed.

Since being drafted, he has posted a 2.38 ERA over 124.2 innings pitched in his two seasons in the O’s minor leagues.

Today's "Happy Hour" was contributed by Josh Michael.

---

is there still time?

I don't even think I'm being overly optimistic when I ask you to look at the lay of the land in the A.L. East and then follow up with, "This thing is far from over."

The Yankees haven't scored a run in three days.

They even lost on Sunday when Max Fried pitched.

And we know, like always, the injury bag will ravage their lineup at some point this summer.

Tampa Bay is playing (almost) surprisingly well at 40-33, but the O's knocked them off quite easily last night in the 2nd of 4 games in Florida, 5-1. The Rays are 40-33. The Birds are almost the opposite at 31-41.

Toronto is enjoying the fruits of some recent solid play, even if they're not enjoying Anthony Santander up there. The Jays edged Arizona last night, 5-4, to improve to 39-33 on the '25 campaign. I'm not all that worried about them. We know they'll eventually falter under the heat of a playoff chase.

Boston is somehow 39-38 despite themselves. Trading away Devers most certainly was the right thing to do considering they're paying him $313 million and he thinks he can tell them what to do with their lineup, but it also robbed them of one of the few high quality players they had. They'll be well under .500 at the All-Star break and....going....going....gone.

And that brings us to our battlin' Birds, who got a nice 1-point outing from Dean Kremer on Tuesday night and five combined hits from Laureano and Carlson, plus a 3-for-5 night at the plate from Jordan Westburg in the 5-1 victory.

If there was any thought at all about Westburg's importance to the team, you can look back to last August and September when he was out of the lineup and the team's performance dropped off considerably or earlier this season when -- it's a theme, get used to it -- he was also missing in action and the team's performance again plummeted.

Reggie Jackson once called himself "The straw that stirs the drink."

Heck, in Baltimore these days, Jordan Westburg might actually be the drink itself. When he's healthy and playing, the O's are much better for whatever reason. It just is what it is.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying: There's still more than a half-a-season of baseball left. Hang in there.

As I wrote here a few weeks back, even just the battle to get back to .500 and possibly re-join the playoff chase is better than a complete flat-lining and one of those miserable 64-98 seasons that we all remember all too well from 2000 to 2010.

I'll keep using the 100-game mark as the next barometer to keep me interested, at least.

If the O's can get to 48-52 by that 100-game point, they're in the hunt. Sure, they'd still need to go 42-20 over their last 62 games to reach the 90-win mark and (likely) make the playoffs. Admittely, that's fire-hot baseball over the last two-and-a-half months of the season.

But it might not take 90 wins to make the post-season. Maybe it only takes, say, 86, which means a 38-24 mark instead of 42-20.

Heck, 90 wins could wind up winning the division the way these teams are sputter and fall back every few weeks. But I'll assume someone gets to at least 94 in the A.L. East. And, yes, I'll concede that's probably out of the O's reach.

Hold on, though...

What if -- just stick with me here -- they're better than 48-52 at the 100-game mark? What if they're 51-49? Maybe the climb isn't as uphill as first thought.

Oh, and let's not forget, Mike Elias still has the trade deadline available to him if the O's close the gap on the playoff chase over the next four weeks.

Pitching help. Pitching help. And....pitching help. That's what the Birds could use if Elias decides to buy at the deadline instead of sell. At this point, there's no telling what way he's going to go, although it seems more and more unlikely that he's going to unload a lot in July given that, A) the team will likely still be on the outskirts of a possible playoff spot and, B) there's just not that much to give away that will return anything of huge value.

Prior to the homestand with the Cardinals and Angels, I earmarked the next 13 games as "pivotal" and suggested a 9-4 record would be "greedy", 8-5 would be "great" and 7-6 would be (barely) acceptable.

Thus far, the O's are 5-3 in that 13-game stretch, with two more in Tampa Bay and then three in New York, including an intriguing Sugano vs. Fried pitching match-up on Friday night in the Bronx.

Not to get the cart before the horse too much, but after that series with the Yankees, the O's return home for three vs. Texas and Tampa Bay before hitting the road for three in Texas and three in Atlanta. Sure, I'll do the math for you. 9-3, 8-4 or 7-5. Take any of those three and be happy over that 12-game stretch.

Let's put together a "mini-goal" right now in that chase to 48-52 after 100 games.

The O's are 31-41 right now. If they split these last two in Tampa and win two of three in New York, they're 34-43.

They then need to go 7-5 in those next 12 to get 41-48.

All the sudden, getting to 48-52 doesn't look that crazy after all, does it?

Maybe I'm being overly optimistic. That could be true.

It could also be that you're being negative just for the sake of being negative.

Hang in there with me and let's see what happens.

One interesting topic from the U.S. Open that had zero bearing at all on the actual tournament itself was on and off course behavior from two former Open champions, Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark.

McIlroy has become a bit of a prick since winning the Masters. And that's not to say the Masters win did that to him. I'm just using that as a timetable for when this heel turn started with him.

He's become acerbic in interviews -- if he grants them at all -- and he's now thrown clubs on the course in at least three consecutive tournaments in which he's played.

Cheating in golf is the worst thing you can do. Period. It's the reason no one likes Patrick Reed. He cheated, on multiple occasions, and no one can forget it. Nor should they.

But club throwing and acting like an 8-year old who was just told by the lunch room lady there's no more chocolate milk is almost as bad as cheating in my eyes. It's not quite that bad. Cheating's the worst. But club throwing is a close second, for sure.

There's no redeeming value from it at all, other than an attempt to show people you're mad at the bad shot you just hit. Well, of course, you're mad. You had 180 yards to carry the water and you hit it fat and your ball ended up in the stream. We'd be mad, too. You don't have to throw your club to show us your mad. We don't assume you're happy.

The other issue with club throwing is more pressing, though, and it's purely cosmetic. You're one of the best five golfers in the world. Quite possibly the 2nd best, if we're really forced to rank those top five. Throwing clubs and acting like a fool tells junior golfers watching you that club throwing is not only acceptable, it's actually "cool" to do.

"Rory does it..."

With all due respect to Tiger and his greatness and impact on the game -- heck, in a very weird but oddly true way, this very website might not even exist if not for Tiger -- on course roars and fist pumps after birdies and wild celebrations were not really part of tournament golf until Woods came along.

And then you saw junior golfers everywhere fist pumping after made putts, barking out "Yeaaahhhhhh!" after a key putt was holed, club twirling after great contact on iron shots, and so on.

Kids watch these guys and mimic them. You can say "they shouldn't worship those guys" all you want, but you're better off talking to the wall about what it wants for lunch from Chick fil-A.

Junior golfers watch Rory throw clubs and it becomes "cool" to do unless you have someone of authority telling them, "No, actually, Rory is a jackass for throwing his club."

The TOUR has to do something about it. Not only with Rory, but with any player throwing clubs. It's beyond bush league.

The other issue from the U.S. Open was a locker room tirade from Wyndham Clark, another U.S. Open winner ('23) with a short memory.

After missing the cut on Friday, Clark apparently damaged two lockers at Oakmont CC. I underlined the word "apparently" because Clark hasn't yet commented on it and the pictures might have showed two lockers that were somehow already damaged before the tournament started. It's doubtful Oakmont CC would have damaged "anything" in its clubhouse, let alone lockers. But we'll give the benefit of the doubt, ever so slightly, until Clark confirms it was he who did the deed.

That said, if Clark did, in fact, damage those lockers, the penalty for that behavior should be stiff and severe.

Some of said he should be banned from next year's event at Shinnecock Hills. That might be "overly stiff and severe", but I also think it might be the appropriate measure.

Others have said he should receive some sort of lengthy "ban" from Oakmont that could keep him out of the next U.S. Open there (2034) if he's eligible to play. I think that's also a reasonable remedy.

Paying for the damage is neither here nor there. Oakmont CC is one of the most storied clubs in the world. Not just in the U.S., but in the world. Damaging their property is wildly inappropriate. It's beyond "men will be men" or any other petty excuse you can make up.

Money doesn't mean much to the folks who are members at Oakmont CC, but at the very least, Clark would be smart to send them a large check ($250,000?) and a note that says, "I've left the portion blank where it says 'Pay to the order of' so that you can decide who you would like to donate this money to in Pittsburgh to help a cause that's important to your club. I'm sorry beyond words for damaging your locker room."

You're not talking about two journeyman PGA Tour players here. You're talking about Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark. Two of the game's top players. Two Ryder Cup participants. Two major champions. The current reigning Masters champion, in fact.

They both should be ashamed of themselves and vow to correct their boorish behavior immediately.

I expected more from two varsity lettermen. We all do.

We've reached a lull in our DMD2.0 campaign but that's not unexpected given that we've been at it for two weeks now and a lot of you have already contributed to our "request for support".

Tuesday was one of the slowest days we've experienced thus far.

We're at 80.5% percent after several contributions came in yesterday, but we have some serious ground to start making up to get reach our 100% goal by June 30.

In case you just showed up here, we're asking for a one-time contribution of $48 to cover a two year period in lieu of a paywall over that same 24-months.

It comes out to 46 cents a week, basically. $2.00 a month over the next 24 months.

We could create a paywall here that zaps your credit card $2.00 a month or we can ask you to just send us the $48 and forget the credit card part of the deal.

I've opted for the $48 in a one-time payment, despite the pleas of our consultant and other friends in the business world who insist I'm doing it wrong by just not dinging your credit card every month.

"No one will miss $2.00 on the 30th of every month," Matt, our consultant, insisted when I first agreed to let him run this program for me.

"No one will miss $48 either," I shot back.

I won the argument, but I'd be fibbing if I said I'm not worried about reaching the 100% mark doing it "my way". We might not have reached 100% dinging your credit card for $2.00 monthly either. That much is true. But I'm hoping "my way" is the right way. I really do believe it is.

Anyway...if you haven't yet contributed and you enjoy #DMD enough to give us 46 cents a week, please consider a $48 contribution today.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Tuesday June 17, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3949

the white bronco

Thirty-one years ago this evening, on June 17, 1994, America and the world spent three hours watching a white Ford Bronco drive Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, California.

The driver was a man named Al Cowlings. He was a former professional football player and a longtime friend of the passenger in the backseat, a man named O.J. Simpson.

Simpson, along with his legal team, had agreed to turn himself in that morning to the Los Angeles Police Department to be charged with the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goodman. The two bodies had been discovered in the courtyard of Ms. Brown’s Brentwood condominium, a wealthy neighborhood in L.A.

It was determined that the couple had been brutally stabbed to death on the night of June 12. In the ensuing days, as detectives and forensics investigators gathered evidence and followed clues, they narrowed their search to one suspect, and one suspect only, O.J. Simpson.

Simpson had maintained that he was home by himself on the night of the murders, waiting for a limousine to pick him up and take him to the airport for a flight to Chicago. This alibi proved flimsy at the time, and search warrants showed evidence of both victims’ blood in his own Ford Bronco, on his socks, and on a single black glove found in Mr. Simpson’s home.

The matching black glove had been left behind at Ms. Brown’s condominium, also with DNA evidence of both victims’ blood on it.

With all of this preliminary evidence stacked against him, instead of showing up to the Parker Center in downtown L.A. on the morning of June 17 for arraignment, O.J. Simpson did what he had always been exceptional at: He ran.

For several hours, nobody knew his whereabouts. And then, around 8 P.M. EST, right at the beginning of primetime network programming, everyone in the country suddenly knew where O.J. Simpson was: He was in the backseat of his old friend Al Cowlings’ white Ford Bronco, driving slowly down the 405 through greater Los Angeles.

In the pre-internet, pre-cell phone era, word got out rather quickly that “The Juice was on The Loose” (Juice was O.J.’s nickname for years). Crowds of people gathered along the overpasses or pulled over on the highway shoulders to gawk and to cheer their old football hero.

News helicopters buzzed through the L.A. airspace to follow the white Bronco, which was trailed by a fleet of LAPD squad cars and emergency vehicles. Every major network interrupted their programming to break in for live coverage of the slow-moving spectacle. Even NBC, which was broadcasting the NBA Finals between the Rockets and Knicks, went to a picture-in-picture screen so as not to miss out on the drama.

Al Cowlings had a car phone (pretty rare in those days, kids, believe it or not), and called the police to tell them that O.J. had a gun and was suicidal. This news probably drove higher amounts of people to tune in. News anchors breathlessly speculated on Simpson’s mental and emotional health. Would he do it?

America, and the world, came to a standstill for three hours that evening.

There are certain moments that all of us can remember vividly and collectively as a society. I know exactly where I was when I heard the news that President Reagan had been shot. Just as I did when Pope John Paul II was shot.

I remember walking up the steps to my old dormitory on Huntington Ave., on the campus of Northeastern University, when my friend Amy came bursting out of the door, tears streaming down her face, saying that the space shuttle Challenger had exploded.

And I have no doubt we all remember where we were when we first heard the events of that terrible morning of September 11, 2001.

As crazy as it may seem, the white Bronco chase is in that same category.

I was having dinner with my then fiancée (soon to be wife) and my parents. We were in Lutherville, and we glanced at the TV in the bar on our way out the door. We went to see the movie Maverick, starring James Garner (one of my favorites, especially The Rockford Files).

When we got home a few hours later, we watched the finale of the white Bronco chase, which ended with Simpson very much alive and agreeing to turn himself over to police custody outside of his Brentwood Mansion.

The weird part about the whole O.J. Simpson – Nicole Brown Simpson story is that America had kind of forgotten about him by 1994. Simpson’s playing days were long over. His broadcasting career had begun to fizzle out. He was becoming an afterthought in the American sports and entertainment arena.

Yet when the news of the brutal murders began to break, and O.J. was clearly a suspect, there were probably millions of Americans just like me who shared the same thought:

O.J.??? The Juice??? Detective Nordberg??? The guy who used to fly around the airports for Hertz???

THAT GUY???

I was just coming of age in the early 1970’s as a kid and a sports fan. I remember watching Simpson become the first running back to ever break the 2,000-yard barrier in a single season. The game was during the Holiday Season, and the Buffalo Bills played the New York Jets at Shea Stadium in a snowstorm. Even Jets fans stood and cheered.

I know I saw O.J. play a game against the Baltimore Colts sometime in that era. That had to be in 1974 or 1975.

As his knees began to fail him and his playing career wound down, Simpson parlayed his good looks and his sunny demeanor into acting gigs and commercial endorsements. The American people knew and liked O.J. Simpson. He was one of the good guys. Or so we thought.

There have been reams of stories written about what happened on June 12, 1994. Untold amounts of documentaries and “real-life” crime dramas have been produced about the murders of Nicole Brown and Ron Goodman. The trial, its verdict, and the aftermath are still debated to this day. There are undeniable racial and cultural overtones surrounding the entire story.

But if there’s one thing that O.J. Simpson’s story taught us all (or should), it’s that we never really know the people we cheer for and idolize.

We get caught up in their on-field heroics or failures, and we tend to overlook their humanity. Like every one of us, they’re full of inner conflict, desires, fears, and urges. For all their feats of athletic brilliance, they’re just as flawed as you and I.

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…” -- William Shakespeare, As You Like It: Act II, Scene VII

Orenthal James Simpson died at the age of 76 on April 10, 2024, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Al Cowling’s white Ford Bronco is on display at the Alcatraz East Crime Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

This edition of "Happy Hour" was contributed by Mark Suchy

"we always get the best of you guys"

About 5 hours into our 8 hour stay at a family amusement park in Pittsburgh yesterday, a guy roughly my age sat down next to me on a bench as my kids rode an insane roller coaster you couldn't pay me enough to get on.

He was wearing a completely faded Steelers tee shirt with a drawing of Jerome Bettis on the front and Bettis had his fist pointing out with a championship ring on each finger and another dangling from a necklace he was wearing. The shirt definitely used to fit the guy, but it was, I gathered, probably his favorite shirt in the dresser.

We all have one of those, I assume. My is a green tee-shirt that says, "Callahan Auto Parts, Sandusky, OH" across the front. If you know, you know. It actually does still fit me, although perhaps not as loose as it was once upon a time.

Anyway...

The man saw my red shirt with a cardinal bird on the front and said, "St. Louis or Arizona?"

I immediately knew what he was referencing. Was I a fan of the Cardinals baseball team or Cardinals football team?

"Neither of them, actually," I replied. "It's the logo of a high school in Baltimore."

You would have thought I just made a nasty reference to his niece or granddaughter the way he straightened up and moved slightly away from me.

He asked why I was in Pittsburgh and I mentioned attending the U.S. Open at Oakmont and he said something like, "my brother plays that course all the time".

I mean, look, maybe his brother is a member at Oakmont. How would I know? But I would have bet just about everything I had that this guy's brother doesn't play Oakmont Country Club "all the time".

"Who won?" he asked me.

"J.J. Spaun," I replied.

"Never heard of him," my new friend stated. "The only golfers we know here are Arnie and Rocco."

He was referring, of course, to Arnold Palmer and Rocco Mediate, both of whom are sorta-kinda native sons to Pittsburgh folks.

"Rocco's too old now but he was a great player in his day," my friend said.

I didn't have any interest in picking apart the whole "Rocco Mediate was great in his day" statement with a guy who probably couldn't break 120, so I just let it dangle for a second or two.

"He had a very solid career," I said.

"You a Ravens fan?" he asked me.

"Oh, sure," I replied.

"Orioles?" he countered.

"Yep," I said.

Nothing was said for, I don't know, maybe 5 seconds. It was a long enough pause to give me reason to think that maybe that was going to be the end of our conversation. And that, I knew right away, would have been just fine with me.

It's not that I don't like talking to strangers. I do it all the time. Anyone who plays golf knows there's a chance you're going to get randomly paired up with a dude who, A) "has never played this poorly", B) "just shot 73 last week" at his home club last week but missed the first 6 fairways with you today or, C) "came in second in the club championship last month", which seems odd given they didn't make a par -- or a bogey -- on the front nine with you.

If you're a golfer, you're used to encountering and dealing with strangers. So sitting next to some dude at an amusement park is light work. Plus, you can't really leave in golf. But yesterday, had it gotten weird, I would have just got up and left.

After five seconds of dead air, the man, who would later introduce himself as Travis, lobbed the first grenade.

"We always seem to get the best of you guys..."

I was at the end of a fairly exhausting stretch. Two days of golf on a trip with FCA donors last Thursday and Friday, a day of yardwork on Saturday, the U.S. Open at Oakmont on Sunday and, now, a full day at an amusement park in Pittsburgh that my family has treasured forever.

In other words, I was tired, snippy and ready to bicker with someone.

"We always seem to get the best of you guys," he said.

"Really? In what sport?" I asked.

"Well, football for sure. But baseball, too," Travis replied.

I didn't know which of those to tackle first.

"Well, you guys haven't made the playoffs since Obama was the President, I don't think," was my first reply. I was worried for a second that I might be wrong on that, but I thought Pittsburgh somehow had a decent run in 2014 and 2015, maybe? Either way, I figured my new friend didn't really know when Obama was the President anyway.

"And we haven't played you guys in a meaningful baseball game since 1979," I continued. "We've actually both been terrible pretty much for the last 25 years," I stated.

"So, if you mean the Pirates "always" get the best of the Orioles, I guess you're right if you're talking about 1971 and 1979."

"It was that long ago?" Travis asked. "I didn't realize that. I was only 10 years old in 1979 but I remember watching it."

I didn't say anything. I waved to my daughter as she walked by motioning she was going to fill up her water bottle.

"Football's a different story," Travis said.

Again, I didn't know where to go with that. I was tired. I already knew I pretty much didn't like this guy and we were fast friends for going on a total of about 3 minutes and 30 seconds.

"In what way?" I said. "Didn't we just beat you guys in the playoffs last January?"

"No," he replied. "We lost to the Chiefs."

I let the silence tell him he was wrong.

"Didn't we?" he asked.

"No, you lost to the Ravens. In Baltimore. Remember, the Ravens went ahead 21-0 at the half."

"I thought that was a regular seaon game," Travis said.

"No, it was the playoff game. You lost to us late in the season in Baltimore as well," I said.

It was at that point I figured I'd either let the conversation die or I'd egg him on. I thought about it for a second.

"You remember those '71 and '79 Pirates wins but you can't remember losing to the Ravens twice last January (one of those was in December but when you're trying to win an argument...)," I said with a laugh.

"Well, other than that, we get the best of yunz in football," Travis stated.

"I remember coming up here in, like, 2015 for a playoff game at Heinz Field," I shot back. "You didn't get the best of us that night."

Now we were starting to get into the nitty-gritty. I knew it was only a matter of time before Travis went for the jugular. And I was right.

"How many Super Bowls youse guys have?" he asked.

I was ready for the answer to that question the moment my new friend cozied up next to me.

"Two," I replied. "The same number you guys have since we won our first one in 2000. Remember, we didn't join the league until 1996."

"We have 6," Travis said defiantly.

I felt like I was talking to a Flyers fan at this point.

"I know you have 6," I said. "But you only have two since 2000. The Ravens won their first one in 2000. And then they won again in 2013. You have two since 2000 as well."

There was another five seconds of silence. My daughter returned to announce she was going to watch her brother ride a roller coaster.

"What do you think about the Aaron Rodgers pick up?" I asked Travis.

I don't know why I even brought that up. I knew he was going to approve and I know how dumb of a signing it was. But I asked nonetheless.

"Love it," he said. "We ain't had a good quarterback here since Big Ben."

"Should be fun this season," I said. "Lamar vs. Rodgers."

"We got the edge there," Travis stated.

I thought he might have been joking. But he wasn't.

It was at that point I started to enter "tapping out" range. If you're going to have a sports discussion with someone and they say "We got the edge there" when it comes to comparing 2025 Lamar vs. 2025 Aaron Rodgers, I don't have anything left for you.

It would be similar to you trying to argue that Phil was better than Tiger. Or Mussina was better than Maddux. Or Adam Lambert is better than Freddie Mercury.

In 2025, Lamar Jackson is a "95" on a scale of 1-to-100 and Aaron Rodgers, now, is a "65". And that might be generous to Rodgers. But, you know, he's a Hall of Fame guy someday, so I give him a little extra credit for that.

I didn't say anything for 10 seconds or so. Maybe even 15.

"You think you guys will win more than half your games?" I asked him.

"With Rodgers? Definitely," he shot back. "Probably 11-5 or 12-4."

I didn't even bother reminding the guy they play 17 games now. I even sometimes forget that the NFL, in one of the really dumb things they do, features a 17-game schedule now instead of 16 or the 18 they're eventually going to play in the next 3-5 years.

"They're not going 11-5 or 12-4," I said, getting a second wind.

Travis straightened up again. His feathers were ruffled.

"Rodgers is a winner," he said. "That's what we need. When we had Ben in there we had a winner. You need a winner at quarterback."

For the first time in about 8 minutes or so sitting on that bench together, I agreed on something with Travis.

"Roethlisberger was great," I said. "I agree, he was a winner. I'd have taken him on my team any day,"

"Damn right," Travis replied.

"But Rodgers isn't the answer," I countered. "He was great. About 8 years ago."

"Well we like him," Travis said. I wanted to remind him he was saying "we like him" about a guy who hasn't yet played a game for his team but I let that one go, too.

My son and daughter were walking in my direction with my wife and some fresh drinks in tow, so it was time for me to bow out.

"Nice chatting with you," I said, sticking out my hand. "And thank you for not mentioning Ray Lewis." I laughed. So did he.

"Ya think he did it?" Travis asked me. In Pittsburgh, some 30 years later, there are still people wondering about Ray Lewis and if he "did it", referring to the Atlanta situation he was involved in.

"No, I'm sure he didn't," I said.

"Take care," I offered to him as I started to walk away.

"You too," he said. "See you in the football season. Good luck to the Ravens."

We got about 20 yards away.

"Who was that?" my wife asked. "He seemed like a nice man..."

I didn't have the heart to tell her about the conversation.

"Yep, he was a real treat," was all I could say.

---

We are closing in on the 80% mark (78.6%, exactly) in our "request for support" campaign that is part of DMD2.0.

My thanks to the handful of you who reached out on Monday with your $48 contribution to the cause.

We have 13 days left to get to our desired contribution goal and reach that 100% level.

I think we're going to do it, but we still need a bunch of you who have not yet contributed to support us.

If we don't do it, we don't do it.

It's like golf. If you shoot 72 and some other guy shoots 71 and beats you, what are you going to do about it?

If we get to 95% and fall short of our goal, I'll be thankful for the 95% of you who got in rather than worry about that 5% of you who didn't.

But...

If you're a regular reader of #DMD and you haven't yet contributed the 2-year pledge of 5 cents per-day, would you please consider doing it today?

It's a nickel a day.

I'd even take it in pennies from you if that's what it took.

We're still asking nicely, here. No pressure or anything. All we're asking from you is a nickel a day to continue visiting this website free of charge for the next two years.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Monday June 16, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3948

carnage and drama...delivered

Imagine for just one minute if the hot, dry weather experienced in Pittsburgh on Thursday and Friday, which made Oakmont CC play firm and fast, had rolled into the weekend, baking the course and allowing it to play the hardest it possibly could.

10 over par might have been the winning score in the 2025 U.S. Open if Saturday and Sunday would have been 88 and sunny instead of 75, overcast and rainy.

People look to the U.S. Open as the great golfing equalizer. Par becomes the optimum score. Enthusiasts want to see players scuffle and struggle rather than shoot 65 four days in a row.

In short, most ardent golf fans want to see carnage and drama at the U.S. Open.

They got both on Sunday at Oakmont.

Even with the rain that softened the venerable layout over the weekend, the place played next-to-impossible on Sunday, particularly late in the day, as the winner prevailed by hanging in there after a disastrous start and producing four late birdies, including holes 17 and 18.

J.J. Spaun teed off at just after 2 pm on Sunday in a tie for 2nd at 3-under par. By 3:30 pm, he was almost an afterthought, having bogeyed his five of his first six holes.

Just before 8 pm, he rolled in a 65 foot birdie putt at the 18th hole to win the U.S. Open with a final score of 1-under par.

It wasn't that simple. Or that clean. A lot transpired in that four and a half hours.

Aided by a 75-minute downpour that led to a 90-minute delay in the middle of his round, Spaun was able to collect himself after the shaky start.

"The break definitely helped me," the winner said afterwards. "It gave me a chance to reset. It gave me a chance to study where I stood. I was right in it. I just needed to play well on the back nine. I felt a lot better about my chances."

The two leaders at the turn, Sam Burns and Adam Scott, were both over par on the day after uneven play on the front nine, hanging on by a thread when they reached the 11th hole. Burns had just made a surprising birdie at 10 to take a two-shot lead on Scott, who seemed to be in a perfect spot at even par with 8 holes to play.

Both players made a mess of the 11th hole, with Burns making an awful double bogey from 150 yards out and Scott making an almost miraculous bogey after hitting his 2nd shot into greenside rough that would have covered up a small dog.

The game, right then, was on.

Aided by a bizarre decision by the United States Golf Association to continue playing despite the entire course basically being "casual water", two unlikely candidates stepped forward in an attempt to win the title out of nowhere; Robert MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton.

Spaun kept making good swings and was able to offset a bogey at the impossible 15th hole with birdies at 12 and 14. There was, for a minute or two, the very distinct possibility that a five way playoff at 1 over par might actually happen; Burns, Scott, Spaun, MacIntyre and Hatton.

At the par 4 17th hole, Hatton removed himself from the discussion with a terribly-timed bogey. The fiery Englishman tried to drive the green, leaving his approach shot in an impossible spot. He chunked that one, his second, and the next one, then chipped it up close and made the putt for a five.

While he was doing that, Burns and Scott were both making a mess of the 15th and 16th holes and effectively shooting themselves out of contention.

It was Spaun who came up with the biggest shot of the day at 17, hitting a driver on the green to 20 feet and two putting for a birdie that moved him ahead of MacIntyre at even par and into sole possession of the lead.

At 18, with rain pelting down and darkness starting to announce itself, Spaun hit a remarkable drive some 300 yards into the fairway. With casual water everywhere in the fairway, he somehow hit a sensational 200-yard shot into the middle of the green. All he needed was a two-putt from 65-feet to secure the title.

He only used one putt.

And when he rolled in the 65-footer, the drama and carnage the USGA loves to see was finally put to rest.

Oh, and don't look now, but Spaun also likely cemented himself a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Even if he doesn't make it on points, captain Keegan Bradley will almost certainly add him to the team at Bethpage.

So that's one of the six captain's picks...gone.

The 2025 U.S. Open will be remembered for a lot of things.

Oakmont CC certainly took center stage. It was, as promised, a supreme challenge for the best players on this planet. The golf course is out-of-this-world hard.

But the Sunday set-up was almost too difficult for any human to conquer. Pins were put into unfair spots that made par more about luck than skill. The 8th hole played 301 yards. As a par 3. That makes it "tough" for sure. And "dumb" as well.

And the decision to not halt play when the second rain storm blew in just after 6:15 pm was a swing-and-a-miss by the USGA. When you're playing for the national championship, "fair play" should be at the root of the event. Sam Burns hit his ball in the fairway, but into a small stream, at the incredibly-challenging 15th hole. He asked two rules officials for casual water relief. Both denied his request.

30 seconds after Burns hit his shot from the slop and pulled it left into the high rough next to the green (leading to a double bogey), a number of us walked to the spot where he hit that shot. It was covered in water. How the USGA didn't give him relief there is a mystery and an embarrassment given their dedication to playing golf by the rules.

Editor's note: I was able to walk on the fairway at both 12, 14 and 15 after the leaders played in on those holes and it was insane that they were still playing golf given the conditions. All three of those holes were underwater. 15, in particular, was a complete mess.

The event will also be remembered not only for the difficulty of the course and the USGA's dropping-of-the-ball, but for the way "hanging in there" became the thought of the day for Spaun, MacIntyre and Hatton. Only one guy can win, of course, but the way those three stayed dedicated to their craft despite being on the outside looking in was a marvel to watch unfold in person.

Spaun, of course, gets the girl at the end of the movie for his two closing birdies. As well he should.

But both MacIntyre and Hatton were among the forgotten until they kept making good swings and pars and let the field come back to them just in time to have a chance to win down the stretch.

The final day at Oakmont was, in a word, a "mess". The course was a mess, the leaderboard was a mess, the USGA was a mess and the golf from the two back-nine leaders, sadly, was also a mess.

But it turned out to be a beautiful mess.

The player who refused to break was J.J. Spaun. The "mess" didn't faze him at all. And that's why he's the 2025 U.S. Open champion.

---

I was, quite honestly, out of touch with the Orioles over the weekend, as I traveled to Pittsburgh for the U.S. Open.

But I know they swept the listless Angels and even managed to ring up, as their manager said on Sunday afternoon, "11 points" against the visitors from Los Angeles.

I have to assume he's just trolling by now.

Someone in the organization told Tony Mansolino it's not "points" in baseball, right? And he laughed them off and said, "I know, that dumb a**. I'm just having fun."

Right?

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I laid out a quick plan for the O's to get back in the playoff race and step number one was to get themselves to 30-40 at the 70-game mark. Step number two was to be 48-52 at the 100-game spot on the schedule.

Step one is out of the way after yesterday's 11-2 pasting of the Angels. The O's are now at 30-40.

The return of Jordan Westburg has sparked the club. The bullpen continues to shine. And guys like Carlson, Laureano and, yes, even Gary Sanchez on Sunday, have lifted the club when injuries and "days off" were part of the routine.

There's a long way to go.

You can still be a doubting Thomas if you so choose.

But at 30-40, the O's have a puncher's chance as long as they keep going 6-4 every 10 games. 70 down, 92 to go. 6 wins in every 10 games from here on in would put the Birds at the 90 win mark and right there in the playoff hunt.

I'm certainly not here suggesting you cobble together your post-season ticket money. Don't eschew a trip to the beach for a week because the O's "might" make the playoffs.

But they have, at the very least, moved themselves back into position, so to speak. It's not out of the question that they could continue this recent run of decent play and get to the .500 mark by the All-Star break.

Come on, have some faith.

---

We are just over the 75% mark in our DMD2.0 campaign, with a handful of contributions on Sunday helping our cause and chipping away at our goal.

Thank you to those who stepped forward on Sunday. You know who you are.

This entire "rebirth" -- that's what Matt, our consultant, called it from the beginning, way back when I first head from him last November -- has been very energizing for me.

Once I get back to Baltimore tonight and settle back into my daily groove, "Happy Hour" will be easier for me to manage and my "Live from Parkville" podcasts will start later this week. I'm buoyed by recent contributions from friends Mark Suchy and Josh Michael. I have always wanted #DMD to be about the readers and their insights as well as mine.

A number of columnists for this site have come to us from once being regular contributors in the Comments section. If you're one of those now, someone who likes to occasionally or regularly comment, please know you're welcome to also contribute as a columnist if there's something that strikes your fancy on a weekly basis.

Just e-mail me: 18inarow@gmail.com

As for our fund-raising goal, we're hoping to be at 90% by next Monday. That will give us one more week to chip away at the remaining 10% and reach our ultimate goal.

We're at 75% right now.

In other words, I could still use your help if you're reading this and haven't yet contributed the request for support in the amount of $48.

I'll end today's edition with the same question I've asked since last Tuesday, June 3rd. We're looking for a one-time $48 contribution, in lieu of a paywall, from anyone who visits #DMD regularly (whatever "regularly" is to you, I suppose).

We're effectively asking you to sign up for a 2-year subscription at $48, but you're on the honor system. If you do it, I know because I see the payment transaction. If you don't do it, I certainly don't know.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Sunday June 15, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3947

setting up to be...an instant classic?

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there.

I'm spending my special day in the best way possible; with my family, in Western Pennsylvania, taking in the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont CC.

It's a quick trip for us, but it will be special nonetheless. For all of the things I've done and seen in golf; the 1993 Ryder Cup at the Belfry, numerous trips to practice rounds at the Masters, and several one-day visits to U.S. Open sites at Shinnecock, Pinehurst and Congressional, today is the very first time, ever, that I've taken in the final round of the U.S. Open in person.

We're going to make it an all-day event. I hope to catch up to say hi to Denny McCarthy before his final round and then we'll settle in somewhere out near the 7th green, I think, to watch the leaders come through around 4:00 pm. From there, we'll see how the leaderboard looks before moving on to our next stop on the course.

The 2025 U.S. Open is wide open. Sam Burns is 4-under and J.J. Spaun and Adam Scott are one behind at 3-under par.

Viktor Hovland is right there at 1-under. Those are the only four players under par at rugged, unrelenting Oakmont CC.

Sixteen other players are within 8 shots of the lead, which seems like the very end of the "possible but unlikely" rope. For someone like Scottie Scheffler (+4) to win, he'd need to shoot something like 65, have the three leaders all shoot 74 or higher (quite possible) and have everyone else in the 1 over to 3 over range also shoot a score of 70 or worse.

It's the U.S. Open, which means anything can happen. But it feels like those at +2 or better are realistically the only players with a legit chance.

The three players at the top all have very different storylines.

Burns, the outright leader, is trying to not only win the biggest event of his career, but he's also looking to claim, most likely, a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Even bigger perhaps, is the quest to fulfill the promise bestowed upon him over the last few years.

For all of his talents, Burns has been a bit of a puzzle as a PGA Tour player. He wins when it's not expected and fizzles when it's not expected. Even though he was a playoff loser last week at the Canadian Open, no one was really giving him much of a chance this week at Oakmont. But here he is, 18 holes away from doing something guys like Faldo, Norman, Ballesteros, Singh and Mickelson never managed to do.

Spaun is the working man's TOUR player. It would be very fitting for him to win this event in Pittsburgh. In another life, perhaps, Spaun would be a steelworker playing golf on the weekends for fun. He's an incredibly underrated player who hasn't blinked over the first three days of the tournament. He's a fighter, for sure.

But make no mistake about it, the golfing world wants Adam Scott to win today. He of the silky smooth swing, Hollywood smile, and even temperament has only won one major championship in his career; the 2013 Masters.

Paul McGinley of The Golf Channel said it best on Friday evening after Scott started the U.S. Open with two consecutive rounds of 70-70. "I believe the golf gods come along and reward players for their body of career work," the former European Ryder Cup captain said. "It wouldn't surprise me at all if they got together and said, 'Scott's been a model citizen throughout his career along with being a great player. We owe him one. Let's give him this one at Oakmont.'"

There has been perhaps no better fundamental golf swing in the world over the last 20 years than the one authored by Adam Scott. That he hasn't won more is more about his tepid putting than anything else. When it comes to striking the golf ball, few in the game can match the Australian. If his putter, which boldly cooperated on Saturday during a 3-under round of 67, hangs in there today, he might very well be holding the trophy tonight.

There are others lurking with a chance, including Viktor Hovland (-1), Carlos Ortiz (even), Thriston Lawrence (+1) and Tyrrell Hatton (+1). Those four would likely need to produce a round somewhere around 68 or 69 today and hope the top three all spit the bit under the pressure of the final round.

It could happen. Heck, anything could happen. Just ask Jean van de Velde. But I think the top three are playing too well to have all of them falter today.

Any of them -- Spaun, Burns or Scott -- would be awesome winners. Each has a story to tell.

Burns was a bit of fair-haired boy on TOUR a few years ago but hasn't quite lived up to his billing. They say there's nothing worse than wasted potential. Today gives the 28-year old from Shreveport, Louisiana the chance to put that theory to bed once and for all.

Spaun, 34, is a journeyman type who is much better than you think he is. He's the 4 handicap guy at the club that everyone disregards who suddenly beats three better players to find himself in the final of the Club Championship. If you don't respect J.J. Spaun, you should.

And Scott is the chosen one with the gorgeous swing who should make the other two blush with envy when they see him strike a golf ball. At age 44, he won't get many more chances to win another major.

Hovland is also a guy full of promise who once reached the TOUR's top spot as their FedEx Cup winner, only to lose his grip on his golf game in a puzzling downfall that lasted almost two years. A win for him today would be incredibly satisfying given the difficulties he's encountered over the last 24 months.

The rain on Friday and Saturday has turned the U.S. Open into the Players Championship, which means there are more birdies than expected and less tragedy than expected as well. It's still tough. The five inch rough is even worse when it's wet. But the rain that has soaked the greens has made scoring much easier.

That change could work to the advantage of someone like Cameron Young at 3-over-par or Scheffler at 4-over-par. Could one of them pull a "Johnny Miller" and make 7 birdies and no bogeys and shoot 63 today? They could, yes. But the soft conditions would help the leaders in the same fashion, making an "instant classic" comeback more fantasy than reality.

Whatever happens today, someone's going to win our national golf championship at the toughest course in America.

---

Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers stirred up some trouble over the weekend and it wasn't because of his dominant performance in a win over the Giants on Saturday.

During Friday's home loss to San Francisco on "Pride Night" -- a team-endorsed celebration of the Los Angeles LGBQT+ community -- Kershaw hand wrote a Bible verse on his hat, which included a rainbow colored "L.A." to highlight the Pride Night theme.

The inclusion of the handwritten verse, Gen 9:12-16, sparked controversy and discussion about the veteran pitcher's attempt at taking away from the Pride Night celebration.

It was, of course, "just" a Bible verse. Nothing more, nothing less. Kershaw, I assume, figured if the organization could promote their beliefs on the uniform he was wearing, so, too, could he promote his beliefs on the uniform he was wearing.

Someone posted on Twitter yesterday: "Clayton Kershaw will always be a Dodger great, but it’s things like this that make him a lot less likable. Just wear the hat. Be a tolerant Christian and accept that there are others who believe differently than you."

I rarely ever get into back-and-forth sniping on Twitter. It's kind of useless. As I often say to people who are trying to engage me, "You're not going to change my mind and I have no interest in trying to change your mind."

So my reply, among the thousands the post generated, was simple: "Just wear the hat. LOL"

I would love to find a group of staunch Democrats who are strongly opposed to the President and his Republican alignment, hand them the famous "red hat" with Make America Great Again across the front, and say to them: "Just wear the hat".

"I know you don't believe in what he stands for or how he goes about his business...but just wear the hat."

In so many words, people are saying: Shut up and dribble.

Shut up and kick.

Shut up and putt.

And...shut up and throw.

By the way, on the field, Kershaw had one of his best outings in two years last night with 7 shutout innings against the Giants.

He's already in the Hall of Fame no matter what, but he now stands just 12 strikeouts away from 3,000 for his distinguished career.

---

Today marks the 2-week mark of our DMD2.0 campaign, although our "request for support" really began back on Tuesday, June 3. We're having a slow weekend, contribution wise, but I'm not bummed out or disappointed. With a handful of contributions on Saturday we made it to the 71% level of our anticipated goal.

I went into this campaign with open eyes and pretty much zero expectations. Our consultant on the project, Matt, was steadfast in his belief that our devoted readers would easily see the merit of a $48 contribution, even if he didn't believe the "honor system" that I believed in was the right way to go.

Along the way, as Matt put this plan together over the winter and into the new year, I gave in on a number of topics and proposals.

Matt suggested a monthly paywall (he started at $4.99/monthly and eventually proposed $3.99/monthly) and showed me pages of revenue examples and other websites of a similar nature who do it that way.

That's the one I didn't give in on.

"No paywall," I told him. "If the idea is to generate $48 over two years or $1.99 a month for two years, I'd rather just "ask" for the support than I would to create some mechanism that makes people pay."

Matt fought me on that one for a month or two.

But I won. I was always going to win, of course, since it's my website, but I also heeded the advice of another consultant friend (in another line of work) who said to me over a glass of wine at the Valley Inn back in Apri, "The key to hiring a consultant is to be willing to listen to the consultant and believe they can help you."

Spoken like a true consultant, right?

I did listen to Matt. And I continue to listen to him. The only topic I truly put my foot down on was the paywall idea.

So, here we are.

We're almost two weeks in and we're at 71% of the goal.

We've introduced "Happy Hour", our new feature here that brings back memories to the old days of the Morning and Evening Sun here in Baltimore.

Check back every day around 5 pm to see if we have a Happy Hour edition to offer you. It's not in concrete. Some days we have one, some days we don't. But as we get more into a groove and we get additional contributors to chip in with their insights, we hope to have Happy Hour on a regular, daily basis.

"Live from Parkville", our new podcast feature, will ramp up very soon. We're excited to be adding that to our stable of offerings here.

Thank you again to those who have helped us so far. As my son Ethan likes to say about someone he's fond of, "You're a G.O.A.T. in my eyes."

I'll end today's edition with the same question I've asked since last Tuesday, June 3rd. We're looking for a one-time $48 contribution, in lieu of a paywall, from anyone who visits #DMD regularly (whatever "regularly" is to you, I suppose).

We're effectively asking you to sign up for a 2-year subscription at $48, but you're on the honor system. If you do it, I know because I see the payment transaction. If you don't do it, I certainly don't know.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Saturday June 14, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3946

at least one flyers fan gets it

There's a ballroom brawl going on at Oakmont CC just outside of Pittsburgh.

Professional golfers aren't known for their outbursts, temper tantrums and mental breakdowns, but we saw all of those and more on Friday in round two of the U.S. Open.

The golf course, the set-up, and the fact that the players can't just snap their fingers and make three birdies in a row sent a number of players over the edge yesterday.

Rory McIlroy hit a bad drive and smashed a USGA tee-marker in an outburst befitting a 12-year old.

Tyrrell Hatton made sailors blush with his f-bomb laden tirades that were all part of his 18 hole tour on Friday.

Shane Lowry picked up his ball on the 14th green but failed to mark it, thus getting hit with a 1-shot penalty. You know your head is mush when you forget to mark your golf ball on the green.

Personally, I love seeing the best players in the world lose it.

A long time ago, a frustrated professional playing in the U.S. Open was outraged by course conditions that he deemed too penal, saying afterwards, "the USGA (golf's governing body) is trying to embarrass the best players in the world this week."

After hearing that, a USGA official reacted with one of golf's all-time greatest lines. "We're not trying to embarrass them, we're trying to identify them."

Someone will be standing there on Sunday night with the trophy. He will have endured his fair share of punches, nose bleeds and staggering blows to the mid-section over the 72 hole test, but he'll holding the trophy nonetheless.

The U.S. Open is supposed to hurt you.

It's supposed to drive you nuts.

The whole idea behind the tournament is to see how many of the players will crack under the pressure or the frustration.

There won't be many who won't break.

And that's why it's a great tournament.

With all due respect, anyone can win the Greater Hartford Open or the Valero Texas Open.

There aren't many players who have what it takes under the hood to keep it together for 72 holes at the U.S. Open.

Sam Burns (-3) is the leader at the halfway point. His golfing pedigree suggests he should win a major or two in his career, particularly in 2025 when he's the putting leader on the entire PGA Tour.

A win for Burns this week would pretty much lock up a spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup team. Last week in Canada, he lost in a four hole playoff to Ryan Fox. He's in a good spot right now, for sure. But this is the U.S. Open. It's a major. Your life changes when you win this golf tournament.

History says Burns won't hold on. I wouldn't mind seeing him win.

J.J. Spaun, who led after round one, is still hanging around through 36 holes at 2 under par.

He'd be more of a surprise than Burns if he somehow managed to be holding the trophy on Sunday night.

Viktor Hovland (-1) is still searching for his first ever major championship victory. Three years ago he was one of the best players in the world. Then, as happens far too often, his golf game simply left him. He's still trying to find it, even now, but if the first two rounds are any indication, he might be close to re-discovering the brilliant form he once had.

But all three of those guys would be unlikely winners. Burns is a terrific putter who is known for his failure to close. Spaun is a journeyman who comes close more than a lot of guys, but can't seem to get to the next level. And Hovland is an outstanding player who, as they say in golf, "gets in his own way too much".

There are plenty of guys lurking, though, who would be likely winners.

Brooks Koepka -- one of the blood money recipients on the LIV Tour -- is in a very nice spot at 2-over par through 36 holes. He's a 5-time major champion and is just smart enough/dense enough/uncaring enough to not let the volatility of the U.S. Open throw him off his game.

Jason Day is +3, but he rolls into Saturday on the heels of a very impressive round of 67 on Friday. Day was once a great player who battled a bad back and a fragile golf head that sent him on a downward spiral five years ago. He's been solid lately, though.

Scottie Scheffler is still in it. He's +4 through 36 holes and is battling a balky golf swing and a very uncooperative putter. If both of those things get fixed by Saturday afternoon, the #1 player in the world could be a threat. But the prevailing thought is Scheffler is "off" this week, for whatever reason, and the U.S. Open will need to be won by him some other year.

I'll give you one name that interests me heading into Saturday's round. There's something about the golf that Emiliano Grillo (3-over-par) plays that makes me think he's going to be right in the thick of things on Sunday afternoon as the leaders battle it out on the back nine.

Heading into the tournament, nothing about Grillo's stats were eye-popping. He drives it straight; 24th on TOUR in accuracy and 27th in total driving. He's a solid enough ball striker; 31st in proximity to the hole (31 feet on average). One thing Grillo isn't is a great scrambler. You might have thought that stat would plague him at Oakmont, but it hasn't through two rounds.

Grillo is a grinder. Nothing fancy. Doesn't make birdies in bunches or anything like that. But if the weekend is going to be weather-plagued, start-and-stop, and so on, it might be one of those major championships where a "strange name" winds up winning. I could see that name being Emiliano Grillo.

Our DMD2.0 campaign has been gratifying in a number of ways thus far. As I've written here a few times since we started in earnest back on June 2, I had to be professionally-convinced by a digital media consultant that this was even the "right" thing to do.

I honestly didn't know what to expect. I was hopeful it would go well. But I certainly didn't know exactly how it would go.

Contribution wise, we're at just under 68% of our hopeful total goal. We're making great progress. We had a couple of #DMD enthusiasts go above and beyond on Friday, which was greatly appreciated. But any and all contributions have been appreciated. They all matter.

For those just hopping on or wondering what DMD2.0 is, I'll post a full-length recap here tomorrow. In short, we're asking for a one-time contribution of $48 in lieu of establishing a paywall where we would configure the website to accept a monthly credit card payment from you in exchange for giving you access to #DMD on a daily basis.

I've received dozens of nice e-mails and messages over the last two weeks as many of you who have been here day one or for a long time are contacting me with words of encouragement and notes of appreciation.

One of those really stood out. I'm posting with permission of Rob, the sender.

The e-mail subject line was: "$200 contribution explained".

Here's what Rob wrote.

$48 is for my dad, who passed away in 2015 from cancer. Thanks to him I started listening to you on the radio. I became a "fan". I can hear him now, "Son, i need to send Drew money and what the hell is this venmo bulls**t?"

He was at the 1958 Baltimore Colts championship game in New York, definitely the “Bob from Parkville” type. I can remember all the stories he told me...Colts...Orioles...Brooks...Unitas.

Yep, it’s Father’s Day week. I miss him.

$48 is from me. Thanks to you some 8 years ago, the wife and I had an unbelievable and unforgettable trip to London that included a ravens game....which sucked...but thanks to some decent red wine and excellent Italian food at the hotel you booked for us, well, we "managed" after the (awful loss to Jacksonville.

To this day she still talks about the fun we had on that trip. Nothing about the game, but memories of everything else. Thank you again for that trip. Thank you too for being very personable, genuine and honest when we all talked on the trip.

$104 is my rounding up for a couple of reasons.

First, as a dedicated, devoted, and passionate fan of the Philadelphia Flyers...I sincerely appreciate the ribbing from a Capitals fan.

You pound on the Flyers all year, but the best ones are the subtle ones you sneak in. However, I love a great story.

My Flyers just re-signed this kid named Tyson Foerster...his last name sounds a lot like?.

Imagine if he scored a big goal to win a playoff series, or maybe a Stanley Cup...oh man, it would be glorious.

So you can tell folks, #DMD is supported by Flyers fans....we welcome the ribbing!!

Second, I'm chipping in for a couple of folks that can't. It's really not more complicated than that. I am blessed, I can cover for a couple of people.

Enjoy the U.S. Open this weekend. Other than the Masters it's the best golf week of the year. Thanks for being a local guy covering local sports with a historical local perspective and being passionate and giving a sh** like a local fan. You do an excellent job, period.

Thank YOU!"

Thank you again to those who have helped us so far. As my son Ethan likes to say about someone he's fond of, "You're a G.O.A.T. in my eyes."

I'll end today's edition with the same question I've asked since last Tuesday. We're looking for a one-time $48 contribution, in lieu of a paywall, from anyone who visits #DMD regularly (whatever "regularly" is to you, I suppose).

We're effectively asking you to sign up for a 2-year subscription at $48, but you're on the honor system. If you do it, I know because I see the payment transaction. If you don't do it, I certainly don't know.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Friday June 13, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3945

oil spill? not quite

In between the 1st and 2nd periods of last night's Stanley Cup Finals Game #4, a creative type on Twitter posted an AI generated-picture of an oil tanker gushing oil out of its side into the ocean, with the faces of Edmonton's Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in two small windows looking out at the scene.

It was in reference to the 3-0 lead the Florida Panthers built in period one of Game 4. After winning Game 3 in convincing fashion, 6-1, and then rumbling out to a 3-0 lead in Game 4 after just 20 minutes of play, the statement in the series had been made and laminated in bold letters. THIS SERIES IS OVER.

To wit, I am on a quick two day FCA golf trip with three others and the game was on in the background while we ate dinner after a day of golf on Thursday.

It was 3-0 early in the second period when one of the guys said, "Let's go out and have a putting contest." I wanted to watch the game, but it was 3-0 and I sensed a putting contest on a well lit green on a warm Pennsylvania night could potentially be more exciting that watching Florida roll to a 5-1 win.

So off we went, for an hour of fun.

When we walked back into the restaurant to have a coffee, we were stunned to see the game was 3-3 in the early stages of the third period.

"Edmonton came back!" the bartender announced to us. "They're not dead after all."

As it turns out, the Oilers, indeed, are not dead.

After giving up a heartbreaking game-tying goal to Florida with 19.5 seconds left, Edmonton somehow collected themselves in overtime and won the instant classic, 5-4, on a Leon Draisaitl goal. It's the 4th time in these playoffs alone that Draisaitl has scored an OT game winner.

I love to see things happen in sports that substantiate and confirm the one non-negotitable "trait" of every great athlete, no matter the sport or season.

You never stop trying.

It's that simple.

You never quit.

Edmonton was as down-and-out as just about any team could be. They were losing in the series, 2-1. They were playing in Florida in Game 4, having been embarrassed in Game 3, 6-1. And now, in the 2nd period, they were getting lathered again, 3-0.

But they didn't quit.

And now the series is tied 2-2 heading back to Edmonton for the pivotal Game 5.

I just love watching sports unfold like they did on Thursday night.

Moments after Draisaitl's goal, the creator and author of the oil-spill-picture on Twitter was getting hammered with messages from Edmonton fans, as expected.

To his/her credit, they posted a revised photo later in the night with a covering over the hole and the words, "Patched up, 6/12/25" written on the hole.

Patched up, indeed.

There are Orioles losses you can be frustrated with and there are losses you can say, "eh, we knew that was coming" and last night's 4-1 home defeat to the Tigers was everyone who pays attention to baseball knew was coming.

The Orioles can't hit left-handed pitching.

There are some secrets in sports and then there are some things aren't secret whatsoever.

It's not a secret at all about the Orioles inability to hit left-handed pitching.

Yes, the Tigers were throwing a left-hander last night. But it wasn't just any left-hander. It was today's version of Randy Johnson and Clayton Kershaw rolled into one, Tarik Skubal.

If there was ever a bet that couldn't be lost, it was the Tigers and the moneyline last night in Baltimore.

The Orioles, simply put, were not beating Tarik Skubal, who improved to 7-2 on the season with a 1.99 ERA.

So the Birds are now 27-40 on the season, back to 13 games under .500, and need a 3-game sweep of the surprisingly-decent Angels in Baltimore this weekend to reach the 30-40 mark through 70 games, which is a bit of a mythical "goal" I created for the O's in their effort to get back to .500 at some point before the All-Star break.

The only guy on the Orioles who looked interested last night was Dylan Carlson, who had 3 of the team's 4 hits on the night and accounted for the only Baltimore run with an 8th inning homer.

Yeah, you could say the O's had a "Gin Blossoms" on Thursday night; four hits. You're not winning many games in Major League Baseball with four measly hits.

Editor's note: That "four hits" quip directed at the Gin Blossoms should not, in any way, lead you to believe that I think the Gin Blossoms stink. I do not believe that to be true in the least. They were very good. But they really only had four songs anyone can remember; Hey Jealousy, Found About You, Allison Road and Follow You Down. I remember a lot more of their catalog because I was (am) a huge fan. But those were pretty much their four hits. Anyway...

So last night's loss was not one a well-educated O's fan should be crying about.

Some night it's OK to be frustrated.

But not last night. They were NEVER beating Tarik Skubal.

There are plenty of bubbling storylines out of Oakmont CC after day one of the U.S. Open.

Scottie Scheffler didn't really play anything at all like Scottie Scheffer en-route to a 3-over round of 73. He's far from out of it, of course, but he also has to put together a decent score of somewhere around 70 or 71 today to ensure he makes the cut and has a chance to win on Sunday.

Rory McIlroy was one off of Scheffler's pace on Thursday with an opening round 74. Rory has openly talked about lacking motivation in the wake of his grand-slam-winning Masters victory in April. That malaise could cost him a weekend in Pittsburgh if he's not able to get something going today.

Bryson DeChambeau is right there with Scheffler at +3, but the reigning U.S. Open winner is looking like a guy who isn't a great fit for the 5 inch rough at Oakmont. If DeChambeau doesn't drive the ball better in round two than he did in round one, he'll be home watching the weekend play on his 60" TV in Dallas.

Enough about the guys who didn't play well. Let's talk about who did manage their games on Thursday.

J.J. Spaun is the leader at 4-under par after posting the only bogey free on Thursday. Spaun, you might remember, took Rory to a playoff at The Players back in March before losing on Monday morning at TPC Sawgrass.

Don't be fooled by the fact that you don't know J.J. Spaun. He's a terrific player. And his plodding, unassuming style is a perfect fit for Oakmont and the volatile nature of the U.S. Open. Will he win? I doubt it. Would I be shocked if he won? Not at all.

South Africa's Thriston Lawrence is one behind at 3-under par. He's another guy you've never heard of. He flirted with the British Open title last July before finishing in 4th place. He's won 4 times on the European Tour. Will he win? I very much doubt it. Would I be shocked if he won? Yes, I would.

Brooks Koepka, Si Woo Kim and Sungjae Im are each at 2-under par and situated nicely heading into today's round two. Koepka has 2 U.S. Opens and 5 majors in all. Kim and Im have no major victories. All three are terrific players. I could see Koepka winning at Oakmont for sure. The other two? Can't see it happening.

Earlier this week I mentioned Ben Griffin as an "off the radar" screen guy to consider. He's been having a terrific year thus far, with two wins and almost a third, in fact, a couple of weeks ago. He's closing in on an almost unthinkable spot on the U.S. Ryder Cup if he continues to play like he's played over the last three months.

Griffin is at 1-under par. I have a weird feeling he might be in the hunt on Sunday. Today's round will be huge for him. If he puts together another round of even par or one or two under, you might want to snag him for a 36-hole wager if you can.

There's a ton of golf left to be played. It's not going to get any easier over the next three days, even with some rain expected in the Pittsburgh area tonight and throughout Saturday's third round.

The golf course is going to win out in the end.

But someone will wind up winning. I still think Scheffler is going to be that guy, although his balky putter has to improve today or he's in trouble.

---

We rebounded a bit on Thursday with our DMD2.0 campaign, thanks to some generous contributors who went above and beyond the $48 we've been requesting as part of a 2-year mission here.

One contributor, in particular, sent me a heartwarming note I'd like to share once I get his permission to do so (not using his full name). I'll reach out to him today to get that permission and hopefully post it here tomorrow.

We're now at 64% of our hopeful goal and we're almost at mid-month.

Matt, our consultant on this project, has hit almost every nail on the head when it comes to the progress we'd have from a fund-raising standpoint.

"You're right where I figured you'd be," he texted me last night. "I said you'd be at 70% on June 14. Let's see how tomorrow (today) goes and where you finish up on Friday. You'll be close to 70%."

Thank you to those who contributed yesterday.

We're into our second decade of making it work here and I see no reason why it can't continue for a long time to come.

Thank you again to those who have helped us so far. As my son Ethan likes to say about someone he's fond of, "You're a G.O.A.T. in my eyes."

I'll end today's edition with the same question I've asked since last Tuesday. We're looking for a one-time $48 contribution, in lieu of a paywall, from anyone who visits #DMD regularly (whatever "regularly" is to you, I suppose).

We're effectively asking you to sign up for a 2-year subscription at $48, but you're on the honor system. If you do it, I know because I see the payment transaction. If you don't do it, I certainly don't know.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

faith in sports

Our FCA Maryland Golf program is up and running and enjoying a fun, successful 2025 "season". Coming up in a few weeks, I'll helping lead the national FCA golf camp at Liberty University.

This year's national camp is moving to Liberty after a long, three decade run at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.

While we're excited about our new home and the offerings it provides us, we'll miss Kutztown for sure. If you're a person who believes in prayer and you'd like to pray for our ministry at Liberty, that would be great! We're asking God for safety of our student-athletes and a smooth transition in this first year at Liberty.

Speaking of FCA Maryland Golf, our monthly free clinic is next Wednesday at 6 pm at Pine Ridge driving range. Junior golfers ages 6-to-18 are welcome to join us!

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" section here every Friday.

Thursday June 12, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3944

how about a "premium team", too?

Give the O's some credit at least. They were gifted $600 million of our free money and were then instructed to, "spend it wisely so you can make more money for yourselves". And that's what they're doing.

The Birds announced a plan yesterday to replace the current press box, situated directly above home plate, and construct an upscale, premium seating area that will be ready and available for use next season.

To make sure I get the proper wording, here's the gospel direct from the O's website.

"Introducing a new premium club, offering a first-of-its-kind experience at Oriole Park. Opening in 2026, this exclusive space will feature unparalleled amenities and views, providing fans with an extraordinary ballpark experience."

Much like the Ravens are doing, the Orioles are simply looking to find a group of roughly 380 loyal fans who are willing to fork over $500 a night (just a guess) for the "privilege" of rubbing elbows with other high rollers while paying $26 for a glass of Joel Gott or $34 for a crab cake sandwich.

The press box will be moved to a position down the third base line.

This will not be the only expenditure the O's make with the (up to) $600 million of free money they were gifted by the state. There's a new video scoreboard and sound system. And there will be other improvements in the near future. But the premium club concept will be an "in stadium" add-on designed to enhance the experience for the fans who elect to fork over big bucks to enjoy O's home games.

It feels a little bit like a game of "anything you can do, I can do better" since the Ravens are introducing their only "premium club" at field level, where fans there will also get the opportunity to spend hundreds of dollars on marked-up food and drink in exchange for the "privilege" of sitting in a weather-controlled environment among other football crazies.

All that said, it's an understandable idea and effort from the Orioles. This isn't money that increases in value if they sit on it and it's also not money they can just spend willy-nilly. They have to get every nickel and dime approved by the state, although obviously the premium club idea got passed through in time for a 2026 debut.

Now......

Let's get to the more important part.

That is, the baseball team itself.

Is that going to be "premium" as well?

That's all we really care about, frankly.

I don't know about you, but in my mind the team could still be playing at old Memorial Stadium and I'd be just fine with that if the team was solid every year.

Camden Yards is nice. Overrated a bit, honestly, but nice. Going to a game there when the home team stinks is a colossal let-down, though.

David Rubenstein's ownership group is fortunate in that they're getting a bit of a 3-year free pass to get things situated on the field the way they want them.

The 2024 campaign was fine until the Royals came to town in October.

We're not happy with the '25 season thus far, but there's still time to flip the script on that.

But by the end of next season, the ownership-honeymoon-period will be over.

We need a "premium team" in Baltimore.

It might be overly harsh to use the word "fraudulent" in this case, but the on-field product has felt fraudulent for most of the last 25 years in Charm City. There have been bright spots, of course. Just not enough of them. And certainly not enough of them to think that ownership cares more about winning than they do generating revenue.

The premium-club idea is in place to generate more revenue. That's quite obvious. And it's also quite understandable.

But the team, on the field, deserves the same kind of dedication to improvement that the stadium gets, if not more.

I don't care about a new scoreboard or sound system. I care about re-signing Gunnar Henderson. Or Zach Eflin. Or anyone else that helps the O's win games.

The scoreboard in Fenway Park has looked the same for the last 100 years. Three guys stand inside of it and put up placards to represent the numbers for the teams.

Scoreboard-schmoreboard. I want a good team. I want, like they've had in Boston three times over the last 20 years, World Series parades.

I assume you want the same thing.

I don't care about new premium club seating or a new sound system so the PA announcer can -- maybe? -- sound more enthusiastic.

I just want the baseball team to be great. You know, like the football team always is.

That's one model from the Ravens I wish the Orioles would cling to and follow. "Hey, the football team is great. Maybe we should make the baseball team great, too."

Keep the $24 glass of Joel Gott and just give us World Series games in Baltimore.

Too much to ask?

Apparently so.

But it needs to change soon.

We had a very slow day yesterday in terms of contributions to our DMD2.0 campaign. I'm not distressed about it. But we're at 59% of our anticipated/hopeful goal, which means we still have work to do.

I'll be back tomorrow with more. It feels like maybe I should give it a rest for 24 hours.

In the meantime, if you haven't yet contributed our requested 2-year amount of $48, there are two ways for you to do that:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

We had another mid-season poll come out on MLB.com this week, which asked their writers to rank the top 5 Cy Young candidates in each league.

In the American League, the top 5 candidates from 1 to 5 were Tarik Skubal from the Detroit Tigers, Max Fried from the New York Yankees, Garrett Crochet from the Boston Red Sox, Hunter Brown from the Houston Astros, and Kris Bubic from the Kansas City Royals.

Leading the National League is Paul Skenes from the Pittsburgh Pirates, followed by Zack Wheeler from the Philadelphia Phillies, Yoshinobu Yamamoto from the LA Dodgers, Logan Webb from the San Francisco Giants, and Mackenzie Gore from the Washington Nationals.

What’s interesting about this poll is the gap from the top ranked candidate in each league to the 2nd ranked candidate. In the A.L., Skubal received 37 1st place votes while Fried received 2.

The National League was slightly closer but still saw a huge gap as Skenes received 32 1st place votes and Wheeler also received 2. Skubal and Skenes have been unbelievable thus far and as long as both stay healthy, they will run away with the Cy Young award.

What I find particularly interesting is that both Skenes and Skubal will be facing similar scenarios in the coming years.

Skubal will become a free agent after the 2026 season, while Skenes has much more control left with the Pirates and won’t become a free agent until after the 2029 season. How are the Tigers and the Pirates going to afford to pay these guys and what will that contract look like? Excluding Ohtani’s contact, Zack Wheeler is the highest paid pitcher, earning $42 million a year for the Phillies. We’ll use his contract as a measuring stick.

Detroit’s payroll this season is $144 million, 18th ranked in baseball. The Pirates have the 23rd lowest payroll at $90 million. Both Skubal and Skenes at this rate will earn contracts higher than Wheeler, maybe in the $50 million dollar per year range.

Unfortunately for Tigers and Pirates fans, you will, at some point, have to trade them and receive top end prospects. It’s a shame, but sadly that’s the business side of baseball.

There’s just no way they can keep these guys on the payroll and we’ve seen this many times before. In the meantime, to get the most out of of those guys, you need to win now.

Detroit will probably be one of the most aggressive teams at the deadline in an attempt to maake a deep playoff run.

Pittsburgh, on the other hand, isn’t going to surprise anyone and make a run for a wildcard spot. They’re one of the worst teams in the National League.

Their best move? Trade away a few pieces and clear some salary room to add a few big-time prospects. Next offseason will be crucial to bring some offense to their lineup and start producing some runs for their starters.

With the All-Star Game ballot now officially open for voting, I would like to propose a question for everyone: Which Oriole or Orioles do you think will be voted into the All-Star Game?

I think the first name that comes to everyone’s mind is Ryan O’Hearn, who has been one of the few bright spots for this Orioles team and is a valuable trade chip for Mike Elias as the trade deadline approaches.

Jackson Holliday makes a strong case to make his 1st All-Star Game appearance as he has been solid at 2nd base and has shown drastic improvements in his overall game from a year ago.

O’Hearn and Holliday are the two obvious choices to the question, is there anyone else that could potentially make a strong case?

What about Bryan Baker or Keegan Akin who have pitched well out of the bullpen? If not voted to the All-Star Game, could they potentially be alternates?

What if Gunnar gets red hot and wins June player of the month and catches momentum heading into the end of the 1st half of the season? Could he earn a bid?

I’m curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on this.

Players of the Week –

Pitcher: George Kirby had an excellent start on Sunday in his 2nd outing since landing on the injury list for the Mariners. Kirby went 7 innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 earned runs, no walks and punched out a career high 14 batters, earning the win as the Mariners avoided a sweep against the Angels and snapped a 5-game losing streak.

The Mariners haven’t looked great lately as their issues from last year are leaking into this season. Seattle can’t produce runs outside of Cal Raleigh, their star player. With the rotation they have, they should be in the playoffs consistently.

Going into the 2025 season, the Mariners had the 3rd best projected starting rotation behind the Phillies and Dodgers. The Mariners have scored the 15th most runs in baseball, which is right in the middle of the entire league.

Position Player: Pete Alonso, AKA The Polar Bear, is continuing to swing the bat exceptionally well and is having a career year thus far. Alonso batted .423 with 5 homers and 14 RBI, while also scoring 9 times for the Mets.

Alonso has spent all 7 years of his career with the Mets and is a 4 time All Star while also winning Rookie of the Year back in 2019. This past Sunday, Alonso hit 2 homers against the Rockies and just passed David Wright to move to 2nd place for most home runs in the Mets franchise history and will likely move to the top of that list as he is 9 home runs behind Darryl Strawberry, the Mets franchise leader, with 252 home runs.

If you know any Mets fans, they will tell you how the past decade has been disappointing as this team has made 3 playoff appearances in the last 10 years. They surprised a lot of people last year with their run to the NLCS but fell short to the Dodgers.

This year is starting to feel different, especially with the Braves not playing well and the Phillies getting hit with the injury bug. The Mets are a legitimate World Series contender and are one of the few teams that can match up with the Dodgers, who will most likely make the playoffs this year.

Rookie: Jacob Wilson continues to have a great rookie season for the Athletics and is on pace to have 200 hits this season. Wilson batted .462 this week with 1 homer and 6 RBI.

We got to see Wilson over the weekend as the Orioles traveled to Sacramento for a 3-game series. The Orioles could not get this guy out.

He is the perfect player to slot in the leadoff spot and is a core player for the Athletics. Wilson has the 2nd most hits in baseball right now with 93, behind Aaron Judge who has 97.

Rookie Debut: Last week we got to see Jac Caglianone make his debut for the Royals, baseball’s 10th ranked prospect.

This week, the Red Sox called up the number one ranked prospect in baseball, Roman Anthony. Red Sox fans have been begging the front office to call Anthony up, and their wish was granted.

Anthony has been knocking on the door for quite some time now, but the straw that broke the camel's back was when he hit a 497-foot grand slam in Triple A which made the hype around him grow louder.

Anthony’s promotion comes with a cost, as the Red Sox outfielder, Wilyer Abreu, was put on the 10-day injured list.

There are high expectations for Roman Anthony and being the number 1 ranked prospect on top of playing for a big market club. I think he’s the real deal, but we shall see.

Games of the Week –

Friday, June 13th: New York Yankees vs Boston Red Sox: Ryan Yarbrough vs Garret Crochet

The Yankees Red Sox rivalry makes another appearance as one of the Hot Corner’s Games of the Week, but this time the rivalry takes place in Boston.

Roman Anthony will get his first taste of this rivalry on Friday and will have all eyes watching. The Red Sox took 2 of 3 last weekend in New York. Will the Yankees return the favor and win the series in Boston?

Garrett Crochet has been Boston’s ace after being traded and signed this past winter from the White Sox. He will look to silence Aaron Judge and the Bronx Bombers in front of his home crowd.

Saturday, June 14th: Toronto Blue Jays vs Philadelphia Phillies: Bowden Francis vs Christopher Sanchez

Don’t look now, but the Toronto Blue Jays have been red hot and have won 8 of their last 10 games and sit 4 games in back of the Yankees.

The Blue Jays travel to Philadelphia for the weekend, which will be a challenging matchup. However, the Phillies have not been great lately. Last weekend, the Phillies were surprisingly swept by the Pirates. The Phillies also had to put Bryce Harper on the 10-day injured list this week with right wrist inflammation.

Sunday, June 15th: San Francisco Giants vs LA Dodgers: Kyle Harrison vs Dustin May

The Giants are only half a game behind the Dodgers for the NL West lead, which will be a very close race throughout the season. This game will be featured on ESPNs Sunday Night Baseball and will be a fun watch.

The Dodgers will need to get to Kyle Harrison early to hopefully pull out a win. The Giants bullpen has been fantastic this season. If San Francisco has a lead late in the game, they will shut the door.

Wednesday June 11, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3943

#dmd orioles minor league player of the week

We are going to begin looking at the Orioles’ farm system a little bit as we highlight our selection for the Minor League Player of the Week.

This week, there were several worthy candidates on the farm, but the ultimate selection belongs to the Orioles’ 5th ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline, OF Dylan Beavers.

Beavers, 23, had a sensational week for the AAA Norfolk Tides hitting a robust .480 (12-25) with five extra-base hits and three walks over 28 plate appearances during the seven games.

Included amongst those five extra-base hits were two home runs and two triples. He also recorded at least two hits in four of the seven games and reached base at least twice in six of the contests.

The week was simply a continuation of what he has done all season for the Tides. In his first full-season with the O’s AAA affiliate (played six games for Norfolk in 2024), Beavers has posted an impressive stat line over 49 games.

He’s hitting .322 with a .412 on-base percentage and a .893 OPS. In addition, he has 17 extra-base hits with 21 RBI, 39 runs scored and 16 stolen bases.

The 33rd overall pick in the 2022 draft out of Cal projects as a corner outfielder when he reaches Baltimore, but he has shown versatility in the outfield having played all three positions.

With the Orioles getting healthier at the big-league level, it’s going to be tougher for Beavers to make his Major League debut anytime soon, but if the O’s sell at the deadline and Beavers continues to play the way he has, we may very well see him in Baltimore before the season ends.

This edition of "Happy Hour" was contributed by Josh Michael.

---

beam scottie up...again

I assume you're not surprised at my pick to win the U.S. Open.

It's the guy just about everyone else thinks is going to win at Oakmont CC.

Is it possible that Scottie Scheffler won't win? Well, sure. A wise gambler would take the field over Scheffler.

That said, if the #1 player in the world does what he does best, namely, drive it straight and hit his irons with precision, it won't be a contest by late Sunday afternoon.

People who follow golf closely will understand what I'm about to say.

If you don't really follow the sport, you won't get it.

Scheffler is sooooo much better than everyone else right now it's not even funny.

In Tiger's hey day, to borrow a horse racing term, he was 10 lengths better than everyone else on the PGA Tour.

Scheffler's cut from the same cloth.

They didn't have all of the advanced metrics in the 2000's when Tiger was beating everyone with one arm tied behind his back. But the stats we're seeing from Scheffler in 2025 are mind boggling.

He has recorded 16 wins since 2022.

He has 3 majors since that time, which is as many as guys like Vijay Singh, Nick Price and Padraig Harrington collected in their great careers on TOUR.

Every pertinent tee-to-green ball striking stat features Scheffler somewhere near the top.

He ranks 1st on TOUR in shots gained, total; shots gained, off-the-tee; shots gained, approach.

He's 6th on TOUR in greens in regulation percentage at 70.25%. And he's 2nd on TOUR in proximity to the hole at 33'11".

No one in golf -- not a single soul -- strikes the ball as well as Scottie Scheffler. And it's not a new thing. He's been doing this for the last four seasons on the PGA Tour.

Oakmont CC is going to be a supreme challenge for every player in the field. It won't be a cakewalk for Scheffler. But if he continues to play the same way he's played all year, it's going to end the same way it ended at the PGA Championship last month. Scheffler will be holding the trophy on Sunday night.

Our "Great Eight" for the U.S. Open are as follows: 1. Scheffler, 2. English, 3. Cantlay, 4. DeChambeau, 5. Lowry, 6. Straka, 7. Woodland, 8. van Rooyen.

#DMD reader Phil C. wrote in on Tuesday to ask me who this year's "Andrew Landry" might be. Landry, you might recall, was in position to win the U.S. Open back in 2016 at Oakmont CC -- out of nowhere -- until he threw a shoe in Sunday's final round and was by-passed by Dustin Johnson.

I'll give you the names of three guys who could fly under the radar and be in the hunt in the final round. And oddly, they are playing in the same group on Thursday: Ben Griffin, Andrew Novak and Maverick McNealy.

Pick one. I don't see all three being a contender for the title. But one of them? It wouldn't shock me in the least.

As for the winning score on Sunday night? I'll go with 2 over par. My guess is Scheffler shoots something like 72-70-68-72. The golf course will "win" the battle for sure.

---

The Tigers pulled a fast one on the O's last night with a pre-game pitching change, and the hometown nine helped matters with their woes both on the mound and with the bat in their hands.

The result? Detroit takes the the first game of the series, 5-3.

The visitors were slated to start Sawyer Gipson-Long, but instead snuck in southpaw reliever Brant Hurter to start the contest. That move, of course, was all about the O's inability to hit left-handed pitching.

Alas, it worked to perfection.

Hurter allowed one earned run in 2.2 innings of work. Gipson-Long then went 4.2 innings as the Tigers built a 5-1 lead. Two Detroit relief pitchers cleaned up from there in the 5-3 victory.

Cade Povich got the start for the O's and wasn't very good. He gave up 9 hits and 5 earned runs in 4.2 innings. Dominguez, Cano and Blewett patched together 4.1 innings of solid bullpen work, but the Baltimore bats were quiet throughout the evening.

Baltimore scratched out just six hits on the night; two from Gunnar and two from Adley. Jordan Westburg hit a 9th inning homer. And that was that.

With Tarik Skubal going on Thursday night, the Wednesday evening game is crucial if the O's hope to snag at least one win in this mid-week series.

Of course, it would be very Orioles like to lose tonight and then somehow beat Skubal on Thursday when he's a -135 favorite or something like that. If the Orioles can't hit a "normal" left handed pitcher, imagine the struggles they're going to have on Thursday night against Skubal.

But you just wait and see...something weird will happen on Thursday.

Editor's note: I doubt you can find an online source to take a wager on a team getting no-hit, but I'd at least consider plunking down $20 on that (depending on the odds) for Thursday evening in Baltimore. If the O's were EVER going to have a no-no thrown against them, it would come on Thursday.

The Birds are now 26-39. That personal hope I had that they would be 30-40 after 70 games is looking bleak. And with each mounting loss, getting to 48-52 after 100 games is also starting to look like a foolish thought.

The good news from Tuesday night? No Oriole got hurt.

The bad news? Coby Mayo continued to look more out of his element than Donnie during one of the bowling scenes in The Big Lebowski.

Casey Mize takes the mound for the Tigers this evening. He's right handed, so that's good. But he's also having an excellent season (6-1, 2.91 ERA), which isn't good. At least not for the Birds, anyway.

I was really hoping for some sort of summer re-birth that made baseball interesting here in The Land of Pleasant Living.

I'm keeping the faith, as Billy Joel says.

But reality is settling in.

---

#DMD reader Mark Yarnovich stepped up with a generous offer on Tuesday and it helped us get up to 56% of our desired goal in our "Request for Support". Mark made the equivalent of 10 contributions after we were able to generate 9 contributions within a two hour time slot. It was completely unexpected. And very much appreciated.

A number of other people have done something similar over the last week. A few people have contributed the equivalent of a dollar a week over the next two years, others have simply sent in a sum larger than $48, and so on.

A few people have sent in less than $48. That's fine, too.

One guy, trying to be funny, sent in $1.00 with a demeaning, snarky note.

I got a chuckle out of that one. Why not just send in the demeaning, snarky note and save the dollar? People are weird, man.

Any contribution is accepted, though. Whether it's $48, $18 or $1. It's all good.

We have a long way to go to reach our pre-campaign goal, but we still have three weeks left in the month.

My friend Josh Michael is joining us as an occasional Happy Hour contributor this week, so we have a new member of the content family for you to enjoy. If any of you out there are interested in posting something in "Happy Hour", please reach out to me via e-mail (18inarow@gmail.com).

I'll continue to ask that you consider supporting our DMD2.0 campaign with a one-time contribution of $48 that will cover two years of support here at Drew's Morning Dish.

A number of people have written "DMD subscription" on their Venmo note. I like seeing that, even though I didn't ask you to list it that way. You're effectively "subscribing" to the website without me asking you for your credit card information every month.

As I've noted here recently, all of this is being done on the honor system, which I still think is the best way to go. If you like what we do here and you think we're worth 5 cents a day, 46 cents a week and $48 over two years, we'd ask that you support us with a contribution.

I'd love to be at 70% by this Sunday. I think that's probably ambitious, but dreamers do like to dream.

Thank you again to those who have helped us so far. As my son Ethan likes to say about someone he's fond of, "You're a G.O.A.T. in my eyes."

For those that haven't yet contributed, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can send in your money in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

Tuesday June 10, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3942

4:30 pm, Tuesday --

Cedric Mullins is back.

Jordan Westburg is back.

And....Heston Kjerstad is gone. Well, not really "gone-gone". He's back in Norfolk.

Out too, is Emmanuel Rivera, although he's actually gone. Designated for assignment is the "official" term. If Rivera clears waivers, he'll be back in Norfolk with Kjerstad.

The guess here is someone will grab him and he'll be an ex-Oriole by later tonight or tomorrow morning. Injuries are popping up left and right all over baseball. Someone will surely need a versatile "OK" player like Rivera for a little while.

With Mullins back, the O's now have two-thirds of their opening day outfield intact once again. Only Tyler O'Neill is still missing, but his injury stint in Norfolk is preparing him for a return to Baltimore in short order.

Jordan Westburg's return means we'll probably a see little less of Ramon Urias, which I'm not certain is a good thing. Westburg's return is a good thing as long as he can stay healthy. And, as we know, that's a pretty big "if" these days.

With Ryan Mountcastle out, that means Ryan O'Hearn and Coby Mayo get to co-occupy first base. I'm also not 100% sure that seeing more of Mayo is a good thing. Alas, he'll be in there against lefties whenever that occasion pops up.

As for O'Hearn, it would seem these next six weeks are "showtime" for the versatile veteran. Unless the O's magically get back in the playoff race between now and July 4, O'Hearn will be dangled at the trade deadline and, presumably, snatched up by someone looking for a competent left handed bat who is decent with the glove no matter where he resides.

The good news for the O's? Despite the myriad of injuries they've suffered over the last six weeks, they've managed to make up a little ground in the standings. They didn't get worse, that's for sure.

The bad news? The hole they dug themselves in April and May was awfully deep.

Taking 2 of 3 from both the Tigers and Angels (this weekend) would be a good way to welcome back the prominent players who returned today. Then it's off to Tampa Bay for four and to the Bronx for three. These next 13 games are important. 7-6 at a minimum. 8-5 would be great. Greedy? How would 9-4 look in those 13 games?

---

what do we know so far?

Every Major League team has played at least 33% of its schedule now.

I don't think that's a "conclusive" sample size, since there have been teams in the recent past who were far below .500 well into June and then somehow made the playoffs and, at least twice, went on to win the World Series that same year.

But I think 33% of the games offers a "fair" sample size for most of the 30 teams.

Here's what we can ascertain from what we've seen so far in the 2025 baseball campaign.

The best division race is going to be the National League West, I think. Everyone just assumes the Dodgers are going to run away with it, but their pitching staff is wrecked with injuries and it doesn't feel like they're going to be able to put much distance between themselves and the Padres and Giants over the next six to eight weeks.

That said, I'm sure the Dodgers will figure out a way to get someone's #2 pitcher at the trade deadline and they'll add a veteran slugger or two in late July and probably win the West by 6 or 8 games.

But don't be surprised if that Western Division race stays tight throughout the summer.

As for the Orioles, there's just no way they are as bad as they showed in April and May. They're more like the team we've seen over the last two weeks, which still isn't good enough to shock the world and win the A.L. pennant or anything like that. But they will make a run at .500, if nothing else.

My guess is the O's wind up shipping out Mullins, O'Hearn and perhaps either Akin or Soto at the deadline, but still manage to reach the 77 win mark before the curtain closes on their 2025 campaign.

On we go to the rest of baseball.

A.L. East -- I guess this one's going to the Yankees, but that's mainly because no one else in the division is really all that good.

I'm surprised they've managed to stay "mostly" injury free, particularly within their starting rotation. Max Fried is the real deal and Carlos Rodon, despite getting knocked around by Boston on Sunday, is having a nice campaign thus far. Like the Dodgers, they'll snag someone's #2 veteran pitcher at the deadline to bolster their rotation for the stretch run.

Division prediction: Yankees win it by 8 games and the Rays, as is their custom, manage to grab a wild card spot despite only having 4 players on their team that any of us have ever heard of.

Surprise: Boston authors an epic 2nd half collapse, finishes at 68-94 and in last place in the East.

A.L. Central -- Detroit will probably have this wrapped up by September 15. They're just too good...and Skubal is obviously on the fast track to the Cy Young Award. Minnesota, Cleveland and Kansas City are all sitting back, ten lengths behind, waiting to make their move at the right time. The White Sox are improved, for sure, but not enough to matter.

Division prediction: Tigers finish with an A.L. leading 101 wins.

Surprise: Kansas City gets it together and finishes in 2nd place with 90 wins to snag a wild card spot.

A.L. West -- The big news is that the Angels are only 5.5 games out and it's June 10. Sure, they're 4 games under .500 at 30-34, but most years they're playing for next year's contracts by Memorial Day. No one is great in this division. The Athletics are awful, but they do have an array of interesting young players who will be coming into their own in a big way right around they time they move to Las Vegas.

Division prediction: Texas puts it together and winds up winning the division on the last weekend of the season with only 88 wins, while Houston gets a playoff spot on the final day of the regular season.

Surprise: Seattle loses 10 of their last 14 to bow out of the playoffs in a shocking late season flop.

American League MVP: Aaron Judge

American League Cy Young: Tarik Skubal

N.L. East -- This is a two-team race thanks mainly to the Braves flatlining in 2025. It's the Mets and Phillies and that's it, but it just "feels" like Philadelphia isn't going to have enough horsepower to stay with New York for the last four months of the season. The Nationals are modestly improved, but they're a year away, at least, from being a threat in the division.

Division prediction: Mets win it by 10 games at 96-66.

Surprise: The Phillies win their last 7 games to make the playoffs with with an 86-76 record.

N.L. Central -- This could wind up being a wild 4-team race if the Reds continue to cobble something together, but it's more likely they'll fire and fall back by the middle of July. The only team not capable of staying in the race over the summer is in Pittsburgh. Everyone else is capable.

Division prediction: Chicago hangs on to win by a whisker, winning 10 of their last 15 games to pull away and win the division by 4 games over second place St. Louis, who earn a wild card spot on the last day of the regular season.

Surprise: Milwaukee loses 6 of their last 8 games to miss out on the post-season.

N.L. West -- The Dodgers will get it done, but it won't be a cakewalk, as we referenced above. San Diego stays in it and does enough to make the playoffs, but the Giants lose ground after Labor Day and wind up in 3rd place with 84 wins.

Division prediction: The Dodgers wind up edging out the Mets for the most wins in the N.L. with 98.

Surprise: Ohtani returns to pitch in July but is largely ineffective and is removed from the rotation in early September and spends the last month and the playoffs serving only as a designated hitter.

National League MVP: Shohei Ohtani

National League Cy Young: Paul Skenes

---

All of the talk about this week's U.S. Open at Oakmont CC is centering on the course itself and the apparent difficulties of the venerable piece of property outside of Pittsburgh.

But a few players who have arrived and practiced early -- some on Sunday, some on Monday -- say its bark might be worse than its bite.

"The greens are fast, but they're not like crazy, crazy fast," PGA Tour veteran Michael Kim wrote on social media yesterday after his practice round. "But they are big greens and there are some tricky pin locations that I'm sure they'll use this week. So, yes, the greens are difficult, but I don't think they're going to embarrass us."

"You just have to find the fairway with your tee-shot, even if you're not hitting driver," Scottie Scheffler said after playing nine holes on Sunday afternoon. "It's going to be hard to make par from the rough. But from the fairway, you're fine." There have been reports of thick, 5 inch rough at Oakmont, with player's golf balls disappearing from plain sight if they're just a yard or two off the fairway.

"It's going to play tough, no two ways about it," Russell Henley said. "But you're talking about the best players in the world. They'll find a way to make pars and even some birdies here and there."

The USGA says they aren't planning on making any substantial changes to the course heading into the tournament. "The way the players find it today (Monday) is the way they'll find it for the four tournament days," they said in a press release on Monday.

That said, they will most certainly do their very best to abide by the 6/6/6 rule when it comes to pin placements. 6 "getable" pins where scoring is expected, 6 "challenging" pins where scoring is only possible with a shot hit into the proper location on the green and 6 "difficult" pins where it will take the most precise of approach shots to get the ball close enough to make a putt.

I think, even though they don't admit it, that the USGA has gone more to a 4/10/4 formula in recent years, especially on Saturday and Sunday. There will be far more "challenging" pins than any other kind over the final 36 holes.

All that said, I'm still of the mindset that something around par wins, giving two strokes either side of that. I could see a 2-under par score winning and it could balloon up to 2 over or so if the course gets even more firm and fast than it's already playing.

They're calling for scattered showers on Saturday in the Pittsburgh area and a 50% chance of "rain throughout the day" on Sunday. That could certainly help scoring a little bit, and it will help keep those of us who are going up there a lot cooler than one of those dreaded, 91 degree days with scorching sun beating down on you.

Since I'm not the one playing or caddying, only watching, I'll take 76 degrees and showers/rain any time.

---

We're at the 55% mark in our "Request for Support" campaign, having moved past the halfway point yesterday just after 9 am when #DMD reader Mark S. contributed his $48 to the cause.

Things have certainly slowed down, as expected, but we're still on pace to fulfill our campaign goal if we keep getting readers to participate every day between now and the end of the month.

I saw in the Comments section a few quips from folks about "where is the money going?". One of the negatives about the written word is you never really know if someone's serious or trolling. On the radio, you can generally tell from voice inflection if someone's serious or trying to be sarcastic. Here, it's not that easy.

So when someone writes, "Where's the money going?" I can't tell if they're simply not paying attention or if they're trying to stir the pot.

This -- meaning, the website -- is a business. It has been my "core" business since 2014 when I started it. I do other things, all of which provide me with some modest additional income, but when someone I don't know asks me what I do for a living, I respond by saying, "I own a daily sports website called Drew's Morning Dish."

While I enjoy doing this and I have fun owning my own business, I don't do it "for fun", per se.

That's a short way of saying, "The $48 is going into the business to help fund our expenses, which aren't numerous or earth shattering, but expenses they still are."

If you want me to say the $48 is going to "me", that's fine, but it doesn't all go to me. That said, when you own a business of any kind and revenue gets generated, it's sorta-kinda all going to you on the surface.

At least that's what people think. When Bob Bradley owns "Bradley Plumbing" and you write a check to him for work, you assume "Bob" is getting the money. And he very well might be. It is, after all, his business and he has to make a living.

What "business" is it of yours where the money goes if Bob provided the plumbing work you wanted or needed from him?

Anyway, yes, the $48 you're contributing goes to the continued operation of Drew's Morning Dish.

As I've noted here on a couple of occasions, if you were charged a monthly subscription fee of, say, $3.99, to enjoy the content here, you would either pay it and read or not pay not pay it and not read. But if you paid it, that $3.99 would be going to the same place that your $48 is going -- into the business that is Drew's Morning Dish.

One thing Matt, our consultant, made clear to me right from the start of this partnership is that I'm five years behind on this sort of endeavor. I don't regret not doing it earlier. It is what it is. But Matt said right from the start, "the people who read your website have been so used to just consuming your content free of charge that you're going to have to put in extra work to push them into becoming financial supporters."

So far, that's probably a true statement. I'm eternally grateful to those who have supported this campaign. You have no idea how grateful I am. But I can also tell just from the general numbers each day that a lot of you have elected not to participate for whatever reason.

Either way, it's all good.

Drew's Morning Dish will survive and thrive as long as we have marketing partners in place to support what we do and readers who support what we do.

We're into our second decade of making it work here and I see no reason why it can't continue for a long time to come.

Thank you again to those who have helped us so far. As my son Ethan likes to say about someone he's fond of, "You're a G.O.A.T. in my eyes."

I'll end today's edition with the same question I've asked since last Tuesday. We're looking for a one-time $48 contribution, in lieu of a paywall, from anyone who visits #DMD regularly (whatever "regularly" is to you, I suppose).

We're effectively asking you to sign up for a 2-year subscription at $48, but you're on the honor system. If you do it, I know because I see the payment transaction. If you don't do it, I certainly don't know.

I did laugh yesterday when I saw someone mention the 4 beers and 12 wings for $60 concept. It is funny how we'll go out and throw down $18 for a breakfast sandwich and coffee or $50 for chinese food, but when someone in front of the shopping center asks us for "anything" we don't have the time to give them a dollar.

Anyway...back to the question at hand.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

$48 over two years is 5 cents a day (it's actually closer to 6 cents, but "a nickel a day" is the marketing side of this I couldn't resist).

If your answer to that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

For those that haven't yet donated, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8 was Erik van Rooyen. #7 was Gary Woodland. #6 was Sepp Straka. #5 was Shane Lowry. #4 was Bryson DeChambeau. #3 was Patrick Cantlay.

#2 Harris English -- The winner at Torrey Pines back in January is having one heck of a 2025 campaign. And don't let that win at Torrey get glossed over, either. While it's not exactly like Oakmont CC, Torrey Pines annually features some of the highest scoring on TOUR over the three rounds they play on the South course at the La Jolla, California club.

They've had U.S. Opens at Torrey Pines for a reason. It's a great challenge.

English is quite obviously our top "sleeper" pick for this week's major championship. He's made 12 of 14 cuts to go along with that earlier win and his advanced data is very promising with the exception of his shots gained, approach numbers, which are pretty much right on TOUR average.

The 35 year old is "in the green" in the ultra-important categories like shots gained, total and driving accuracy and greens in regulation.

He's also 19th in total putting, which should come in quite handy on those Oakmont greens.

English could very well be this year's version of Matt Fitzpatrick ('22) or Wyndham Clark ('23). In other words, a player who goes on to win where you say, afterwards, "I didn't really think he was capable of winning a major championship, but that was my fault. He's an outstanding player."

He's currently available at the excellent price of +10000 this week. Snag him, now, before he shoots 3 under and leads on day one and he goes to +310.

Monday June 9, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3941

One of the more interesting things about Orioles TV broadcasts occurs when Jim Palmer handles the color commentary.

For as long as I can remember, Palmer has pretty much told it the way it is, without fear of retribution, punishment or criticism from the team's front office.

He definitely can't stand how much money pitchers make these days. It drives him completely bonkers.

"$20 million or so for that. Well, OK then," he once said about Kevin Gausman during an appearance with the Blue Jays. "You take what management gives you, I guess."

You can hear the anger through his gritted teeth.

Palmer recently said Peter Angelos offered him the managerial job on three separate occasions but the Hall of Fame pitcher turned him down all three times.

Whether Palmer would have been a good manager remains to be seen. Often times, guys like Palmer, who were perfectionists at their craft of choice, turned out not to be great skippers. If you think about the guys who have labeled "great managers" over the last 30 years, they aren't Hall of Fame (as a player) names, per se.

La Russa, Maddon, Bochy, Francona, Baker, Hyde.

OK, I put Hyde in there just to see if you're actually paying attention.

A great manager? Maybe not. But Palmer is a great baseball analyst.

Over the weekend in Oakland Sacramento, Palmer took time to lob criticisms at Gunnar ("looks like he just wants to make contact for the sake of saying 'I made contact at least'"), Adley Rutschman ("if it didn't get better, they were going to have to tell him the truth about his approach at the plate") and Tony Massolino ("you have a third baseman (Rivera) playing at first base, for whatever reason").

He's never been afraid to just say whatever he wants to say in any given moment.

And that's why he's one of the best color analysts of all time. He not only knows his stuff, but he also doesn't give a rat's rear end who hears it and what they think when/if they do hear it.

If you're paying attention, you can hear the disdain for Heston Kjerstad in his voice everytime Heston is at the plate.

"These at bats just aren't major league caliber," was one he authored last month.

Kjerstad's at bat in the 8th inning on Friday night was beyond awful. I get it, he was facing Mason Miller. But, still.

The bases-loaded at bat (if you want to call it that) was arguably the worst trip anyone in sports has had since Aaron Rodgers went to that Ayahuasca place in Costa Rica a couple of years ago and paid $5,000 for stuff you could have purchased from Bennie at Record and Tape Traders over in the Dulaney Valley shopping center circa 2010.

Palmer is a true treasure. He just calls it like he sees and either flat out knows the O's aren't going to fire him or just doesn't care one way or the other.

Because they're the Orioles and they do goofy stuff, all they've done over the last 5 years is reduce his workload. Sure, he's had an ailment or two along the way, but as he has hinted several times in broadcasts, "I can get that stuff done in the off-season but apparently they don't realize that."

Ben McDonald is fine. He tries to be a little bit like Palmer with his some of his vague, veiled "call outs", but replacing Palmer is like replacing Johnny Miller on NBC Golf broadcasts. It just can't be done.

---

yesterday...all our troubles seemed so far away

It was June 8, 1984.

A Friday, if I remember correctly.

I wanted to get this particular memory into yesterday's edition of #DMD, but it didn't happen.

Better late than never.

41 years ago yesterday, the Baltimore Blast beat the St. Louis Steamers in Charm City, 10-3, to win the championship of the Major Indoor Soccer League.

If you weren't around back then, trust me when I tell you this: It was a big freakin' deal.

If you were fortunate enough to be there or were old enough to be immersed in the Baltimore sports scene in 1984, I'm sure you'll agree about the "big deal" part.

I was in my 3rd year working for the franchise on June 8, 1984. I got two tickets to that Game 5 title-clinching win as one of my "employee perks". In fact, back then, employees got two tickets to every home game. As did the players. Two tickets. That was it.

The series started out on a sour note with a 7-3 home loss to the Steamers. There wasn't any wagering back then -- not the legal kind, anyway -- but the Steamers would have been +325 in that series and the Blast would have been -140. We were heavy favorites.

A 5-3 win in Game 2 sent the Blast to St. Louis for Game 3 on Saturday. That match was televised live by CBS Sports. Not the kind of "CBS Sports" you might find today on an obscure channel deep in your cable TV offerings. This was "the" CBS Sports. Like, national television. If you were in Helena, Montana and you turned your TV to "CBS" on that Saturday afternoon, there it was, indoor soccer, from St. Louis.

We won that game 5-2.

On Wednesday night, still in St. Louis, Stan Stamenkovic ended it at 1:59 of overtime to give the Blast a 5-4 win and send us home with a chance to win the title in front of the "Baltimore Arena" faithful.

Editor's note: Of all the names that building ever had, "Baltimore Civic Center" still resonates the most with me. That's what it was back in the old days when I first went to Baltimore Clippers games and that's what it was known as when I first started working for the Blast in 1981.

In Game 5, Joey Fink stole the show with 5 goals while Paul Kitson, who was hobbled most of the series with an ankle injury, came off the bench in the 3rd quarter to score a huge goal and help blow open up what was, at the time, a close contest.

Kitson -- who passed away 20 years ago at age 56 -- was one of my top five favorite Blast players ever.

I've told numerous stories about him before. One from the title celebration stands out.

The organization booked most of the upstairs at P.J. Cricketts for a post-game party and when Kitson saw me come in, he yelled over in his friendly, familiar British accent, "Come over here sunshine (he called people "sunshine" instead of "buddy") and have a drink with Uncle Paul!"

I worked my way over to him and we hugged and he said, "Before we do a celebration shot, you need to clean your palate. He handed me a small glass of water and said, "Chug this down so you can taste this nice bourbon we're going to drink together!"

Pat Ercoli and Lou Nagy were standing by. "Yeah," Ercoli said. "You need to have a clean palate to enjoy that bourbon."

I was a dumb, naive 21 year old. I didn't know any better. So I took the small, short glass of water and downed it.

I'm sure you know where this is going...

It wasn't water.

It was vodka.

By the time it hit my tongue, it was too late to stop. I gulped down probably 4 ounces of vodka.

Those three broke up in laughter.

Kitson then handed me a real glass of water.

"Wash that down, Drewski!" he yelled.

I did the smart -- and obvious -- thing there and took a huge whiff of the glass and the beverage. It was, in fact, water.

But the damage had been done.

Kitson got me. Again.

The crowd in the arena for Game 5 was "supposedly" 12,007. We sold standing room only tickets upstairs above seats in the upper concourse all day Thursday and Friday. I have no idea how many were sold, but I'm guessing at least 500.

It was a madhouse. People were just standing around in the concourse during the game. I have no idea how they got in the building.

I'm quite certain the fire marshal would not have approved of the actual number of people in the arena that night, but we didn't care.

June 8, 1984. It was definitely a day and night to remember.

---

The Orioles finished off a (relatively) successful west coast trip with a 4-2 record, but some of their May flaws reared their head again in the weekend series loss to the Athletics.

The O's were 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position against Oakland Las Vegas and 1-for-17 in the defeats on Friday and Sunday.

Yes, things have improved a tick of late. But 4-for-25 with runners in scoring position isn't going to get the job done.

Tomoyuki Sugano had a rough start in Sunday's 5-1 loss. He threw two kinds of pitches yesterday: One was so far out of the strike zone that no A's hitter would swing at it. The other was so right across the middle of the plate that any A's hitter would swing at it.

He was battered like Tommy Hearns in the 3rd round against Marvin Hagler.

We'll give Sugano a pass, though. He's largely been very good so far in 2025, Sunday's stinker notwithstanding.

But if Sugano was "off" on Sunday, the bullpen was, once again, very much "on".

Blewett, Cano and Baker went 3.2 innings and allowed just 1 hit and 1 earned run (Baker) to keep the O's in the game long enough for their bats to flounder.

Back to the "off" for a second. Gunnar Henderson's day wasn't great, as he produced a pair of errors in the field to go along with a forgettable 1-for-4 effort at the plate.

We're 64 games into the 2025 season and Henderson has one more home run and two more RBI than Ramon Laureano.

And Henderson has played 18 more games than has Laureano, with 120 more at-bats as well.

Henderson's hitting .265. Laureano is hitting .264.

I don't know if all of that statistical intel says more about Laureano or more about Gunnar. Your mileage may vary on that one.

But one guy wants/expects/hopes to get $45M or $50M a year to play baseball and the other guy is thrilled to make $4 million a year.

So the Birds head home at 26-38, still 12 games below the elusive .500 mark.

I wrote earlier in the month I see two important "levels" coming up before the All-Star break.

One is the 70-game mark. Can the O's get to 30-40 by the time they play 70 games? They need to go 4-2 in their next six games, obviously.

And the other level is the 100-game plateau. Can the Birds get back to something "close" to .500 by that point? Say, 48-52 at the very worst.

A .500 mark by the time they play 100 would be great. But even if they scratch their way back to 48-52 at the 100-game mark, that would at least give them a puncher's chance, if they can go 38-24 over their final 62 games, of reaching 86 wins and potentially snagging a wild card spot.

I'm trying to be the eternal optimist. I'll admit that.

But I still think you need to reach for the stars if you can get to 30-40 after 70 games and 48-52 after 100 games. That said, if the O's are 44-56 after 100 games (in other words, no improvement between now and then) or something worse, you might as well start selling off the veterans that other teams will/might covet for their playoff push.

---

There was, very truly, an instant classic in tennis yesterday, where Carlos Alcaraz came back from two sets down to stun Jannik Sinner and win the French Open.

It would be different if Alcaraz pulled off that feat against, say, the #15 seed who happened to shockingly work his was past several favorites en-route to a spot in the Final.

Instead, Alcaraz came back from 2-0 down to beat the #1 ranked player in the world, and needed a tiebreaker win in the 5th set to win the title.

If you're a tennis guy/gal, yesterday's final featured some of the more riveting rallies and moments in the last decade in Grand Slam play. For a while, anything Alcaraz could do, Sinner could it better. But over the last hour, anything Sinner did, Alcaraz answered.

Once in a while a game in any sport comes along where you look at the final result and say, "You know, in the end, neither team/player deserved to lose."

That was yesterday's men's final. Neither guy deserved to lose.

Oh, sure, you could say Sinner failing to close the deal after being up 2-0 was his fault, but Alcaraz also lost the first two sets to put himself into that hole in the first place.

When it was over, I thought to myself, "Both of those guys are champions. One of them just gets to hold up the trophy."

---

We're into our second week of #DMD2.0 and I'd first like to offer a sincere thank you to everyone who has donated to our "Request for Support" campaign. We are now at 48% of our desired goal with 21 days left in the month.

I've received a few e-mails from people with a legitimate question about a paywall and our campaign and the reasons behind it.

I'll take a few minutes here to answer that question broadly, since it does sorta-kinda involve all of you who have donated or are still on the fence about donating.

For starters, a handful of folks have wondered why I simply wouldn't charge, say, $2.00 or $3.00 a month like most newspapers and magazines are doing these days. "We're all used to it, you should just join the club and make us pay," #DMD reader Adam wrote to me.

I've said it here recently that our consultant, Matt, also believes that's the way to go. "No one will miss $4.99 a month," he told me in our first ZOOM meeting.

I know that's true. 5 bucks is nothing. I get it.

I guess I'm like the Amish who still believe the best way to dry clothes is to hang them out on the line.

In other words, I just don't believe a paywall and charging you money to subscribe is the best way to dry my clothes. Would it be easier? Yeah, probably. But we're staying with the "free" model.

Maybe this is the golfer in me, but I also think there's something to be said for the honor system. In golf, if you break a rule, it's incumbent upon you to call it on yourself. In golf, when you make a 6 on a hole and the guy keeping your score says, "Sorry, I was over in the trees looking for my ball and didn't see play much of that hole, what did you have there?", you're supposed to tell him "6" because you made a 6. You're on the honor system to report your proper and correct score.

So, even still, in 2025, despite how wacky and crazy our society is, I do believe there's merit in us doing "the right thing" simply because it's the right thing to do.

I don't say that to, in any way, suggest that media entities who charge a "fee" of some kind to consume their content are doing it wrong. They most certainly are not doing it wrong.

And I realize one of the reasons why they charge a monthly fee and snag it off of your credit card or bank account is because they don't trust that enough people will utilize the honor system. And they also have bigger bills to pay than do I here at #DMD.

But I still think the honor system is the way to go. This probably sounds weird, but I consider it a bit of "the American way". I'm providing a product you (hopefully) value and I'm banking (no pun intended) that you will throw me a nickel a day so I can keep having all of this fun.

I also inherently see value myself in the honor system. If, for example, 1,000 of you were to eventually participate in our "Request for Support", I know I have 1,000 loyal, enthusiastic supporters of what we do here.

Sure, we might have 8,000 to 10,000 "visits" on any given day based on what's going on in the world of sports, but I know not all of those people are going to donate to the cause. That's just foolish thinking.

If 1,000 people participate, they effectively become stockholders, sort of like the folks in Green Bay who buy Packers season tickets. They became intricate, meaningful members of "the club", so to speak.

So, that's that. We're into week two of our "Request for Support" and we're not quite yet at the 50% mark of our "hopeful" landing spot.

Matt, our consultant, assures me we're in a good spot. "You're right where I thought you'd be based on what you're looking to accomplish," he said to me last night on our weekly call.

He then said something that really resonated with me.

"I told you from the start of this that you'd have moments of joy and moments of disappointment but in the end you'd find great reward in having this campaign unfold in front of you."

I didn't always believe everything Matt told me when we first started talking last winter, but now I know he's right.

It's a nickel a day.

That's what we charge here, without actually "charging" you.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

If your answer that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

Thank you to all of you who have donated thus far. Your support means more than you know.

For those that haven't yet donated, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8 was Erik van Rooyen. #7 was Gary Woodland. #6 was Sepp Straka. #5 was Shane Lowry. #4 was Bryson DeChambeau.

#3 Patrick Cantlay -- Four consecutive top 15 finishes in the U.S. Open have to be leading Patrick Cantlay somewhere, right?

I mean, he's not going to be this generation's Matt Kuchar. There's just no way. Patrick Cantlay is going to win a major title at some point. And it could be this week at Oakmont CC.

To me, he could be the 2025 version of Xander Schauffele in 2024. Cantlay just needs that first one out of the way in order to win his second, third and maybe even fourth major.

But getting that first one is hard. Really hard.

Here's the thing with Cantlay, though. Anyone who drives it like he drives it and hits his irons the way he does has to stumble into a major title at some point, the same way Jim Furyk once did, the same way Jason Day once did and the way Hideki Matsuyama once did. Some weeks, it's just "your week".

Cantlay's 2025 season is terrific, stats wise, except he hasn't yet crossed the finish line in first place.

I do think that might change this week at the U.S. Open. If Dustin Johnson can win at Oakmont, so, too, can Patrick Cantlay.

He's currently at +4000, which might be about as good as you're going to find -- odds wise -- for one of the game's best ball strikers.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

Week Record: 4-2

Season Record: 26-38

AL East Standing: 5th (13.5 GB of NYY 8.5 GB of WC)

Player of the Week: Adley Rutschman - .417 AVG 2 HR 3 RBI .481 OBP

The Orioles completed another winning week, but it was ultimately a disappointing result after sweeping Seattle then managing to drop two out of three to the miserable Athletics.

The weekend series in Sacremento really put a damper on the positive signs of the past few weeks. If the team can’t take advantage of the bottom feeders, there is little chance for them to claw back into contention.

On Tuesday in Seattle, Colton Cowser made an emphatic return from the IL, blasting a solo home run in the sixth inning. Starter Tomoyuki Sugano tossed seven innings of one-run ball, backed by bullpen dominance to close out the win.

Mariners starter George Kirby left the game early after a frightening line drive off his face, and the O’s capitalized from there for a 5-1 win.

The O’s followed that up on Wednesday by edging out another tight contest. Adley Rutschman's solo homer tied things up in the sixth, and Heston Kjerstad delivered a decisive two-run triple in the seventh. Yennier Cano picked up his first victory of the season in relief, and Félix Bautista secured his 11th save in the 3-2 win.

Completing the sweep on Thursday, the Birds rallied from a two-run deficit in dramatic fashion, highlighted by back-to-back homers from Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson in the sixth inning. Zach Eflin struck out seven in six innings, earning the victory, while the bullpen trio of Keegan Akin, Andrew Kittredge, and Bryan Baker preserved the 4-3 win.

On Friday the O's early 3-0 lead evaporated quickly as Oakland rallied behind three hits and two RBI from Jacob Wilson. Despite homers from Jackson Holliday and Dylan Carlson, starter Dean Kremer was tagged for five runs, and Baltimore dropped the opener in Sacramento 5-4.

Despite Charlie Morton's rough start on Saturday (4 ER in the first), the Orioles stormed back behind Ramón Laureano’s three-hit, three-RBI performance, including a two-run homer. Cowser then launched a mammoth go-ahead solo home run in the sixth inning. The Orioles bullpen shut down the A’s, striking out nine after relieving Morton and securing Baltimore’s 7-4 win.

Unfortunately, the Athletics took the series finale, scoring four runs early against Sugano on Sunday. The O’s lone run was unearned, resulting from an Athletics throwing error. Despite solid bullpen work, highlighted by Scott Blewett’s 1.2 perfect innings, the Orioles couldn't muster a rally, settling for a 5-1 loss to drop the series.

There were a few candidates for Player of the Week.

Gunnar Henderson had a solid week at the plate, hitting .333 and providing some breathtaking baserunning to secure the final run on Saturday.

Colton Cowser made a strong return to the lineup with two homers on the week.

The bullpen also delivered this week, anchored by Felix Bautista’s four strikeouts over three innings in his two scoreless saves and an outstanding three scoreless innings with six strikeouts from Seranthony Dominguez. However, the honors this week go to Adley Rutschman, who started to right the ship with a .417 average on the week along with two homers and three RBI.

Down on the Farm:

There was some positive news from AAA Norfolk this week. Top prospect Samuel Basallo led the way in a 4-2 week against the Louisville Bats.

The 20 year old catching prospect launched three homers while batting .400 on the week and driving in five runs.

Dylan Beavers was phenomenal as well, hitting two homers of his own in addition to two triples and a double in a week where he finished with a .522 average. Beavers moved his season OPS to a very impressive .866.

Jordan Westburg also had a hot bat in his rehab stint, hitting .444 on the week and looking ready to return to the O’s lineup. Trevor Rogers delivered another solid start as well, allowing two runs over 6.2 innings and striking out five.

Further down at AA Chesapeake there weren’t as many highlights. There was some worrying injury news as standout starter Braxton Bragg was put on the shelf with the ominous, “forearm discomfort.”

Fellow starter Trey Gibson was one of the few standouts, throwing six innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and one walk.

Sunday June 8, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3940

sunday ramblings

Who would have thought that Colton Cowser would hit a home run that would land in Las Vegas and beat the Athletics to Sin City by a couple of years?

If you didn't stay up to see it last night, Cowser hit a ball that landed just.....juuuuusssttttt....juuuuusssssssssttttttt now in the O's 7-4 win over the someday-soon Las Vegas A's.

They said it was 455 feet but I think they shorted Cowser about 20 feet.

The Birds battled back from an early 4-1 deficit (thanks for nuthin', Charlie Morton) to win, 7-4, and put themselves in position for a very nice 5-1 west coast trip with a win in today's series finale in Sacramento.

Detroit comes to town for a 3-game series that starts on Tuesday, but only two of those three games can be won by the home team. Tarik Skubal pitches for the Tigers on Thursday night. That's a loss for the O's.

Morton's dismal start notwithstanding last night, the O's had several bright spots in the win. Gunnar Henderson had three hits, as did Ramon Laureano and six Baltimore relief pitchers blanked Oakland Las Vegas over the final 6.2 innings.

Felix Bautista walked the leadoff guy in the 9th, then whiffed the next three A's batters he faced to put the win away.

Oh, and one more thing.

In one of those quirky stats that only baseball can deliver, Keegan Akin threw one pitch in the sixth inning, gave up a hit, recorded an out, and somehow got the win.

A research guy I'm not, but I would almost guarantee that's a first in MLB history.

Akin comes in with two outs in the 5th inning of a 4-4 game. He gives up a double on the only pitch he throws. A runner trying to score from first base gets thrown out at home to end the inning. In the top of the 6th, the O's score twice to take the lead for good and, voila!, Akin is the winning pitcher having thrown only one pitch in the previous inning, which was actually a hit.

Baseball, man.

We pretty much had back-to-back instant classics in horse racing's Triple Crown series, with the two best 3-year olds duking it out down the stretch yesterday before Sovereignty pulled away to beat Journalism in the Belmont Stakes.

We mentioned the quirky baseball stat from last night's A's-O's game, but there was also a quirky stat from Saratoga Springs yesterday.

The order of finish -- Sovereignty, Journalism, Baeza -- was the exact same as it was at the Kentucky Derby in early May.

As expected, Rodriguez was an early factor and led throughout the first half before he started to tire, and Sovereignty, who saved plenty of ground early under the watchful, experienced eye of Junior Alvarado, started to make his move.

With only eight horses in the field, moving in and out of traffic is much easier than it is in Kentucky or Maryland, and Alvarado was able to urge the Derby winner into the clear as the horses turned for home. He nudged past Journalism with a quick burst and held on from there to give Sovereignty the win.

There's no telling what might have happened had his people decided to go for the Triple Crown and race the Derby winner at Pimlico three weeks ago. We might have ourselves a rare Triple Crown winner or not. We'll never know.

But when it comes to memorable Belmont races, yesterday's is up there. The two best horses on the track, going head to head for 10 or 15 seconds, before one of them emerges victorious.

There is a lot on the line and a fascinating story bubbling out out of the Canadian Open today, where one-time golfing phenom Matteo Manassero is poised to secure the biggest win of his PGA Tour career if he can put together one more great round of golf in Ontario.

Manaserro was once a teenage prodigy who was going to take the golf world by storm, only to discover what a lot of other hotshot kids find out along the way. There's always someone better than you out there.

The now 32-year old Italian slipped into golf's abyss and enters today's final round of the Canadian Open with exactly zero career wins on the PGA Tour. This year, he's played 11 TOUR events and has 8 made cuts to his credit, but his best finish as an individual in 2025 is a T25 at Torrey Pines back in late January.

Mackenzie Hughes of Canada is also in the hunt, parlaying a nifty third round of 64 into a 12-under total that leaves him just shots out of the lead with 18 holes to play.

A Canadian winning the Canadian Open is a really big deal up there. Here in the U.S., we fully expect an American to win our national golfing championship. In Canada, it doesn't happen very often that one of their own works his way into the winner's circle of their national golf championship.

But Hughes has to put together another great round and fend off the even bigger story from Toronto's TPC at Osprey Valley: Matteo Manaserro.

If Manassero -- currently tied for the lead with Ryan Fox at 14-under -- does win today, it will have come from completely out of nowhere.

Manassero has become golf's forgotton man.

They've always said Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez is golf's most "interesting" man.

Well, Matteo Manassero is the most "forgotton" man, for sure.

As a teenager, he was going to take the sport by storm.

15 years later, still looking for his first win, he has the opportunity he thought he would have week in and week out when he turned professional at age 17.

Manaserro's rise this week lends perspective to something I tell my Calvert Hall players -- and, really, any golfer who plays competitively at some level: you never know.

You never know when it might be your day. Or your round. Or your tournament.

Just keep making good golf swings and roll in some putts and see what happens from there.

Speaking of golf and the Canadian Open, I'll be on the air from 4-6 pm today at 105.7 The Fan for another live installment of "Fairways and Greens".

We'll follow along with the final round in Canada, plus I'm hoping to have the winner of today's Maryland Amateur (Bennett Espenshade vs. Jackson Roman) on the air with me at some point during the show.

I hope you can tune in.

We're 48% of the way there in our "Request for Support" campaign. Yesterday saw us go from 41% (on Saturday) to 48%, which puts us in great position to get to the halfway point by the end of today.

In case you weren't around this week or just haven't stopped by recently, we're knee-deep in what our business consultant calls "DMD2.0", which is a series of improvements to the content-portion of the site and a first-ever "request for support" in the form of a one-time donation of $48 to cover at least the next two years of your "membership".

Our "Happy Hour" feature (DMD's version of the old Baltimore Evening Sun) has been very well received. We'll likely have a Happy Hour insertion today at some point, along with more late afternoon/early evening content this coming week as well.

I put "membership" in quotes above because that's effectively what we're asking you to do without creating a formal mechanism to do it.

Some websites will create a paywall and charge you $48 or else you can't get in to read the stories and content.

I'd rather not do that. I'm not doing that, in fact, despite the plea of the consultant we've retained and a lot of my smart business-minded friends who think I'm nuts for not charging you $5.00 a month (example) to read the website every day, 7 days a week.

I'm doing it the old fashioned way. I'm doing it on the honor system.

I believe, as I explained to Matt, the consultant, that those of you who value the website will, in turn, support what we do here with I assume you'll agree is an incredibly "nominal" one-time ask of $48.

It's 46 cents a week for the next two years.

It's a nickel a day.

That's what we charge here, without actually "charging" you.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

If your answer that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

Thank you to all of you who have donated thus far. Your support means more than you know.

For those that haven't yet donated, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPal: 18inarow@gmail.com

---

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8 was Erik van Rooyen. #7 was Gary Woodland. #6 was Sepp Straka. #5 was Shane Lowry.

#4, Bryson DeChambeau -- It's hard to imagine that DeChambeau isn't going to be a factor this coming week at Oakmont CC.

My only concern will be his ability to make putts on what are expected to be crazy-fast greens up there.

But tee-to-green? DeChambeau is one of the top three candidates to win if you only consider hitting the ball off the tee and then hitting it on the putting surface from there.

Since he opted for LIV's blood money and no longer plays on the big tour, we don't have the advanced metrics on the 2024 U.S. Open winner that we have on PGA Tour competitors, but rest assured we all know enough about Bryson's game to predict what he'll do well at Oakmont CC.

He's going to hit it a long way off the tee and his wedge game is good enough to take it from there.

He also has a deceptively good short game, too, which helps make up for his occasionally uncooperative putter. As we saw in last year's final round at Pinehurst, BDC doesn't have to hit it in the middle of the fairway to score and win.

He's currently the 3rd favorite this coming week at +900. Unless something wacky happens, we'll assume you'll see his name on the leaderboard on Saturday night as they prepare for the final round on Sunday.

Saturday June 7, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3939

"hall of pretty good"

I saw something on the internet yesterday that I absolutely just loved.

It was former Major League pitcher Scott Kazmir getting "inducted" into the Hall of Pretty Good.

It's a web gimmick, of course. Someone got the wise idea to create a Hall of Pretty Good and started putting athletes in it to see what their reaction would be.

Kazmir took it like a pro's pro. He thought it was great.

Over the years, the actual "Hall of Fame" in baseball has really lost its luster. They've not only put some guys in there who probably don't belong, they've also created these weird "extra categories" to squeeze some guys in who didn't make it when their name was actually on the active ballot.

Harold Baines is the first one that comes to mind. Harold Baines has zero reason to be in baseball's Hall of Fame. Now, "Hall of Pretty Good"? Absolutely. "Hall of Fame"? No, no, no.

There are five current Major League players that I think will be strong arguments for baseball's Hall of Fame someday. But if they don't make it to Cooperstown, they're locks for the Hall of Pretty Good.

What do you think about these five?

Paul Goldschmidt

Zack Greinke

Andrew McCutchen

J.D. Martinez

Nolan Arenado

There are three categories we can choose from on each of those five.

1. Slam dunk (Meaning...they are DEFINITELY getting into baseball's Hall of Fame

2. Definitely considered (They deserve to have their careers explored and are legit possibilties for Cooperstown)

3. Not even close (Which means, by default, they're going in the Hall of Pretty Good instead of the Hall of Fame

Me? Personally?

I think Greinke is a Hall of Fame pitcher. He (sorta kinda) quietly won 225 games, which is pretty much the new "300 wins". His career ERA stands at 3.49. He also won a Cy Young award, don't forget.

But I'll admit Greinke is one of those you're going to have to evaluate and parse through all of his statistical data.

By the way, there's ample room in the Hall of Pretty Good for three ex Orioles; Adam Jones (first ballot HOPG); Nick Markakis (also first ballot HOPG) and Craig Kimbrel (dude was BETTER than pretty good for a long time)

---

The subject of voluntary OTAs has been the rage of the internet recently, both in Baltimore and in other NFL cities. Lamar Jackson has been in the crosshairs in Baltimore because he has failed to appear for either of the team's off-season "voluntary" sessions.

These camps are just like pre-season football games in August.

They mean nothing at all, really.

At least not to guys like Lamar.

It might be prudent for Malaki Starks or Mike Green to be there. They need as much exposure to the "big leagues" as they can get before they cram a couple of months of studying and work into the 6-week training camp later this summer.

But Lamar Jackson isn't showing up. It means nothing. When you tell someone who has zero concern about their position within the team, their playing time or their salary/contract status that they are not obligated to do something, they're not going to do it.

It's called human nature.

"Hey Lamar, you have two choices. You can stay down here in Florida, work out 3-4 hours a day, hang out with your mom, relax on the boat in the evening, enjoy an adult beverage or two with your friends -- or -- you can go up to Baltimore and wear shorts and a tee shirt for four days and throw passes to other guys in shorts and tee shirts and imagine like it all matters."

"What's your choice?"

Lamar: "You mean I don't have to go to Baltimore? Like, they're not gonna be mad at me if I don't go? I'm not getting fined or anything? Cooper Rush isn't going to take my job if I stay down here in Florida?"

"No, man, you're not losing your job. It's a voluntary camp. If you wanna go, then go. If not, stay here. No one will care."

Lamar: "Got it. What time we heading out on the boat tomorrow?"

These off-season "camps" are for the new guys. Lamar Jackson isn't getting better or worse by not being in Baltimore this past week.

And not being there doesn't mean he doesn't care, either. Check that narrative at the door, please. Not being there means he decided not to "volunteer" for the "voluntary" camp. Nothing more.

---

Four days into our "Request for Support" campaign and we're 41% of the way there.

"Keep plugging away," consultant Matt said to me yesterday. "You're doing fine. You might be 5 or 7 percent "off" of where you want to be, but you have to remember you've never really done this sort of thing before and your website is 11 years old."

I said at the outset of this campaign that I was doing something I wasn't used to doing. That is, I'm heeding the advice of someone who is merely a business "advisor". He doesn't know anything about Baltimore. He doesn't know much, really, about Drew's Morning Dish. And he doesn't profess to "care" all that much about the contents of the website.

What he is, though, is someone who understands how to create value for web-based businesses. And I had to be willing to give him the keys and say, "Here, you drive Drew's Morning Dish. I'll sit in the passenger seat."

That hasn't been easy for me to do.

But I think now that I'm a week into it, I can see the fruits of the labor Matt has invested in trying to make #DMD better and enhance its value to you, the reader.

"Happy Hour" is going great. Mark Suchy contributed a piece yesterday. Chris Piersall is going to provide some Happy Hour content next week. So, too, is Josh Michael.

"Live from Parkville" will debut next week.

We're rolling along nicely with our new editions, thanks in part to Matt and his wisdom(s).

But I still need your help and support. I'm asking you for a one-time donation of $48.

That's it. $48.00

It's $2 a week for the next two years. 46 cents a week. A nickel a day.

Is #DMD worth 5 cents a day to you?

If your answer that is "no", then we're really doing something wrong here.

If your answer is "Yes, Drew, of course #DMD is worth a nickel a day to me", then I'm simply asking you to give us a nickel a day for two years -- in advance.

Thank you to all of you who have donated thus far. Your support means more than you know.

For those that haven't yet donated, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPay: 18inarow@gmail.com

---

I know you probably forgot about it, but they're running the Belmont Stakes today in the final race of the 2025 Triple Crown series.

The Derby winner (Sovereignty) and Preakness winner (Journalism) are both in the field, as is Baeza, who is getting a lot pre-race push from racing enthusiasts.

Rodriguez is an interesting horse, but he'll likely need to get the lead early and hang on from there in order to pull off an upset win. He's not primed to come from behind.

Hill Road, Heart of Honor, Crudo and Uncaged figure to have too many flaws to finish first, but Hill Road is a bit of a closer who might be able to pass some lagging horses in the final 300 yards and could hit the board, if nothing else.

#DMD will go with the 6-7-1 trifecta, with Baeza holding off Journalism and a late charge from Hill Road. Rodriguez leads until they make the turn from home and then quickly runs out of gas.

I know what you're thinking: "Wait, the Belmont is today? Really?"

Yes, it is.

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8 was Erik van Rooyen. #7 was Gary Woodland. #6 was Sepp Straka.

#5, Shane Lowry -- OK, yes, Lowry recently toured Oakmont CC and walked in after 9 holes and called the place "practically impossible".

I don't care about that.

When the bell rings on Thursday, he'll be out there, fighting like the Irishman he is. Lowry isn't backing down from the challenge, that's for certain.

He'll be trying to make amends for the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont. If you remember, he led by four shots through 54 holes, then flatlined on Sunday, giving way to Dustin Johnson and his final round surge.

Lowry is a "gamer". The tougher the test, the more he's pressed into playing good, smart golf.

And it makes sense that he'll hang around next week, despite his first-blush-reaction to the venue when he visited Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago.

He wouldn't necessarily win a birdie fest. But next week is going to be about survival, not birdies.

Quietly, Lowry is one of the better drivers of the ball on TOUR. That's one of the reasons why he led after 54 holes the last time they played at Oakmont in 2016. He hits it a long way and it's generally in the fairway.

If his driver cooperates next week, he has a real chance of being there (again) on Sunday.

Lowry is currently at +3000, which are solid, inviting odds for him. Bet $100 to win $3,000? Why, yes, I think that makes a lot of sense indeed.

Friday June 6, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3938

Contibutor: Mark Suchy

I own a lot of baseball hats. If I’m being completely honest, I own far too many than a man of my age and alleged wisdom should.

But I like my baseball hats.

They’re my souvenirs from the ballparks I’ve been to. I have the Giants and Dodgers and Padres from our California trip 2 years ago. I have my Rangers hat from last July, when I went to visit my son in Dallas and we saw the Orioles open the second half of the season with wins on Friday and Saturday nights.

I have my alternate Rockies hat from our trip to Colorado last Labor Day weekend to visit my brother and his family and watch Craig Kimbrel’s final appearance in an Orioles uniform. That was the same game when Dean Kremer took a liner off his forearm and Ramon Urias turned his ankle. But Eloy Jimenez hit a mammoth homer. Good times.

I have my limits on what hats I’ll purchase, though. I’ve been to Fenway Park multiple times, and I assure you I don’t own a stitch of clothing associated with the Red Sox.

I went to the old Yankee Stadium to see the Orioles play. Do you really think I would ever wear anything with that logo? I’d sooner put on Duke underwear.

And when I go to Pittsburgh…I mean, come on. 1971 and 1979 and the football team that resides there? Not in this lifetime, my friend.

There are approximately a dozen Orioles hats in my possession. I swap them out depending on whether the team is home or away, or whether I feel they’ve been lucky or have exhausted their good juju.

Last weekend I just happened to be wearing one of my particular favorites, the black cap with the orange bill and the cartoon bird. You know, the traditional road hat from the glory days. And the Orioles just so happened to sweep the White Sox, so I kept wearing it. Lo and behold, they just swept the Mariners in Seattle.

Am I gonna keep wearing that hat this weekend? Dear reader, you know I am.

So, it’s off to Oakl….errrr, Sacramento (?!?) for our Birds this weekend. The weather is going to be hot and the baseballs are going to be flying out of that bandbox. Take the over for total runs scored.

The Orioles will throw Dean Kremer, Charlie Morton, and Tommy Sugar, while the A’s counter with J.P. Sears, Luis Severino, and the always tough Undecided.

There’s good mojo in Birdland lately. I’m keeping my broom handy. The A’s are sinking, although they feature a few intriguing bats in Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson, and Tyler Soderstrom.

For the second time in a week, Baltimore enters a series against a team with a worse record, as the Athletics are 24-40.

If the Orioles keep it up, that hat is going to smell pretty funky pretty fast. I hope it does.

---

The NBA Finals tipped off last night in grand fashion, as the Indiana Pacers somehow stormed back from 8 points down with 3:23 left in the 4th quarter to stun the host Oklahoma City Thunder, 111-110.

This is the fourth time in the playoffs that the Pacers have won a game on the road at the buzzer. And once again, it was Tyrese Haliburton hitting the game-winner as time expired. He’s shown over and over this postseason that he’s one of the best clutch players in the league. He just continues to come through when his team needs it the most.

While this matchup is probably a nightmare for league and advertising executives, it’s a real treat for basketball junkies. The Thunder feature the league MVP in Shea Gilgeous-Alexander, as well as young, rising stars like Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams.

They won 68 regular season games, and they entered the Finals with 80 wins combined, a figure only reached 14 times before in league history. They’re legitimately great when everything is clicking.

But the Pacers have been calm and determined throughout this playoff run, getting contributions from veteran Pascal Siakam and a pair of rising young stars in Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith. They play a fast and unselfish brand of basketball, and they’ve got the look of a team on a mission.

The old adage in sports is that a series doesn’t begin until the road team wins a game. After last night, we’ve got a series. I thought the Thunder would win in 6 games, but now I’m not so sure. Game 2 is set for Sunday night in Oklahoma City.

---

College baseball is down to its Sweet Sixteen, also known as the Super Regionals, this weekend. There are lots of future major leaguers taking the diamond, and as with most college sports, there are a few Cinderellas looking to crash the ball and get to Omaha next weekend.

The three biggest dark horses are UTSA, Murray State, and West Virginia. None of these teams were given much of a chance in last weekend’s Regionals, but they pulled upsets over traditional powerhouses Texas (UTSA), Ole Miss (Murray State) and Kentucky (West Virginia).

Given that it’s a combination of best-of-3 and it’s baseball, if you’re looking for something a little different with some drama built in this weekend, you might enjoy it.

And you might just catch our own Ben McDonald doing color commentary. My guess is he’s in Baton Rouge for the LSU-West Virginia Super Regional. It’s unlikely we’ll get to hear him exclaim, “Turn and burn O’Hearn!”, though.

---

On This Day in (Non) Sports History: 81 years ago, Allied forces, under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, launched the D-Day invasion along the Normandy Coast of France. Thus began the final chapter in the European Theater in World War II.

I’ve long believed that June 6 should be a worldwide holiday, as a way to commemorate the valor and courage of not just all those people who gave their lives that day, but to honor everyone who made the ultimate sacrifice in the cause of freedom and democracy around the globe. I know we have Memorial Day and Veterans Day here, but I believe every free nation should at least use June 6 as a day of solemn reflection and gratitude.

Today’s Sports Birthday: Happy 69th birthday to Swedish tennis great Bjorn Borg, born this day in 1956. Borg won 6 French Open titles and dominated Wimbledon from 1976 to 1980. His epic 1980 final at Wimbledon against John McEnroe remains one of the most intense dramas that sports has ever offered. It was a 5-set test of will, and the 4th set featured a 34 point (!) tiebreaker that Borg won, 18-16. Beyond his on-court greatness, Borg just gave off cool vibes, with his striped headband and scraggly beard and fluid style. He might be one of the more overlooked greats in my lifetime.

---

this is not useless information

This probably happened circa 2010, on a guy's golf trip in Florida.

We were all enjoying a late afternoon refreshment and another group of players bellied up to the bar and, as usually happens in those situations, greetings and stories followed.

I have no idea how we got to the point I'm about to recall, but someone in my group said, "This guy (pointing to me) can not only tell you every Masters winner, he can tell you who finished in 2nd place as well."

I quickly jumped in with clarification.

"Since 1986," I added. "Only since 1986."

Because grown men love to challenge anything they feel might be a ruse, one of the guys in the "other" group yelled out, "1991!"

"Jose Maria Olazabal," I said.

"1994!" someone else barked.

"Tom Lehman," I replied.

"2004," came the next challenge.

"That was Phil's first one...so...Ernie Els."

"Wait, how do we know he's right?" one of the guys asked.

A buddy of mine who had already reached a comfortable limit of gin and tonics barked, "Guarantee he's "effing" right" and threw down a hundred dollar bill.

Guys love to bet on stuff they have no real business betting on. It's one of our flaws.

So, sure enough, a guy from the "other" group reached into his pocket and pulled out a crisp hundred dollar bill and smacked it down on the bar.

"Let's see if he's right."

I was, of course. I don't remember what I had for dinner last Friday night and I (often) forget to take out the trash, but I can't forget that Brandt Snedeker finished runner-up to Trevor Immelman in the 2008 Masters. I'm sure Snedeker can't forget it, either.

How on earth did Trevor-freakin-Immelman win a major championship? Anyway, I digress...

As my friend scooped up the two one hundred dollar bills, the gruff, agitated loser of the wager said, "That's useless information, man. Who cares?"

Fast forward to a year or so ago. I was with a friend and his "team" at a trivia contest at Eagle's Nest. In general, "trivia" just isn't my thing because I don't know enough to be a major contributor. If the questions are about Bruce Springsteen or golf, I can be of some help. Oh, and maybe Denzel Washington movies. I can probably give you an assist in that category, too.

Anyway, we get to a question late in the round and it's under this category: Four letter first names -- "He finished 2nd in the Masters golf tournament and a year later, won the only major championship of his professional golf career."

You could hear a bunch of teams whisper, "Jack Nicklaus" right away because Jack has four letters. However, Jack won 18 majors, not one.

"Give me the slip of paper," I said, excitedly. "Give it to me."

I grabbed the pen. Mark...Calcavechhia, I wrote.

"Run this up there," I said to our designated runner. Bonus points were awarded for the team who got "in" with the correct answer first.

Calcavecchia, you might (not) know, finished in 2nd place in the 1988 Masters to Sandy Lyle, then the next year won the British Open in a playoff over Greg Norman.

It wasn't useless information after all now, was it?

So......

With that being said.

Do not cheat and go to Google or look for these answers. Just don't do it. Think about it for a while and see if you come up with the answers.

At 11:00 am today, I'll post the answers in the Comments section.

1. Which player started a Major League All-Star Game then only played one more Major League baseball game for the rest of his career thereafter?

2. Of all the players with at least 600 career home runs, only one of them did not win a MVP award. Who was it?

3. Since 1970, only one player has been a World Series MVP on a team that he didn't start the season with. Who was it?

4. Who is the only American League batting champion to lead the league in hitting and not record a home run in that same season?

5. Since 1970, only three players have a hit a home run as a teenager and after reaching age 40. Who are they?

Now, dig in and think about it. That is, if you're a baseball enthusiast who appreciates useless information.

You never know when you and your buddies might find a willing wagering partner at a bar in Valrico, Florida.

---

Our friend Mark Suchy chimed in yesteday with a "Happy Hour" insertion but I was playing in my member-guest tournament and didn't have the ability to get his piece on the website in time.

As I continue to tweak and improve #DMD, I'll be working on a way to make sure I can get that information up on the site from a remote location or during a time when I'm not necessarily able to publish it right then and there.

Anyway, Mark had two nuggets in his piece I wanted to share today.

Such write: I learned how to read and understand basic math when I was a very young boy and I would read the baseball box scores in The Morning Sun while eating my breakfast cereal. One of the magical wonders of baseball is the box score, especially the old school ones that showed the lineups side by side, with the batting orders listed, and the player results for that game. At Bats, Runs, Hits, RBIs, Walks, Strikeouts, and Batting Average all listed from left to right.

And the pitcher’s box would be below that, showing Innings Pitched, Hits, Runs, Earned Runs, Walks, Strikeouts and Earned Run Average.

All of this is to tell you that I discovered a wonderful website called The Baseball Cube that has recreated the old sports pages of my youth. It gives the current standings, today’s pitching matchups, all of the league transactions, today’s birthdays (Royce Lewis is 26! Happy Birthday!), career milestones (J.P. Crawford made his 3,000th at bat yesterday against the Orioles), the full MLB Injury List (I see you Corbin Burnes!), and then all of the previous day’s box scores.

It’s a wonderful way to spend 10 or 15 minutes in the morning catching up on the best game that summertime has to offer.

I’ve downloaded it on my Safari app on my phone. You can find it at thebaseballcube.com. If you’re a child of the early 70’s, you might want to buy some cereal for your morning routine.

One final baseball thought: I really enjoy watching late night West Coast baseball games. I suppose that might put me in the minority, but I like staying up late to see the Orioles play in faraway places like Seattle (I’ve never been, but it’s on the list, believe me).

It brings back memories of years long gone, when the only time you’d see places like Anaheim and Oakland were when the Orioles played there and Channel 2 might broadcast a few games. In the early 80’s, TBS would show every Atlanta Braves game, and then I could watch the Dodgers playing in Chavez Ravine and the Padres playing in old Jack Murphy Stadium.

It made the West Coast seem so alluring and beautiful. Palm trees and beaches and sunshine and baseball! What a concept!

The seeds that were planted in my mind all those decades ago led me to take a trip to California 2 years ago to see the ballparks with my sons. It was unforgettable. We’ll be going back, and including Seattle on the next journey.

---

"Don't get discouraged," our business consultant, Matt, texted me around 8 pm last night.

His words of support came after he texted me with an update on donations for Thursday and I wrote back, "Slow day."

Matt went on to explain that there's always an initial rush when "campaigns" like mine are launched and then it slows down. He's a numbers guy, is Matt. He said we'd reach 50% of our goal in the first five days and we are now at 33% after three days of asking for your support.

The life of a fund raiser, I suppose.

Anyway, Matt went on to explain that the "tweeners" are the ones I have to reach next.

"You've already most likely heard from about 90% of your "P1" readers (a "P1" is someone who listens or reads every single day with great intention), if not 95% of them. Those P1's are in your camp and they're happy to help. The tweeners are who you need next."

"Tweeners?" I replied.

"They're the people in-between. They're not P1's. But they're also not people who come to the site once a week or several times a month. They visit every day or almost every day. Maybe they haven't read your appeal for support. Maybe they're on vacation. Maybe they aren't moved to support you with their $48 yet."

"Keep after them," he wrote last night. "They will support you."

So, I'm keeping after you. I'm trying not to be a pest. If you're a #DMD reader and you're someone who values what we do here, please consider our "request for support" and know that your donation means a lot to me.

This will be our only "drive" of this type for at least two years. It's a one-time thing, in the month of June, and your $48 donation essentially amounts to 46 cents a week for the next 104 weeks.

It's a nickel a day, basically.

If you give me two quarters every week for the next 104 weeks, you've helped me not only keep #DMD alive and well, but you help us grow the product and improve upon it.

Thank you to all of you who have donated thus far. Your support means more than you know.

For those that haven't yet donated, here's the information on how you can support #DMD.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPay: 18inarow@gmail.com

Don't forget, we have unveiled an evening (late afternoon?) addition of #DMD, called, "Happy Hour" (see yesterday's edition with a contribution from Mark Suchy for a sample). I don't know if there will be a "flow" to that new feature or not, but my hope is to add something around 5 pm each day if stories or situations warrant it. My goal is to eventually have a contributor handle "Happy Hour" every day and he/she will be responsible for providing their own thoughts and commentary sometime in the late afternoon, particularly Monday through Friday.

And "Live from Parkville" will be a weekly podcast/videocast feature that get off the ground sometime next week. I have a couple of ideas about the "first show" but I need to get the guests in place to make it worthwhile.

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8 was Erik van Rooyen. #7 was Gary Woodland.

#6, Sepp Straka -- You had to know this was coming if you've been following my golf analysis for the last two years. Straka is one of more underrated players in the world right now.

Here's his flaw: He doesn't drive it far enough.

But I don't think that's going to be fatal next week. Not if the rest of his stats hold up under the heat of the U.S. Open.

Straka ranks 3rd on TOUR in the "shots gained, total" category.

He's 37th in "shots gained, off the tee".

He's 2nd on the entire PGA Tour in "shots gained, approach to green".

He's 16th in "shots gained, putting".

And he's 44th in total driving (combination of accuracy and distance).

Oh, and he's first on the entire tour in greens hit in regulation percentage (71%).

Straka drives the ball straighter than you can point.

And when it gets on the green, he can putt it in the hole with the best of them.

I know everyone says next week is going to be a "bomber's paradise", but if you can't hit the fairway you're going to shoot 82-82 both days and head home early.

Straka has 2 wins already this year and could be headed to a third next week in Pittsburgh.

He's currently at +6500 for next week's visit to Oakmont CC. That's a great number for one of the best drivers of the golf ball in the world.

faith in sports

Legendary Oklahoma Sooners softball coach Patty Gasso took the stage recently at the 2025 K-LOVE Fan Awards to accept the Sports Impact Award, honoring her bold witness for Jesus both on and off the field. In this backstage interview, Coach Gasso opens up about her journey, the challenges and blessings of being a Christian leader in competitive sports, and the importance of faith-driven parenting for kids in travel sports.

She offers heartfelt advice to parents navigating youth sports, shares insight on the mental health struggles athletes face today, and explains why she continues to publicly live out her faith in a culture that often pushes back.

This 4-minute video is great to share with the junior athlete in your family.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment here every Friday.

Thursday June 5, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3937

everyone has a price

Never let it be said that a man can't be bought.

My longtime friend John, who now makes his home in Florida and keeps up-to-speed with Baltimore sports via #DMD, sent me a note yesterday about our "request for support" and vowed to send in his $48.

"Hey," he wrote. "One more thing. Take it easy on Paul, George, John and Ringo, huh?"

I quickly shot him a note back and said, "You know what, because you stepped up with your support, I'm going to support your request. The remainder of June will be a Beatles-free month here at #DMD.

No Beatles jabs, quips, digs or criticisms, veiled or otherwise. I might even be willing to take that a step further and offer this potential remedy: If we reach 100% of our "support goal", I might swear off ragging on the Beatles for the rest of 2025.

Might is the key word in that sentence. I have to give that one some real thought.

But for the rest of this month, at least, it's Beatles-free here, thanks to my old pal John in Florida.

All it took was 48 bucks.

Who knew, right?

#DMD reader Louis sent me an e-mail on Wednesday that I thought I'd share. It's important to remember that Louis is just one person and he's entitled to his opinion. The contents of the e-mail could ignite some of you to go after him.

"Drew, are you as sick of the WNBA as I am? Fake drama, racial tension, overly hyped players who aren't all that good and coverage from ESPN like every game is Game 7 of the championship. It's, as you like to say, "laughable". Why is this league getting shoved down our throats? Why??? If you want to throw this out to your readers I'm fine with it. Maybe I'm the only one sick of the WNBA? Your thoughts, Drew?"

There's a lot to unpack there.

It's hard for me to give the question the treatment it deserves because I'm very unmoved by the WNBA and their product in general.

The whole league is just not for me.

That said, I would offer these three things in summary.

1. There's no question the league has been forced upon the mainstream sports fan. Whether you chose to hop on and follow it or waved it off is up to you, but American sports enthusiasts have had the WNBA forced upon them. And, let's be honest, if you openly profess to not liking the WNBA or women's basketball, you're looked at as the bad guy.

2. I personally don't find the WNBA entertaining in the least. That said, I also don't agree with Louis that the players "aren't all that good". I think they are excellent basketball players, in fact. I will agree there's an "over hyped" element about the league and perhaps some of the star players as well, but I think the general quality of their basketball skills is quite high. That said, I just don't find the games entertaining.

3. ESPN saturates us with the WNBA because they are broadcast partners with the league and have been worthy supporters of the league pretty much since its inception. I have no idea at all if ESPN actually makes any money by broadcasting the games and selling advertising within those broadcasts. I assume they make something or they wouldn't be partners with the league. But it's ESPN's job to promote the league and the players and do so in a manner that, frankly, is probably "bigger" than they promote the NBA.

All that said, if the WNBA helps some 12-year old girl in Chicago stay the course, work on her game, play in college, and someday support her family by playing professional basketball, what's the harm in that? None at all. The WNBA is similar to Major League Soccer. It's not for everybody. But if you're a fan of women's basketball, the WNBA is doing a great job of serving you with a quality product.

Thanks for the e-mail, Louis. I don't think you're all alone with your position on the WNBA. Personally, I know it's not for me and I don't spend much time worrying about the way ESPN presents it to me and the rest of the country.

Thanks to those of you who got in yesterday on day two of our "Request for Support" here at #DMD. We almost reached the same number of donations yesterday as we did on day one on Tuesday.

If you're curious, we are now at roughly 23% of our goal after day two. I have a bit of a personal goal of being at 50% by the end of the weekend, so we'll see if that happens.

If you're moved to help us today, it would be greatly appreciated.

There are days and occasions when, like any business owner, I let my mind get the best of me and wonder, "Do people really value Drew's Morning Dish?" Then I see the support I received on Tuesday and Wednesday and I believe we are providing a value to all of you who come here regularly.

If you didn't get a chance to donate yesterday or you're just getting around to wondering what we're doing, here are the details once again.

1. A simple, inexpensive "request for support" in the amount of $2 a month for two years, a total of $48. If you want me to do the more simple, eye-opening math, $48 over 2 years comes out to 46 cents a week. That basically works out to about a nickel a day for #DMD.

We are certainly willing to accept any amount you believe is fair or fits your budget. A "request for support" is just that. It's an "ask", if you will.

As I continue to try to improve this site and offer you more content and specialized forms of coverage -- like bringing Dale Williams back as our Maryland basketball beat reporter! (yes!!) -- I'm also searching for new sources of revenue that don't involve a mandatory monthly paywall.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPay: 18inarow@gmail.com

2. We have unveiled an evening (late afternoon?) addition of #DMD, called, "Happy Hour" (see yesterday's edition with a contribution from Mark Suchy for a sample). I don't know if there will be a "flow" to that new feature or not, but my hope is to add something around 5 pm each day if stories or situations warrant it. My goal is to eventually have a contributor handle "Happy Hour" every day and he/she will be responsible for providing their own thoughts and commentary sometime in the late afternoon, particularly Monday through Friday.

3. "Live from Parkville" will be a weekly podcast/videocast feature that get off the ground sometime next week. I have a couple of ideas about the "first show" but I need to get the guests in place to make it worthwhile.

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8 was Erik van Rooyen.

#7, Gary Woodland -- I think the 2019 U.S. Open champion is a very favorable, sneaky pick next week at Oakmont CC.

Here's the one statistical flaw that could hurt him at Oakmont. He only hits 57% of the fairways.

Missing fairways next week will be a round killer.

Now, before you go thinking "if he can't hit fairways he can't win", let me remind you that by basically hitting one more fairway per-round next week, he'll go from hitting 57% of them to hitting 62% of them and that number would put him well within the top half of the PGA Tour.

Assuming most courses have 4 par 3 holes, Woodland hits roughly 8 fairways now. If he hits 9, he jumps to 62%.

Everything else about his 2025 season from a statistical standpoint is promising. He hits it a long way (314 yards per-drive on average) and he putts decently enough. He hits 65% of the greens, which is fine.

Woodland is a low-key, off-the-radar kind of player who could do the same thing at Oakmont he did at Pebble Beach in 2019: Win the U.S. Open when no one was even thinking of him during the pre-tournament build-up.

Look at the last three guys to win at Oakmont CC. Ernie Els ('94), Angel Cabrera ('07) and Dustin Johnson ('16). All three of them were outstanding drivers of the golf ball. None of them were known for their putting. But all three could pound it off the tee and were reasonably reliable from tee-to-green.

There's something about the way Woodland is playing in 2025 that interests me. He's made 9 of 13 cuts. He has a runner-up finish. He has 5 Top 25 finishes as well. No one is talking about him. But the data says he could be a sleeper next week in Pittsburgh.

Oh, and he's currently at +25000. Get him now at that number, while you can. That's a great investment for a guy with his credentials.

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

The Milwaukee Brewers have been on a roll of late, with an 8-game winning streak that was snapped Tuesday night after TJ Friedl of the Cincinatti Reds robbed the Brew Crew of the game tying home run with 2 outs in the 9th.

Milwaukee has been resilient after a tough start to the season, and now have a 33-29 record and sit 6 games behind the Cubs in the NL Central. What was most impressive about the winning streak was the sweep over the weekend against the Phillies on the road.

Last Saturday, they went up against Jesus Luzardo, who has been fantastic this season, and put up 12 runs on him as the Brew Crew won 17-7.

The Brewers haven’t made up much ground in part because the 2nd place St. Louis Cardinals have also been red hot, with a 19-8 record in the month of May. As we’ve discussed in the past, the division is up for grabs between the Cubs, Brewers, and Cardinals.

The Reds are slowly beginning to fall out of the race as their offense is struggling to put up runs and the Pirates can’t get a win even with Paul Skenes on the mound. The Cubs are the current betting favorite to win the division, but there’s a lot of value with the Cardinals and Brewers.

The Angels made history on Monday against the Red Sox as they became the first visiting team to hit 3 home runs in the 1st inning at Fenway Park, which is pretty impressive considering the stadium opened in 1912.

Zack Neto started the party with a leadoff homer. Later in the inning, after the Red Sox made 2 errors, Mike Trout launched a 454-foot 3- run shot, making the Red Sox pay for those 2 miscues. Jo Adell hit the 3rd home run of the inning two batters after Trout, which set the record.

Adell would later homer again in the game, adding a crucial insurance run as the Angels would win 7-6.

This Red Sox team has been a bit of a letdown, as they were semi-favorites to win the AL East, with some even predicting them to win the AL pennant. They are currently 5 games below .500 with a 2-8 record in their last 10 games.

One other thing to look for is the possibility that Boston could wind up being sellers at the trade deadline.

In other news around the league, last weekend we saw a rematch of last year’s World Series as the Yankees visited the Dodgers. In this highly anticipated series, Aaron Judge homered in the top of the 1st inning of game 1 to give the Yankees an early lead.

All eyes turned to Shohei Ohtani in the bottom of the 1st to see his response, and he answered the bell with a home run as well to return the favor.

The Dodgers would end up winning games 1 & 2, with the Yankees taking game 3 and avoiding the sweep. The Yankees were beat up pretty good over the weekend and outscored by the Dodgers 29-14 in the 3-game series.

To make the weekend worse for the Yankees, their closer Luke Weaver suffered a hamstring injury while warming up in the bullpen and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

Weaver is a huge loss for the Yankees. He has been excellent this season and stepped up to fill the closer role when Devin Williams was struggling earlier this year. Williams will now get a second chance at closing games for the Yanks. We'll see if he can redeem himself with this opportunity.

Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners has been unbelievable this season and has been one of the best catchers in baseball. He became the first catcher in MLB history to hit 20 home runs before the end of May and is currently tied for most home runs in baseball with 23.

Raleigh is on pace to hit 57 homers this season which would also be the most hit by a catcher in MLB history.

I don’t know if he gets to 57, especially since Seattle is such a pitcher friendly ballpark. The most home runs hit by a catcher in a season is 48 held by Salvador Perez. I do think Raleigh can get close to Perez’s record and possibly even break it.

We’ll keep track of his home runs as Raleigh gets closer to the record. If he does break this record, it’ll be interesting to see where that puts him in the AL MVP race which, to this point, is in the hands of Aaron Judge.

One last note from this past week in MLB before we get into the players of the week segment, I want to give a quick shoutout to the Colorado Rockies and congratulate them on their first series win of the season. It took them a long 2 months, but they finally did it.

I couldn’t believe it when I first saw this, but I guess it makes sense given they’ve only won 11 games this year. All sarcasm aside, I’m pulling for the Rockies and hope they don’t break the record set by the White Sox last year for most losses in a season.

Players of the Week --

Position Player: Max Muncy of the LA Dodgers had a huge week batting .389 with 5 homers and 11 RBI. Muncy is a long time Dodger and a 2-time World Series winner. He is one of those “home run or bust” type of players and this past week he had the long ball going for him.

Pitcher: Framber Valdez of the Houston Astros had a very impressive outing last Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays. Framber pitched 9 innings and gave up 3 hits, 1 run and 1 walk with 9 strikeouts. What’s even more impressive is he pitched 9 innings and only threw 83 pitches.

I don’t know how that’s even possible, but Framber was absolutely dealing last Friday. Whenever Valdez or Hunter Brown are on the bump for the Astros, there’s a very good chance they’re winning that game.

Rookie: Denzel Clarke, a Toronto native, was called up by the Athletics and played in this past weekend's series where the Athletics visited Toronto. Clarke had around 150 family and friends in attendance to watch him play, and he went 4/11 with a home run, 3 RBI, and 2 stolen bases over the weekend.

Scouts believe he is a Gold Glove caliber outfielder but his bat also earned some of the spotlight in the series with the Blue Jays. What a cool weekend for Denzel Clarke where he got to play in the same city he grew up in.

Debut Watch: The Royals called up their highly ranked prospect Jac Caglianone after drafting him last year with the 6th overall pick. Caglianone has crushed minor league pitching, hitting 15 homers and 56 RBI over 50 games while also batting .322. The Royals desperately need help offensively as they have scored the 2nd fewest runs in MLB. Caglianone is a guy who has light tower power and could be a huge spark for Kansas City.

Games of the Week:

Friday, June 6th: Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees (Walker Buehler vs Will Warren)

This will be a fun series to watch over the weekend as another chapter gets added to one of the greatest rivalries in baseball. Can the Red Sox get back on track and win a series against the Yankees in New York?

Saturday, June 7th: LA Dodgers vs St. Louis Cardinals (Yoshinobu Yamamoto vs Erick Fedde)

This game features a great pitching matchup as the Cardinals will look to continue their hot streak and win a series against one of the best teams in baseball. Yamamoto did struggle against the Yankees in his last outing, giving up 4 runs in 3.2 innings. The NL Cy Young candidate will look to have a rebound start on Saturday.

Sunday, June 8th: Chicago Cubs vs Detroit Tigers (Cade Horton vs Jack Flaherty)

The NL Central division leader will go on the road and take on the AL Central division leader. Sunday’s game will likely be a rubber match in my opinion, and Flaherty has been decent this season and gives Detroit a good chance to win the series vs. Chicago.

Wednesday June 4, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3936

We welcome back our old friend Mark Suchy, who settles up to the bar this afternoon with a few nuggets of wisdom to get us started with "Happy Hour". Thank you, Mark!

SHOT: Before we settle in to watch Cade Povich pitch tonight, let’s take a minute to appreciate how good Tomoyuki Sugano has been so far this season.

In 12 starts, Sugano has pitched to a 5-3 record, with an ERA of 3.04 and a WHIP of 1.04. He’s struck out 40 batters and only walked 11 over the course of 71 innings pitched.

”Tomo” (is that what we’re nicknaming him? I prefer Tommy Sugar) has actually allowed more homeruns (12) than walks. Per Statcast, his offspeed pitch run value is in the 99th percentile, which is outstanding. For a pitcher who mixes speeds and locates the ball so well, his 4-seam fastball and his cutter are only slightly below league average in velocity.

Most importantly, Sugano has hit the post for every start this season. For a team that has had such obvious issues with the starting rotation, he’s been an absolute savior. He’s averaging just under 6 innings per start, and watching his performance last night made me wonder if he’s got a touch of Mike Cuellar in him.

Cuellar was a notoriously slow starter who got better as the temperatures rose. He had tremendous control and mixed pitches with a veteran’s savvy.

Above everything else, Tommy Sugar has been fun to watch pitch. And that’s certainly not something we can say about every Orioles starter in 2025. I’m of the opinion that instead of looking to deal him at the deadline, the team considers a 2-year extension.

If there’s anything this front office should be learning from the first few months of this season, it’s that you can never have enough starting pitching.

CHASER: Jackson Holliday is beginning to thrive in the leadoff spot. Over 89 plate appearances in that place, he’s hitting .256 with an OPS of .723. Those may not seem like earth shattering numbers (and they’re not), but watch his plate discipline and his contact during his at bats.

He’s no longer chasing the down-and-in breaking stuff. He’s relaxed and confident, and his 9th inning RBI single last night was a thing of beauty. Just loud contact and a baseball smoked into left-center field on a line.

Holliday hit .287 in May, and I like that interim manager Tony Mansolino has said he’s putting him in the leadoff spot every day moving forward.

Would we like to see more walks and a bit more pop from him? Sure. But, ummmm, he’s 21 years old. In 198 at bats this year, he’s hitting .268 with 8 doubles, 2 triples, 7 homeruns and 26 RBIs. He’s. 21. Years. Old.

SHOT: The Stanley Cup Finals begin tonight, and it’s a rematch of last year’s participants. The defending champion Florida Panthers meet the Edmonton Oilers again for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup (Goblet? Chalice? Giant Silver Thingy?).

As someone who admittedly has a very limited knowledge of hockey, I’m intrigued by the fact that both teams advanced through the playoffs to meet again. I can’t name a player on the Panthers, and I know that the Oilers have McDavid and Draisaitl (that’s a really cool name!), so I suppose that means I have to pick Edmonton.

A quick aside to say that I’m always amazed at the skill of hockey play-by-play announcers. I can barely make out the numbers on the sweaters as those guys fly around, but somehow the announcers know who just tipped the puck in front of the net in a scrum of bodies. Those dudes are fantastic. I admire their talent.

CHASER: My buddy Kevin is from Rochester, N.Y. and still plays hockey in a men’s league. He told me last year before the playoffs began that Florida would win the Cup. The other day he told me it’s Edmonton’s time and that McDavid is too good to not win a Cup at this point in his career. So there you have it. Kevin likes bourbon, by the way, so if you win on the Oilers, I’ll get you his contact info.

SHOT: On this day in 1927, the U.S. won the first Ryder Cup at Worcester Country Club, beating Great Britain 9.5 to 2.5. Walter Hagen was the U.S. captain and Ted Ray was the British captain.

CHASER: On June 4, 1929, Harry Frazee died. He was 48 years old. It was less than ten years after he sold Babe Ruth as the owner of the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees.

---

they call that a winning streak

How about that, huh? Four straight wins for our battlin' Birds.

Last night's 5-1 win in Seattle was a nice way to start the west coast trip. Tomoyuki Sugano was awesome for the O's, going 7 innings and allowing just one earned run.

For all of the heat Mike Elias has taken over the last four months, Sugano is the GM's chef's kiss. Sugano is a (short term) 'keeper for sure.

It was such a good night for the Birds that Coby Mayo even got a base hit.

Adley Rutschman silenced his critics for at least 24 hours with a 3-for-5 performance at the plate that raised his average up to .214.

And Colton Cowser celebrated his return to the lineup with a homer as the Orioles improved to 23-36 on the season.

For one night, at least, the O's looked like the team we expected to see in 2025. It was fun, despite staying up until midnight to see it all unfold.

There's a lot of ground to make up, I know, but as I wrote here a few days ago, if the O's could somehow wiggle their way back to 30-40 on the season at the 70-game mark, there could still be a morsel of hope.

We're far from ready to start saving for playoff tickets or anything like that.

And the cycles of every season suggest there will be several four-game losing streaks in the hopper over the next four months. But chipping away at this chase back to .500 will give a little bit of life to the month of June, if nothing else.

There are more and more stories starting to surface about the end days of Brandon Hyde's tenure and it appears -- if you believe in those snippets -- that Hyde became increasingly frustrated with a young locker room that didn't seem to care all that much (in his eyes) about their lack of performance and the ongoing early-season losing pattern.

The Baltimore Banner had a fairly lengthy story last week that chronicled Hyde's frustrations and one team associate told me on Tuesday that Hyde forewarned both Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman that their respective early season woes were related to a less than enthusiastic spring training from both of them.

"You weren't prepared for the season and it's showing," Hyde told them in a meeting after an early season loss in Washington DC.

After a loss in Detroit in late April, Hyde again lit into the team, "Some of you in here act like we're 20-13 instead of 13-20. We lose and it's like, 'Oh well, we lost, let's get 'em tomorrow' instead of looking at your performance." The associate who spoke to #DMD said Hyde would routinely mention to players that he wanted to see more "fire" in them.

The source also said that Hyde was not happy with the club's decision to let James McCann leave as a free agent in the off-season.

"He valued James in a lot of ways, on and off the field" the team associate said. "He [McCann] was the one guy who say something to Gunnar and Gunnar would listen. When McCann spoke, guys put down their phones and listened. Losing him hurt in the locker room."

"Brandon knew he was going to get fired if things didn't improve. He told the team several times, 'This is how a manager gets fired. When you guys don't hit and don't score runs, he loses his job.' But it didn't seem to sink in with them."

Thanks to those of you who got in on day one yesterday of our "Request for Support" here at #DMD. I received a number of thoughtful e-mails from longtime readers, which are always good to see.

I perused the comments earlier this morning and appreciate the kind words and supporting gestures from many of you. Those greatly offset the folks who comment here and openly admit they're not supporting what we do at #DMD.

If you're curious, we are at roughly 13% of our goal after day one. For what it's worth, Matt, the consultant working with me on what he now calls "DMD2.0" predicted we'd hit 15% on day one. The guy knows his stuff.

My goal for today is to see that get to 25%. If you're moved to help us, it would be greatly appreciated.

There are days and occasions when, like any business owner, I let my mind get the best of me and wonder, "Do people really value Drew's Morning Dish?" Then I get e-mails from people like Jason, Ray, Dmitri and Mitch and I realize the answer to that question is "yes". Those were four of the many I got on Tuesday that gave me the chills. Thank you.

If you didn't get a chance to donate yesterday or you're just getting around to wondering what we're doing, here are the details once again.

1. A simple, inexpensive "request for support" in the amount of $2 a month for two years, a total of $48. If you want me to do the more simple, eye-opening math, $48 over 2 years comes out to 46 cents a week. That basically works out to about a nickel a day for #DMD.

We are certainly willing to accept any amount you believe is fair or fits your budget. A "request for support" is just that. It's an "ask", if you will.

As I continue to try to improve this site and offer you more content and specialized forms of coverage -- like bringing Dale Williams back as our Maryland basketball beat reporter! (yes!!) -- I'm also searching for new sources of revenue that don't involve a mandatory monthly paywall.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPay: 18inarow@gmail.com

2. We have unveiled an evening (late afternoon?) addition of #DMD, called, "Happy Hour" (see Monday's edition for a sample). I don't know if there will be a "flow" to that new feature or not, but my hope is to add something around 5 pm each day if stories or situations warrant it. My goal is to eventually have a contributor handle "Happy Hour" every day and he/she will be responsible for providing their own thoughts and commentary sometime in the late afternoon, particularly Monday through Friday.

3. "Live from Parkville" will be a weekly podcast/videocast feature that get off the ground sometime next week. I have a couple of ideas about the "first show" but I need to get the guests in place to make it worthwhile.

A final personal note for any of our golf enthusiasts out there.

I have an opening for two people to join me and three others for two days of golf next Thursday and Friday (June 12 and 13) at Moselem Springs GC outside of Reading PA. This is an event hosted by my FCA Maryland Golf program.

I'd love to extend an invitation to someone (and their guest) who would like to learn more about what we do with FCA Maryland Golf and join us for two days of golf and fellowship on an outstanding golf course.

If you're interested, please e-mail me today: 18inarow@gmail.com

#dmd's u.s. open great eight

So this could be one of those U.S. Open classics that people talk about for a long, long time.

"Remember that one year at Oakmont when 10 over par won the tournament?"

That's what people are saying now given the condition of the golf course and the reports from TOUR players who have played the Pittsburgh course in advance of this year's U.S. Open.

"I didn't miss a shot on the front nine and shot 3 over par," Adam Scott said after a recent practice round at Oakmont.

The fairways are narrow and the rough is 5 inches thick everywhere that isn't fairway.

It's not going to be a birdie-fest this year, that's for sure.

That said...I'm not one of those guys who thinks the scores will be outrageously high. 10 over par isn't going to be the winning score.

Will there be some players who shoot 77-80 and head home for the weekend after two days of torture? Of course. Will some otherwise great player post an 82 on Thursday or Friday because they hit too many foul balls off the tee? Most likely, yes.

But these are the greatest golfers in the world. And a handful of them, with their chakras in line for the week, will figure out a way to play safe, steady golf. There will be players who finish at even par or better, I'm guessing.

If I had to take a guess at the winning score, I'll say it winds up being something around 2-under par for 72 holes. I could see it creeping to 3 or 4 under par if the Pittsburgh area gets some rain that softens the greens and I could see it ballooning up to 3 or 4 over par if it gets extra hot and sticky all weekend.

Here at #DMD, we're giving you our "Great Eight" for the event. That is, our eventual winner and the seven players we feel have the best shot at upsetting him at this year's U.S. Open.

Be forewarned: We're putting a massive amount of stock in three statistical areas: Total driving (which is the ranking of a player's driving distance and accuracy, combined), shots gained off the tee, and shots gained, approach.

If a player fits well into two of those three categories, we're taking notice.

The general summary of Oakmont CC is this: You have to hit it straight and long and then you have to hit the green.

#8, Erik van Rooyen -- We had to wait for the Monday final round of U.S. Open qualifying to include him, but we knew were going to list him if he made it through, and he did.

The South African has awesome driving numbers (6th in total driving, 30th in distance, 64th in accuracy) and is 68th in shots gained, approach and also boasts an impressive ranking of 5th on TOUR in proximity to the hole from 200 yards or more, a stat that could come in very handy next week.

His only statistical blemish is his putting, where he ranks in the low 100's in several categories. That said, I'll repeat what I always like to remind you of here at #DMD. None of these guys on TOUR are "terrible" putters. Some of them are "great" putters and some of them are "good" putters who occasionally putt great.

van Rooyen is a good putter who occasionally putts great.

At the U.S. Open, where par is premium, I don't think putting will be all that big of a deal. It will not be a birdie-fest. If you get the ball on the green and two putt from there (presumably for par, that is), you'll be picking up a quarter of a shot on the field.

van Rooyen is sneaky good. We've been touting him for a while now and it feels like he's ready to break through with a big win at some point soon. We love his statistical chances next week. Now we just need his golf to follow.

Right now you can get him at +15000 for the U.S. Open. That's a great investment for a guy who definitely fits the profile of someone who can finish top 20 or top 10 next week.

Tuesday June 3, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3935

not signed, sealed or delivered

The U.S. Open qualifier at Woodmont CC on Monday provided some drama, but unfortunately, Catonsville's Nick Barrett wasn't around to see it all unfold.

Marc Leishman of Australia made a remarkable birdie on the first playoff hole to stay alive and then Sebastian Munoz missed a 6-foot par putt on the 2nd playoff hole to give Leishman and University of Virginia standout Bryan Lee the final spots in next week's U.S. Open at Oakmont CC.

The sun was setting in Rockville when Leishman and Lee put the finishing touches on their respective trips to Oakmont.

So, yes, there was drama at the end of the day. And, sadly, drama in the middle of the day as well.

After shooting a very respectable +2 round of 73 in the morning, Barrett -- a local UPS driver who plays his golf at Turf Valley -- somehow failed to turn in his scorecard and was disqualified from the afternoon round, thus ending his dream of playing at Oakmont CC.

That's certainly a tough way to go out. You work your tail off to be good enough just to qualify at the first stage. Then you make it out of there and you spend the next month dreaming about having what it takes to play in the U.S. Open.

All you need is to play the best 36 holes of your golfing life at the final stage of qualifying.

And after 18 holes, they tell you that your day is finished.

That's a tough pill to swallow.

But Barrett wasn't the only hard-luck story on Monday.

PGA Tour veteran Max Homa missed a 6-foot putt on his 36th hole of the day in Ohio which sent him into a 5-for-1 playoff with guys like Rickie Fowler, Cameron Young and Eric Cole. There was also another player in the playoff, Chase Johnson, who might have worked his way to Oakmont after finishing as the 1st alternate with a birdie on the 3rd extra hole.

Cameron Young wound up getting through in that playoff, but not after Cole and Homa both missed 15-foot birdie putts on the 1st extra hole. Young then stepped up and rolled in a 10-foot birdie of his own to claim the final automatic spot from that site.

What would you rather your fate be? Shoot 73 and fail to sign your scorecard and get DQ'd or play all day, lug your bag around the course for 36 holes, miss a 6-footer at the final hole, then lose in a playoff and have to sit home and watch the U.S. Open on TV?

Barrett's saga is certainly disappointing, but, as he told The Baltimore Sun, it was all on him. You have a scorecard to turn in for a reason. Your score is on that card.

"It's my responsibility," Barrett told the newspaper. "It's a gut punch, for sure."

Barrett apparently simply forgot to turn in his card. It wasn't intentional, of course. He had every intention of playing the second round despite needing a score of at least 66 in the afternoon to qualify for Oakmont. He joined his father and some friends for a quick bite to eat after the first round and realized his scorecard was still in his pocket.

He immediately went to the scoring table to plead his case, but it was too late. The two competitors in his group had turned in their cards and the scores for that group were official. Barrett was disqualified.

Now...while I'm not someone who bellyaches about the rules in golf when I'm not in position to change them, I'll readily admit the whole "sign your card" rule is a little bit archaic when the scores are being posted for you by an outside source following your group around.

That said, "something" has to be official when it comes to your score, because the walking scorers sometimes make a mistake when either following the action or entering your hole-by-hole score.

Yesterday, for example, former Loyola University golfer Brandon Berry was listed at -5 through 13 holes in his second round, which put him in solo 3rd place at a site (Woodmont CC) where only four spots were allocated. I was beyond excited as I followed the action on my phone.

20 minutes later, after sending a text to a mutual friend telling them to watch Brandon's last few holes because "he might make it!", I learned there had been a scoring error and the online leaderboard was wrong. Instead of -5 (he was -3 and apparently made two birdies) he was actually -1 (two bogeys, not birdies) and had dropped out of the top four.

In my 2nd round of the U.S. Senior Open in 2021, I took a drop from a penalty area on the 13th hole and the walking scorer with us, situated on the other side of the hole, didn't realize what had happened. She thought I made a bogey and put my score in wrong, which stayed that way throughout the round until I signed my card at the end of the round.

That's why you need a scorecard at the end of the round. And that's why it needs to be signed. Realistically, only two people have to know your score and have it properly recorded during a round. You. And the person in the group keeping your score during the round.

So, a player keeping his/her own scorecard is important. And it's necessary, too. As much as we like to complain about silly stuff in life and sports, you keeping your scorecard and then signing it at the end of the round is really a nothing-burger. Just sign it and turn it in.

Nick is a quality player. I suspect he might make at least one more U.S. Open final qualifying effort in his future. If he does, you can bet he won't make that mistake again.

As for Homa, he shocked everyone by carrying his own bag in both rounds. "I thought it might benefit me to do that," Homa told The Golf Channel after the round. "I've been fighting some golf demons lately. And sometimes when you have someone out there with you it's easy to blame them or put some of the onus on them, even though you're the one hitting all the shots. So I figured I'll just carry [the bag] and then I have no one to look at except myself."

Unlike Nick Barrett, though, whose U.S. Open dream ended on Monday, Homa could still make it to Oakmont. He's playing the Canadian Open this week, where a win would likely push him inside the top 60 in the world and give him an automatic spot in the U.S. Open next week.

A lot of big names in golf failed to qualify on Monday.

A lot of guys we've never heard of did qualify.

As someone who was once one of those guys "no one has heard of" who advanced to the U.S. Senior Open four years ago, I can assure you it's the greatest feeling a competitive player can have.

For many, "golf's longest day" is also "golf's most memorable day".

Some of those memories are good, some aren't.

#DMD reader Miles sent me something over the weekend I wanted to delve into regarding Orioles owner David Rubenstein and his first full year of ownership.

It's worth noting that Rubenstein is not the sole 100% owner of the franchise. He and he alone can't make decisions on players, contracts, etc.

But Miles' point remains worthy of discussion.

Drew, just wondering what you think of Mr. Rubenstein's first year of ownership and is it really any better than what we previously had with the late Mr. Angelos and his sons running the team? You would always offer a warning that we shouldn't automatically rejoice because the new owner might not be an upgrade over the old owner and I'm wondering if that is playing out now with Mr. Rubenstein?

For starters, it certainly takes longer than one year to make any kind of full and "official" judgment on any owner's tenure. So we have to give Rubenstein and his ownership group a lot more leash than just one year.

That said...

I do hear from a couple of inside associates at the Warehouse that -- I'll use their words here, not mine -- things aren't "hunky dory" in the front office. "Some curious hires have led to tension and mounting friction" one of them told me yesterday.

Inner office turmoil isn't unusual in any big company, obviously. I know, from a friend who works at the Ravens, that there are certain folks in Owings Mills who don't get along but they battle through the tension for the good of the organization.

It's inevitable when large groups of people are asked to work together that some of them won't see eye-to-eye.

But none of that is important, really, when it comes to evaluating David Rubenstein's ownership tenure.

In general, the only thing any of us really cares about is the money he's willing to spend on baseball players.

Rubenstein gets a lot of grief on the internet for some of his self-serving, grandstanding stuff like shooting fans with a water hose and having his own bobblehead and dancing around on the dugout.

I get that.

I said right from the start of his tenure last year I thought that stuff made him look silly. You're the owner of the team, not a 22 year old college guy who had too much to drink and gets challenged by his frat buddies to dance with the bird during the 7th inning stretch.

So with the small stuff out of the way, we'll focus on the big stuff. The stuff that matters.

Will Mr. Rubenstein, as Miles calls him, and the others who make up the ownership "family" be big spenders or will they shy away from big-boy contracts and let the likes of Gunnar, Holliday, et al head off to the Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs, Braves, etc. when it comes time to pay them the big bucks they deserve?

I think, really, that's all anyone cares about when it comes to ownership.

They can dance on the dugout and squirt people out in right field and buy Section 64 a beer until the cows come home, but I'd much rather see the owner give Gunnar $400 million and stay in the background.

The franchise itself makes so much money it's laughable. As a business investment, Rubenstein and his friends will never lose a nickel. It was worth $1.725 billion in 2024 and it's worth $2 billion today, I'm guessing. If everyone got fed up and the team was sold tomorrow, Rubenstein would still turn a profit.

But it's not about that. None of us care if the franchise makes money or loses money. At least I don't. I won't speak for you.

What we do care about is you taking some of the profits you make from "us" (you know, the ones buying the tickets, paying for the streaming and watching the games on cable TV) and re-investing that back into the on-field product.

That's how you get graded as an owner. It really is that simple.

A year later, I don't see anything, really, from this ownership group that tells me they're going to spend a lot of money on baseball players in the future.

Supporters of Rubenstein's brief tenure point to a sharp increase in player payroll from '24 to '25. Well, they spent $109 million on players in '24. They could only go up from there. This year they're on pace to spend $164 million on baseball players, which puts them right in the middle of spending throughout Major League Baseball.

But this isn't about what they spend on players now.

It's about what they'll eventually be willing to spend.

The former ownership group spent big money once, really, on Chris Davis, and got burned from it.

This group is going to have several opportunities to reward promising young players like Gunnar and Holliday, plus potentially Westburg if he's ever able to play three consecutive months without getting hurt.

Will they pay them?

That's it. That's the question.

And the results, or the answer, will determine how we (I) judge them.

So far? I see nothing at all that tells me they're going to be an ownership group that spends freely on baseball players.

But they have time to prove they will spend.

That's when we'll judge them.

Day one of our month-long "request for support" begins in earnest today here at #DMD.

I offered everyone a small glimpse of what "Happy Hour" around here will look like as we take #DMD from a once-a-day publication to the occasional twice-a-day (yesterday we posted THREE times, actually) product where we give you something resembling a morning and evening product.

Next week I will be launching "Live from Parkville", a 20-minute podcast/videocast that will sit here in #DMD and become a regular feature of the site.

In addition to Jack Herb's Hot Corner and Randy Morgan's outstanding weekly coverage of the Orioles, we're working on some other seasonal contributors, including Terps basketball and, perhaps next year for the first time ever, expanded coverage of Terps football here at #DMD.

The other piece of our "new and improved" puzzle is the "request for support" I've written about here for the last couple of days.

We're asking for a contribution of roughly 5 cents per-day from you. Or $2.00 a month, to make it easier. We'll take whatever it is you want to donate, but our "request" is for $48.00 to cover a 2-year period.

I see in the Comments that a number of you expected a bigger "ask", money wise. Our consultant thought so, too. But in the end, I won that argument. $48 it is.

We have a month-long goal in mind and I'll keep you up-to-date on that as we go along.

For now, though, if you're a fan of #DMD and you want to help us keep doing the work we do here, $48 is all we're asking.

You can donate in one of two ways:

Venmo is: Drew-Forrester-1

PayPay is: 18inarow@gmail.com

In both cases, please donate using the "friends and family members" option so those two businesses don't scoop up 3% they most certainly do not need.

I will not publish names of those who donate. However, you are welcome to self-publish your name if you wish to do so. I have no problem at all with that.

You are, of course, welcome to donate more or less than $48. Whatever you donate is greatly appreciated.

I appreciate all of the words and comments from readers over the last few days as we unveil these new changes to #DMD.

Rest assured that those of you who heed our request for support hold a special place here. You're truly helping us not only continue to thrive, but improve our product in the long run.

Thank you.

Oh, one final note. More of a reminder than anything else. Two well-written comments were removed yesterday because the author of each failed to use a name to identify themselves.

I'm letting the cat out of the bag here a little, but here goes: If you're going to take 5 seconds to type in "Some Guy" as your name, just type in "Steve" or "Jack" or "Walter" or "Norm". If you don't type in a name, your comment is getting removed. Be better. Please.

For those wondering, our "U.S. Open Great Eight" will start here tomorrow at #DMD, as we break down the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont CC.

We needed to wait until at least yesterday to see who qualified and who didn't qualify. Tomorrow begins our "Great Eight" prediction series for next week's 3rd major of the year.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

randy's orioles week in review

Week Record: 4-2

Season Record: 22-36

AL East Standing: 5th (14 GB of NYY 9 GB of WC)

Player of the Week: Charlie Morton 12.2 IP 2 W 12 K 3 BB 2 ER 1.42 ERA

The Orioles built on last week's modest success by securing their first series sweep of 2025. After dropping two out of three to the Cardinals the O’s swept the weekend series with the hapless White Sox to complete a winning week.

On Monday, the O's opened strong against the Cardinals, earning a 5-2 victory behind a solid outing from Charlie Morton (6 IP, 2 ER). Dylan Carlson haunted his former team with a pivotal three-run homer, breaking the game open in the 4th inning. Félix Bautista locked down his eighth save with a dominant ninth inning.

The momentum stalled briefly on Tuesday as the Cardinals rallied late to hand Baltimore a 7-4 defeat. Ryan O’Hearn provided the highlight with a towering three-run homer, but Bryan Baker surrendered a decisive home run to Nolan Arenado in the eighth, part of a three-run inning that sealed Baltimore's fate.

On Wednesday, the Orioles lost a heartbreaker, 6-4, after initially jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Rookie Cade Povich struck out nine but couldn’t hold the lead, as Brendan Donovan’s two-run homer in the fifth inning put St. Louis ahead for good. Despite Jackson Holliday’s three-hit performance and 16 strikeouts from their pitchers, the Birds couldn’t retain the lead.

Following Thursday's off day, Zach Eflin returned to his pre-injury form with a dominant seven shutout innings with six strikeouts and one walk in a tight 2-1 victory over Chicago. Ramón Urías delivered a crucial sacrifice fly, and Ryan Mountcastle took home when Chicago failed to execute a throw home on a double steal, securing the decisive run.

The Orioles clinched the series Saturday, defeating the White Sox 4-2. Dean Kremer delivered another stellar start (6 IP, 1 ER, 7 K), and Baltimore received offensive boosts from Jackson Holliday's leadoff homer and Jorge Mateo's first long ball of the season. Félix Bautista worked through a tense ninth inning for his tenth save.

Baltimore completed its first sweep of the year with a 3-2 triumph on Sunday. Charlie Morton pitched brilliantly again, allowing no earned runs and striking out seven over 6.2 innings. Ramón Urías, Ryan O'Hearn, and Dylan Carlson each drove in a run, and Bryan Baker earned his first save of the season, stepping in for Bautista.

Shockingly, given his early season struggles, Charlie Morton is the clear Player of the Week. Morton delivered two outstanding starts this week, throwing for 12.2 combined innings while allowing just two runs and striking out 12. Maybe if Morton can continue to pitch like this he could have some trade value at the deadline.

Dean Kremer also deserves a mention for his solid outing on Saturday and Dylan Carlson, Ryan O’Hearn and Jackson Holliday all had hot weeks at the plate to help propel the O’s to the rare winning week.

Down on the Farm:

AAA Norfolk continued to struggle, going 1-5 against Lehigh Valley. Outfield prospect Jud Fabian did have a solid week at the plate despite the team’s performance. Fabian reached base at a .368 clip with a homer and two doubles. Colton Cowser and Jordan Westburg both had strong weeks at the plate in their rehab stints at Norfolk. Trevor Rogers also had a solid outing for Norfolk after his recent impressive start for the O’s.

AA Chesapeake was even worse this week, dropping all six games to Binghampton. There weren’t many highlights for the Baysox, but Braxton Bragg continued his stellar AA campaign, striking out six over 6.1 innings and giving up two runs. Bragg has a 1.24 era in ten starts this season with 67 strikeouts over 51 innings.

Question of the Week:

Is it ever worth it to give a pitcher a top dollar long-term contract?

Sunday’s injury to Corbin Burnes, potentially ending his season with Tommy John surgery, underscores the inherent risk in handing out large, long-term deals to pitchers. Though Baltimore reportedly attempted to sign Burnes, his injury will only vindicate critics who argue against investing heavily in pitchers, whose arms are ticking time bombs.

Before last season, I was mostly opposed to such deals though I did think Burnes might be an exception. The problem is the Orioles’ alternative approach was severely insufficient. Signing an aging former All-Star on the wrong side of 40 in Morton and a relatively unknown commodity in Japanese veteran Tomoyuki Sugano did not inspire confidence in anyone and has played out poorly.

The root of the Orioles’ pitching woes lies deeper than just free agency decisions, it’s embedded in their draft and prospect philosophies.

If you aren’t going to shell out big money for top quality arms, then you need to either spend a large portion of draft capital on pitching prospects or be willing to part with top hitting prospects in trades.

The Orioles have drafted very few pitchers during the Elias era, and even fewer of them have been high selections. The earliest pitcher selected by Elias was Jackson Baumeister in the 2nd round of the 2023 draft, and he was then traded as part of the package for Zach Eflin.

The Elias regime has focused almost exclusively on drafting position players with high upside, having confidence they can develop them into productive big leaguers. This approach has paid off with the development of players like Gunnar Henderson, Jordan Westburg, and Colton Cowser.

However, they have been intensely reluctant to trade these top prospects to acquire top arms. Notably, the club has held on to Heston Kjerstad and Coby Mayo past the peak of their value as their dominance of AAA has thus far failed to translate to the big leagues.

At 26, Kjerstad’s window for development is closing rapidly, while Mayo, at 23, still has time but must produce soon. One wonders what kind of arms may have been available in a trade based on one or both of them last year or in the offseason.

The O’s did trade two lower tier prospects for Trevor Rogers last season, though his track record would not qualify him as a “top quality arm”. Half measures like these have left the Orioles in a lurch this season when Grayson Rodriguez went down with an injury and Charlie Morton declined rapidly.

If the Orioles were resistant to signing a big contract pitcher this offseason, perhaps they should have been more proactive in finding a match for some of these highly touted prospects.

It would have been cheaper and less risky to acquire a couple veteran bats to take those spots (unless they are the oft-injured Tyler O’Neill). Until this philosophical shift occurs, the Orioles will remain at the mercy of the unpredictable arms market, continually searching for stability in their rotation and hoping their lottery-ticket acquisitions hit big.

Monday June 2, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3934

9:15 pm update --

Nick Barrett of Catonsville shot 73 in the morning today at Woodmont CC. Sadly, that was all the golf he got to play.

Barrett forgot to turn in his scorecard at the completion of his round and was disqualified.

We'll have more on that tomorrow here at #DMD.

Rickie Fowler is not in.

Neither is Max Homa.

They both failed in their quest today, as both were ousted in a playoff in Ohio.

There were some great stories, though.

We'll feature a few of them here on Tuesday at #DMD.

Golf's Longest Day is currently ongoing as I type this at just after 4 pm.

The reference to "the longest day" stems from the fact that U.S. Open qualifying takes place today all over the country, beginning as early as 7:15 am in Rockville, MD and ending out in California this evening at 10:00 pm EDT.

Today is a day for dreamers.

You play your way into the qualifying event in a variety of ways, but on this day, and today only, you tee it up with about a thousand other guys and you hope to earn one of the 60 or so "open" spots in the field at Oakmont CC in two weeks.

Best of all? You can be Joe Schmoe with your carry bag and your 14 clubs and your sister's boyfriend caddying for you and you're apt to get paired with PGA Tour player Max Homa, who is competing today in the qualifier in Ohio and didn't even bother bringing a caddy for the event.

Homa, who as of this writing is in the thick of it, is carrying his own bag and playing along like he's a public golfer out for a Saturday afternoon stroll at Mount Pleasant.

For someone like Homa, or perhaps Marc Leishman -- who a few minutes ago made his way onto the first page of the leaderboard at Woodmont CC in Rockville, just outside of D.C. -- this kind of golf probably takes them back to their youth. You know, a time when they weren't bothered with corporate logos and media interviews and a sponsor who wanted them to fly down to Florida to play a round of golf with them and a business associate.

I'm sure Homa and Leishman and the other touring pros who are playing today enjoy their golfing life; flying first class, nice hotels, big paydays when they play well, and so on.

But I bet they'd also readily admit today is a day where they get tested in a way that perhaps they don't on a Saturday at the John Deere Classic or on a Sunday at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

Today, for lack of a better term, is "real golf". They show up, bag on their shoulder, and say, "I'm here to play golf."

Maybe 25 years ago, long before I became a "senior" in the world of golf, there was a U.S. Senior Open qualifier at Woodholme CC in Pikesville.

I wandered over, as any curious golfer nearing 50 might, to see what "senior golf" looked like.

As I stood by the first tee, I noticed a familiar face walking down the cart path, his dutiful caddie in quick step behind him. It was PGA Tour player Jim Thorpe.

He stopped at the registration table.

"Ma'am," he said. "I'm sorry to bother you. How many spots are we playing for here today?" Thorpe asked.

"There are four spots allocated to this field," she replied.

Thorpe picked up a few tees and a divot repair tool from a small basket on the table and smiled.

"You tell the rest of the boys Jimmy Lee Thorpe is here today...and that means there are only three spots available to them."

I don't know if Max Homa was quite that brave today. But as of 4:00 pm, he's right in the mix in Ohio.

---

scottie is "beamed up" for sure

This Scottie Scheffler guy, huh?

The PGA Tour used a marketing slogan circa 2000 of, "These guys are good."

They can change that now, if they want, to: "These guys are good but Scheffler is ten times better."

Scheffler won his 16th career PGA Tour title yesterday with a 4-shot win at The Memorial, giving him two successive titles at Muirfield Village and marking his 3rd win on TOUR in the last month and a half.

Of particular interest is this note: With his next win on TOUR, Scheffler will join an elite group. Only 50 players in the history of the PGA Tour have won 17 or more titles. And Scheffler has been on TOUR for a grand total of five full years.

I mentioned during yesterday's edition of "Fairways and Greens" that this run of Scheffler's is very Tiger-like but doesn't have the same "feel" of Tiger's dominant run that started 25 years ago.

I can't quite put my finger on why it feels that way, but there's no doubt, from a playing standpoint, that this last three years rivaled anything Woods did from a statistical standpoint.

Here are Scheffler's ranking totals in the top 10 "scoring" categories on TOUR:

Shots gained, total (1st); Shots gained, off the tee (1st), Shots gained, approach to the green (1st); Shots gained, putting (27th); Total driving (8th); Driving Distance (70th); Driving Accuracy (28th); Greens in Regulation % (3rd); Proximity to the Hole (1st); Scramblign (1st).

I'll defer to our friend, the "Stats Nerd" to tell you more about that data, but there's no one on TOUR even close -- like, anywhere even remotely close -- to having the same totals in those various categories as Scheffer.

Yesterday marked his 9th straight win when he held a 54-hole lead, which is very Tiger like indeed.

Now, it's fair to remember that Tiger did his thing for roughly 12 straight years, while Scheffler has only been doing it for about four years.

Tiger has 82 career wins and will likely finish in that spot.

Scheffler has 16 now. To get to 60, even, he would need to win 5 times a year for the next 9 years. 82 seems unattainable, but then again, I'm not sure anyone ever thought Tiger could win 82.

Much like Alex Ovechkin's pursuit of Wayne Gretzky, Scheffler's chase of Woods would come in "levels". He'd need to reach 40 wins first, which seems like a lot considering only Phil Mickelson has more than 40 of any player not named Woods over the last 30 years.

He'd then have to win 10 more just to reach 50.

The first real number is 40.

But once Scheffler gets to 40, the job is only halfway done.

So, yes, it seems like a bit of an ambitious ask to win 82 times on TOUR when you just now won your 16th.

That said, he's seemingly winning almost every event in which he plays. If Scheffler enters 15 tournaments next year and wins six of them and he can do that for the next, say, 10 years, we might have ourselves a good old fashioned record breaking chase.

All of this winning by Scheffler also serves as a reminder of just how good Tiger was at his zenith. Scheffler's "great" right now. Tiger was beyond great for roughly 12 years or so.

Randy Morgan's weekly Orioles review will appear here tomorrow, but in the meantime, I'll give you the good, bad and ugly from the weekend sweep of the inept White Sox.

The good. 3 straight wins.

Yes, I know, it was the White Sox. What's better? Winning three against a lousy team or losing three (or two, or one) against a lousy team?

Charlie Morton was also part of "the good" with his second straight solid start in Sunday's 3-2 win. Maybe the Morton we're seeing now is the Morton we're going to see for the first of the 2025 season.

#DMD reader Chris P. sent me something last night that is definitely interesting. "If the Marlins could fleece us for Trevor Rogers, don't you think we could peddle Morton in July if he continues to pitch the way he did today? (Sunday)"

The circumstances are different, obviously. Morton is a free agent after this season. The Orioles have Rogers under contract this year.

But, sure, if Morton continues to pitch like he has the last couple of starts, would someone give you a back-end prospect for him at the trade deadline? Maybe so. It appears the Diamondbacks are in need of another starting pitcher, for example. The Dodgers have three or four starters on the injured list at this point. Teams are always looking for pitching.

More good -- There's something about Ramon Urias that's intriguing. When he plays, good things generally happen. He came through with two more hits yesterday. He's not Ty Cobb or anything like that, but Urias is the one guy year-after-year who just keeps hanging around and making a contribution of some kind.

The bad? I wouldn't call Felix Bautista's weekend work "bad" (so why have it in the bad column?), but, in general, he is seemingly getting in way more trouble that I remember in 2023. There have been some 1-2-3 close-outs, yes. But we're seeing more men on base and runs scored than I remember.

I realize he's coming back from TJ surgery and a year away, so slack is definitely being given. But I think you'd be naive to ignore the fact that he hasn't been razor sharp in the first two months of the season.

The ugly? Heston Kjerstad looks lost. He's "so lost" that I'm guessing he might get sent down when Colton Cowser returns from his injury. He did manage to scrape out a hit yesterday, but his slash line is embarrassing; .185/.231/.308

The injury list is certainly ugly. With Mountcastle out, it's now a Coby Mayo/Ryan O'Hearn platoon situation. Mayo will be in the crosshairs now. He was chewing up minor league pitching. Can he do the same in the big leagues?

What is it with all of these injuries? Guys are dropping like flies. I'm sure no one is intentionally getting hurt, but yikes.

The next 12 games will be interesting. 3 at Seattle, 3 at Oakland and then 3 at home vs. Detroit, where the O's might have to face Tarik Skubal. After that it's a 3-game visit from the Angels. The Birds are 22-36 right now. If they can go 8-4 in their next 12, they'll be at 30-40 after 70 games.

A 30-40 record isn't great, obviously. But you'd be starting to chip away at returning to that .500 level.

Thank you for the e-mails and words of encouragement yesterday as I unveiled some modest-but-important changes to #DMD that will be taking place very shortly.

My personal schedule from mid-January through mid-May is incredibly hectic given my employment duties and my head golf coach responsibilities at Calvert Hall.

One e-mail yesterday asked me why I waited until June 1st to "do this" and the answer is simple: It's the first month, really, that I get a chance to breathe and focus on something other than coaching for a little while.

Funny enough, the consultant I used for this project did suggest we start this on the opening day of baseball season, but I just couldn't get myself situated in time to do that. So, June 1st seemed like a nice time to roll it out.

As I mentioned here yesterday, throughout the month of June we will be adding three new elements to #DMD.

1. A simple, inexpensive "request for support" in the amount of $2 a month for two years, a total of $48. If you want me to do the more simple, eye-opening math, $48 over 2 years comes out to 46 cents a week. That basically works out to about a nickel a day for #DMD.

We are certainly willing to accept any amount you believe is fair or fits your budget. A "request for support" is just that. It's an "ask", if you will.

As I continue to try to improve this site and offer you more content and specialized forms of coverage -- like bringing Dale Williams back as our Maryland basketball beat reporter! (yes!!) -- I'm also searching for new sources of revenue that don't involve a mandatory monthly paywall.

I'll outline payment methods here tomorrow at #DMD, but our 2-year request from you is a nickel a day over the next 24 months. I hope you'll agree that's more than fair.

2. We'll be starting our evening addition of #DMD, called, "Happy Hour", sometime this week as well. I don't know if there will be a "flow" to that new feature or not, but my hope is to add something around 5 pm each day if stories or situations warrant it. My goal is to eventually have a contributor handle "Happy Hour" every day and he/she will be responsible for providing their own thoughts and commentary sometime in the late afternoon, particularly Monday through Friday.

3. "Live from Parkville" will be our new podcast/videocast feature that get off the ground sometime next week. I have a couple of ideas about the "first show" but I need to get the guests in place to make it worthwhile.

Sunday June 1, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3933

ccchhh--ccchhh--ccchhh--chhaannggeesss

OK, so, yes, we're in the beginning stages of doing some different things here at #DMD.

It won't be earth shattering. But we are going to be making some changes to the site here over the next 30 days or so.

The whole thing isn't my idea, actually.

And I'll admit it has taken a lot for me to "give in" and allow someone else to suggest things about the website that I might otherwise object to doing.

In the end, though, I'm going to do it. We'll make some changes here and I think they'll be for the better. In fact, I'm convinced they'll be for the better.

Back in the fall, I answered a "cold call" e-mail from a digital media consultant who wanted to share with me all the ways he and his company could "help" me.

I get one of those e-mails every week, sometimes multiple times a week.

I almost never even bother to read them, honestly.

But this one, back in November, I pulled up and read for whatever reason.

It was God's providence that I answered that particular one, I guess, because it started a process that led me to where we are today.

The consultant eventually suggested three things, all of which I've agreed to put into play starting as soon as tomorrow.

1. A "request for support", similar to what you see at places like Wikipedia. This is not a paywall or a "fee" for visiting and reading #DMD. The website will remain free to access.

It's exactly what it says: A request for support.

"Do you believe your website has value to the people who read it?" was the question I was asked.

"If you don't believe it does, you're doing something wrong," the consultant said.

"But if you believe the answer is, "Yes, it does have value", then those people who visit the site should be more than willing to offer some sort of monetary support in order to continue the relationship between reader and the content you provide to them," he told me.

And, so, yes, the answer to that question is "yes". I do believe this website has value to you.

Our daily visitation numbers suggest there are a lot of you who value the work we do here. I hope that's the case.

I've never believed in a "paywall" type formula here. Since August 25, 2014, the website has been free every single day. And it will remain that way, thanks to our loyal corporate partners who are with us now and have been with us in the past. Without their support, there would be no Drew's Morning Dish.

That said, the issue of creating value for the reader is separate from that of the corporate partners who support us.

You will be under no mandate to offer support. Just like Wikipedia and other websites ask for a minimal financial contribution to continue their excellent work, we're going to do the same with those of you who read #DMD. And Drew's Morning Dish will continue no matter if we raise 1% of our goal or 100% of our goal.

Why do we need to do this? As Matt (our consultant) drilled into us, we don't "need" to do it as much as we "should" be doing it. We're missing an opportunity, he says, to connect in a new and different way with our readers. It took a while for me to understand and believe that. But now I do.

I think I've shared here before that all of my really smart business friends have always thought I was crazy for not charging something every month for the website, whether that's 99 cents, $2.99, etc. I vowed I wouldn't do that and I never have, despite the fact they always tell me I should.

But the idea of asking you for a nominal "donation", if you will, doesn't seem awkward to me.

I pay a monthly (or yearly) fee to subscribe to several newspapers and/or digital content providers. It's part of my world, now. Paying $5.00 a month for great golf content or paying $5.00 for a cup of coffee and a bagel on a Tuesday morning? That's a no-brainer.

If you enjoy visiting the site, however often that is, and you're willing to support our work with a one-time donation, you'll be helping us move forward and continue to do what we do best.

My best guess is this is probably going to be something we do every other year. That said, we might do it this one time and then not ever do it again. I honestly don't know, but my first blush thought is it's something we do again in 2027 at the earliest.

We have a very modest monetary goal to raise in the month of June. Tomorrow I'll give you the details on how it works.

If you take anything from this "request for support", please know that all I'm asking of you is to support the website with a one-time donation. If you do or don't, it's all good either way. But you'll be helping us kick-start a couple of other projects we're excited to add here in the not too distant future.

2. Much like there once was a "Morning" Sun and "Evening" Sun here in Baltimore, we're going to add a "Happy Hour" column that will appear here regularly and/or occasionally in the 5 pm range when stories and situations warrant it.

Drew's Morning Dish will still be published daily, as it is now, before 9 am every morning. That will not change.

But now...sometime around 5 pm or so...you might find additional content here under the "Happy Hour" moniker. It could appear five straight days and then not appear for a day or two. It might not appear for three days and then appear every day for two weeks.

Our consultant drilled into us that people come back to #DMD throughout the day to offer comments, read comments, etc. To that end, adding additional content certainly can't hurt...it can only help.

I'm working on bringing on board someone responsible for the "Happy Hour" feature, with the hope he or she will be willing to obligate themselves to adding content at least four days a week, if not more.

In the meantime, though, I'll handle "Happy Hour".

I hope you'll make it a point to visit #DMD in the early evening hours to see if we've added anything to the site that catches your fancy.

3. Our consultant insists we're missing the boat by not having a regular podcast feature here at #DMD, so starting in June you'll be treated to "Live from Parkville", which will be as organic as it can possibly be. It might be me by myself, it might be me with a guest or two, who knows?

But we're going to be providing regular podcast content in the 15-20 minute range for your consumption. My vision for this is to make it either weekly or bi-weekly. If the consultant had his way, I'd add some audio content to the website every day, but I simply can't obligate myself to that kind of schedule.

That said, I will be adding podcast content here regularly via "Live from Parkville". My full-time radio days are long gone. As most of you know, I host a weekly golf radio show on 105.7 The Fan, which certainly takes care of my "radio jones".

"Live from Parkville" will be whatever I want it to be. Sports, music, interviews, etc. Whatever I want to talk about, basically.

Later this month, we'll also be launching our bi-annual reader survey which will give us the opportunity to learn more about you and your reader/visitation habits as well as find out more about what you like to read about here, what you'd like to see more of, less of and so on.

We take this survey very seriously. Your participation in the survey will help us make #DMD better in 2025 and beyond.

Golf enthusiasts will want to tune in today from 4-6 pm on 105.7 for "Fairways and Greens". From 4-5 pm I'll be joined by Loyola University head coach Chris Baloga, who is caddying tomorrow for one of his former players, Brandon Berry, in the final stage of U.S. Open qualifying at Woodmont CC.

At 5:15 pm today, I'm excited to have nationally-ranked instructor Lynn Blake join the show to talk about "The Golfing Machine" and the teachings of Homer Kelley, who was the catalyst behind many of the swing concepts employed by Bryson DeChambeau.

Please tune in today from 4-6 pm!

Saturday May 31, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3932

is there anyone off the table?

#DMD reader Bill P. sent an e-mail on Friday afternoon that caught my eye.

"At this point, is there anyone on the roster truly untouchable in your mind?" he asked.

"If someone stepped forward with an incredible package of players and prospects for Gunnar, would you 100% say no without at least considering it?"

"I'm just curious if there's anyone on the roster that you're dead set against trading? Is there anyone off the table?"

First, I'd say this: My guess is the Orioles get zero calls about Gunnar, in the same way the Yankees get zero calls about Aaron Judge. There's no team in baseball who thinks the O's would move Henderson at this stage in his career.

Is he untouchable? To me, yes he is.

Despite a tepid 2025 to date and defensive issues over the last two seasons, I don't see any kind of bonafide reason for giving up on him at this point.

Now, in a couple of years when he is set to be a free agent, might you have to move him at the deadline if you don't think you can sign him? Sure thing. They were forced to do that exact thing with Manny Machado, remember. It's part of the sport.

And at this point, other than idle internet chatter and the occasional wordsmithed comment about "fielding the best team possible within our financial limitations", there's really no reason at all to think this ownership group is going to fork over $400 or $500 million or therabouts for Gunnar Henderson when he reaches free agency.

Right now, though? Gunnar is in the untouchable department.

So, too, is Jackson Holliday. And I'm not saying Holliday is untouchable because he's suddenly caught fire in 2025 and is off to a nice start. I'm saying he's untouchable because he's a #1 pick in the second year of his career and it makes zero sense to lose faith in him at this stage.

It's starting to look like Holliday is the real deal. Time will tell on that one.

OK, so there's Gunnar and Jackson in the untouchable column. Anyone else?

If we go around the diamond real quick, they're probably the only two.

Trade Rutschman? Sure. I don't see him being all that sought after, particularly with his own free agency looming shortly, but if some club came along and they were desperate for him, he's definitely a piece that can be moved for the right price.

Mountcastle? LOL. Of course. Make us an offer. Please.

O'Hearn? Sadly, yes. You have to move him if someone comes along with a decent prospect or two at the deadline. Unless something weird happens, it's pretty much a done deal someone will want him in July.

Westburg? Well, this one's tough. A year ago, before he got slammed on the wrist with that pitch, I would have probably put him in the untouchable department. Now? I'm not so sure.

He can't stay healthy for whatever weird reason. And that, alone, probably makes him someone I'd consider moving if a team rolled in with a deal I couldn't refuse. I wouldn't be actively seeking to move him. But I might have to say yes for the right trade package.

Cowser? Sure. He's like Westburg, though. I'm not running around trying to trade him, but if a deal comes along that I can't refuse and one of the guys who has to go is Cowser, than, yes, off he goes.

Kjerstad? He might actually be the one young player I'm trying to move to a team that hasn't been paying attention and thinks because he hits a home run every couple of weeks that he's a "power hitter". Might he turn it around and become a legit MLB player? Sure, he "might". But I'm not seeing it. Move him if you can.

Mullins? It's almost a done deal at this point that he'll go elsewhere in July. I still think this version of Mullins we've been seeing of late is a bit of an outlier, but he's a very capable player both with the bat and glove who can slide in there and help a team in August and September.

O'Neill? Of course you'd move him. In a heartbeat. You're stuck with him, unfortunately.

The pitchers are all pieces you could/would move. Eflin will almost certainly be traded in July as he's a free agent this winter.

Everyone else is available -- in my book -- including Felix Bautista. I wouldn't go hog-wild trying to trade the closer at the deadline, but I'd put him in the "fleece" category.

If I could fleece a team who desperately wanted a solid (not "great", but "solid") closer, I'd deal Bautista.

Everyone else can be had for the right price.

But I'm probably not out there actively trying to unload Sugano or Povich. I consider those two "keepers" that I only part with if someone makes me a great offer and I know I'd be silly to refuse it. They're staying.

Let's also not forget that guys like Coby Mayo appear to be Major League ready and on the verge of being capable of playing full time when, or if, some of the guys above do get dealt this summer.

This is, of course, a different stance than we (most of us) had this time last year. Then again, the O's had Corbin Burnes last year and Anthony Santander, too, and those guys were huge parts of the '24 success story.

I'd say that this time last year, Adley would have been "untouchable" and Westburg probably would have been as well. Now, a year later, they could both be had for the right price.

I don't even want to start talking about prospects and whether I'd be willing to move them. Unlike last year, when the Birds had to peddle guys like Norby and Stowers to get a "valuable" (?) piece like Trevor Rogers, they're not going to be in that position this July.

In other words, there won't be any reason to even think about dealing Samuel Basallo or Chayce McDermott or Enrique Bradford this summer because you're not going to be buying this time around.

This isn't a "fire sale" sort of situation. If the O's essentially stand pat, other than the three obvious guys who are gone (Eflin, O'Hearn and Mullins), that will be just fine.

There's no reason to just move guys on en masse for the sake of doing it. They're not that desperate.

And let's also state here, for the record, that we're not in favor of a "rebuild". Something like that would probably necessitate trading away a guy like Henderson or Holliday and getting 5-6 prospects in return, 3 or 4 of which can get in there and help fairly soon.

I like to think of it as "re-tooling".

Get a few prospects for guys like O'Hearn, Mullins and Eflin. You might get 4 or 5 out of those three. Hopefully, if you make the right deals, a couple of them turn into full-time players by '27 at the very latest.

You have enough quality right now -- Henderson, Holliday, Westburg, Cowser -- to keep on going without having to completely shutter the whole project and start fresh.

There is the concern about the long term viability of this starting rotation, but that's what you have the draft and free agency for, even though this ownership group looks mostly uninterested in spending big money on pitchers -- or any players, really, for that matter.

In the end, what the club does this July will go a long way in determining what they do in 2026. Let's hope they do the right things.

Friday May 30, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3931

"what lesson are you teaching him?"

A #DMD reader/dad reached out to me last week with a dilemma involving his son, who recently completed a spring sport season for a local private school.

I'm simply using "dad" and not using even his son's initials on purpose. I don't want their identity known for reasons you'll see below.

When the dad e-mailed me last Wednesday and we corresponded back and forth for a couple of days, I asked if I could share his story and he agreed, as long as I would keep their indentity a secret, which I vowed to do without complaint.

The original e-mail, with a few redactions for privacy, is the one I received on Wednesday, May 23.

Drew, I enjoy your website and your coaching columns. I'm not a golfer myself but I know you're a very successful golf coach at Calvert Hall and we do have a mutual friend (redacted), who suggested I reach out to you with a problem I'm having with my son (redacted), who attends (redacted) and recently finished his (redacted) season playing (redacted) at (redacted).

In a nutshell, we are strongly considering transferring for the fall semester. His academics are solid so we're not concerned there, but we're hoping a transfer might enable him to be the player we thought he would be and give him a chance to make a name for himself in the sport with the hope that he could continue to play in college.

My biggest gripe is the fact that he constantly outplays all of his teammates in practice but then when it comes to playing in the games, he hardly gets any playing time. It's very hard for him to understand. He was always told if you practice hard and practice well you will get rewarded with playing time but that didn't seem to be how his coach operated this past season.

Any insight you can give would be greatly appreciated. (redacted) says hi, by the way. Thank you, Drew, for your help.

We went on to exchange a few e-mails over the next 24 hours.

I won't publish those here because some of the content might give-away his son's school, sport and identity, but the one thing I can share here that I do think is important is the idea that transferring to another school is the ultimate best decision for a student-athlete.

I asked the father this question.

"What lesson are you teaching him by transferring?"

That question sparked a couple of e-mails back and forth and, in the end, probably wound up being the reason they decided not to transfer.

Short story: The young man has decided to stay at his school and continue on there with the hopes of earning more playing time next spring.

But there is more to it than that.

One of the topics I discussed with the father was the reality of what happened at practice vs. the information he was given at home by his son.

This is not meant to indict the son for fibbing, stretching the truth or even outright lying about what went on at practice that day.

I always call it: "sharing information that supports your agenda".

Your child comes home and you say, "How was practice today?" and the athlete says, "It was great! I made 6 baskets in the 5 vs. 5 game we always play at the end of practice."

"Who else made 6?" the parent asks.

"No one I don't think," they reply. "My team won 11-10 and I had 6 of the baskets."

"I hope you get to play on Friday night," the parent replies.

When the student-athlete doesn't get to play or plays limited minutes, the parent, of course, says, "I don't understand how he doesn't play more. He led the team in scoring in their practice game on Wednesday."

It goes on from there. The student-athlete comes home and they discuss it further. They're frustrated. The parents, who obviously want to support their child, agree with their assessment that the coach must not be handing out playing time fairly.

What their son didn't tell them were the rest of the details from that Wednesday night intra-squad scrimmage where he had 6 of his team's 11 baskets.

He turned the ball over 3 times in 24 minutes.

He took 4 ill advised shots, including 2 that the coaching staff specifically told him he shouldn't continue to take in practices and games because of ineffectiveness.

On the defensive end, his player beat him 4 times for baskets of his own.

With his team ahead 10-9 and needing a basket to win, he missed an easy give-and-go that would have sealed the game for his team.

That's what the coaches saw.

The young man only saw -- or, at least, only conveniently remembered, the 6 baskets he made.

Now, not every player is like that, mind you. Some will come home and lament the turnovers or their defensive flaws. But a lot of young players will simply look at the 6 baskets -- which supports his agenda of earning more playing time -- and relay only that information to his parents.

Friday comes and there's little or no playing time and the parents are in an uproar and the student-athlete simply nods his head and says "I don't know why I'm not playing."

This example happened a little bit in the situation I outlined above. It took a little bit of digging on my part and some back-and-forth for it to come out, but eventually we got down to it.

This does not make the student-athlete a "bad kid". But it is part of the problem in high school and/or junior sports today, which is, essentially, "not being grounded in reality".

The subject of "practice" is also interesting, particularly in team sports.

"We hand out playing time here based on how you practice..." is what you'll hear from virtually every coach at every level, including perhaps even the professional level.

I totally understand the merit of that philosophy.

But I also think it doesn't come anywhere close to telling the whole story about an athlete's ability to do the same thing in the game that they did in practice.

Here's what I've discovered about practice: If you, as the coach, can't attach a consequence of some kind to practice, it holds very little actual value to the athlete.

We're very fortunate in the sport I coach. I can say -- and do say -- "We're going out for the next 3 days and we're playing 12 holes each of those days. The low 4 scores from those 3 days of golf will get to play in next week's matches."

You can do the same in, say, swimming. "The 3 kids with fastest times in the 100 over the next three days of swimming will swim that event next week."

I've had countless young golfers over the years text me on a Saturday and tell me they shot 77 at Pine Ridge (with their friends) and then the following week, they shoot 84, 83 and 86 in "qualifying".

Once there's something on the line, their games change.

At Pine Ridge, they're playing with 3 friends on a Saturday afternoon and there's nothing on the line. Maybe they don't make every two or three footer. Maybe they hit a bad drive at #10 but were urged to "hit another one" because the cart girl hit the brakes on him just as he was in his downswing. Maybe they missed a 2-footer at 18 for 78 but their friend said, "That was good anyway. Just take a 5 there."

But in the practices, where the scores count, every putt gets holed. There aren't any mulligans off the tee. And if they miss a 2-footer 18, they count that stroke.

When the lineups get introduced later on, the parent shakes his (her) head and says, "I don't understand. He shot 77 last Saturday at Pine Ridge and now he isn't playing?"

That 77 at Pine Ridge could have been 67 or 87. It didn't really matter at all.

As I say to my JV and Varsity players at the end of every season, "The only golf that matters over the summer is tournament golf. You could shoot two 59's at your home course on a Tuesday afternoon, but that wouldn't mean more to me than if you shoot two 70's in a tournament somewhere this summer."

In the case of the dad who e-mailed me, his particular sport doesn't have a "cut and dried" method for doling out playing time based on what happens in practice.

But that's the challenge the coach faces. He (she) needs to create something in practice that has a consequence attached to it.

"If you can't do XXXX today in practice, it means you don't get to play in the game on Friday."

I had an "off" team a decade or so ago at Calvert Hall that was on the fast track to not making the playoffs.

We used various lineups during the season but none of them really seemed to click.

One day at practice, I lined everyone up on the putting green and said, "Everyone gets to hit this 6-foot putt ten times. I want you to pretend that it's to beat (I think I said "Spalding" at the time because they were the best team). If you make this 6-footer, we win. If you don't, we lose."

A few kids putted it and made it and got mock applause from their teammates. A few who putted and missed got laughed at and jeered.

As the routine went on, it became more about poking fun at the guy who missed it than anything else.

Practice ended and I announced the lineup for the next day's match. I awarded the number six spot to a player who hadn't played in a match all year and was likely going to get clobbered the next day. But he was the only kid who took the putting practice session seriously. He made 4 or 5 putts the first go-round, 4 or 5 the second go-round and, again, made at least half of them the third time through.

"And (redacted) gets the number six spot tomorrow because he won the putting contest today," I told the team on the practice green.

One kid blurted out, "I wish you would have told us that before we putted."

The moral of the story, of course, is that he was basically saying, "If I would have known something was on the line, I would have tried harder."

The young man who made the putts and earned that playing spot didn't need that motivation. I told him to make as many as he could and to pretend he was beating Spalding and that was enough "movitation" for him to give me his best effort.

But that exercise also taught me something. In order for practice to matter, there has to be a consequence attached to the performance.

In the end, the young man at the center of this isn't transferring.

"We realize now there isn't anything to be gained from that," his father wrote to me this past Tuesday.

And while I wouldn't go as far as saying "nothing can be gained from transferring", I would go back to my original question.

What lesson are you teaching him...by allowing him to transfer?

And you can also throw in the opposite.

What lesson are you teaching him by saying, "No, you're going to stick this out and make the best of it and overcome these adversities, real or imagined?"

Transferring is, at the root of it all, "quitting".

"I don't like the coach. So I'm quitting this team."

"I don't like the lack of playing time. So I'm quitting this team."

And so on and so on.

I'm not sure there's value in that lesson.

Thankfully, my new friend and his son both agree on that and he'll remain at his school and do his best next year to have a successful season.

	RANDY MORGAN on American soccer
Americans are playing more and more of a vital role in international soccer these days, and Randy Morgan has his eyes on all of them for #DMD. Each week here, he looks at recent performances of American players and highlights upcoming games of importance.

champions league final preview

The Champions League final, European soccer’s ultimate spectacle, takes place this Saturday at Munich’s Allianz Arena, featuring Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Inter Milan.

This year’s final brings a fascinating clash in styles between PSG’s relentless and fluid firepower and Inter’s trademark resilience and disciplined system. The matchup should entertain soccer purists and casual fans alike.

These teams are no strangers to the game’s biggest stage, with Inter Milan returning to the final after finishing as runners up in 2023, while PSG lost in the 2020 final to Bayern Munich. Inter Milan has hoisted the European championship trophy three times, the most recent in 2010, while PSG has never won the continent’s most coveted prize.

Road to the Final --

PSG’s journey began shakily in UEFA’s new league-format group stage, finishing a surprisingly low 15th and necessitating a playoff against domestic rivals Brest. PSG quickly righted the ship with an emphatic 10-0 aggregate victory, launching them into a knockout run characterized by nail-biting drama against English heavyweights.

The Parisians were forced to squeak past Premier League champions Liverpool on penalties, despite largely dominating the two games.

Heroics from goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma ultimately sent them through to the final eight. PSG then edged out Aston Villa in a breathless 5-4 aggregate duel.

Their semi-final triumph was less chaotic but equally impressive, dispatching Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate to secure their place in the final.

Domestically, PSG cruised to yet another Ligue 1 title, finishing a dominant 19 points clear of their nearest rivals.

Inter Milan, meanwhile, navigated a steadier course. After comfortably securing fourth place in the league stage, Simone Inzaghi’s squad dismissed Feyenoord with relative ease.

More impressively, they ousted Bayern Munich, thanks largely to key goals from Lautaro Martínez and Benjamin Pavard.

That set up a semi-final matchup with Barcelona that delivered two unforgettable duels. Inter dispatched Barcelona, arguably the best side in Europe this season, 7-6 in a chaotic, goal-filled affair.

After blowing an early 2-0 lead in the first game to settle for a 3-3 draw, Inter staked another early 2-0 lead in the second leg. Barcelona stormed back furiously to lead 3-2, seemingly on their way to the final when veteran center back Francesco Acerbi netted the equalizer in the dying seconds with a striker’s aplomb.

Substitute Davide Frattesi then sent Inter through with a goal in extra time.

In Serie A, Inter fell agonizingly short, finishing second just one point behind Napoli in a gripping Scudetto race.

Statistical Breakdown --

On paper, this matchup pits PSG’s attacking juggernaut against Inter’s compact, efficient defense. PSG’s 33 goals in the competition trailed only Barcelona and the Parisians led the competition in big chances (63) and shots (298), while finishing second in expected goals (xG) slightly behind Bayern Munich.

PSG was a possession-heavy team this season, averaging 61.8% possession in the Champions League (4th highest). They accomplished this with a combination of control of the ball on offense and relentless work to pressure and regain possession on defense.

PSG led the Champions League by a wide margin in both ball recoveries (794) and tackles won (195). They have demonstrated an ability to create chances in various ways, leading the competition in direct attacks and placing third in the number of nine-pass sequences completed.

Inter, by contrast, netted 26 goals from far fewer chances, slightly outperforming their xG (24.3), emphasizing ruthless efficiency over volume. Lautaro Martínez, with nine goals, embodies their clinical finishing.

Defensively, Inter led the Champions League with eight clean sheets with standout keeper Yann Sommer leading the competition in expected goals saved (Post Shot Expected Goals minus Goals Allowed).

Inter was not as aggressive in pressing on defense and was more comfortable allowing opponents to maintain possession, notably defeating both Bayern and Barcelona while being heavily out possessed. Inzaghi’s system has emphasized maintaining shape and balance over pressing and dominating possession.

Tactical Analysis --

Under Luis Enrique, PSG’s hallmark is versatile, possession-based football, typically deploying a fluid 4-3-3. Their midfield trio of Fabian Ruiz, Vitinha, and Joao Neves meticulously controls tempo, while explosive attackers like Ousmane Dembélé and overlapping full-backs Achraf Hakimi and Nuno Mendes generate constant threat.

This high-octane approach, combined with an aggressive high press, ensures PSG dominates possession but can leave vulnerabilities behind their advanced full-backs. However, their center back pair of veteran Marquinhos and the younger Willian Pacho have been excellent at winning one-on-one duels when challenged in space.

The one tactical tweak that helped unlock the PSG offense was the shift of Dembele into a “false 9” role, often dropping back to connect with the midfield while the wide attackers stretch the back line. The midseason addition of Napoli star Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and the emergence of teenage phenom Desire Doue also bolstered the attack, adding several goal scoring threats.

With the lack of a focal striker in the box, PSG tends to generate chances through their wingers, either cutting inside or getting the ball to the end line and finding cut back passes to onrushing midfielders. PSG led Europe in goals on cutback passes this season.

Inter counters with Inzaghi’s patented 3-5-2 system, relying on defensive solidity, disciplined midfield structure, and quick attacks. Their wing-backs, particularly Federico Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries, balance attacking width with defensive diligence.

The midfield, orchestrated by Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Nico Barella, transitions swiftly from defensive blocks to targeted offensive thrusts. Lautaro Martínez and Marcus Thuram offer complementary attacking dimensions—Martínez’s intelligent positioning and Thuram’s physicality and pace pose significant threats.

Inter brings a more balanced approach, with the ability to either sit deep and absorb pressure or press high to force the action.

While not focused solely on counter-attacking, Inter often strike through quick build-ups, either directly through their attacking duo or through line stretching passes to their wingbacks. They often generate chances by overloading one side to open space for one wingback to find the other attacking the back post.

One similarity to PSG is some fluidity in attack. It is not uncommon to see center back Alessandro Bastoni making overlapping runs into the attacking third or Nico Barella underlapping to create danger on the edges of the penalty box, while Dimarco or Dumfries flood into the middle of the penalty area.

The tactical clash is clear: PSG will attempt to overwhelm Inter with sustained pressure and intricate possession, while Inter will likely patiently absorb and counter through quick transitions and set-piece prowess. The battle will largely hinge on PSG’s ability to break through Inter’s disciplined defensive shape without leaving too much space for counters.

Key Matchups --

Midfield Control: These clubs boast two of the best midfields in Europe this season. For Inter, Nicolò Barella will provide tireless energy and aggressive pressing against PSG’s composed midfield operators, Ruiz and Vitinha.

Joao Mendes provides the bite in the PSG midfield, leading the team in ball recoveries and winning possession to set the stage for Vitinha and Ruiz’s progressive passing.

Control of this midfield territory will determine possession dominance and transition effectiveness. Whichever trio displays the poise to fend off the others aggressive ball-winning should gain the upper hand. The contest could easily come down to which team avoids critical mistakes in the midfield.

Fullback Duels: Both sides have extremely talented and technical fullbacks. On PSG’s right flank Hakimi offers vital attacking width and playmaking, while Inter left back Dimarco’s crossing ability and defensive stamina are crucial.

On PSG’s left side, Nuno Mendes will play more restrained, picking his spots to get forward while Denzel Dumfries will often look to stretch the back line and find space in behind.

Each set of fullbacks will need to balance their attacking instincts with leaving vulnerable space behind. With PSG more likely to dominate the ball this will be especially crucial for Hakimi and Mendes. As Barcelona discovered, you can maintain unrelenting pressure on Inter for long stretches only to be undone by one quick, clinical counter attack.

Set-Piece Duel (Hakimi vs. Çalhanoğlu): Both sides boast dead-ball specialists. Hakimi’s deliveries from wide areas for PSG and Çalhanoğlu’s precise free-kick and corner service for Inter could prove decisive in a closely contested match. Inter has more prominent set piece targets in Acerbi, Bastoni, and Thuram. With less of the ball, Inter will need to maximize their chances from free kicks and corners.

Outlook --

This final feels like a classic tactical chess match: PSG’s relentless offensive pressure meeting Inter’s defensive solidity and lethal counterattacks. PSG, bolstered by their domestic dominance and impressive Champions League momentum, enter as slight favorites.

Yet, Inter’s gritty performances against elite opposition, combined with their robust defensive record and veteran experience, suggest a closely fought encounter.

The semi-final matchup between Inter and Barcelona could be a good preview for how this game will play out. The 2023 final is another parallel for this game, when a similarly stout Inter faced a possession-dominant Manchester City, and nearly pulled out a victory while losing the possession battle.

If the game is anything like the Barcelona semi-final we are all in for a treat. That matchup produced two of the most exciting Champions League knockout games in recent memory. PSG’s dynamic attack supported by aggressive pressing and a high defensive line is stylistically reminiscent of Barcelona. Not coincidentally, PSG coach Luis Enrique is a former Barcelona player and manager.

Expect PSG to dominate possession, probing patiently before eventually finding cracks in Inter’s resilient defense. However, Inter’s proven knack for soaking pressure and capitalizing on swift counters ensures this won’t be straightforward.

Inter is not simply going to “park the bus.” They have a plethora of skilled players and are capable of masterfully executed attacking sequences with two lethal finishers leading the line.

PSG are the younger, more exciting team and the betting favorites, but dismissing this Inter team would be a folly. Their recent Champions League final experience gives them some intangible veteran nous, creating a perfect foil for a hungry PSG. This matchup promises a thrillingly balanced finale in Munich.

faith in sports

Big thanks to #DMD reader Jason E. for sending this along. It's a short, 2 minute video of Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa after a game from a couple of years ago.

What happened in the game turns out to generate incredible testimony from Tua.

I hope you'll get the chance to take 2 minutes out of your day to hear what he has to say.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment here.

Thursday May 29, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3930

good news, bad news

Before we chronicle another Orioles loss, let's...

On second thought, how about we not chronicle last night's 6-4 defeat to the Cardinals that featured the Birds coughing up an early 3-0 lead while falling to 19-36 on the season.

What do we need to cover, after all?

Gunnar and Adley went 0-5 each last night. You're not winning much when that happens.

The O's finished the night going 3-17 with runners in scoring position. For those who might remember, they were 1-14 in the same situation on Tuesday night in the 7-4 loss to the visitors.

Flyers fans, no need to rush for your calculators. Relax and enjoy your Longshore coffee. We got you. That means, over the last two nights of the series with the Cardinals, the Birds were a woeful 4-31 at the plate when there were runners in scoring position.

In fact, it was so bad that woeful called and said, "Man, those numbers are terrible."

Even the generally-reliable Ryan O'Hearn fell victim to the malady in the game's final at-bat, swinging at the first pitch and grounding out meekly to the first baseman with two runners on and the Cardinals starting to wonder if they were going to squander a road win.

The bad news? The recent 3-game winning streak has been replaced by an all-too-familiar 2-game losing skid.

The good news? The White Sox are coming to town for three games this weekend. They're lousy, just like the Orioles.

More bad news? There's no guarantee the O's are going to win the series vs. Chicago. There's just no way of knowing what might happen.

So, that's enough "chronicling" of last night's loss. They all run togoether now. The worst part of this recent 10-game stretch is the O's starting pitching is actually starting to come around a little bit. It's been the bullpen and the lack of offense in key parts of the game that have hurt the Birds the most.

Good news? The starting pitching has seen an uptick recently.

Bad news? There aren't many games where the pitching and the offense both have their chakras in line on the same day.

Speaking of the White Sox, a former member of that club is enjoying his best Major League season ever out in San Diego.

With last night's home run and 3 RBI, former Gilman grad Gavin Sheets is having an awesome start to his 2025 campaign. He's the team leader in RBI with 34, has 11 home runs, and is hitting .275 in 51 games played.

Sheets spent the first four years of his career on the south side of Chicago with the White Sox organization. They non-tendered him over the winter and anyone in baseball could have picked him up. A few teams sniffed around but it was the Padres who stepped forward in late January and signed him to a deal for the 2025 campaign.

Good news? Sheets is playing every day and has made a major contribution to the San Diego offense. He's on pace for a 30-home run, 100 RBI campaign. Or in that vicinity.

Bad news? He's doing it in San Diego instead of Baltimore, which is where his heart is and where he'd someday like to play. I'm sure he's secretly hoping the O's deal Ryan O'Hearn at the deadline so the left-handed-hitting first baseman/DH role opens up here in Charm City.

Good news? The way the Orioles are playing, it's reasonable to think that both O'Hearn (traded mid-season) and Mountcastle (traded off-season?) might not be back in 2026. That would pave the way for Sheets to possibly join the Orioles.

Bad news? Have you been to San Diego before? Once you're out there, it's very difficult to leave.

I'll try and make this one as innocuous as possible to protect the folks involved. You'll understand why, I'm sure.

A few years back, one of my Calvert Hall golfers was highly ranked in the state of Maryland and was drawing interest from several significant Division I college coaches.

My phone rang one day and a voice on the other end identified himself as the head coach of a program who was recently in the final eight of the NCAA college golf championship that was aired on The Golf Channel Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.

For obvious reasons -- since he's still coaching and I'm still coaching and I have prominent players that might interest Division I coaches -- I'll leave out the names of all involved.

Anyway...

On that call a few years back, I mentioned to the coach that the young man he was inquiring about was "the most coachable kid I've ever had", to which he said, "I don't care about that. Can he hit the golf ball straight and make putts? That's all I care about."

I explained that, yes, he could do those things. He could, in fact, do those things better than virtually any high school player I'd seen in the last decade, including other MIAA schools besides my Calvert Hall program.

"I know he can play," the coach said, his voice starting to turn gruff. "But can he really play? When the bright lights are on, does he rise or fall?"

I explained my player's track record, both with me at Calvert Hall and in junior tournaments throughout the region.

And I ended my explanation with, "And, I can't stress enough how great of a young man he is."

"I just need golfers," he said again.

The call wrapped up and that was that and when it all shook out a few months later, that coach chose another (semi) local product and my player went on to play elsewhere.

This week, I watched that coach's team come up short in the playoffs.

The player he chose was in the crosshairs in a big match that ultimately decided his team's fate.

He came up short.

I don't take any particular satisfaction from seeing anyone lose in college golf. In this case, specifically, I felt bad for the young man because I do know of him given his proximity to the area and I once talked with his father at a junior event a long time ago and he seemed like a decent man.

But it was something the coach said afterwards, on the air, that made me smile.

When asked by a Golf Channel reporter about his team and how proud of them he was in defeat, he said, "I couldn't ask for a better group of guys. They're excellent student-athletes and great representatives of (XXXX). And above all of that, they're all coachable. I have great kids."

Good news? The coach, apparently, finally "got it". You don't need the 12 best golfers on your team. Or the 20 best soccer players on your team. Or the 10 best basketball players on your team.

You need the 12 right golfers on your team.

There is a difference, for sure.

Bad news? Had that coach realized that the point I tried to make about "coachability" was an important one when we talked a while back, he might have been holding up the trophy today instead of lamenting his team's elimination.

My "coachable" player might have made the difference for him. Who knows?

Losing: It's never a failure if a lesson was learned.

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

We had some great match-ups in baseball this past Memorial Day Weekend, as we saw the first player to reach 20 home runs this year, the return of a former NL MVP, and a pitcher throw a complete game shutout in under 100 pitches.

Shohei Ohtani’s bat has been hot going back to last Sunday and he hit a homer in 3 straight games earlier in the week, which made him the first player in MLB to reach 20 homers for the 2025 season.

He has recorded a hit or a walk in 47 out of 54 games played this year and is on track to win his 4th MVP. Even though Ohtani has reached the 20-homer mark in about 20 games less than last year, where he had his 50-50 season, he hasn’t been stealing bases at the same rate.

Perhaps he wants to make sure he stays healthy, which should be of huge importance for the Dodgers, especially since he is looking to make his pitching return later this season.

Ohtani threw a simulated inning to 5 batters this past Sunday and reached 22 total pitches. He threw mostly fastballs, sinkers, and cutters with velocity ranging around 94-97 MPH. Ohtani hasn’t pitched since September of 2023, but the Dodgers desperately need help with their starting rotation.

The Dodgers have used 13 different starting pitchers this season, which is the most in the league. Three of the starters from the Opening Day rotation are on the IL with shoulder injuries; Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Roki Sasaki.

We all know about the Dodgers payroll and how heavily they were favored to win the World Series. One of the team's biggest strengths has turned into a question mark for the club. The Dodgers will look to Ohtani to hopefully stabilize the starting rotation.

Ronald Acuna Jr. made his long-awaited return last Friday in the Braves home ballpark. As fans eagerly watched his first at bat since he tore his ACL last May, Acuna blasted the first pitch he saw well over the left field fence. What a way to make your season debut!

Acuna also hit a home run the very next day, but his return wasn’t enough as the Braves lost their weekend series to the Padres.

Getting Acuna’s bat back in this lineup is a huge boost. The Braves need to get back on track, where their division is turning into a 2-team race between the Phillies and Mets. Hopefully with Acuna and the return of their ace Spencer Strider, the Braves can get hot and catch up with the division leaders.

In other news around the league, the Phillies had a 9-game win streak snaped on Sunday against the Athletics. Every game in that series was close.

On Friday, the A’s hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th but it wasn’t enough to climb back as they lost, 4-3.

On Saturday, Max Kepler of the Phillies hit a solo shot off Mason Miller to tie the game, where the Phillies would then go on to win in extra innings.

In the finale of the series on Sunday, the Phillies were up by one going into the 8th but the bullpen gave up two runs and blew the lead.

Mason Miller got some revenge for the Athletics as he closed out the game and secured the win for the Athletics.

The Phillies bullpen is already ranked towards the bottom of the National League and now it's only going to get worse with Jose Alvarado suspended for 80 games.

Jose Ramirez from the Cleveland Guardians currently has a 21-game hit streak, which is the longest streak in his career. Ramirez is constantly forgotten and is one of the games most underrated players.

He also is a competent defensive player at 3rd base and a leader of the team. The Guardians made it to the ALCS last year and lost to the Yankees.

It will be tough to return to the postseason this year with how their division has been playing, but Cleveland did just have a huge series win over the weekend where they took 3 of 4 against the Tigers.

Players of the Week --

Pitcher: Tarik Skubal of the Tigers pitched a gem last Sunday, where he had a complete game shutout and accomplished this under 100 pitches, which is also known as a “Maddux”, in reference to Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux. Skubal had 13 strikeouts and no walks against the Guardians and the last pitch of the game, reached 103 MPH, which is the hardest thrown pitch ever by a starting pitcher in the 9th inning.

Position: Jose Altuve of the Astros had a great week, where he hit .500 in 24 at bats. Altuve hit 4 homeruns with 7 RBIs and scored 8 times for the Astros. It seems like you can never count out the Astros in the AL West. Earlier this year, this division looked like a 2-team race with Seattle and Texas, but now the Astros are 2nd in the AL West and are within striking distance of the first place Mariners.

Rookie: Nic Enright of the Cleveland Guardians made his MLB Debut on Sunday against the Tigers in a relief appearance and threw 2 scoreless innings with 3 strikeouts. Making it through the minor leagues to the majors is very challenging, but it was an uphill fight for Enright for other reasons. He was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma three years ago and has continued to play professional baseball and live out his dream of making it to the big leagues.

He has been undergoing treatments before and after each season, with 4 rounds of immunotherapy at the end of last season and 4 more scheduled at the end of this season. He wears number 59 which was the number of former Guardian Carlos Corrasco, who was diagnosed with Leukemia when he played with Cleveland and is currently in remission.

Coincidentally, over the weekend in Detroit where Endlick made his MLB debut, Detroit was hosting their Strikeout Cancer Weekend. We will all be rooting for Nic Enright on and oƯ the field, and he is in our thoughts and prayers.

Games of the Week --

Friday, May 30th: Detroit Tigers vs Kansas City Royals (Casey Mize vs Michael Wacha)

Kansas City has not looked great as of late and are barely over .500. This weekend is a big series as they take on the AL leading Detroit Tigers. They will see Skubal on Saturday, which will be an uphill battle for sure. Winning on Friday gives them a great chance to capture at least one game over the next two to take the weekend series.

Saturday, May 31st: Milwaukee Brewers vs Philadelphia Phillies (Chad Patrick vs Jesus Luzardo)

The Brewers will have their hands full this weekend and will face Jesus Luzardo, who has been one of baseball's best starting pitchers this year. Luckily for the Brewers, their division is still up for grabs, and they have been playing well with a 7-3 mark in their last 10 games.

Sunday, June 1st: Boston Red Sox vs Atlanta Braves (Walker Buehler vs Spencer Strider)

The Red Sox have been in a bit of a slump as fans are beginning to get frustrated with the club and manager. 3rd baseman Alex Bregman just landed on the 10-day injured list with a severe right quad strain, which he also suffered in 2021 and missed 50 games back then. The Rafael Devers saga continues as he now refuses to play 3rd base in Bregman’s absence after refusing to play 1st base for the injured Triston Casas. Spencer Strider has struggled since making his return this season and will look to get back on track to help this Braves team make a run at the postseason.

Wednesday May 28, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3929

"when did you start wearing glasses?"

The 2025 Bad News Bears Orioles showed up again last night.

So much for the modest 3-game winning streak.

After storming back from an early 3-0 deficit and taking a 4-3 lead over the Cardinals, the Birds fell apart in the 8th inning en-route to a 7-4 loss at soggy Camden Yards.

If nothing else, you have to give interim skipper Tony Mansolino some credit for positive thinking.

The O's went 1-for-14 at the plate last night with runners in scoring position.

"As I watched the at-bats, it felt competitive, it felt good, it felt like we were in it," the manager told the media after last night's loss. "A couple big hits here or there and it might’ve been a different story, but I appreciate the effort and the battle."

I mean, he's not wrong. The Orioles were in it. At one point they were actually leading in the game, despite their lineup. And a couple of big hits "here and there" would have made it a different story, that's for sure.

But it was the way he said it that was funny. Had you just flown in from Pluto and caught the post-game coverage, you would have thought the Orioles won the game, 7-4, instead of losing, 7-4.

At least he didn't say, "We just needed a few more points..." last night.

As for the lineup, is there some sort of wonky game going on in the front office where they throw names in a hat and whatever they pick at random, they go with?

Front office type #1 - "OK, let's start with centerfield tonight."

Front office type #2 - "I sure hope it's not Holliday. He's never played there before."

Front office type #1 - (reaches into the hat) "And.....it's.....George Mateo."

Front office type #3 - "It's actually pronouced Hor-hay, not George."

Front office type #1 - "Got it. In centerfield tonight, Hor-hay Mateo."

Front office type #2 - "What about right field?"

Front office type #1 - "That's next. (reaches into the hat) - It's......Heston Kjerstad."

Front office type #2 - "I don't know that he's ever played right field. But it's the same as left field, right? Just in a different part of the field."

Front office type #1 - "Let's pick the catcher next. (reaches into the hat) - It's......Chapman Tromp."

Front office type #2 - "Ummmm, sir, it's Chadwick Tromp."

Front office type #3 - "And, yeah, I don't think he's on our team, sir."

Front office type #1 - "Sure he is. We just got him a couple of days ago. Give him a start tonight and let's see what happens."

Front office type #2 - "But, sir, we have won 3 games in a row. I'm not saying we're going to go on a crazy run where we win 15 out of 20 or anything like that, but do you really think using this lineup is a good idea tonight?"

Front office type #1 - "Stop worrying so much. These are competent, big league players. If you hit the baseball to them out there in centefield, they're catching it."

Front office type #3 - "I hope you're right."

I'm certainly not privvy to the ins and outs of why the O's do what they do with their lineup, but the one they started the game with last night didn't measure up. And, yes, I'm well aware they have injuries to Rutschman and Cowser to deal with, in particular. Cedric Mullins has rested recently for unknown reasons. So that makes putting the lineup together a challenge.

Anyway, it's "whatever" at this point. Trot them out there and see what you get, I suppose.

So, yes, it might be a few weeks too early to start discussing who gets dealt at the deadline, but if the O's have 50 losses by the end of June, you might as well start wheeling and dealing.

In other words, the Birds have a month to get their act together or it will be "fire sale" time in July.

Ryan O'Hearn continued to showcase himself as a summer cast-off with another big night, including a 3 run homer that put the O's ahead in the 5th inning.

It would appear that O'Hearn would be perhaps the team's most valuable and sought after available field player at the trade deadline.

Cedric Mullins will also draw some interest, but O'Hearn's defensive versatility and power from the left side of the plate will definitely motivate some contending teams to reach out to the Orioles.

Tomoyuki Sugano got knocked around early last night vs. St. Louis but steadied himself long enough to keep the O's in the game. If not for the fact that he's in his first year in Baltimore, the O's would probably dangle him at the deadline. Instead, it's almost a certainty they'll deal free-agent-to-be Zac Eflin to a contender later this summer.

We'll get back to the O's here tomorrow and over the weekend. They're now 19-35 on the year. There's nothing to get excited about at this point, except perhaps for the draft later this summer.

With warm weather here in The Land of Pleasant Living (not counting today's 58 degree temps), it's time for me to offer my annual reminder about something you certainly don't want to encounter: Lyme disease.

I'm a Lyme disease victim. It wasn't fun.

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection spread through the bite of infected blacklegged (also called: deer) ticks. It can cause a range of symptoms, including fever, fatigue, and a characteristic rash called erythema migrans. If left untreated, Lyme disease can spread to the joints, heart, and nervous system, leading to more severe complications.

The problem with the deer tick is its size. While the more "run of the mill" wood tick is large enough to easily see with the naked eye (and feel with your fingers), the deer tick is very small. Often times, it gets mistaken for a freckle.

The other issue with Lyme disease is the onset of symptoms can happen almost overnight or they can gradually build up over time.

In March of 2011, I suddenly felt a rapid heartbeat that was unlike anything I'd felt before. It went away as quickly as it came on. Two or three days later, the same thing happened to me again. Just like the previous occasion, it disappeared within two or three minutes of its onset.

A few days later, it happened again. I called my family doctor, who urged me to come in and see him.

The next day, during my visit, he looked at me and said, "When did you start wearing eyeglasses? I've been seeing you for 15 years. You never wore eyeglasses before, right?"

I explained to him that back in the Fall, my eyesight suddenly started to wane. "I was always squinting," I told him. "My wife made me go get my eyes checked and the doctor said my eyesight had changed dramatically since my last appointment a year and a half ago. I got fitted for eyeglasses in November."

"So your eyesight just went bad?" my doctor asked. "Just like that?"

"Yes," I confirmed. "It was weird. I just started needing to squint to see things clearly."

"Anything else been bothering you lately?" he asked me.

"Actually, yes," I said. "My lower back has been bothering me a little bit now that you mentioned it."

And then he said the words...

"Have you ever been tested for Lyme disease?"

In mid-June, after a lengthy testing process and a visit to what is called a Lyme Literate Doctor, it was confirmed: I had contracted Lyme disease.

I took the usual course of action. Antibiotics (didn't really help), a small sample of something called the Marshall Protocol (might have helped had I given it a chance, but not being able to ingest any Vitamin D was a no-go for me) and acupuncture (helped more than anything else) were all part of my fight against Lyme disease.

It took me almost a year to start feeling 100% again. It was quite an ordeal.

The disease impacts people in different ways. Most victims deal with muscle fatigue, joint soreness and lethargy that can't otherwise be explained.

My Lyme Literate Doctor assumed my particular case was in the late stages due to my failing eyesight. That's usually one of the symptoms that appears months after the bacteria has entered the human body.

I never saw or found the deer tick.

And I did not have the well-known "bullseye" that typically appears on the skin at the sight of the tick bite. Or, if I did, it was in a location on my body where I couldn't put my eyes on it.

That's one of the misnomers of Lyme disease. You do not always see the bulls eye or even have one.

All of this is a short way of saying: Be vigilant this spring and summer. If you're outdoors, always use a tick repellent spray on your clothes and body. Once you come inside, be sure to check yourself as thoroughly as you can for ticks. In general, once they get on your clothes, they're able to make their way to your skin within 90 minutes.

It then takes a tick several hours to penetrate your skin and "latch on", which is when they're able to transmit the Lyme bacteria into your blood.

If you're vigilant and pay close attention to your skin and examine anything that looks out of place, you have a great chance of catching a deer tick before it does its damage.

And if you experience any of the telltale Lyme disease symptoms, contact your family doctor right away. From there, you may be advised to seek the help of a Lyme Literate Doctor, which is often times the only way your insurance carrier will cover your Lyme experience.

Be alert. Take care of yourself. And enjoy your summer.

They're playing the Memorial Tournament this week at Muirfield Village and the talk on Tuesday was about who isn't playing (Rory McIlroy) and who didn't call tournament host Jack Nicklaus to tell him he wasn't playing (Rory).

In fairness to the whole thing, I'm not sure Jack would even remember if Rory did call last week and tell him he wasn't going to play. But anyway...

That's what we do these days. We get ourselves in a twist because Rory didn't call Jack and say, "Just wanted you to know, I'm not playing in your event next week."

Eyewash.

A big, fat, nothing burger.

What is important is the event itself and who might win.

Scottie Scheffler is +300 to win for the third time this year. He is definitely in "Tiger category" now, where you sorta-kinda just assume he's going to win and either put $100 on him to win $300 or you bet the field and hope he doesn't win so you might have a shot at real money.

My guess is Scheffler will win.

But if he doesn't...

Ludvig Aberg at +2500 is just too inviting to pass up. I realize he doesn't have much history at the golf course, but it does have a bit of an Augusta feel to it (per Jack's design touches) where approach shots and putting are critical. Aberg can win in any given week. This would be a week I'd be on him at +2500.

Daniel Berger at +4000 is also too inviting to pass up. I've been on him for a few weeks now for a big win but his putting hasn't been up to par. He had good ball striking numbers at the PGA but couldn't solve the greens at Quail Hollow. If he putts well this week, he has a chance.

Denny McCarthy is +5000, which is probably where he should be, but his history at this event has been promising, including a playoff loss to Viktor Hovland two years ago. The length of the course (7,500) might be a big ambitious for him, but if his trademark putting quality rises to the occasion this week, he could win. I haven't been "on" Denny much this year because his putting stats have diminished, but if he finds his way on the greens this week he could win.

Corey Conners is +2800, and would be among the tournament favorites if not for his iffy putting. Conners is one of the best tee-to-green players in the world. But he's simply not a great putter. However, if he can cobble together an efficient week on the greens, he could be right there on Sunday. I've been "on" Conners for about a year now, maybe longer. I'm starting to wane on him, though. The results never match the statistical promise. We'll ride with him one more week and see what happens at Muirfield.

Tuesday May 27, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3928

remembering grayson

So as not to confuse the two situations, I held off on writing this yesterday, Memorial Day, because the two circumstances are clearly not one and the same.

Two friends, #DMD readers John L. and Tim D., independent of one another, both sent me an article over the weekend that I wanted to highlight today.

Oh, yes, the Orioles won their 3rd straight game on Monday. Charlie Morton was outstanding. Happy days are here again.

We'll get back to the Birds here tomorrow. There's a whole summer of baseball left to be played. As my son is fond of saying when he falls behind in something and starts to rally, "It's comeback season around here."

I have something to share with you today that is far more important than any late May baseball game. Really, it's more important than any game in any sport.

The story I'd like you to read today is lengthy.

And it's about a golfer.

But the story isn't really about a golf at all. The central subject just happens to be a golfer, although he is sadly no longer living.

Grayson Murray was a very talented PGA Tour player. He wasn't going into golf's Hall of Fame someday or anything like that, but he was a solid, competent TOUR player with a rising talent and the ability to make a very nice living playing the hardest professional golf circuit in the world.

He was also going through a rough time, personally.

Some of that was obvious to those close to him and some of it was much more private.

Grayson Murray took his own life last year.

The story I'd like you to read about him is right here.

Settle in. It's a long story.

But there's a lot to learn from it. And I hope you'll take the time to go through it and not only learn about the good of Grayson Murray, but the other stuff that drove him to the point of thinking there was no light at the end of his tunnel.

Learning about the "bad", if we should call it that, will potentially help you notice the warning signs of a friend or family member down the road.

I've had two friends take their own life.

Jack was one of my best friends in my early 20's. He was a Glen Burnie native and went to elementary school and high school with me.

At age 27, he shot himself.

I never got the chance to ask him why, but I also never really took enough notice of the warning signs, either. There was nothing in bold letters that said, "Jack might kill himself", so it never really entered my mind. Mercurial? Sure. Was he a bit edgy at times? He was, yes. But he had a heart of gold.

Jack owned a pizza shop in Glen Burnie for a year or two circa 1988 and would, every day, give away one free pizza to someone at random.

"I just like doing it. I like seeing the surprise look on their face and their smile," he would say when asked why he did that when the person was obviously already in the store, money in hand, waiting to support his business.

Jack and I played a lot of golf together, back when I wasn't very good and he was mostly just playing because he liked hanging around me, I guess.

Once, at Carroll Park, a random player who got paired up with us suffered a shoe "blow out" on the 9th hole that wrapped around the Montgomery Wards building.

It was funny in the moment. The guy -- probably in his early 20's -- had the entire bottom of his shoe come off during one of his vicious swings.

Jack laughed. The guy didn't think it was nearly as funny.

"What size shoe do you wear?" he asked the guy.

Ten minutes later in the parking lot, Jack was giving the guy a pair of his golf shoes that were a close fit, size wise.

"They just need new spikes and you're good to go," Jack said as the guy tried on the shoes and walked around in them.

"Seriously, take them," Jack urged. "I don't wear them any longer. They're just sitting here in my trunk."

On the way home, I told him how cool it was that he gave up his shoes. "Well, I felt kind of bad for laughing at him," he said.

That was Jack. He'd give you the shoes off of his feet.

Joe was a Parkville bar owner that I played a lot of golf with at Clifton Park in the late 1990's. When you look up the phrase "heart of gold" in the dictionary, Joe's face is there.

If you would have said to me, "Of everyone you play golf with at Clifton, pick out the one guy living his best life who would never consider taking his own life", I probably would have said, "Joe..."

Those who know the routing of Clifton Park know there's a par 4 hole (#12) that runs along Belair Road. There's a lot of activity there, including row homes, a bus stop and a small "park" across the street where neighborhood kids gather.

One day, on the tee, a group of three area youngsters approached our group as we waited to tee off. "We're selling water and soda, Mister," one of them said to Joe.

"How many do you have?" Joe asked.

One of them rooted through an old, ratty cooler they were carrying with them.

"15, 10 waters and 5 sodas," the kid replied.

Joe reached into his wallet and took out two, twenty dollar bills.

"You guys don't want to be selling that on the golf course," he explained. "You're going to get yelled at by the marshal who is driving around. They might even call the cops. They sell that stuff in the concession stand and they don't want you out here cutting into their business."

"Take this," Joe said, handing them the $40, "and move on now. Keep the drinks. But you need to move along."

"Thank you, Mister! One of them said. He took out a soft drink and handed it to Joe. "Please take this one. Just one of them," he said.

"Put it in that golf cart right there," Joe said as he motioned to one of the two carts. Not only did Joe help the kids, they were so moved by the act they insisted he take a soft drink from them.

"At least they're out here hustling," he said to us as the kids crossed over Belair Road. "They're not breaking into someone's house or someone's car. They're trying to make a buck the right way."

That was Joe, in a nutshell. Heart of gold.

There was nothing outwardly visible that made me ever think he was hurting inside. He did a great job of hiding it.

When you read the Grayson Murray story, you'll see some similar characteristics to my friends Jack and Joe.

All three of those guys did things for people that largely went unnoticed. They were also fighting demons along the way.

Perhaps their stories will also guide us into a better way of thinking when we encounter a friend or family member who is having a tough time or who makes a mistake or who wants do to their best but is having a hard time making it happen.

It might even be a stranger we meet who is having a tough day. We have no idea what's really going on in their life.

So, on this day after Memorial Day, where we honored those who gave their life as a sacrifice, let's also take a minute today to reflect on those who, for reasons we sometimes don't know, decided life wasn't worth living any longer.

Those people all left behind family members and friends who wish they could have helped, somehow.

If only we knew.

I hope you'll take 10 minutes today to read Grayson Murray's story.

Maybe it helps you and someone you know or love.

Monday May 26, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3927

not a manic monday

It's really not appropriate to say "Happy Memorial Day", so I went to the internet -- where we all go when we don't know the answer to something -- to learn what is the right thing to say today.

It turns out, there really isn't anything you say as a "greeting" per se.

You say "Happy Easter" or "Happy Thanksgiving" or "Merry Christmas", but you never say "Happy Memorial Day". It's awkward, to say the least.

We're remembering and celebrating those who perished while serving our country in the military. They, of course, gave the ultimate sacrifice to our nation.

I had a cousin who fought in Vietnam. I also had a neighbor across the street from me in Glen Burnie who went to Vietnam. They both survived. Others, of course, were far less fortunate.

We remember them today, along with all of the others in our military branches who died while protecting us.

Well, well, well.

Like the headline says, this is not a manic Monday after all.

The Orioles won on Saturday and they won on Sunday.

That, as they say in sports, is called a "winning streak"

After losing the first two games of the series in Boston, the Birds bounced back to win 2-1 and 5-1, with Sunday's victory including a rare 2-point "Little League home run" by Ryan O'Hearn, fueled by the Red Sox throwing the ball everywhere they shouldn't have on the play.

So, this afternoon when they kick off a 3-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Birds will be looking to do something they haven't done once all season. That is...win 3 games in a row.

That is an amazing stat, right?

The Orioles have reached May 27 and they've yet to win three straight games in the 2025 season.

Today might just be the day, though.

Wait, is Charlie Morton really starting for the O's today or is that just an internet rumor? If he's starting, there goes the 3-game winning streak idea.

Actually, it would be very O's-like to have Morton throw shutout baseball for 5.1 innings today. I mean, no one expected that start from Trevor Rogers on Saturday at Fenway Park, right? Maybe Morton has one of those left in his career. Maybe it's today. Maybe?

Anyway, the O's are now 18-34 and they have a chance, perhaps, to make some hay this week, what with the Cardinals in town for three and then the White Sox come stumbling in for a weekend series in Charm City.

OK, I'll be the guy that says it: Two sweeps over St. Louis and Chicago and, suddenly, the Orioles are 24-34 and, well.......I'll just stop there.

Ben Griffin won for the 2nd time this season on the PGA Tour yesterday, and, at least for now, has to be on the "considered" list for Keegan Bradley's captain's picks at the Ryder Cup.

Yes, one of those two wins was a 2-man event at the Zurich Classic, but it was a win nonetheless and the TOUR counts it as one, so we'll count it as well.

Griffin held on down the stretch with some gutsy par saves on Sunday at Colonial CC, which won't be confused with Bethpage Black anytime soon, but it was the way that he won that might specifically interest Captain Bradley.

In the Ryder Cup, you need players who can fight off the urge to collapse and hang in there on the last couple of holes when their match is in the balance. Griffin looks like he has that quality. It wasn't "pretty" golf over the last nine holes, but he was able to keep his head on straight and get the ball in the hole as quickly as possible while holding off Germany's Matti Schmid.

Griffin, 29 years old, moved from 18th to 13th in the standings after yesterday's win in Fort Worth. The top six players (currently Scheffler, Schauffele, DeChambeau, Thomas, Morikawa and Henley) are automatically on the team when the standings are frozen in late August after the FedEx Cup.

Bradley then has six captain's picks to complete his roster for the Ryder Cup in late September.

Based on what he currently has at his disposal in spots 7 through 12, it would appear almost a slam dunk that even if Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa fall outside of the top 6, Bradley will add those two.

Obviously, the two who would (mythically) replace them in the top 6 would automatically be on the team. But there's room for the addition of someone like Ben Griffin, who is the only American besides Scottie Scheffler to have two wins this season. Oh, and don't forget, he also produced a nice T8 finish at last week's PGA Championship.

If Griffin can secure another top 10 at the U.S. Open or British Open (Ryder Cup points are double in those events) and perhaps win one more time this summer, Bradley would almost have to add him to the team.

I'm a big fan of "new blood" at the Ryder Cup. We've seen enough of Spieth and Fowler and Kuchar over the years. If one of those three somehow makes it on points, fair enough. Spieth and Fowler are both near 30th in points so they're longshots at best and Kuchar hardly plays any longer so you can forget him.

That said, Bradley's other friends who have been previous captains have made the occasional weird choice, like adding the likes of Spieth and Fowler when others deserved it more than they did.

I'd much rather see someone like Griffin earn a captain's pick, particularly when they're playing so well this season.

Two years ago, this Ryder Cup at Bethpage was projected to be a mammoth U.S. beat down of the European side.

Four months out and it's anything but that at this point.

In fact, right now you'd have to think the European squad might even be a slight favorite.

Bradley's captain's picks are going to go a long way in determining the outcome.

I'm hoping Ben Griffin is one of them.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

Week Record: 3-4

Season Record: 18-34

AL East Standing: 5th (14 GB of NYY)

Player of the Week: Ryan O’Hearn - .548 OBP 1 HR 4 RBI 4 BB

The good news is the Orioles finished the week on a two game winning streak. The bad news is it was another losing week in which they were outscored 41-31, leaving them with the third worst record in MLB.

On Monday, the Orioles battled back from a 4-1 hole against Milwaukee, tying the game on Cedric Mullins’ clutch three-run homer in the seventh. However, Yennier Cano allowed a decisive two-out RBI single to Brewers catcher William Contreras in the eighth inning to drop the game 5-4.

The struggles continued on Tuesday as rookie Chayce McDermott’s rocky outing (4.2 IP, 3 ER) contributed to a 5-2 loss. Jackson Holliday provided some spark late with an RBI triple, but Milwaukee tacked on several insurance runs and their bullpen shut the door.

The O's finally broke an eight-game losing skid on Wednesday, winning an 11-inning thriller 8-4. Adley Rutschman’s towering three-run homer highlighted a four-run 11th inning. Starter Tomoyuki Sugano provided another quality outing, allowing two runs over six innings, but Félix Bautista blew the save in the ninth before the O’s won in extras.

Rain on Thursday led to a scheduled doubleheader on Friday, which turned into a doubleheader on Saturday after the late Friday game was postponed.

Thankfully the O's weren't forced to play a nightcap after they were embarrassed in a 19-5 blowout loss on Friday afternoon. Boston exploded for 13 runs in the eighth inning, highlighted by Rafael Devers’ grand slam and eight-RBI performance. Utility infielder, Emmanuel Rivera, absorbed much of the damage, coming on to pitch after the outcome was a forgone conclusion.

In the opener on Saturday, the Birds fell 6-5 despite holding an early 5-1 lead. Ramón Urías had a key two-run double and a Gunnar Henderson double extended the lead in the 5th, but Boston battled back, tying the game in the 6th. That led to the head-scratching decision to pitch to the red-hot Devers in extra innings, where he promptly ended the game with an RBI single.

The Orioles rebounded in the nightcap, winning a tight 2-1 contest. Andrew Kittredge picked up his first win as an Oriole, pitching a scoreless inning in relief after an outstanding season debut for Trevor Rogers (6.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 K).

Ryan O'Hearn drove in a run in the 8th and a Dylan Carlson double added a second in the 9th, proving crucial after Abraham Toro homered in the bottom of the inning.

The O's finished the week with a 5-1 victory on Sunday at Fenway behind Dean Kremer’s excellent 5.1 scoreless innings. Ryan O’Hearn and Dylan Carlson homered, while O’Hearn also added two more on an 8th inning double, where he ended up scoring after a series of Boston errors.

O’Hearn made the Player of the Week honors easy, posting a .548 OBP with a homer and four RBI, including multiple timely hits. O’Hearn has been the one consistent hitter throughout the season, sporting a .956 OPS. Unfortunately, given the state of the team, this may just mean that O’Hearn becomes a valuable midseason trade chip.

Others deserving a mention this week were Dean Kremer, who struck out ten over 10.2 innings, delivering a 3.38 ERA on the week. Tomoyuki Sugano was solid once again and Bryan Baker was stellar out of the pen, delivering 4.1 shutout innings.

Down on the Farm:

AAA Norfolk posted a 3-3 record against the St. Paul Saints this week. Samuel Basallo and Jud Fabian helped lead the offense. Basallo hit two massive homers on the week while posting a .385 OBP. Meanwhile Fabian got on base in half his plate appearances, including a homer and a triple. Cameron Weston had another impressive outing, throwing six, one-run innings.

At AA Chesapeake, Braxton Bragg had the standout performance, fanning eight over six innings while allowing two runs. The 24 year old Bragg lowered his season ERA to 1.01 with a 0.94 WHIP, he has struck out 61 over 44.2 AA innings.

Question of the Week:

Does this Orioles team need an “adult in the room”?

The firing of Brandon Hyde unsurprisingly had no immediate effect on the team. The Orioles continued their losing ways under Tony Mansolino, including another embarrassing blowout in Boston.

One moment on Saturday stood out especially during the week. After blowing a three-run lead in the early game, the O’s were forced to extra innings. They failed to score in the top half of the 10th then faced the scorching hot Rafael Devers in the bottom half.

With the ghost runner on second and first base open with one out, the Orioles decided to have Gregory Soto pitch to Devers. There was almost no harm in walking him, with the winning run already on second, yet the O’s pitched to him and he ended the game. The Fox broadcaster was perplexed the entire time.

The continued losing and incidents like this make fans wonder if the team needs the proverbial “adult in the room” to manage the team the rest of the season. Tony Mansolino may be a deeply knowledgeable baseball man, but he has little experience managing at this level.

While this season may be a forgone conclusion at this point, the young core of this team will be expected to quickly bounce back and return to contention next season. Playing out the string on this devastatingly disappointing season can be a learning experience for those young players, but the front office needs to ensure they aren’t learning the wrong lessons.

With an inexperienced, lame duck coach at the helm, it’s not hard to imagine players losing their edge, getting complacent and picking up bad habits. Perhaps a veteran manager, who has been through ups and downs and led teams back from downturns, might be a useful addition for the rest of the season.

Obviously Buck Showalter immediately comes to mind given his connection with the team and his availability. Even if there were no guarantees beyond this season, it would seem an experienced man at the helm might help this team make the most of a bad situation.

Maybe the question is whether the Orioles could entice anyone with those credentials without a long term commitment.

It is understandable if the team wants to keep their options open to hire the best manager in the offseason. Though, you would think that everyone has their price, and given the deep pockets of the ownership, shelling out for someone to grow the team in this lost season seems like a good investment.

starting to look...bleak

My son is an occasional #DMD reader.

I never really knew until recently, when he remarked about something I wrote during my Masters preview and said, "So, Dad, I was reading your website today. Do you really think this is the year Rory might finally win the green jacket?"

Yesterday we were driving home from Eagle's Nest after the O's threw away another game in the doubleheader opener and he said, "Well, Dad, can we push the panic button now?"

He was referring to a piece I wrote here in early May where I suggested we don't push the panic button in light of the O's slow start to the 2025 season.

I didn't say anything. He quickly followed up with, "You wrote a month ago it wasn't time to panic. Can we panic now?"

Alas, yes, it's time to panic.

Actually, we're beyond the panic stage at this point.

Somehow, I went from "don't press the panic button yet" to "missed the opportunity to push the panic button". I guess I was too busy watching the team disenegrate to actually panic.

The Colorado Rockies have 9 wins this season. They are, without question, the worst team in baseball.

Then it's the Orioles and White Sox next. They both have 17 wins.

The White Sox, you'll remember, were this year's Rockies last year. They couldn't win a game to save their lives. They're better this year, but not by much.

We're 51 games into the season and the O's have 34 losses already.

There was a silver lining moment yesterday when Trevor Rogers served up the team's best start of the 2025 season in the 2-1 nightcap win over Boston at Fenway Park. Now, don't get too excited. Rogers is just as likely to give up 6 runs in 3.2 innings of work in his next start as he is to have french toast at breakfast this morning.

But for a day, at least, the O's got a useful start out of someone they otherwise weren't expecting anything out of this season.

This sounds crazy but here goes: Maybe Rogers strings together 6-8 good starts over the next month and the O's can peddle him to a contender in early July. I know what you're thinking. And, no, I'm not day drinking already on this Memorial Day Sunday. It's just a thought.

Tony Mansolino was in the crosshairs in Saturday's opening game when he elected not to walk Rafael Devers in the 10th inning with the winning point run at second base. Devers promptly singled in the winning run to complete Boston's comeback from an early 5-2 deficit and win 6-5.

Afterwards, Mansolino, apparently forgetting that in extra innings, if the home team scores the go-ahead run, the game ends, said: "But if you put him (Devers) on right there, it gets messy and then you’ve got to go Soto against Refsnyder."

Devers was 6-for-11 against Greg Soto and is baseball's hottest hitter in May.

There was already one out in the 10th when Devers came up to hit.

Putting him on there changed nothing.

Refsnyder (right handed) was still going to come in as a pinch hitter to face Soto (a lefty) and there was nothing the O's could do about it because of the 3-batter minimum.

The only possible way pitching to Devers made sense was if he drilled a liner that was caught and the runner on 2nd got doubled off.

Other than that, a 7th grader just learning the nuances of baseball would have intentionally walked Devers in that situation.

Mansolino opted to pitch to Devers and he knocked in the game-winning run point on a single up the middle.

If public opinion on Twitter determined a manager's fate, Mansolino would have been canned right then and there. 1,000 votes, 1,000 "fire the guy right now" ballots cast.

Fortunately, the O's managed to save face in the nightcap with the 2-1 win although even that got sticky in the 9th when Seranthony Dominguez gave up a home run but managed to hang in there for the save and a much needed Birds victory.

The lineup the Birds opened with in yesterday's second game might not have won a best-of-3 in the College World Series, but it was somehow good enough to eek out a victory over the Red Sox, who are mysteriously 27-27 on the season despite only having four good players.

So, yes, it was good to (finally) win one on Saturday.

But reality has officially set in.

There are 111 games remaining. For the O's to reach 81 wins they would need to go 64-47 from here to the finish line. That seems unlikely, but we're positive thinkers here, as you know.

For the O's to get to 90 wins and (likely) secure a playoff spot, they'd have to 73-38 over their last 111 games. Yeah, I don't see that one happening, either.

I just throw in those two possibilities to remind you we never quit. There's always hope.

But the reality is, the O's are probably going to be in "sell" mode at the trade deadline unless something really weird happens.

Maybe they win 25 of their next 40 and they're suddenly approaching the .500 mark in early July and they have to start thinking "buy or sell?", but I doubt it.

It's far more likely they continue to sputter along and win 4 of every 10 they play over the next 40 games and they're 33-58 in early July.

The subject of the manager still lingers, of course.

After yesterday's disaster in the doubleheader opener, how can Mike Elias not try to bring in a qualified guy right now?

Sure, that's easier said than done.

Joe Maddon, Joe Girardi, Skip Schumacher, et al aren't coming in to fix this on a wing and a prayer. And, don't forget, as soon as they get that initial call from Mike Elias asking if they're interested in the vacant O's gig, their first call will go to.......Brandon Hyde.

"Hey, Brandon, sorry about the situation in Baltimore. I'm just letting you know...they reached out to me. Tell me about the place. Good environment?"

Hyde: "Yeah, the restaurants around the stadium are nice. They have this place, Federal Hill, with a bunch of nice bars and quaint eateries."

"That's great, but what about the front office? The organization? How did they treat you?"

Hyde: "And then there's Canton and Little Italy. Those areas of town are really cool as well. There was this breakfast place in Little Italy that makes the best sausage and egg sandwiches in the morning."

"That's great. But what about baseball stuff? The organization?"

Hyde: "OK, sure. Here's the deal. You basically get the lineup handed to you every day at 2:30 pm and you're told, 'This is who should play tonight. You figure out the batting order and everything else but these 9 guys should hit to start the game.'"

Now, maybe Joe Maddon wants to manage again so badly he doesn't care about front office interference. The same for Girardi. He might be itching to get back into managing just enough to have Mike Elias and some 27 year old kid from Princeton with an analytics degree tell him how to piece together a baseball lineup.

I have no idea how any veteran manager without a job would take to being told what to do.

And maybe that's why Elias can't bring one of them in now. Or maybe he doesn't want to bring one in now. Maybe, and I'm just spitballing here, he wants to see if he himself gets canned so he can drag one of those three guys along to his gig in Colorado or Chicago or Miami next season.

I don't know.

What I do know, though, is the Ravens have a very comfortable 2025 schedule and I can't wait until August to see which free agent rookie wide receiver catches two touchdowns in the 33-19 pre-season win over Dallas.

Saturday May 24, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3925

what do you want them to do?

My funny O's-hating-buddy Chris checked in via text yesterday during the Red Sox 13-run 8th inning uprising at Fenway Park.

"Who should they bean in the nightcap, Devers or Refsnyder?" he asked.

He knows how much I hate baseball's unwritten rules.

And he also knows how much I hate it when people whine when they get beat.

"What do you want them to do?" I asked. "Swing and miss on purpose?"

"It's bush league to score like this when they have an infielder in there pitching and you know it!" he shot back.

"It's bush league to lose 20-3," I replied.

Alas, the final score wasn't 20-3. It was 19-5.

Now, here's what I will say about Boston running up the score yesterday. If the O's ever get the chance to someday do the same thing to do them, then by all means, run it up.

Sadly, my friend Chris thinks the way to retaliate isn't by running up the score yourself someday down the road, it's by throwing at someone in the next game.

I just can't subscribe to that. I do think the Orioles should remember the Red Sox laughing and giggling at them in the 8th inning yesterday. Oh, yes, remember it. Remember it well.

But "remember it" doesn't mean trying to (potentially) intentionally injure another athlete.

"Who gets beaned in the nightcap?" Chris asked. In other words, someone had to get hit by a pitch in the second game of the doubleheader in retaliation for Boston still trying to pile on in the 8th inning of the opener when Emmanuel Rivera was brought in to pitch once the game got out of hand.

There was no nightcap, of course. It was rained out. So they'll play two today at Fenway Park.

In general, I'm not one to worry about the whole "running up the score" thing in sports.

If you're upset because the other team is scoring, then go ahead and stop them from scoring.

That seems like a reasonable solution.

Now, I'll admit that perhaps running up the score isn't prudent in youth sports. I can see the potential damage to a 10-year old boy or girl losing a football game 54-0 or a soccer game 12-0 or a basketball game 56-6.

There are certain "blowout rules" in youth sports designed not to allow those things to happen in the first place. And that's a good thing.

But once, say, you get to the high school and college level, the score is the score is the score. If you don't like the score, do something about it.

At the major league level, whining about getting blown out is amateur-hour stuff.

There was a Ravens game a while back where the Bengals kicked a field goal in the final minute to avoid getting shut out in Baltimore and Ravens defensive Wink Martindale lashed out at Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor after the 27-3 Baltimore win.

Talk about a #clownshoes moment.

Zac Taylor is supposed to just roll over and let you shut out his team and win 27-0?

The Bengals are supposed to stop trying just because you want to win and shut them out?

Maybe that's one reason why I love golf so much. If I'm beating you by 8 shots on the 18th hole and you pump two balls out of bounds, I would never, ever stand there and laugh at you.

In fact, you'd do the exact opposite. You'd merely look down at the grass or fiddle around with one of your clubs while your opponent reached into his bag (again) and said, "That first one was a Titleist 2 with a black dot. The second one was a Titlest 4 with a black dot. And this is, uhhhhh, a Maxfi SD with a green stripe under the word Maxfli."

I guess the thought of karma in golf is so strong that I know, without question, it very well could be me hitting two balls out of bounds the next time I get to that tee.

So there's no jeering or laughing or snickering at your opponent in golf. There's just silence and fear that it could be you suffering the same fate someday down the road.

Anyway, back to baseball.

In yesterday's 19-5 loss, Emmanuel Rivera came in to pitch in the 8th inning and gave up 8 runs while recording all 3 outs. What was Boston supposed to do there? Just swing and miss and get the inning over with?

Fair enough.

But were the Orioles also going to do that in the top of the 9th?

They wanted/expected the Red Sox to stop trying in the bottom of the 8th. Were the O's prepared to do that as well in the next inning?

In a weird kind of way, I'd actually be OK with that scenario. You know, the O's manager signals over to the Boston dugout and essentially says, "We're done trying" and the Red Sox give a signal that they understand and everyone just swings and misses and the bottom of the 8th and top of the 9th take about 2 minutes to complete.

All good there. On to the nightcap we go.

But the O's bring in a field player to pitch which essentially says "we're no longer trying" and then, in the top of the 9th, their guys are still up there swinging away and trying to put points runs on the board.

That's why Boston piled on in the 8th inning yesterday. They had no idea what the O's were going to do in the 9th, but it was logical to assume the Birds would be up there swinging away and trying to score (and they were, tacking on two runs in the 9th).

The whole thing is weird.

It's professional baseball. Everyone needs to try until 27 outs are recorded. That's the way it should be, all the time.

If you get your feelings hurt because the other team is better than you, figure out a way to stop them from being better than you.

Friday May 23, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3924

manager? do we need one?

Another topic discussed during my weekly visit to Glenn Clark Radio this past Wednesday was that of the Orioles and their managerial situation.

As in, do they need one now, in July, or not until next season?

Their current manager, definitely an "interim" at best, has consistently referred to runs as "points" in his post-game press conferences of late. I don't know that I've EVER heard anyone associated with baseball call them points instead of runs, so that one is hard to figure out to say the least.

Then again, during his brief meet-up with the media earlier this week in Milwaukee, the club's general manager said "I felt it was necessary to make a head coaching change", which is also perhaps the first time I've ever heard a baseball person call the manager a head coach.

So, anyway.......

Tony Mansolino is not the Orioles long-term fixture as manager.

I think we all know that.

For laughs -- I guess -- I did hear a Baltimore radio show caller ask the question earlier this week. "What if Mansolino turns this thing around and the O's somehow get back in the playoff race by September?"

I guess that's a question you have to ask just for the sake of asking it, but I can't imagine that's going to happen and, if it did, the O's would probably have already replaced Mansolino anyway.

I don't remember what the show host said in response to that question, but I know what my answer would be if I were Mike Elias and Mansolino asked me: "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

In the meantime, let's talk about things that actually are important.

What should the Orioles do......now?

Should they try to bring someone in within the next couple of weeks with major league cachet and have him try to get this thing turned around?

There are some names out there, currently unemployed, who might be willing to consider a mid-season hire. Joe Girardi, Joe Maddon and Skip Schumaker are the most notable names who could be interested in coming to Baltimore to scratch their next managerial itch.

Schumaker is probably the hottest "non-working" name in baseball right now. It's almost a given he's going to be the next manager of someone, either this summer or in the off-season.

There's also a weird rumor floating around town that Buck Showalter would entertain an Orioles 2.0 adventure if asked to return to Charm City.

So there's four names for you. Each of whom has a managerial pedigree that would allow them to hit the ground running if they took over this month or soon thereafter.

Or would Elias prefer to have a newbie take over? A fresh face, so to speak. Either someone in the organization already (Buck Britton, anyone?) or a former big leaguer cutting his teeth in another organization and eager to step up to the next level. There have been local calls for ex-Oriole Ryan Flaherty, perhaps.

While discussing all of this and all of the candidates, though, one sticking point still remains.

Does Mike Elias want a "real" manager?

Or does he -- along with his staff -- already sorta-kinda serve as the team's de facto manager without actually sitting in the dugout.

Clark and I talked about this on Wednesday.

It's my belief that sometime in the not-too-distant future, there will be a baseball team who decides NOT to employ an actual in-the-dugout manager.

Instead, they'll simply have an administrator of some kind in the dugout relaying messages from the front office on what the next strategical step is, whether that's a pinch hitter or a relief pitcher.

Someone will be designated to provide that information to the players, but all decisions in-the-game will be made in the press box, not all that different than when an offensive coordinator sits in the press box and sends the calls down to the field from there.

The Orioles organization, and baseball in general, relies more than ever before on statistics and data and "advanced metrics". Why pay Skip Schumaker $5 million to decide who should pinch hit in the 8th inning when he's already not the one deciding anyway. The information in front of him that's been curated by the team's baseball ops staff tells him who to pinch hit.

Schumaker merely says, "Heston, grab a bat...you're up for O'Neill batter-after-next."

At some point down the road, there will be ZERO need for a manager, in the same way there's really ZERO need for you to drive your own car now. It drives itself. You just happen to be sitting in there going to the destination of your choosing.

I don't like this change-to-come, by the way. I actually despise it.

But it's coming.

There's no need for a manager when the people upstairs are already the ones telling the manager what to do, who to play, when to play them and when to take them out.

All you need is someone to shepherd the players from city-to-city and create a couple of loose clubhouse rules so the place doesn't turn into a zoo. But actually "managing" the games? People like Mike Elias are getting away from that, I suspect.

I'm all for Joe Maddon, by the way.

Or Joe Girardi, even.

Schumaker is fine as well.

If I ran the club, I'd be bringing in someone now to try and make up enough group that maybe, just maybe, we can play a series in September that halfway matters.

Letting the team spoil in the hot summer sun seems like a bad way to go, in my opinion.

Then again, maybe even a new head coach can't get the team to score enough points over the last 110 matches to make a difference anyway.

faith in sports

Inky Johnson is a G.O.A.T.

Plain and simple. He's a G.O.A.T.

Today's video is one from our "greatest hits collection". It has one of the best lines I've ever heard when it comes to sports.

"Oh, you want me to tell you 'good job' because you did something you said you were going to do. You want validation because you said you were going to do it and then you did it?"

This video below is awesome for anyone in any profession, anywhere. It's part of my annual pre-season golf meeting at Calvert Hall. It fits athletes young and old, for sure.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment here.

Thursday May 22, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3923

thursday stuff

OK, well that was a welcome sight on the scoreboard in Milwaukee yesterday.

BALTIMORE 8 - BREWERS 4

I know there was some hand-wringing about Felix Bautista blowing a 9th inning save opportunity, but in the end, a win is a win is a win.

There was, of course, a rare Adley Rutschman sighting contribution as well, in the form of a big 3-run homer in the 11th after the O's had taken a 5-4 lead.

I haven't been able to write this in a while, so I'll take particular glee in typing these words below.

The beer........it's ice cold.

During yesterday's appearance on Glenn Clark Radio, the outstanding show host and I got into a discussion about Caitlin Clark and, as Glenn described, the "perverted followers" she apparently has that stalk her every move both on and off the court.

I don't know that I'd say everyone who dives in on Clark is a "perverted follower", but to each his own. Clark is just as fond of a nice, hot take as the rest of us.

I will agree, though, that it's interesting to see how people all over the country are attached and attracted to her in a way we haven't seen from a female basketball player in............well...........maybe forever?

As I left Clark's studio yesterday and started thinking about, I couldn't come up with anyone else, honestly. Now, a women's basketball enthusiast I'm not. I will readily admit that.

But.........

I can't remember the last time I went to a website or looked at the TV schedule to see if, perhaps, a female basketball player played earlier in the evening or is playing, perhaps, tomorrow evening.

I'm doing it now with Caitlin Clark.

Maybe I'm one of those, ummm, crazies that Clark referenced.

But here's the thing.

I don't know why.

Like, I'm not really all that much into basketball, period. I basically have as much interest in watching a WNBA game under normal circumstances as you, your neighbor, and your neighbor's neighbor.

Which is, of course, no real interest at all.

I still don't know anyone in my life, I don't think, who has ever actually gone to the ticket window and purchased a ticket to a WNBA game. I know people who have gone, yes, but they always sheepishly admit they got freebies from work or some other complimentary outlet.

So not only do I not really care about basketball, I have even less interest in women's basketball.

But I'm interested in Caitlin Clark and the sideshow stories that accompany her, whether that's her incredible training methods or this current saga that's developing between her and Baltimore native Angel Reese. Which, I guess, means I actually am interested in women's basketball after all.

I just don't know why.

The aftermath of Scottie Scheffler's win at the PGA Championship includes an interesting nugget about the Ryder Cup next September.

Bryson DeChambeau, thanks to another solid finish at a major, is now almost a virtual lock to finish inside the top 6 and automatically make the American squad.

He has just over 10,000 points right now, which, even if he didn't do anything again in the final two majors, will probably be enough to keep in the top 6.

That means Keegan Bradley won't have to use a captain's pick on a LIV golfer. That also means he will have six other guys to choose from at the end of August when he adds to his roster with his picks.

Right now, those guys in the standings at 7 (Harris English), 8 (Maverick McNealy), 9 (Andrew Novak), 10 (Brian Harman), 11 (J.J. Spaun) and 12 (Patrick Cantlay) aren't exactly going to throw fear into the European side. The only guy out of those six that you might be worried about would be Cantlay, although Harman is actually a better match play competitor in my opinion.

The good news?

Jordan Spieth is at #32 and Rickie Fowler is at #59.

Neither of those guys is getting picked this year, unless something almost unimaginable happens like one or both of them happen to win the U.S. Open and British Open. And I just don't see that being on the radar.

The bad news?

Those six currently ranked 7 to 12 aren't going to help the U.S. beat Europe at Bethpage, that's for sure.

There are still two majors remaining and the tide will certainly shift with those two events and the FedEx Cup thereafter. The points accrued in those events alone will probably go a long way in finalizing the 1-through-6 rankings and those who finish 7-12 as well.

But as it stands now......the American squad is going to be less than stellar at this year's Ryder Cup unless Bradley has some creative captain's picks up his sleeve.

Actually, maybe Spieth and Fowler should clear their calendar after all.

Just kidding...

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

MLB’s Rivalry Weekend was a huge success as viewership and attendance both set record highs since 2012 for the weekend before Memorial Day.

What was interesting about the weekend slate of games specifically were out of the 15 series played, there were 7 sweeps.

The Nationals, Angels, Mariners, Phillies, Cubs, Reds, and Giants all swept their opponents. The most surprising sweep was the Angels taking 3 straight from the Dodgers on the road. I don’t think anyone saw that coming.

The Subway series between the Yankees and Mets lived up to its expectations as the Yankees won the series on Sunday Night Baseball, which was the most watched edition of ESPN’s Sunday game in 7 years.

Yankees fans appeared to get into Juan Soto’s head as he had a very underwhelming weekend. Even though he had 4 walks across 3 games, he only had 1 hit and didn’t drive in any runs. His play overall appears to lack effort as critics are pointing out he doesn’t hustle out of the box and has no range in right field.

Soto has never been known for his defense. In fact, he has consistently been ranked in the bottom half of right fielders defensively year after year. Baseballsavant.com ranks Soto’s range in the 5th percentile among MLB right fielders and his arm value in the 37th percentile.

You would like to see the defensive metrics a little higher given he signed a 15-year, $765 million dollar contract this past off-season.

Now, obviously, the Mets were well-aware of this when they signed him, and the bottom line is he wasn’t paid for his defense. He earned his contract because of his bat.

The "hustle out of the box" is an interesting point. We saw last weekend Soto lightly jogging to 1st base on ground balls and more recently against the Red Sox, Soto hitting a ball off the Green Monster that could have been a double, but he only made it to 1st base.

The rumors circulating now are that people believe he’s unhappy and perhaps made a mistake signing with the Mets instead of returning to the Yankees. I think that’s a little far-fetched and that rumor was most likely started in the vicinity of Yankee Stadium.

Soto has not had a great start to the season as he’s batting .247 with 8 homers and 20 RBI. Fans are frustrated and have high expectations for him. I would be shocked if he doesn’t turn it around for the Mets this season.

The Phillies have been playing great baseball this season and currently have a slim lead in the NL East, but they just had a devastating blow to the back end of their bullpen as Jose Alvarado was suspended 80 games for a PED violation.

Alvarado won’t be able to return to the Phillies bullpen until mid-August, but the real kicker is he’s now ineligible to pitch in the postseason should the Phillies get there.

Alvarado has been the Phillies most consistent reliever, which is particularly troubling when you realize Philadelphia has the 4th worst ranked bullpen in the National League with a 4.66 ERA and 8 blown saves.

This is a Phillies team that has chased the elusive World Series trophy the past few seasons and has come up short.

Losing one of the game’s hardest throwing left-handed relievers is a big loss and it will be challenging to find a replacement. Jordan Romano, former Blue Jays closer, was acquired this past winter by the Phillies, but has struggled with a 7.27 ERA and 2 blown saves already in 5 save opportunities.

Romano is the likely candidate to take over the closer role, but I see the Phillies using a platoon approach until they make a trade for a closer at the deadline. Unfortunately for the Phillies, every team in contention for the playoƯs will also be shopping for a closer to solidify their bullpens. This will end up costing the Phillies valuable prospects to land a deal at the deadline.

Brandon Hyde was relieved of his manager duties last Saturday by the Orioles as the team has had a terrible start to the season with no signs of turning it around. I don’t know where to even begin with this team.

One night it’s the pitching, another night it’s the offense, another night it’s the defense. Most nights, actually, it’s all 3 of those things.

Randy Morgan and Drew have discussed the issues with the club this week, so I won’t go into too much detail with the Orioles struggles. I think it’s safe to say this season is a wash. With injuries to key players and core players not performing on top of free agent acquisitions from last winter also not performing, it creates the perfect storm for a losing season.

The Orioles had opportunities last winter to bring in guys to supplement the young core, and they didn’t do it.

Who is to blame for the result of this season? Hyde deserves some of it, but not all. Elias certainly does as well. He deserves more blame than Hyde in my opinion.

The players ultimately need to win the games and play well, which hasn’t happened since the first half of last season. For the rest of the year, focus on getting healthy and continue to develop the young core of players.

The O's should listen to offers at the trade deadline and look to add pitching prospects that are or near MLB ready, as long as the trade makes sense.

I liked Randy Morgan’s point he made on Monday of letting the young talent play, like Coby Mayo, Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young.

Let’s see what we have with these guys and give them a legitimate chance to play on a regular basis. There’s not going to be a better time than now to go through the growing pains of developing young prospects at the big-league level.

Players of the Week --

Pitcher: Sonny Gray of the St. Louis Cardinals had a great outing on Monday where we went 6 innings and gave up 3 hits, 1 walk, no runs, and punched out 10.

What’s more impressive is he did that against the Detroit Tigers, who have the best record in baseball eight weeks into the season. Gray is a bit of a journeyman, entering his 12th season in the majors. He was the Cardinals opening day starter this year and the leader of the rotation. The Cardinals will need to rely on Gray to give their team a chance to win every 5th day as they look to make a run for the NL Central.

Position Player: How about Will Benson of the Cincinnati Reds and the week he just had? Benson batted .455 this past week with 5 home runs and 10 RBI. Benson went 4 consecutive days last week with a home run, highlighted by his 2 homer, 3 RBI day he had on Sunday against the Guardians.

We’ve discussed the Reds here at the Hot Corner in the past. They currently are 25-25 going into Wednesday’s game. I like the Reds and think they can make a run for the NL Central, similar to the Cardinals. Regardless, this Reds team is fun to watch. A small market club with a talented team. It’s hard not to root for them.

Rookie: Mick Abel of the Philadelphia Phillies made his MLB debut against Paul Skenes and the Pirates and he did not disappoint.

Abel went 6 innings and gave up 5 hits, no walks, and had 9 strikeouts while also recording the win as the Phillies defeated the Pirates 1-0. The Phillies have enjoyed solid starting pitching this year, led by Zack Wheeler and Jesus Luzardo. It’ll be interesting to see how Abel fits in with this rotation moving forward.

Perhaps they’ll try moving him to the bullpen, where help is needed. I do feel bad for Skenes in this start. He went 8 innings and gave up 1 run and recorded the loss. He’s 3-5 on the year with a 2.44 ERA.

Games of the Week --

Friday, May 23rd: LA Dodgers vs New York Mets (Clayton Kershaw vs Griffin Canning)

Two of the best teams in the National League face off in a rematch of the NLCS last year. Kershaw struggled in his 2025 debut last week. Will he be able to get back on track on the road in New York, where the crowd will surely be buzzing?

Saturday, May 24th: Arizona Diamondbacks vs St Louis Cardinals (Merrill Kelly vs Matthew Liberatore)

These teams have similar records and are both looking to make runs at their divisions. This is also a great pitching matchup where Kelly has a 3.26 ERA and Liberatore has a 2.92 ERA.

Sunday, May 25th: Cleveland Guardians vs Detroit Tigers (Tanner Bibee vs Tarik Skubal)

This is a big series for the Guardians as they look to catch up with the red-hot Detroit Tigers. The Guardians are currently 5.5 games in back of the Tigers in the division. Losing this series or, even worse, a sweep, and the division starts to get out of reach for Cleveland.

Wednesday May 21, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3922

how long does mike get?

Mike Elias met with the media in Milwaukee yesterday, a few hours before the O's settled in to take their 8th straight loss, 5-2, to the Brewers.

There was nothing to it, really.

The Orioles GM said everything you expected he'd say.

"It's tough anytime you fire someone."

"This is ultimately my responsibility."

"We're still focused on getting this turned around quickly. There's a lot of baseball left to be played."

"No one's quitting or giving up."

The obvious question moving forward is: "How much patience does David Rubenstein have for this losing and the team/roster that Mike Elias put together?"

I don't know if there's a concrete answer in place, but it's always important to remember that Rubenstein didn't hire Elias and his staff. He inherited all of them.

I'll try to do my best to provide some balance to the Elias situation, but as the losses mount and the summer of '25 becomes more about the beach and 5 pm cocktails and less about the baseball team's chances for an Autumn to remember, it's getting harder and harder to balance anything out in favor of Mike Elias.

This, I do believe: In the same way that Brandon Hyde didn't suddenly become a terrible manager, Mike Elias didn't suddenly turn into a pumpkin as a general manager.

I'm personally not an analytics guy through and through. I do see their value, for sure. And I understand the role they play in picking a lineup or making an in-game decision of some kind.

But -- I'm sounding like Buck Showalter here, I know -- analytics can't replace 20 years of baseball experience or 20 years of going-with-your-gut or 20 years of "that guy hasn't thrown a strike in 10 minutes, I have to get him out of there."

So, while I understand that Elias is a "numbers guy" and so, too, are those on his staff, relying on data for every single thing you do is not the best idea. That's what I think, anyway.

This year, clearly, is an outlier.

Something went horribly wrong.

Injuries, which are never predictable, have certainly helped derail the O's thus far. Anyone who suggests injuries haven't hurt the club is silly.

Every team gets them, of course, but the O's got their case of the injury bug in March, April and May, rather than July, August and September.

It's not only injuries. Not by a longshot. But the team's performance on the field has certainly been impacted by the loss of guys like GrayRod, Eflin, Westburg and Cowser, just to name four.

Elias can't do anything about the injuries, but he can do something about the signings he authorized over the winter. The only MLB veteran thus far that's paid any sort of qualified return-on-investment has been Ramon Laureano. The rest of the off-season additions have largely been useless.

There is also Tomoyuki Sugano, the Japanese pitcher. He's been decent. But that was like stepping up to the black jack table and having the dealer throw you a jack and a ten. You just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

He could have also thrown down a five of spades and three of hearts and you'd be in trouble. But you gambled he'd give you the ten and the jack and you were right.

MLB veterans with experience that you sign, guys you know and have vetted (presumably), are the ones who tell us if you know what you're doing -- or not.

James McCann was replaced by Gary Sanchez. McCann famously took a fastball to the face last year, rubbed some mercurochrome on it, and trotted back out there. He was, by every account, a well respected veteran who added something both on the field and off the field.

Sanchez had about as many hits Procol Harum had in the 60's, then got a hang nail in May and hasn't been heard from since.

Whether McCann's locker room presence was overly significant is something we all don't know. But it's almost a definite that Sanchez has (had) zero locker room impact.

I don't know what Santander brought to the locker room and, yes, I know he's off to a sluggish start in Toronto, but you effectively swapped Santander for O'Neill because you didn't want to pay Santander what he was worth.

So, you got what you deserved out of that trade-of-talent. Nothing.

Now, let's throw one final thing out there. The internet is filled with stories about Elias and Rubenstein. Do they both collectively want to spend money on baseball players? Do they both want to "Moneyball" their way through the off-season? Does Elias want one thing and Rubenstein another?

Various media folks try to give you those answers, but I'm not sure I'm convinced that anyone really knows the truth.

My suspicion is probably this: Rubenstein doesn't want to come across as cheap because he knows that was the scarlet letter Peter Angelos eventually wore as the owner of the franchhise.

Elias knows you have to spend money on baseball players in order to have a reasonable chance of winning. If you sign scrubs or draft scrubs, you become the White Sox and Rockies.

But he doesn't want to sign, let's say, Anthony Santander right now and, two years down the road, Rubenstein says, "You want $70 million a year for Gunnar Henderson? Are you insane? We gave Santander $25 million a year and he's doing just fine. Talk Henderson down to $45 million a year and I'll think about it."

I don't think Elias is "anti-spending-money" on players. I do think, though, he's afraid of losing a guy in three or four years and, thus, figures it's prudent to save his chips for a day down the road.

Meanwhile, by passing on (potentially expensive) quality free agents now, you go from a playoff team to a division bottom feeder and you've lost your shine, so to speak.

This also brings up another relevant question: Who is the team leader?

We've posed this question before. Is it Ryan O'Hearn? Cedric Mullins?

It's no longer Brandon Hyde. That much we know.

Does Elias show any kind of leadership qualities at this point that players will respond to over the next few weeks?

I don't know. I think you have to be there, in the locker room, on the team plane, in the hotel, to know the answer.

But I do know this: The spotlight now shifts from Hyde to Elias.

These are, after all, his players. He brought them all (mostly) to Baltimore. If they're stinking it up, their performance is on them, of course. But Elias is the one who decided Charlie Morton still had something left in the tank, Tyler O'Neill was a good fit, Gregory Sota was a good pick up last summer, and so on.

He's the GM who called the Marlins and said, "We have these two kids, Norby and Stowers. How about I give you them and you give us Trevor Rogers?"

Elias is the one who didn't trade for Crochet or Cease. He's the one that passed on Pivetta or Wacha as free agents.

Firing the general manager during the season seems very unlikely, especially if the team continues to flatline and eventually gets to, say, 30-50 at the halfway point of the season. Why fire anyone at that point? Just let it burn and make sure you get the pets out of the house.

Then again, you might want to start fresh on June 1 and give the new GM and whatever staff he (or she) puts together a month or so to prepare for the upcoming MLB draft.

But what GM of any value is out there available and flapping in the breeze in June? Most of the highly competent folks in baseball have jobs in......baseball.

I don't know if firing Mike Elias is right or wrong, prudent or dumb.

I do know, though, that he never thought he'd be sitting in the dugout in Milwaukee on May 20, defending his baseball acumen and trying to explain how this whole thing fell apart so quickly in 2025.

The injuries definitely conspired against him.

His best players not firing on all cylinders from day one of the regular season didn't help, either.

It's all caved in on him without much notice.

And then he had to fire the manager, which I'm sure is not a move he really, deep down, wanted to make.

It's not Brandon Hyde's fault that Ryan Mountcastle hasn't figured out how to lay off the ball down and away when he has two strikes on him.

Adley Rutschman has declined faster than CNN's ratings over the last two years. How is that Hyde's fault?

But, as we know, "someone" has to be the fall guy and it turned out to be the manager, even though I'm sure Elias knew that was only a band-aid that would temporarily stop the bleeding.

The Orioles are still facing major surgery at some point soon.

Will Elias survive the collapse? Does the remainder of the season serve as a "make or break" four months for Elias? Or will Rubenstein and O's ownership eventually want their own people in the GM office no matter what happens?

Important questions indeed.

Tuesday May 20, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3921

feeling sorry for them now

OK, so this is starting to get bad with the Orioles.

I mean, enough is enough, baseball gods.

The team stinks, obviously.

They had to fire the manager before Memorial Day.

And, now, they still can't win, even with a new guy at the helm.

I'm sure Brandon Hyde is snickering somewhere, wherever managers who just got fired but are still getting paid decide to go after they no longer have to report to the clubhouse every day at 2:30 pm.

It was a 7th straight loss last night in Milwaukee, 5-4, as the O's battled back from a 4-1 deficit on a Cedric Mullins 3-run homer, only to give up the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the 8th.

At some point, it has to get better. Right? Right?

What happens first?

A) Orioles win a game

B) Lamar hints at a new contract because his current one is below market value

C) Kevin Willard leaves Villanova for Duke

There's nothing else to say, really, about the Orioles at this point. So, rather than beat a dead horse, we'll let it lay on the side of the road for a few days and bake in the sun.

And, here's the thing, there are signs of the offense starting to come to life and percolate just a little bit.

Maybe I'm trying to be overly optimistic, which is a character flaw I'll own, but six runs on Saturday, four runs on Sunday and four again last night is at least something to build upon moving forward.

For those doing the math, the Birds are 15-31. In order to win 86 games and have a possible shot at a playoff spot, they would have to go 71-45 from now until the end of the season.

I know what you're thinking.

(Well, Flyers fans are thinking, "Wait...is 71 plus 15 really 86?" Yes it is.)

You're thinking, "Yeah, I don't see 71-45 in the cards for these Orioles."

I'm an optimist by nature but I'd agree with you.

Meanwhile, one of the interesting sidebars to this fiasco of a season is something Randy Morgan brought up yesterday.

Who gets traded (or made available) at the deadline?

I mean, I guess the discussion begins with: Who wouldn't you trade away?

Gunnar is a "not available".

Holliday is a "not available".

I think Westburg is a "not available", but, speaking of "available", it would be nice to see him play for longer than a month without getting hurt.

Other than that, make me (or, the O's) an offer on anyone else.

You can have 'em all.

But, like always, we're not giving people away for the sake of giving them away. You need to come up with something beneficial in return, unless it's Charlie Morton or Ramon Laureano you want.

Heck, at this point, Laureano is probably 3rd in the team's MVP voting through 46 games.

We might be building around him for the future. Who knows?

Scottie Scheffler moved past an elite group of professional golfers on Sunday with his 5-shot win at the PGA Championship.

The triumph was Scheffler's 3rd career major title, which means he has now/already won more majors than a fairly prominent group of Hall of Fame golfers, including:

Greg Norman

Bernhard Langer

Jose Maria Olazabal

Ben Crenshaw

And, with three majors, Scheffler now has one more than a stable of current top players like Dustin Johnson, Jon Rahm, Bryson DeChambeau and Collin Morikawa, each of whom has two majors in their career(s).

Someone asked me on Sunday if I thought Scheffler could get to 10 major titles.

That's going to be awfully hard to do, simply because you can, as Rory McIlroy just showed us, going through a period of time where you're playing great golf but you can't win a major.

Scheffler might very well win another one this year, then go all of 2026 and 2027 without winning one. Who knows?

One thing for sure, though. This "run" of Scheffler's that started back in 2022 is more "Tiger like" than anything we've seen in golf over the last 25 years.

He's won 15 times since February of 2022.

Fred Couples also won 15 tournaments...in 27 years on TOUR.

And that's not a slight at Freddie. 15 tournament wins on the PGA Tour is an incredible feat.

Scheffler's won 15 times in 39 months.

And there's really no sign of him doing anything but winning for the forseeable future. This is most certainly not a fluke.

The U.S. Open will also be tailor-made for him, as was Quail Hollow GC last week. At Oakmont CC next month, he'll enjoy a bomber's paradise where iron play and approach to the greens will really be at premium. And, while the greens this year might be a tad more tricky than last year at Pinehurst #2, they'll be far easier to hit this time around.

Yes, in case you're wondering, Scheffler is a great bet to win at Oakmont CC in mid-June.

Lost in the aftermath of Sunday's win for Scheffler's was the delightful back nine egg laid taken by the two LIV challengers, Rahm and DeChambeau. Rahm was in the hunt for his 3rd career major until he fell apart over the last three holes. DeChambeau, at one point tied for the lead late in Saturday's third round, couldn't get it done under the gun on the back in Sunday's final round.

I'm sure you were just as thrilled as I was to watch those two fire and fall back.

In the end, the guy I thought would win did, in fact, win. But it was a "perfect ballpark" for Scheffler who, like Rory, had his driver removed from play by the PGA Tour last Tuesday for "non-conforming" characteristics of the clubface.

But unlike Rory, who couldn't hit a fairway for four days, Scheffler simply put a new driver in play and clobbered everyone with it.

A lot has been made about McIlroy's situation, but the reality is a player's club can become non-comforing without any real knowledge on their part. When a baseball player corks a bat, they know it's corked because they (or someone representing them) did the corking.

When a driver's clubface becomes "illegal", it's almost always due to wear and tear in the shaft that leads to an increased MOI (moment of inertia) in the club head itself. It's far too technical for my Glen Burnie High School education and I don't swing hard enough to ever worry about "wearing down the clubface" on my driver, so I'm just passing along what I've heard along the way.

Scheffler put a new driver in play and won with it.

McIlroy put a new driver in play and couldn't hit a fairway if his life depended on it.

One of those two is the best golfer in the world right now and the other is a great golfer. It would be cool to see them face off in the final round next month in Pittsburgh.

Monday May 19, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3920

the morning after the morning after

My son, a senior at Calvert Hall and a member of the team that won the A-Conference championship on Saturday, delivered the news to me as my team was warming up just after 12 noon.

"Dad, the Orioles just fired Brandon Hyde."

He didn't do it on purpose, of course, but Ethan's information momentarily distracted me from the task at hand.

I was not in the "Fire Hyde!" camp like a lot of others in town. I wrote here that I thought he would get fired if the O's somehow got swept by the lowly Nationals. Alas, both things happened, just not in the anticipated order. Hyde got fired first. Then the O's got swept.

I thought about Hyde for a minute as I watched my starting six rip practice shots into a beautiful, Chamber of Commerce blue sky at Caves Valley.

I met the erstwhile O's skipper only once. It was last summer at the Country Club of Maryland. He was seeking some morning solace walking 9 holes by himself and I was on the putting green waiting for a friend I was meeting for coffee and to discuss a golf camp we were running together.

It was early June. The O's were rolling.

He was walking off the 9th green and stopped on the putting green to practice. I introduced myself.

"It's great to have winning baseball back in Baltimore," I told him. We small-talked about other stuff for two minutes. You know, the usual. I told him I was from Glen Burnie originally, was there at Memorial Stadium at 1:00 am when O's got back from Philly in the '83 World Series and can't wait to sit in Camden Yards for a World Series game someday soon.

"We have the players to do it," Hyde said. "We have some great, young talent."

And that was it. That was the only occasion I ever had to talk with Brandon Hyde. Although I know he was a regular 9-hole walker at CC of Maryland, I never again encountered him there.

But that comment stuck with me.

"We have the players to do it. We have some great, young talent."

I'm proud to say my Calvert Hall team won its 2nd title in 3 years later on Saturday. We beat a very good Spalding team, 16.5 to 4.5, to finish the season at 13-1. It was, by almost any standard, not only perhaps the best season in the history of the school's golf program, but one of the best seasons any Calvert Hall team has produced since the school moved to its current location 70-some years ago.

We had great, young talent.

Coaching matters. I happen to have two amazing assistant coaches, Brian Hubbard and Nick Smearman, who were both huge parts of our 2025 success. As I said to them in the 12th fairway on Saturday as we were wrapping up our win, "None of this happens without you two."

Hubbard has been with me since 2019. Smearman played for my championship team in 2013 and joined my staff just this past season.

Both of those guys know golf and they know how to compete and they know when to push and when to hug. In other words, they know when it's time to coach and when it's time to leave things alone.

I couldn't have two guys who are more perfect fits to be with me. God is great, indeed. Those two epitomize Calvert Hall and the golf program I've been a part of since 2013.

During matches, each of us walks with one of the three groups that contains two players from each team.

As it turned out this year, the three of us settled into our routine. I routinely walked with the group that contained Brooks Manning, an outstanding junior team captain who played great golf all season. Saturday, he partnered with Enzo Pobletts, and I walked with those guys at Caves.

Hubbard walked with Ryan Hoffner's group all season. Hoffner, like Manning, is a junior team captain, and a 2-time All-Conference player who has played every match for the last three years. His partner on Saturday was James Jean-Baptiste, a junior who played terrific golf in 2025.

And Smearman, all season long, walked with the "5-6" pairing, the final group on the course, which for us this season never once changed. It was senior Clayton Wright and freshman Landon O'Hara from the first match until the final putt dropped on Saturday at Caves.

Some others played in conference matches for us along the way. Every guy on the team played in either a conference match or non-conference match in 2025.

As coaches, we're merely there for support and, if needed, to add a third voice.

"How much do you think this plays uphill?" a player might ask.

"Make sure you get this ball to hit right of the pin," I'll say. "Check your notes. Everything goes hard to the left once it hits the green."

"Do your best to leave this chip short of the hole. Your guy is going to make bogey at best here. Give yourself a good putt at par," a coach will add.

And that's it. We offer advice when asked or we step in only when we feel like it's necessary.

There was a scene last month in the moment after we won the team stroke play title -- a mid-season tournament of sorts that counts a team's best four individual stroke play scores over 36 holes -- where I saw something that my players didn't and was able to bring that to their attention.

As the league Commissioner announced Calvert Hall as the winner, the teams and spectators surrounding the scoring area gave us polite, appropriate applause.

Except for one team, that is.

One team in the conference stood there -- all 9 or 10 of their players -- with their arms across their chests. It was, very clearly, an intentional decision on their part.

I noticed it.

My players, who were busy receiving the team trophy, didn't see it. But I did.

And in the quick post-round meeting I had with my guys, I brought it up to them.

"Just remember that," I said. "File it away and remember it."

We saw that team again later in the season. The final score would indicate that, ummmm, it was remembered.

As I stood there with Brian and Nick on Saturday and watched the team celebrate the victory, I couldn't help but think of Brandon Hyde and his staff.

They knew as much about baseball when the O's were great for two seasons as they knew about baseball this season when the team got off to a terrible start.

It was, of course, always mostly about the players. They throw the ball. They hit the ball. They field the ball.

The coaches matter. They surely do.

But it's always about the players.

This year, the players on the Orioles aren't playing up to their capabilities. No one really knows why that is. But it's been happening almost since day one of the season.

And because you can't fire all two dozen players, you have to fire one "other" person just to show that what's happening isn't acceptable.

Hyde, sadly, became that "other" person on Saturday.

"We have some great, young talent," Hyde said to me that day.

As it turns out, so do we at Calvert Hall golf.

I have the best players in the conference to coach. It's a privilege, really.

They are outstanding golfers and engaged, enthusiastic student-athletes.

Above all, they play golf "the Calvert Hall way", as we like to say.

"No chirping on the internet," I would tell them after every win this season. "Don't write anything crazy on your social media pages. Let your golf clubs do the talking."

In 2025, their play and record did all the talking.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

orioles week in review

Week Record: 0-6

Season Record: 15-30

AL East Standing: 5th (11 GB of NYY)

Player of the Week: Jackson Holliday - .321 AVG 2 HR 2 DB 5 RBI

Zero. Zero, as in the amount of wins for the Orioles this week. Zero, as in the Orioles chances of making the playoffs after this week.

The embarrassing week cost manager Bradon Hyde his job. A move that won’t likely solve anything but was about the only thing that could be done at this point. The man who made the move, GM Mike Elias, is now squarely in the spotlight and probably next on the chopping block if this disaster continues.

A rainout on Tuesday meant a doubleheader for the O’s on Wednesday. In the opener, Gunnar Henderson gave Baltimore an early 3–0 lead with a two-run homer, but Dean Kremer surrendered four runs in the fourth, highlighted by Christian Vázquez's three-run blast. Ramón Laureano was ejected in the sixth inning, symbolizing the team's growing frustrations, as the Birds fell 6-3.

In the second game of the day, the O’s came back from a four run deficit to take the lead with a six run explosion in the third, capped by Cedric Mullins' grand slam and a solo homer from rookie Heston Kjerstad. However, the Twins rallied late, punctuated by Kody Clemens’ go-ahead three-run homer off Yennier Cano in the eighth inning and the Orioles lost 8-6.

In the series closer on Thursday, Minnesota starter Chris Paddack silenced Orioles bats, tossing seven shutout innings. Tomoyuki Sugano allowed four runs over 6.1 innings. Baltimore managed just six hits and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, ending with a 4-0 loss and a disappointing sweep.

Despite fifteen hits on Friday, the O’s still couldn’t prevail, losing 4-3 to the Nats. The BIrds stranded fifteen runners. The Orioles took a 3–2 lead into the eighth but couldn't hold on, with a James Wood homer in the 8th followed by a costly throwing error by Félix Bautista in the ninth that allowed the Nationals' winning run to score.

Hours after Hyde's firing on Saturday, the Orioles suffered a nightmare six-run first inning. Kyle Gibson recorded only two outs before being pulled. Jackson Holliday provided a bright spot with a homer and three RBI, but the O’s dropped another one, 10-6.

On Sunday, Holliday went deep again, along with Mullins and Gunnar. Though it wasn’t nearly enough after a brutal start for Zach Eflin who allowed eight runs over 5.1 innings. CJ Abrams led off the game with a home run and added another in the 2nd, pacing a five-homer day for Washington. Those blasts powered the Nats to a 10-4 win and left the O’s with nothing to show for in the entire week.

Given the circumstances, it's hard to find much positive to talk about this week. Lost in this miserable slide is a true breakout for former first overall draft pick Jackson Holliday. The young lefty continued his surge at the plate this week batting .321 with two homers and five RBI.

Down on the Farm --

Norfolk struggled to a 2-4 record against the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp this week. Top prospect Samuel Basallo led the way for the Tides, bashing three homers and driving in seven to go along with a .435 OBP on the week.

Outfielder Dylan Beavers had another strong week, batting .471 to boost his yearly average to .303 with an .818 OPS. On the mound, 24 year old right handed pitching prospect Cameron Weston had 14 strikeouts over 10.2 innings with a 2.53 ERA over the two starts. In AA, catching prospect Creed Willems continued to lead the Baysox offense with two homers and four RBI. Willems raised his season long OPS to .883.

Question of the Week --

Why should we keep watching this team for the rest of the season?

This week’s topic may be more of a personal quest to convince myself the money I spent on the season-long MLB TV pass isn’t completely wasted for the rest of the summer. So, if you likewise shelled out for MLB TV or the newer MASN streaming pass, I’ll present five reasons to keep watching the Orioles in this lost season.

Jackson Holliday

With a .275 average and a .787 OPS, Holliday has improved in every category at the plate since last season, along with playing solid defense at second base. At just 21 years old, he now has an OPS+ of 118, or 18% better than average.

Holliday now looks well on his way to fulfilling his enormous promise. While it may not matter this season, a blooming Holliday could pair with Gunnar Henderson to form one of the best up the middle duos in the league for years to come.

Let the kids play

Now that the Orioles have nothing to play for the rest of the season, the focus for everything will need to shift to turning things around next year. This provides an opportunity for the Orioles to get an extended look at some of their top prospects in a lower pressure environment.

Once the playoffs are completely out of sight there isn’t much sense to keep running out short term solutions like Ramon Laureano or Gary Sanchez.

Players like Coby Mayo, who has proven himself beyond a doubt at AAA, but struggled in sporadic Major League at-bats, should get every chance to learn on the job the rest of the season. Along with Mayo, pitchers Cade Povich, Chayce McDermott and Brandon Young should get ample chance to adapt to big league hitters.

They should take all the innings that were previously reserved for Charlie Morton and Kyle Gibson.

There should even be opportunities to bring up the next few prospects for some experience at the top level to evaluate who might be able to contribute to a rebound next season.

Samuel Basallo is very young and green, but if the front office hopes he can help next year, it might make sense to get him acclimated down the stretch this year. Dylan Beavers has been hitting well at AAA and will be an option in the outfield next year. He could get some useful experience in this lost year, especially given the uncertain futures of Cedric Mullins and Tyler O’Neill.

Trade or Re-Sign?

Speaking of Cedric Mullins. He is one of the few Orioles doing their job this season. Unfortunately, he is not signed beyond 2025 and probably represents the most difficult decision the team will need to make this offseason.

Mullins is an Oriole through and through, coming up in the dark days and remaining a productive part of the recent success. There was a time last year where it seemed Mullins’ departure was inevitable, but the center fielder has turned it around and has arguably the team’s best player this season.

Mike Elias will need to determine if Mullins is more valuable to the team as a trade asset at the deadline this year or if the team can find the right price to sign Mullins to an extension. There is no ready made replacement for Mullins in center field.

Colton Cowser has done a decent job when forced into the role, but he profiles more as a good corner outfielder. The club drafted Enrique Bradfield Jr. in the first round a couple years ago, but injuries have limited him to a small number of AA at-bats thus far, so he is not very near being ready to take over the big league job.

.

Zach Eflin and Tomoyuki Sugano represent similar decisions for the front office, though they come with less sentimental baggage. Given the team’s recent history, both of them will most likely leave as free agents in the offseason if they aren’t traded before then.

This season’s trade deadline could go a long way to determining if Elias gets to keep his job and try to reset the team for another successful run after this complete failure of a season.

Manager (and GM?) Evaluation

In that same vein, we will also get to see how the team performs under a new manager, with Brandon Hyde relieved of his duties this week. It seems unlikely that Tony Mansolino will be the long term solution unless he sparks a miraculous turnaround.

Nevertheless, the manager change gives a chance to parse out if any of the underperformance was due to coaching/managing or if the status quo continues. At a minimum, Mansolino will have some freedom to try some different approaches and see if anything works well enough to carry over to next year.

Kyle Bradish

The 2023 ace starting pitcher probably didn’t envision the season would be over by the time he returned in the second half. The good news is with no playoffs in sight, the Orioles will have no reason to rush Kyle Bradish.

They can allow him to ease his way back to the mound and hopefully find the rhythm he had in that magical year so that he can return at the top of his game in 2026.

Sunday May 18, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3919

well, that didn't help

The post-Brandon Hyde era started on Saturday the way it ended on Friday. With an Orioles loss.

This wasn't "just a loss", it was a thorough drubbing at the hands of the Nationals, who blew out of the gates with six runs in the first inning and eventually extended that lead to 10-2 before the O's saved themselves a smidgen of embarrassment with a four-run uprising in the bottom of the 9th in a 10-6 loss at Camden Yards.

But, as they say, a loss is a loss is a loss. They all count the same, whether it's 2-1 or 10-6.

The Orioles finally caved in to the inevitable on Saturday and fired Brandon Hyde.

Whether it was Mike Elias who wrote out the pink slip or David Rubenstein who wrote it but asked Elias to deliver it is really neither here nor there. A lot of folks on the internet think it's a big deal who ultimately made the call, but it doesn't matter one iota.

A substantial portion of what's gone wrong with this Orioles team has nothing at all to do with Hyde, in the same way that a substantial portion of what went right in '23 and '24 had very little to do with him.

But...

The sad reality is he had to go.

Holding professional athletes accountable is a very difficult thing to do because in almost every circumstance, they make more money than the people who hired them.

There was a time when you could hold college athletes accountable but that ship, too, has now sailed as well.

But making a professional athlete take responsibility for his (her) own performance is almost impossible in 2025. Firing the manager is the beginning of that process.

The players in Baltimore, by all accounts, were very fond of Brandon Hyde. Whether they secretly wanted him gone is a story for another day, but if they think firing the manager was going to ease them out of the pressure cooker, they're sadly mistaken.

Firing Hyde becomes a quick-fix "excuse" for the team's horrendous start to the '25 campaign.

"The manager couldn't get the players to play better, so we have to fire him," is what Elias essentially said on Saturday.

Tony Mansolino is the team's new manager, which means he now bears the responsibility of squeezing something positive out of this uninspired group of professionals. (Should we put "professionals" in quotes like that? I mean, you are 15-29).

The players might think it's a relief to have Hyde take the axe and Mansolino step into the role.

"Whew, they thought it was Hyde, not us..."

But we all know who it is.

It's the players.

Now, the guy who brought those players to town is certainly not exempt from criticism. And he's next on the chopping block if this thing completely spirals out of control.

Mike Elias is now in the crosshairs, for sure.

He's the one who thought Gary Sanchez would be a better fit for the club than James McCann.

He's the one who thought Tyler O'Neill would be a better fit than Anthony Santander.

We'll give him a pass on losing Corbin Burnes. Burnes spent 6 months in Baltimore and borrowed a line from Roberto Duran: "No mas."

But we can't give him a pass for bringing in Charlie Morton. That move flopped worse than the Beatles' release of the "Revolver", "Abbey Road", "Yellow Submarine" album.

You didn't have to give Corbin Burnes $300 million of silly-money to get him to stay. He was never going to stay.

But Morton was the wrong choice. There were a handful of veteran pitchers available who have gone to have reputable seasons (thus far) who would have been much better than Morton. Alas, Morton was cheap, which is always a favorite theme of the O's no matter who runs the team or owns the team.

All of that stuff -- Sanchez, O'Neill, Morton -- falls under the watchful eye of Elias. He picked those guys. None of them have been any good.

So, he's next.

But, in the meantime, it's the players who fall under daily scrutiny now. Brandon Hyde is no longer around to get beat up and blamed.

Now, we turn to the players to see if they're professional enough to get this ship righted before the All-Star break.

Scottie Scheffler scorched Quail Hollow over the final 75 minutes yesterday and owns a 3-shot lead going into today's concluding round of the PGA Championship.

Is it over?

Not hardly.

I mean, I obviously picked Scheffler to win so conventional wisdom says I think he'll hold on to win, but it's far from a done deal is what I'm trying to convey.

Weird things happen at the PGA and the guys lurking on the leaderboard are very typical names for a tournament that features a surprise winner every few years.

I think Scheffler will hold on to win. He's the best player in the world, obviously, and the way he scorched those final five holes on Saturday (eagle, birdie, par, birdie, birdie) was why no one on this planet is better at golf than Scottie Scheffler.

Editor's note: I sometimes take a second and reflect on that idea for just a second. Imagine what it's like when you're the best player at your club. That's a great feeling, indeed. There might be 20 or 30 highly competent golfers at your club and you're the best of them. Imagine what it might be like to be ranked #1 in your entire state. The feeling of "in the entire state, I'm the best golfer." Then imagine what it's like to be the best golfer in your country or native land. Scottie Scheffler is the best golfer in the world."

But the names behind him are ripe to become the next Shaun Micheel, Rich Beem or Y.E. Yang. Those are three non-descript former champions of the PGA Championship. And so, too, would Alex Noren be "non-descript". J.T. Poston, Davis Riley, Jhonattan Vegas. Those three would fit the "non-descript" moniker as well.

All four of those guys are excellent players, as evidenced by the fact they're on the PGA Tour and have a shot at winning the PGA Championship today. They're not there by accident. But none of them can hold a candle to what Scheffler has done over the last 3-plus seasons on the TOUR.

That said, it's 18 holes of golf and Scheffler, despite his current 11-under par score and the emphatic way he finished on Saturday, is prone to an uneven round of 71 or 72 today under tough conditions and someone like Poston or Noren could find the magic and shoot a 66 or 65 to win.

If you want me to chip away at the semantics, I'll say I'd be "surprised" if Scheffler didn't finish this off and win today, but I wouldn't be "shocked" if someone caught him on the final day.

It's golf. Weird things happen.

Like yesterday, for example. I happened to catch a glimpse of a TV in the Caves Valley locker room around 5:15 pm and saw that Bryson DeChambeau was at 8-under par and tied for the lead with Scheffler.

"If they're in the final group tomorrow," I said to someone who was standing there with me, "the enthusiasm level from the fans will blow the doors off of that golf course."

I left the locker room to attend to some things and came back probably 30 minutes later.

Scheffler was at 10 under and DeChambeau was at 5-under.

Just like "that" (snap of a finger), DeChambeau tumbled down the leaderboard and, most likely, out of the tournament.

Scheffler's human. He could do something similar today.

And if he does, one of those behind him will snag their piece of golf history.

It's going to be fun to watch, that's for certain.

I'll be hosting fairways and greens (4 to 6 pm) today on 105.7 and we will, of course, be following the final round of the PGA Championship throughout the show. We have a lot more golfing fun in store for you during the show. Please tune in.

Saturday May 17, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3917

surprise! there's a horse race today

It's Preakness Saturday in The Land of Pleasant Living.

Yes, I'm serious. They're running the Preakness today at Pimlico.

I know, I know. You're checking the calendar to see if I'm right. I am right. It's today.

There was a time when the Preakness was a huge deal in these parts. I'm not sure exactly when the race faded from the public spotlight, but it's been a while now since the second leg of the Triple Crown captivated us here in the Free State.

I mean, sure, 80,000 or so folks might show up there today, but only about 12% of them really care about horse racing and/or the event itself. The majority of those in attendance are there because someone else urged them to go.

They're apparently going to start repairing and refurbishing Pimlico after this race. Next year, the Preakness moves to Laurel. It might be in Laurel again in 2027 depending on how things go with the work at Pimlico.

But someday down the road, a brand new, state-of-the-art race track will sit there on Northern Parkway and, who knows, the race might even be important to all of us once again.

Baltimore needs the Preakness. Whether it stays situated on the 3rd weekend of May or shifts to the first full weekend in June like the racing underground says it might, Baltimore needs the Preakness to be a big deal again.

There was a time when Preakness "week" was really just that -- a week filled with events, activities, and high profile parties that showcased our great city for what it was.

Then along came The Wire on HBO and everything went to hell in a handbasket in Charm City.

Anyway, they're racing today at Pimlico. Here's who is in the field and our thoughts on how they'll cross the finish line.

#1, Goal Oriented (6-1), Flavien Prat (jockey), Bob Baffert (trainer) -- Has a solid jockey/trainer combo but this race appears to be an ambitious ask for a horse whose claim to fame is winning a claiming race at Churchill Downs on May 3.

#2, Journalism (8-5), Umberto Rispoli (jockey), Michael McCarthy (trainer) -- Finished 2nd in the Derby and will almost undoubtedly be a big favorite in today's race. Rispoli has never won a Triple Crown race. It would be a surprise if this horse doesn't hit the board.

#3, American Promise (15-1), Nik Suarez (jockey), D. Wayne Lukas (trainer) -- Got off to a good start at the Derby two weeks ago but faded badly in the final half mile. Don't expect much from him today.

#4, Heart of Honor (12-1), Saffie Osborne (jockey), Jamie Osborne (trainer) -- A true international competitor, this horse was trained in London, sold in France and did most of his best racing in Dubai. None of that will help him today.

#5, Pay Billy (20-1), Raul Mena (jockey), Michael Gorham (trainer) -- Won the Tesio at Pimlico on April 19 to earn his spot in today's race. That tells you all you need to know about his (minimal) chances today.

#6, River Thames (9-2), Irad Ortiz (jockey), Todd Pletcher (trainer) -- Almost beat Derby winner Sovereignty at the Fountain of Youth stakes. Pletcher's never won the Preakness. That might change today.

#7, Sandman (4-1), John Velazquez (jockey), Mark Casse (trainer) -- Didn't have a great trip at the Derby but now he gets Velazquez in the irons and things might be different today.

#8, Clever Again (5-1), Jose Ortiz (jockey), Steve Asmussen (trainer) -- Has 2 wins and a second in 3 career races but this is a big step up for him today. Getting a lot of push this week with impressive morning workouts.

#9, Gosger (20-1), Luis Saez (jockey), Brendan Walsh (trainer) -- Has only made $292,000 in his career. One win and two seconds are all he's done. Saez is good. The horse, though, doesn't appear to be.

What to expect: The track should be fine despite the crazy storms in Baltimore last night. Expect American Promise to jump out quickly and look the part, wth Heart of Honor and Goal Oriented keeping pace early.

Rispoli will settle Journalism in nicely and Velazquez will do the same with Sandman.

American Promise will stay in front at the quarter-pole, eventually stretching his lead to 3 lengths, with River Thames making a move under Irad Ortiz and Clever Again passing horses as well to cause a stir.

Meanwhile, Journalism and Sandman both start to push along the backstretch and American Promise starts to tire, as Clever Again bolts to the lead and River Thames stays interested.

Journalism and Sandman both make their move and Clever Again is the first one to blink, as he loses the lead and River Thames noses in front as they approach the final quarter-mile of the race. Those three are locked in a ferocious duel as they head for home, with a nose separating the trio and the rest of the field watching in awe.

In the last 100 yards, Velazquez squeezes the most he can out of Sandman, and he nips Journalism by a half-length with River Thames finishing third and Goal Oriented coming in fourth.

1st, Sandman

2nd, Journalism

3rd, River Thames

4th, Goal Oriented

5th, Gosger

6th, Clever Again

7th, American Promise

8th, Heart of Honor

9th, Pay Billy

The leaderboard is still filled with a handful of "who are they?" names, but by the time the dust settles at Quail Hollow GC today, there will likely be an impending Sunday duel for the PGA Championship between Scottie Scheffler (-5) and Bryson DeChambeau (-3).

The two have some work to do in this afternoon's round 3 of the tournament, but everything's setting up for a Sunday showdown between that pair of Americans.

Scheffler has won two Masters, but is still looking for his first major win outside of the state of Georgia. DeChambeau has two U.S. Open titles. A victory by either of them this weekend would get them to the halfway point of the career grand slam.

There are others playing well, though. Jhonattan Vegas was cruising along at 10-under but missed a shortie at his finishing hole to end the day with a sickening double bogey and an 8-under total through 36 holes.

Despite that missed three footer at the 18th hole, Vegas has a two shot lead on Matt Fitzpatrick, Si Woo Kim and Matthieu Pavon of France.

All three of those pursuers have championship pedigrees of some kind. Fitzpatrick won the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline, Si Woo Kim is a former Players champion and Pavon acquitted himself very well in last June's U.S. Open before eventually losing out to Bryson and Rory at Pinehurst.

But all eyes today will be on Scheffler and Bryson.

They're the two best American players in the game today -- sorry, Xander -- and the golf course is pretty much built for both of them. DeChambeau has the advantage with the driver and Scheffler has the advantage with the irons.

"It's a putter's game", they say in golf, and their work with the flatstick over the final 36 holes will determine where they finish on Sunday.

The guy most people thought would be there, Rory McIlroy, had himself in great position at 1-under par with two holes to play, but he finished bogey-bogey to post a +1 total for 36 holes and make the cut on the number.

McIlroy's week has been uneven both on and off the course. SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio was first to report on Friday that his driver was tested earlier in the week and deemed not fit to play under USGA regulations.

The 2-time PGA Champion had to find a new driver to put in play and, for the second straight day, the recent Masters winner and latest member of the career Grand Slam club declined to speak to the media.

Defending champion Xander Schauffele had to battle with a balky swing and sweat out a few close range putts just to make the cut and extend his streak to 64, the longest on the PGA Tour since Tiger Woods set the record at 142 consecutuve cuts made 20 years ago.

The Orioles left 15 runners on base last night. Fifteen. They had a runner on first with no outs in the 9th inning and couldn't even get him to second base.

Final from Camden Yards: Nationals 4 - Orioles 3.

If you're counting at home, that's four straight losses for 'dem Birds, all four of which have come in Bawlmer In total, the O's have now lost 8 of their last 10 games.

Brandon Hyde's team wasted a decent enough outing by Cade Povich last night. The southpaw went 5.2 innings and allowed just 3 hits and 2 earned runs.

Felix Bautista got the loss, allowing a run in the top of the 9th.

At one point last night, the O's led the game 2-1 and they had 11 hits and the Nationals had just 3.

The Nats won the game with 4 runs on just five hits.

If you wanna just go ahead and say "Orioles gonna Orioles", that's fine at this point.

They lose when they only generate 4 hits and they lose when they generate 14 hits.

Cedric Mullins looked at the strike three of all strike threes in the 9th inning last night and Jackson Holliday was thrown out trying to steal second.

The Birds had a runner on first with no one out and in the blink of an eye, they had no one on and there were 2 outs.

Orioles........gonna Orioles.

I don't think they're going to lose the next two but I'm sticking with my "hot take" from Friday. If the O's get swept by D.C., they're going to part company with Brandon Hyde on Sunday or Monday.

I noticed some blathering in the Comments section about some on-stage pontificating from Bruce Springsteen while he's playing his music in England.

I saw the President reacting to something Springsteen said on social media yesterday. I don't follow it enough on a day-to-day basis to know who started the fight between them or what the history is between them.

I thought (I could be wrong here) that President Trump previously used some Springsteen music during his campaign run back in 2016, but there's also a fairly good chance that the President didn't have permission to use the music or legal rights to it.

Anyway, here's the answer some of you were looking for, I guess.

I couldn't care less what musicians say about politicians and vice versa. What President Trump thinks about Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift or anyone else he's criticized doesn't matter to me at all.

If Bruce wants to waste 5 minutes of his time talking to people in England who couldn't care less about the good and bad of our country, so be it.

And if the President wants to waste 5 minutes of his time posting drivel on the internet with spelling and grammar mistakes that would make a 7th grader laugh, so be it.

It's a free country. Or, at least, it was once upon a time before everyone started getting all jittery about it.

I turn to Springsteen for music. I don't need to hear him bellyache on stage about the President the same way I don't need to hear Eddie Vedder stand up there and whine about the government.

And I don't need to hear the President crying because some musician or celebrity roasted him.

You're the President of the United States. You're the #1 public figure in the country, perhaps even in the world. You're going to get hammered in the media and on the internet. Get over it.

So, Springsteen and the President can carry on with their feud. I couldn't care less, personally.

Just play "Thunder Road" for me.

And get the price of eggs down for me.

That's what the two of you are supposed to do.

Friday May 16, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3916

relatively painless

Well, since I'm a silver-lining kind of guy, I'll paint a rosy picture of last night's 3-1 Caps loss to Carolina that ended their Eastern Conference semifinal series.

At least it didn't go to overtime.

Or, even worse, double overtime.

If you're gonna lose, just get it over with in regulation, do the handshake, and move on.

In the end, Game 5 was relatively painless.

The Caps did what they almost always do in the post-season. They figured out a way to lose.

It wasn't like they were thoroughly embarrassed by the Hurricanes in the 5-game drubbing. But they were thoroughly outplayed.

Even last night's Game 5, probably Washington's most "complete" game of the series, still provided the 'Canes with a split-decision victory, to use a boxing analogy.

The Caps fell victim to the same general "theme" they always seem to encounter in the post-season. They needed a hero or two in the Carolina series and it didn't happen.

Ovechkin looked 49 instead of 39. I think he might have scored a goal in the series somewhere along the way, but he looked like a car being driven with the low tire pressure light on. He was in a hurry to go nowhere.

John Carlson's tires weren't low. They were flat. He did bounce back with a reputable effort last night, but a hero he was not in the other four games.

Tom Wilson had an empty net goal in Game 2, which I guess is memorable for him. But unlike the Canadiens, the Hurricanes didn't fall for his goon tactics in the series. The Caps needed him to be Wilson the goal-scorer and he couldn't deliver.

The entire Caps offense was, well, lousy. They scored a grand total of six "real" goals in five games. They didn't score more than two "real" goals in any one game. You're not winning like that.

And despite at times playing outstanding in goal, Logan Thompson wasn't up to the task of carrying the Caps on his shoulders the way Braden Holtby did once upon a time back in 2018. Last night's game featured some sensational Thompson play but, sadly, the two goals he allowed were both super-soft.

The Caps needed a hero or two in the series and, just like (almost) always, no one in red, white and blue stepped up.

Some people bristle at the notion of "Caps gonna Caps", but unless you're living in some sort of weird fantasy land where you opt to ignore facts, the Capitals always figure out a way to help usher themselves out of the playoffs. This year, they couldn't score a goal.

Last year, they gave up 15 goals in 4 games against the Rangers.

It's always something.

Oh, sure, Carolina's good. There's no denying that. They have a pedigree of sorts that connects well with post-season hockey. They're tough, opportunistic and, if you give them an inch, they'll take a yard. And then they'll beat you.

But the Caps are nothing if not the same old, same old, year after year after year.

I wouldn't call it "heartless". That term would be far too harsh. But they certainly didn't have the look of a team that was willing to do anything and everything to dispose of the Hurricanes and move on to their conference final.

Playoff futility is in the Capitals' DNA. It just is.

Yes, they somehow finagled their way to the 2017-2018 Stanley Cup title, which proves, more than anything, that God is, indeed, great. There can't be any other explanation for that outlier of a championship win seven years ago, right?

Other than 2018, "playoff futility" and "Capitals" go together like Lenny and Squiqqy. In other words, you almost never see them apart from one another.

Because it's the normal thing to do, every Caps playoff series is met with the same sort of promise: "Maybe this will be the year (again) when we put it all together."

Alas, you think that and you say that and you write that, but you know, in your heart, it's almost inevitably not going to come true. The Caps are always going to lose.

If you go see Kansas at the state fair, they're always going to play "Carry On My Wayward Son". I mean, that's the only Kansas song 75% of the people at the fair even know.

And if you're a fan of the Capitals, you know they're always going to lose in the post-season. Heck, even if you're not a fan of the Capitals, you're know they're going to lose in the playoffs.

It is......what it is.

You knew it was coming.

And it was mostly pain-free.

Out with a whimper. Like (almost) always.

Because we don't want to be accused of ignoring the Orioles, we'll dedicate a minute of your life to yesterday's 4-0 loss to the Twins that finished off a 3-game sweep for the visitors.

Even Sugano starting for the Birds wasn't enough to turn the tide.

I don't think the Orioles are going to lose 3 straight to the Nationals this weekend, but here's a hotter-than-hot-take: If the O's get swept this weekend, Brandon Hyde gets fired on Sunday night.

Or Monday morning.

But that's the result you'd see from a 3-game sweep in Baltimore this weekend. Hyde would be gone.

There's no other possible solution for Mike Elias at that point. They'd be 15-30 if they lose all three. You can't just let the season blow along with the breeze, not as two-time playoff participants and a roster loaded with young talent.

Alas, I don't see them going 0-for-3 this weekend vs. Washington. They'll win a game or two and we'll still be treading water out in Milwaukee on Monday.

Oh, and don't look now, but one of Elias's prized off-season pick-ups, Tyler O'Neill, is hitting a robust .188 thus far in 2025.

The PGA Championship leaderboard looks just like you figured it would, with no one you expected to be there making up most of the Top 15 after round one.

I mean, the guy leading the event at 7-under doesn't even know how to spell "Jonathan" the right way. That's how weird day one was on Thursday.

PGA Tour veteran Jhonattan Vegas rattled off three late birdies to post an opening round 64 and lead the year's second major by two shots over Cam Davis and Ryan Gerard.

I know what you're thinking.

"Who?"

As I wrote here during my daily previews leading up to the PGA, it's a tournament that has long been filled with surprising and, ultimately, forgettable champions. I don't see Vegas holding on and winning this event, but if he somehow did, it would be as shocking as any of the other stories authored by guys like Beem, Micheel and Yang, just to name three.

Vegas has never finished in the top 20 in a major and hadn't qualified for this one in three years. If patriotism tugs at your heart, he is the first player representing Venezuela to hold a lead or co-lead after any round at a major. Like, ever.

Some of the expected contenders were decent. Some were just OK. And others were lousy.

Scottie Scheffler made an eagle, a double bogey and then waxed poetically about "mud balls" in his post-golf press conference on Thursday. His 2-under round of 69 puts him in a nice spot heading into day two.

Collin Morikawa and Ludvig Aberg both shot 1-under 70 on Thursday. Morikawa is looking to get back in the winner's circle for the first time in what feels like forever and Aberg is trying to become what everyone assumes he's going to be multiple-times-over in his career; a major champion. This could be his week at Quail Hollow.

Bryson DeChambeau bogeyed his final hole to come in at even par 70.

Defending champion Xander Schauffele posted +1 and Justin Thomas, who won the PGA the last time it was held at Quail Hollow, came in at +73.

You're still waiting for Rory's name to be mentioned?

Rory McIlroy, +3, 74.

There you go.

The "king of Quail", with four wins under his belt at the Charlotte, NC course didn't have his best stuff on Thursday. He'll likely need something in the 60's to make the cut today.

There's tons of golf left and you just know some of the sport's big names will surface on the leaderboard by the time Saturday afteroon rolls around.

But it's a tournament where a Vegas or Stephen Jaeger or Cam Davis always seems to lurk, looking for their shot at once-in-a-career glory.

faith in sports

This video, today, is one I always recommend to high school athletes that I'm around within FCA circles at Calvert Hall.

It's an amazing 3 minutes and 40 seconds with former NFL quarterback Sam Bradford.

If you're an athlete or the parent of an athlete, this is great and meaningful testimony from Bradford. It's "must watch" stuff.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and for their weekly support of "Faith in Sports" here every Friday.

Thursday May 15, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3915

thursday stuff

There's something about getting swept at home in a doubleheader that's way more aggravating than simply losing on Tuesday night and Wednesday night.

At least that's the way I've always felt.

I'm sure this data can be found on the internet somewhere, but I'd love to know what the all-time doubleheader record is in Major League Baseball. It feels like there are far more splits than sweeps.

And, for sure, there are far fewer road sweeps than home sweeps in doubleheaders.

Right?

Losing two on the same day is bad enough. But to lose both of them on the same day at home? Almost unthinkable.

Now at 15-26 after yesterday's fiasco, the O's are clinching closer to that mythical barrier I referenced here 10 days ago or so; namely, not reaching 20 wins before they reach 30 losses.

They have to go 5-3 to avoid that distinction. I'm just spitballing here, but this O's team doesn't look like they can reel off 5 wins in 8 games. Not now, anyway.

The good news is they do get Sugano and Eflin pitching for them before the weekend's up, so that "feels" like the O's might snag 2 of those 5 wins.

I know Mike Elias went on the radio a week or so ago and offered unwavering support for Brandon Hyde, but if this doesn't get any better soon, Elias is going to have to go back on his word.

I mean, if the O's are 18-32 at the 50-game mark, what message does it send the team if you keep him around?

We'll repeat this again so it's clear: The team's current mark of 15-26 and, if it were to happen, a record of 18-32 is not necessarily the fault of the manager. He's playing the cards he was dealt by Elias and the injury bug. But if you don't fire him, it basically tells the team you're not willing to take a chance on rebooting the season.

Maybe Elias shouldn't have gone on the radio and pledged job security for the manager.

That said, had he not done that, the next day's headlines would have read: "Elias refuses to offer full support to Hyde"

So, either way, Elias is in trouble.

There's also that deadline deal with the Marlins last summer that has been as successful as someone trying to sell a lawn seat to see the Beatles at Merriweather Post Pavilion. It would be one thing if Trevor Rogers was at least pitching for the Orioles. But when he hasn't done jack-squat and Norby and Stowers are regulars and handling their business well in Miami...well...it ain't a good look for the GM.

Deadline deals aren't the barometer by which a GM gets entirely judged, of course, but that one was a whopper of a swing and miss. It's not that the two kids in Miami are playing well -- there wasn't all that much room for them in Baltimore at the point of the trade -- it's that the O's gave away two decent prospects and got wash cloths and laundry detergent in return.

So, while Hyde is the one getting roasted around town and on the web, it's worth pointing out that the GM, while having done an awesome job in the initial rebuild of the entire baseball ops department, has made a bunch of bogeys over the last 12 months and is now in danger of not making the cut.

Elias got a lot of the credit when the team went from moribund to respectable and, thus, needs to get some of the heat during this downturn that actually commenced after last season's All-Star break.

It's only fair.

The only way out of this jam is for the team to suddenly start playing solid baseball. A nice 7-3 or 14-6 run over the next 10 and 20 game stretch would go a long way in silencing the howling wolves.

But failing that, Elias is going to either have to make a managerial move or essentially admit this season is a wash.

The Ravens schedule was released on Wednesday and there are some interesting nuances to it.

John Harbaugh's team gets a nice break by going to Buffalo in September instead of, say, November or December. If you're going to play the Bills up there, make the trip north when you can still wear short sleeves. That was a schedule gift from the gods.

Seven of the team's nine home games are at 1 pm. That, I'm sure, pleased the head coach, who has disdain for any game that doesn't kick off at 1 pm.

The Ravens will play at home on Thanksgiving night and also avoided a 3rd straight Christmas Day game. Thank you, again, scheduling gods.

The only small concern? The season ends with road games at Green Bay and at Pittsburgh. I can't imagine the Steelers are going to be any good, so perhaps that one isn't a big deal. But the trip to Lambeau Field in late December? Yikes.

A quick glance at the schedule and the rotation of games tells me the Ravens are headed to another 12-5 (worst) or 13-4 (best) campaign.

They'll lose at least one of the two at Buffalo or K.C.

They'll lose one or two in the division.

And someone else will beat them along the way. One of the NFC Central teams, probably.

Barring something crazy happening, though, the Ravens are winning the division again.

So, now, yes, the Caps are in a "must-win" position tonight when they host Carolina in Game 5 at home. A Washington loss and it's off to the golf course. A win and the teams head back to Raleigh for Game 6 on Saturday night.

Much has been made in parts around town -- both here and elsewhere -- about the Capitals and the seemingly annual post-season dump they always seem to take at the worst time.

I tend to look at each season differently.

Last year, they were fortunate just to make the post-season. The 4-game sweep at the hands of the Rangers wasn't a surprise in the least.

This year, after a terrific regular season, I expected more than one-and-done.

The Caps, of course, are prone to this sort of thing. Just because they have a great regular season and finish with the most points in the entire conference doesn't necessarily mean they're going to do great stuff in the playoffs.

I like the "general" make-up of Washington's roster, but I've never been overly comfortable with their two goaltenders, both of whom are essentially 2 handicap type performers. In other words, they're each very good based mainly on the fact they're one of 60-some NHL goalies, but no one is confusing Thompson or Lindgren with Ken Dryden, that's for sure.

Defensively, the Caps are decent.

They're also able to hold their own offensively as well.

But neither of those units are "best in class", either.

In this series against Carolina, it's been more about the lack of offense than anything else. They've played 4 games thus far and the most goals D.C. has in 60 minutes is three. And one of those three was an empty-net tally.

The tongue-in-cheek thing to say around here is "Caps gonna Caps". Well, if the shoe fits and all...

Unless something dramatic happens, the Capitals are once again going to fall woefully short in their quest for a second Stanley Cup title.

Look at the bright side, though. The hockey fans in Philly haven't seen the Stanley Cup get lifted since 1975. Flyers gonna Flyers, right?

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

Another great week of baseball is now behind us, and there’s an interesting story developing with the Boston Red Sox and DH Rafael Devers.

During the off-season, the Red Sox acquired gold glove 3rd baseman, Alex Bregman, who has played 3rd base for the Red Sox all season. Devers, who played 3rd base for the Red Sox in recent years, struggled with the idea of not playing in the field every day and was eventually told by the club in Spring Training this year to “put his glove away”, according to Devers.

Red Sox 1st baseman, Triston Casas, suffered a season ending injury and the Red Sox are now asking Devers to play 1st base to fill in for Casas. This is where Devers becomes a little sour about all of this.

Usually, you would expect a player to say in this situation, “I’ll play anywhere I’m needed coach”, but Devers is refusing to play 1st base. He told reporters that he doesn’t feel that it’s appropriate for management to ask him to play another position after telling him to put his glove away back in the Spring.

He also pointed out that the Red Sox GM is a former player and should know that changing positions is not easy. Last weekend, the Red Sox owner and GM flew to Kansas City to visit Devers and speak with him in person, and it appears conversations are still ongoing about the issue of him playing 1st base.

I can see both sides of this situation, but it seems like Devers getting moved from 3rd to DH in the Spring is the underlying issue and he hasn’t gotten over it. He’s right about learning a new position and the challenges that come with it. To be clear, he “practiced” DH in the Spring. He didn’t learn how to play 2nd base or shortstop and is now being told to play 1st. That’s a completely different scenario.

We’ve seen players move from 3rd base to 1st base (like Vladimir Guerrero Jr.) and vice versa in baseball and there’s absolutely a learning curve to become comfortable at each position, but players switch to opposite corners of the infield somewhat often as we’ve seen before.

It’s easy to see why Devers is upset with all this. He lost the 3rd base job to a new player on the team who is a much better defender than Devers and who was brought to Boston with the sole purpose of playing 3rd base.

Devers is acting a little selfish about all of this in my opinion and probably just wants to play 3rd base again. I don’t see Devers coming around on this idea.

To me, when you act like this, you’re telling the club that you care more about the name on the back of the jersey than the name on the front. You don’t win championships with that mentality.

As of now, the Red Sox are using a platoon approach to cover 1st base. Maybe Devers will prove me wrong and come around to play 1st, but at some point he needs to do what’s best for the team.

The Rockies made big news last weekend when they fired manager Bud Black after a rare 9-3 win against the Padres on Sunday.

I’m not sure what Bud Black could have done with his roster to make it better, but the manager is not the main issue for the Rockies. I was glad to see the players stick up for him when asked about it and most of the players told reporters that it wasn’t his fault, and that they haven’t played to their full capabilities this year.

Even the GM of the Rockies supported Black and said that the blame is not all on him. The Rockies owner, Dick Monfort, said that their play this season has been unacceptable and not fair to fans. He did point out that everyone shares responsibility and said that these changes are necessary.

I just don’t get what the club expected from the team this season. The Rockies were not expected to compete this year, and they have more than lived up to that expectation. I’m not sure what you do to rebuild, especially with the new draft rules implemented a few seasons ago.

They also don’t have many attractive trade pieces to give away for prospects at the trade deadline. I was curious about the Rockies payroll is compared to other teams. They have the 24th lowest payroll.

Teams like the Nationals, Guardians, Athletics, and Rays are behind Colorado in terms of salaries but have much stronger clubs than the Rockies. They also have the 18th ranked farm system in baseball according to mlb.com.

So, with that information, perhaps this is a general manager issue for the Rockies, who haven’t drafted well or acquired free agents to produce for the club. I do feel bad for Bud Black, but maybe there’s a sigh of relief from him in a way that he doesn’t have to watch this team lose almost every night.

In other news around the league, the Minnesota Twins are red hot right now and have a nice 10 game win streak after yesterday’s double header sweep of the Orioles.

Their starting pitching has been excellent during this win streak and their bats are beginning to wake up, with Byron Buxton and Harrison Bader leading the charge. Just like that, the Twins are back in the AL Central conversation, which is going to be one of the toughest divisions to win in baseball.

The Toronto Blue Jays had a nice weekend where they traveled to the Pacific Northwest and swept the Seattle Mariners, who had won 9 straight series dating back to April 7th. This was a huge series for the Blue Jays, who have been playing .500 ball so far this season.

Expectations are high in Toronto, especially given they have the 4th highest payroll in the MLB. This feels like a playoff or bust type of season for the Jays. Earning a playoff spot will be challenging, with how the Yankees and Red Sox have looked, as well as how many solid teams are in the AL Central that will be in contention for wildcard spots.

Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies had a 47 game on base streak snapped on Wednesday afternoon. This was fun to watch this season, and Schwarber appears to be entering his prime at 32 years old. He’s not only reaching base safely consistently but also hitting with power as he is tied with Aaron Judge for most home runs in baseball.

The Phillies franchise record is 54 consecutive games reaching base safely held by Mike Schmidt, who achieved this from August 8th, 1981, to May 8th,1982. For those curious, the MLB record for consecutive games of reaching base safely is held by the great Ted Williams at 84, which he achieved in 1949.

Players of the Week --

Pitcher: This was a hard choice to make given that so many starting pitchers had great outings this past week. It seemed like everyone was throwing 7 scoreless innings with 8+ strikeouts over the weekend.

So, to decide who to pick as the Hot Corner’s pitcher of the week, I thought I’d go with which guy I would want on my team if I had the choice.

I’ll go with the reigning AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal, who has continued to be one of the game’s best pitchers. He pitched last Friday against the Rangers and went 7 innings giving up 1 run and punched out 12 batters while recording the win as the Tigers defeated Texas 2-1.

That lowers his ERA to 2.08 for the season with 60 strikeouts in 47.2 innings pitched. That’s impressive stuff from the reigning AL Cy Young winner, who could very well win the award again in 2025.

Field Player: Freddie Freeman had a very nice week at the plate and has been one of the most consistent players in baseball. This past week, he batted .455 with 1 homer and 8 RBI while also scoring 5 times. At age 35, he’s off to his best start through 30 games in his career.

So far this year, Freeman is batting .376 compared to his previous 30 game high of .336 back in 2017. The Dodgers rely a lot on Freddie Freeman, not only for his play, but for his leadership in the clubhouse.

Freddie has always played the game the right way. It never seems like he takes himself too seriously, and you can tell by watching him that he truly enjoys being out there each night.

Rookie: Jasson Dominguez, AKA “The Martian”, had his best week so far in his early Yankees career.

Highlighted by his 3 homer, 7 RBI day against the Athletics, he batted .389 this past week while also scoring 8 times. The Yankees have been hit with the injury bug this season but are still playing exceptionally well. They’re going to need Dominguez to continue producing the way he has while they wait for reinforcements, Judge can’t do it by himself.

Games of the Week --

We’re going to see a lot of great matchups this weekend highlighted by the MLB rolling out it’s first ever “Rivalry Weekend”, which will have 11 interleague series and 4 non-interleague series. There’s going to be some great games to watch over the weekend. Let’s dive into some of the key matchups for the weekend slate.

Friday, May 16th - New York Mets vs New York Yankees (Tylor Megill vs Carlos Rodon)

Juan Soto will be making his long-awaited return to the Bronx and will surely be greeted with a heavy dose of boos from Yankee fans as they share what they think about Soto signing with their crosstown rival this winter.

On top of that, these are two of the best teams in baseball. I’m excited to see Soto’s first at bat and hear the crowd erupt and hopefully be silenced when Soto puts one into the Yankee Stadium bleachers.

Saturday, May 17th - LA Angels vs LA Dodgers (Tyler Anderson vs Clayton Kershaw)

Another rivalry series where Shohei Ohtani will get to face the Angels for the 2nd time since signing with the Dodgers. But, honestly, I don’t think there’s much animosity from Angels fans towards Ohtani.

In my opinion, it’s similar to how Orioles fans feel towards Manny Machado, who is always welcomed with cheers from the fans when he comes to Baltimore.

The main story for this game is Clayton Kershaw making his season debut after landing on the injured list to start the season. Kershaw has struggled to stay healthy in recent years, but he is a first ballot Hall of Fame selection. It will be great to see him back on the bump for the Dodgers and seeing that signature leg kick which has crossed up batters for over a decade.

Sunday, May 18th - Houston Astros vs Texas Rangers (Ryan Gusto vs Jack Leiter)

Known as “The Silver Boot Series”, these division rivals will head into Sunday in a likely rubber match hoping to inch closer to the Mariners who lead the AL West. The Astros and Rangers are both playing .500 ball this season, as the Rangers have struggled on offense while the Astros have been hot and cold this season and lack consistency.

Wednesday May 14, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3914

"they just can't go in the hall of fame"

Major League Baseball made an important, but not surprising, decision on Tuesday when they removed Pete Rose and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson from the permanently ineligible list.

It turns out "permanently" ineligible doesn't actually mean "permanent" after all.

The decision, rendered by commissioner Rob Manfred, makes Rose and Jackson now eligible for posthumous selection and induction into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

"Obviously, a person no longer with us cannot represent a threat to the integrity of the game," Manfred wrote in a letter to an attorney representing the estate of Pete Rose. "Moreover, it is hard to conceive of a penalty that has more deterrent effect than one that lasts a lifetime with no reprieve."

""Therefore," Manfred continued, "I have concluded that permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual, and Mr. Rose will be removed from the permanently ineligible list."

In the early 2000s, then-commissioner Bud Selig offered Rose a reinstatement opportunity, but with conditions, including an admission that he bet on baseball and a requirement that he stop gambling and making casino appearances.

Rose declined.

But in January 2004, Rose admitted in his book "My Prison Without Bars" that he had gambled on baseball as the Reds manager. But he insisted he bet only on his team to win. In 2015, ESPN reported that a notebook seized from a Rose associate showed Rose had also wagered on baseball while still a player, something he would not acknowledge.

Along with Rose, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson also saw his permanent ban from baseball activities lifted yesterday. Jackson was a key figure in the 1919 fix of the World Series and was permanently banned by Major League Baseball in 1921.

Jackson had a career batting average of .356, the fourth highest in MLB history.

After his death, Jackson's fans, including state legislators in South Carolina, launched several petition-writing campaigns arguing that Jackson deserved a plaque in baseball's Hall of Fame. Despite admitting to accepting $5,000 in cash to help throw the 1919 World Series, Jackson batted .375, didn't make an error and hit the series' only home run.

Here's the reality with regard to Tuesday's news.

As long as both Rose and Jackson remain out of the Hall of Fame, there's no damage done, really.

But if, somehow, one or both of them someday get voted into Cooperstown, then you should just go ahead and close the doors of the place.

Pete Rose bet on baseball games in which he was a participant.

Joe Jackson agreed to accept money in exchange for helping to alter the outcome of World Series games in which he participated.

There is nothing in sports worse than discovering that the game isn't on the up-and-up.

It's everyone's greatest disappointment when they find out that Hulk Hogan knew before the match he wasn't beating Bob Backlund that night.

And it's everyone's greatest disappointment when you find out the manager of your favorite team has wagered on the outcome of the game or the player on your favorite team has accepted an offer to not give his very best in the game in exchange for helping your favorite team lose said game.

Nothing is worse.

Rose and Shoeless Joe turned baseball into a professional wrestling match.

In other words, it wasn't on the up and up.

Reinstating them is nothing more than a kind move to give families some closure and allow the sport of baseball to move on from an awful set of stories.

Rose was a great player. So was "Shoeless" Joe.

We can forgive them for their mistakes.

They just can't go in the Hall of Fame.

#dmd q & a

D.R. asks -- "Three quick questions for you to answer, please. 1) How many more years will Ovechkin play now that he has the record? 2) What's your guess on how many majors Rory wins before his career concludes? 3) Will any Oriole hit 30 home runs this season?"

DF says -- "I think Ovi will come back and play next season. That will be it, though. I can't see him not having a one-year "retirement tour". At this point it doesn't really matter how many goals he scores, but I'm sure he'd like to get his final total somewhere in the 925 range.

Rory will win 8, at least. I think that's a very good number for him. It would give him two more than Faldo and three more than Seve. It would also give him one more than Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead. He has 5 now. Chipping away and getting 3 more in the next 10 years isn't all that difficult to fathom. He's 35. Rory still has 10 great years in front of him, at a minimum.

I don't know, 30 seems pretty ambitious at this point. We're a quarter into the season and no one on the team has 8. Mullins and O'Hearn both have 7. I don't see either of them getting to 30.

Henderson has 5. He's the one guy I could see sniffing 30 if he doesn't get hurt and plays the whole season.

If you pressed me for an answer I'd be willing to wager on, I'll say Henderson winds up leading the team in homers with......29."

Reece asks -- "I'm a beginning golfer who currently shoots around 120 when I play. Someone I played with at Greystone said I would get 20 yards more on my tee shot by changing to a Titelist golf ball. Before I make the splurge I wanted to ask you if that's true or not?"

DF says -- "Does your friend work for Titleist? That's the only reason he/she would tell you that. There's no golf ball on the market that will give any player 20 more yards off the tee, let alone a 30-36 handicap player.

Are there golf balls that give you an extra 5 yards or thereabouts? Yes, perhaps. But even those golf balls require someone with swing speeds of 110 mph or more in order to take advantage of the construction properties that make the ball go farther.

At this stage of your golf development, stick with the Pinnacle, Top Flite or Maxfli ball and spend the money you save on lessons with your PGA professional. You'll get 20 more yards with two or three lessons."

Glen asks -- "The Ravens have everyone but Tucker back, DHop at wide receiver, Starks the #1 pick at safety. How can they possibly not go to the Super Bowl this coming season? I they're an easy bet to win the AFC don't you?"

DF says -- "It does seem like everything is set up in their favor in 2025. I almost forgot they signed Hopkins! There's obviously an easy way they wind up not winning the AFC title. I don't even want to say it. So I won't. But it involves a certain player on the team getting hurt.

On the surface, though, -- if their key guys stay healthy -- it sure does seem like they should win the AFC this year. I agree with that."

	NOTES & COMMENT George McDowell
George McDowell is #DMD's foreign correspondent. His international reports are filed from a hardened outpost just across the U.S. / North Carolina border. He writes on sports topics that interest him that he feels might also interest some segment of the wildly esoteric #DMD readership. George has been a big fan of DF and his various enterprises since the last century, and for several seasons appeared as a weekly guest on his Monday evening radio show, Maryland Golf Live, delivering commentary as The Eccentric Starter. George also donates his time and talents to the less fortunate, and currently volunteers as secretary of the Rickie Fowler Fan Club.

meritocracy or oligarchy ?

We define our terms:

Meritocracy \ n \ : a system, organization, or society in which people are chosen and moved into positions of success, power, and influence on the basis of their demonstrated abilities and merit

Oligarchy \ n \ 1 : government by the few 2 : a government in which a small group exercises control esp. for corrupt and selfish purposes 3 : an organization under oligarchic control

The PGA Tour presents eight Signature Events in the 2025 season. These events offer of purses of $20 million (up from the regular event purse of about $9 million) and significantly more FedEx Cup points than regular events, including 700 to the winner (up from 500 in regular events).

These events are elite events, designed to reward the Tour players who have been playing better than their peers. The events are limited to 72 players. In five of the eight events there is no cut. All players get paid well, and all earn FedEx Cup points.

There is a caveat to the proviso that the events are for golfers playing better than their peers. Sponsors of the events are authorized to award four exemptions in each event to players of their choice – the only restriction being that the exempted players must be PGA Tour members.

The PGA Tour Policy Board constitutes a Players Advisory Council, composed of PGA Tour members. The PAC advises and consults with the PGA TOUR Policy Board (Board of Directors) and Commissioner Jay Monahan on issues affecting the TOUR.

To advance directly to the point, these three golfers are members of the 2025 advisory council: Gary Woodland, Rickie Fowler, and Keith Mitchell. In 2024, Jordan Spieth was the chairperson of the Players Advisory Council, and was also chairperson in 2019 for a three-year term ending in 2022.

In 2025 to May 12th, there have been six Signature Events. The first, the Sentry in Hawaii in January, awarded no sponsors exemptions. The committee that awarded exemptions to the Arnold Palmer Invitational declined to award sponsors exemptions to the usual suspects, and instead gave exemptions to Justin Rose, Mckenzie Hughes, Rafael Campos, and Min Woo Lee.

In response to this "snub," and after a T69 at Pebble Beach and missing the cut at the Genesis this year, Jordan Spieth said, "I needed to play better injured golf last year, I guess."

If the comment sounds like Spieth feels entitled to an exemption whenever he wants one, let's see what the reality is. Of the other four completed 2025 Signature Events, there have been 16 sponsors exemptions awarded. Fourteen exemptions have gone to current and former Advisory Board members Spieth (4), Fowler (4), Woodland (4), and Mitchell (2). The remaining two exemptions went to Justin Rose and McKenzie Hughes.

As my dad used to say, "That's not a pattern, that's a conspiracy."

I haven't calculated the amount of free money these four Advisory Board members have been given but did compile a chart showing the much more valuable thing they have been gifted: FedEx Cup points. These points determine entry into the season-ending playoff events and ultimately the Tour Championship. They also determine full Tour membership for the next year. And, as apparently no one in power has yet figured out a way to get around the numbers and award exemptions into the playoffs and next year's Tour membership, that makes the points all the more valuable.

Here's a chart showing the free FedEx Cup points these players have been given so far this year. Note that the right column shows where each player would be ranked in the FedEx Cup both with and without the free points. (Click or tap the chart to expand it.)

Prior to the Truist, these four players had the opportunity to qualify for it with their clubs in the previous week's CJ Cup Byron Nelson. Only Jordan Spieth availed himself of the opportunity. (He didn't qualify, and then accepted the Truist exemption.) Mitchell entered the CJ Cup but then withdrew when notified he had gotten the exemption. Fowler and Woodland, presumably informed that they would be given Truist exemptions, didn't bother to enter the CJ Cup.

It's interesting to watch the PGA Tour's nurturing of Rickie Fowler. He burst onto the Tour scene with great fanfare in 2010. He had a stellar amateur career, stylish long hair and flashy wardrobe, a winning smile, and an uncanny ability to work sponsors and their clients.

Even without a Tour victory, he was picked for the 2010 Ryder Cup team by captain Corey Pavin, who went down the qualification list and bypassed Tour winners Anthony Kim, (2009 U. S. Open champion) Lucas Glover, Bo van Pelt, Ben Crane, Ricky Barnes, Nick Watney, Sean O'Hair, and J. B. Holmes. Rickie didn't win any Ryder Cup matches. He lost two and halved one, as the U. S. team went down to defeat.

Rickie outright qualified for the Ryder Cup team twice, in 2014 and in 2018. The U. S. team lost both years, and also lost two out of the three years that Rickie was a captain's pick. Some – this writer included – believe that the United States team's terrible record over the last years is partially the result of captains jumping over players who have gone through the two-year qualifying process and selecting players who have superior institutional connections and greater fan appeal. There is a stultifying lack of clarity in the PGA of America leadership as to what the Ryder Cup actually is. Is it a competition, or is it an exhibition? If it is indeed a competition, why continue to select Fowler, who has one of the worst Ryder Cup records of all time?

The same fog seems to exist on the PGA Tour itself. Rickie is given sponsors exemptions into Signature Events as if he had the absolute right of first refusal. When he failed to meet any of the qualification criteria for the 2021 PGA Championship, the PGA of America came up with some lame excuse to include him in the field, and tried to deflect criticism by also selecting another player to juice in whose name you won't remember and will have to look up.

Rickie finished tied with eight other players for 8th place in the 2021 PGA Championship. That performance was one of the pieces of evidence cited by Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson for jumping over Cameron Young and Keegan Bradley to select Fowler as a captain's pick for the 2023 Ryder Cup team. Fowler didn't win any matches in the competition, and lost two. The U. S. team was buried yet again, 16½ to 11½.

One of the qualification criteria for the 2025 PGA Championship (and the only one for which Rickie Fowler had a chance) was as a member of the 2023 Ryder Cup teams. The requirement for this qualification was that the team member had to be in the top 100 of the Official World Golf Ranking two weeks before the PGA Championship. The other 23 members of the Ryder Cup teams all met this criteria, but Rickie was ranked #125 by the OWGR.

Nevertheless, the PGA of America extended Fowler a special invitation to compete in the championship.

All we can say in this situatuon is, "Bubba Booey."

We have a suggestion that should appeal to the fans who love to see Rickie, regardless of his position on the scoreboard. It may also serve to partially rectify a glaring inequity that affects the PGA Tour members whose positions in the FedEx Cup rankings fall as favored players with exemptions rack up points and push them lower in the standings. That suggestion is, don't award FedEx Cup points to those who haven't qualified for Signature Events and major championships. Let the chosen few who use their positions to rack up points their fellow members are denied the chance to earn keep the millions in prize money, just don't give 'em the points.

Note 1: In 2026, only the top 100 finishers in the FedEx Cup points standings will have full status for the year. Thus it is possible, even probable, that the points Rickie Fowler gets from his sponsors exemptions and invitations will cost a PGA Tour member who wasn't so institutionally blessed his tour card.

Note 2: The last two Signature Events of 2025 are the Memorial and the Travelers. We look forward with great interest to see who gets the sponsors exemptions for these events.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll read later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia. Erik van Rooyen is at #10. #9 is Keith Mitchell. #8 is Daniel Berger. #7 is Sepp Straka. Patrick Cantlay was #6. #5 was Sam Burns.

And so, now, we are down to our final four. Our "go-to-four" as we call them.

These four are all "chalk", so to speak.

The golf course and the tournament itself are set up for them.

Scottie Scheffler is the top ranked player in the world and he's coming off of a very impressive win two weeks ago.

Everything about his golf game fits Quail Hollow. With all of the chirping about Xander's excellent summer of 2024 and Rory's big win at Augusta last month, Scheffler has somehow fallen off the radar screen a bit.

If you forced us to pick one outright winner, it's him. We love Daniel Berger's chances as well, plus the other three you see below, but this just feels like an event Scheffler figures out a way to win.

Rory McIlroy has won 4 times at Quail Hollow and is most certainly capable of winning again this week. His game is in great shape, he has the weight of the world off of his shoulders after the Masters win, and he can make enough birdies to win a 3rd PGA title.

Bryson DeChambeau can overwhelm any golf course, but when you're playing a 7,600 yarder, being able to hit drives in excess of 330 yards on the regular seems like a major asset to have at your disposal. DeChambeau is a constant favorite any time driving distance and wedge play are critical components. He should be there on Sunday, right in the hunt.

Ludvig Aberg is the "model" for a PGA champion if ever there was one. He does everything well. All he needs is a week where he doesn't make any major mistakes and he will be in the hunt. We expect him to be fighting for the title on Sunday.

So...there you have our #DMD Top 12.

Nearly all of them are statistical no-brainers except for perhaps Sam Burns and Kurt Kitayama, both of whom would need to have HUGE weeks with their iron play in order to play well and finish within the top 20.

We would have been SUPER high on Sepp Straka this week had he not won last week in Philadelphia. That said, it's not impossible that he could go back-to-back.

When the dust settles on Sunday, we think Scheffler will be holding the trophy.

Tuesday May 13, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3913

caps on the verge of...caps'ing?

You can't be surprised by any of this.

If you're even a casual fan of the Washington Capitals, their 3-1 series deficit at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes is NOT a shock.

Right?

I've been following this team since its inception. My father and I had season tickets at the old Capital Centre in years two and three of the team's existence.

Ron Low, Bernie Wolfe, Dennis Maruk, Bob Sirois, Hartland Monahan -- I could go on and on.

I've been a fan of the Caps forever.

Other than that glorious 2018 Stanley Cup run, all they've ever really experienced in the playoffs is futility.

So this 3-1 deficit that was created in part due to last night's listless 5-2 loss is certainly not an eye opener for me. Sure, I "thought" they would win the series, but I'm most certainly not surprised at all that they're down 3-1 and on the verge of losing this post-season round to the 'Canes.

They're the Capitals.

They specialize in Caps'ing, if you will.

In this current series with Carolina, D.C. looks old. And slow. And not nearly combative enough to keep up with the Hurricanes, who resemble a team on one of those familiar spring missions where everything falls correctly into place for them at just the right time.

Carolina, in fairness, looks a bit like the Caps did in 2018. They've found their groove and their way at just the right time.

Now, this series is not yet over. It would be very Caps-like for D.C. to win Game 5 on Thursday and then roll on with a shocking Game 6 win in Carolina on Saturday.

Editor's note: If that were to happen -- Caps force a 7th and decisive game -- we all know they'd lose Game 7 at home 3-2 in OT on some kind of weird, fluke goal that bounces off of John Carlson's helmet or something and trickles into the net.

Do I think that's going to happen? I do not. Not based on what I've seen from the Caps in four games thus far. They look out of gas.

But because nothing the Caps do ever really surprises me, I'm not ready to nail their coffin shut just yet.

It sure doesn't look promising, though.

The Caps...are on the verge of...Caps'ing. Again.

A conspiracy theory guy I'm not, but it's pretty hard to believe there wasn't some funny business going on last night when the NBA's first draft pick went to Dallas, who had but a 1.8% chance of winning the lottery and the right to pick #1 later this summer.

The internet lit up shortly after Dallas "won" the lottery with people who surmised the trade deadline deal that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers from the Mavericks was somehow part of a grand-master-plan to let Donic get out of town and make way for Duke's Cooper Flagg, whom everyone assumes will be the first pick in the 2025 NBA draft.

Utah (17-65), Washington (18-64), and Charlotte (19-63) entered the lottery event with the best odds of winning the right to pick first with a 14% shot, followed by New Orleans (21-61) at 12.5%. Utah (fifth) and Washington (sixth) fell outside the top four despite having the two worst records in the NBA last year.

Under the new system implemented in 2019 -- which flattens the lottery odds in an attempt to discourage tanking -- the team with the worst record has yet to win the draft lottery.

That in and of itself seems weird. You're telling me that in six years, the team with the BEST odds for winning the lottery hasn't won? Hmmmmm, that's fishy.

So, I can't really say that I disagree with those who claimed "fixed!" last night when Dallas won the lottery.

I don't follow the NBA nearly enough to know the ins-and-outs of the league and the draft and stuff like that, but someone with a 1.8% chance winning ANY kind of lottery seems kind of hard to believe.

Meanwhile, the Wizards get to pick 6th in the first round.

I'm sure the guy they eventually select with that pick will be absolutely thrilled.

OK, probably not.

Mitch asks -- "Given what we've seen thus from the "Big 3" on the Orioles (Adley, Gunnar and Westburg) how much would you push to sign them to huge extensions in the off season in order to avoid having them become free agents?"

DF says -- "That's the $64,000 question, isn't it? Or, at least in Henderson's case, it might be the $400 million question.

I haven't lost any faith in Henderson, although it's obviously right there in front of us to see. He's very talented and an excellent player, but he DOES have blemishes and warts in his game. Aaron Judge he is not.

Would I still try to sign Henderson to some sort of extension? Sure. Is he going to be eager to do that? I doubt it. That said, as his performance evens out and those blemishes still stick out, he might be more amenable to signing early. That's all part of the game.

I'm still a Westburg fan, too, but it's certainly concerning that he can't stay healthy. I realize a guy getting hit on the hand and missing 8 weeks or so isn't necessarily his fault. I do get that. But do you know why they call a guy "injury prone"? Because he's always getting injured.

Would I try to extend Westburg early? Sure. But I don't think I'd be backing up two Brinks trucks for him.

Adley? At this point, I'd pass. It is still early in his career and all. That's fair to point out. But you really need to see some giddy-up in his game very soon or signing him to an extension of any kind is probably a no-go."

Elliott asks -- "I might have missed it but did DMD ever publish an official stance on the transgender policy signed by Donald Trump?"

DF says -- "This isn't really a topic I want to address but the contributor has e-mailed me numerous times in the last three weeks and accused me of dogding him, which isn't the case at all. It's just not a story I'm interested in covering given the political ramifications associated with it.

Anyway, my stance is the same one I've had for years. It has nothing at all to do with President Trump's February policy. This was "my" policy long before February.

I don't believe a male (assigned at birth) should compete against women (assigned at birth) and vice versa. I don't feel the need to go into "why" and I don't really have the desire to openly go back and forth with people about this because I'm not changing my views on it.

And this has nothing at all to do with my view on human sexuality, transitioning from one gender to the other, and so on. This is merely a "sports" opinion.

God created you a male and a male you shall be. And God created you a female and a female you shall be.

You can alter your body if you so choose, but that doesn't change what God made you.

And, thus, I don't think a male -- at birth -- should compete against a female -- at birth. That's my opinion."

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia. Erik van Rooyen is at #10. #9 is Keith Mitchell. #8 is Daniel Berger. #7 is Sepp Straka. Patrick Cantlay was #6.

Now we get to the "Major-less no more?" category. This is the one where we strongly consider four players who haven't yet won a major title but might very well finally do so next week in Charlotte.

#5 Sam Burns -- Of all the players I'm taking a flyer on this week at Quail Hollow, Burns is the biggest of them all.

He's an incredibly talented player, but his track record in major championships is nothing to write home about.

Burns did make the cut at the Masters back in April but finished an uninspiring T46.

He's never really played all that well at the PGA, either.

So why am I picking him?

Because of guys like Jeff Sluman, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel. They were guys without great track records who won the PGA Championship. Burns is just hot-and-cold enough to come through with a win out of nowhere this week.

He drives it far enough.

He drives it straight enough.

He hits enough greens in regulation.

And he's currently ranked 1st on the PGA Tour in putting.

His blemish? He's not a finisher. Some might even say, "he's not a winner".

But he does have 5 wins on TOUR, remember.

And when he has a big week with the irons, his putting usually gets him into contention.

He's 90-1 this week, which is a pretty large number for the guy who putts better than anyone on the entire PGA Tour.

Monday May 12, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3912

must gotta win time

Anyone who knows me or has been around #DMD for the last decade knows how I take umbrage with the oft-used term of "must win game" in the world of sports.

It's only "must" win if you lose and don't play any more games thereafter.

You either win or you go home. Now that, right there, is a "must" win game.

The Capitals face a dicey situation tonight in Raleigh. They're down 2-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes and need to come out on top this evening or they'll be facing elimination back in D.C. for Game 5.

No one wants to be in one of those "elimination games" simply because you leave yourself open to too many possibilities in that one.

Your best player could get hurt in the 3rd minute of the game.

The other team's goaltender might stand on his head for 60 minutes and completely shut you down.

You could draw some kind of rare 5 minute penalty and the other team could score two or three power play goals in that 5 minute span.

Weird things can happen, no matter if it's Game 1 or Game 5, but you can recover from weird things happening in Game 1. If you trail 3-games-to-1, you might not be able to recover from those weird things happening.

That's why tonight's game in Raleigh is huge for the Caps.

A win tonight and it's obstensibly a 3-game series with Alex Ovechkin and Company owning 2 of those 3 at home, if necessary. But a loss tonight and the Caps are in deep doo-doo.

A 3-1 series deficit wouldn't be the end of the world, but it would certainly force the Capitals into having to play perfect hockey for the last three games of the series.

And, as we know, it's hard to be perfect. Especially in the playoffs.

If the Orioles are going to "get well in a hurry", this week is going to be a great time for it. They host Minnesota for three games and then the Nationals come to town for three.

I won't say something dumb like "they should win all six" because the Orioles haven't won two in a row in what seems like forever, plus the Twins just went 3-for-3 against the Birds last week in Minneapolis, but 4-2 is an absolute minimum and 5-1 is much needed.

The climb back to respectability begins tomorrow night at home vs. the Twins.

With Zach Eflin back in the rotation, the O's now have at least two competent pitchers starting every five days. And don't look now, but Dean Kremer has been actually been decent this month. More than decent, really.

I know enough about Kremer to know his last couple of starts could be a fluke. He's just as likely to give up 5 earned runs in 4 innings in his next start than he is to go 7 innings and allow 2 runs, but if he could continue throwing the way he's thrown recently, that's three potential "solid starts" in these next six games.

Yes, I'm the eternal optimist. I'll own that.

It's simply too early in the season to panic, in my opinion.

I realize the 7 runs yesterday were mostly a by-product of an embarrassing day in the field and on the basepaths by the Angels. But at some point, the O's are going to hit and they're going to score runs like they did on Sunday.

Their offense will come around.

It's the pitching they need to improve upon and most of that improvement has to come from the starters.

After the homestand it's off to Milwaukee and Boston. So this week is huge for Brandon Hyde's team.

I saw some back and forth from #DMD regulars about PGA Tour player Denny McCarthy and his inability to win thus far in his very successful PGA Tour career.

If facts matter, McCarthy has won as a professional. He captured the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in 2018, which turned out to be the biggest moment of his career up to this point. He has kept his TOUR card for the last 7 years.

Now, it's accurate to point out that he's yet to win on the PGA Tour, twice losing in a playoff and having several other close brushes with the victory circle, including the 2022 U.S. Open at Brookline.

So why hasn't he won?

Because it's hard to win, for starters.

Collin Morikawa is one of the best players in the world and the owner of 2 major championship titles. He hasn't won a TOUR event since 2023 (Zozo) and hasn't won a full field PGA Tour title since capturing the British Open in 2021.

Jordan Spieth has 13 career titles on TOUR but hasn't won since April of 2022 at the RBC Heritage.

Morikawa and Spieth are world class players and they're both in the midst of puzzling losing streaks.

Cameron Young is a supremely talented player on TOUR with sublime ball striking skills and he, like McCarthy, has never won on the PGA Tour.

But why, specifically, has McCarthy not won?

Someone pointed out his lack of driving distance as potentially one factor.

Eh, not really.

Denny drives it just as far as guys like Si Woo Kim, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im and the guy who beat him in a playoff last year, Akshay Bhatia.

This year, in particular, McCarthy is missing more fairways than in the past, which is definitely impacting his ability to make more birdies.

His accuracy-off-the-tee numbers aren't terrible. He's 67th on TOUR in driving accuracy (fairways off the tee), which shows him hitting roughly 61% of the fairways off the tee.

Most TOUR players would love to be in the 65% range for fairways hit off the tee. So 61% isn't that far off. Maybe one more fairway per-round, tops?

But while he's decent at getting it in the fairway, he's 116th in a critical stat calculated as "scrambling from the rough", which basically shows how often a player makes par or better when either his tee shot or second shot (or both) is played out of the rough.

This stat, remember, also involves putting. So you're really factoring in two things. Your ability to recover from a ball hit in the rough and your ability to make the corresponding putt on the hole.

Now, is it possible that this week's PGA Championship set-up is "too long" for him? Sure, it could be. But it would also be "too long" for someone like Collin Morikawa, Sepp Straka or Shane Lowry in that case and I happen to think any of those three guys could be right there on Sunday afternoon with a chance to win.

In general, I don't subscribe much to the "doesn't hit it far enough" angle. Those guys are just too good in the rest of their games to have driving distance eliminate them as a possible winner.

Now...let's look at other factors with Denny.

Once known as the TOUR's "best putter", McCarthy is still great on the greens, but his putting numbers have slipped a smidgen over the last two years. Ironically, his driving distance numbers have improved by almost ten yards over the last three years.

Someone in the Comments section hinted at a "mental block" as a reason why McCarthy can't put together four great rounds and win.

Well, in two tournaments over the last three years, he's gone 72 holes and no player outright beat him over four days. He'd go on to lose two playoffs, but it's worth noting that he has played 72 great holes in past tournaments.

I don't think there's a single, isolated reason why McCarthy hasn't yet won, but I do know he will win on the PGA Tour and, I'd bet, once he wins once, he'll win again and then again after that. I don't see him as a one-time or even two-time PGA Tour winner. I see him as a guy who can win several times out there.

He's won at every level of golf in which he's competed.

He won everything that could be won in high school at Georgetown Prep.

He won the Maryland Open three times as a junior.

He was an All-American at the University of Virginia, made the semi-finals of the U.S. Amateur while at Virginia, and was eventually picked for the U.S. Walker Cup team.

He won on the Korn Ferry Tour and has made almost $20 million in his career.

In 201 career TOUR events, he's made the cut in 143 of them. This season, he's 12-for-12 in events/cuts made.

What McCarthy really needs is the obvious: He needs to have an event where everything falls into place for him and, in the same week, there's no one else in the field who is better than him for those 4 days.

It will happen.

You don't have to be perfect to win on the PGA Tour. And as Sepp Straka, Collin Morikawa and Akshay Bhatia have displayed, you don't have to be "overly long", either.

The longest hitter in golf right now (Aldrich Potgieter) hasn't won on the PGA Tour. I think he will, mind you. Potgieter is a strong up and comer from South Africa. But length off the tee is but one part of the game.

Don't get me wrong, if you hit it 290 off the tee relatively straight, you have a huge advantage over me and my 260 yard powder-puff I'm hitting into the fairway most days now. Distance matters. But there's more to golf than that.

As for McCarthy, specifically, he just needs to break through with a win. It doesn't matter how, where or when. He needs a win and the flood gates will open for him.

What does he mainly need to make that happen? Some luck and a hot putter, pretty much.

If Denny gets those two things in the same week, his winless streak will come to an end.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia. Erik van Rooyen is at #10. #9 is Keith Mitchell. #8 is Daniel Berger. #7 is Sepp Straka. Patrick Cantlay was #6.

Now we get to the "Major-less no more?" category. This is the one where we strongly consider four players who haven't yet won a major title but might very well finally do so next week in Charlotte.

#5 Sam Burns -- Of all the players I'm taking a flyer on this week at Quail Hollow, Burns is the biggest of them all.

He's an incredibly talented player, but his track record in major championships is nothing to write home about.

Burns did make the cut at the Masters back in April but finished an uninspiring T46.

He's never really played all that well at the PGA, either.

So why am I picking him?

Because of guys like Jeff Sluman, Rich Beem and Shaun Micheel. They were guys without great track records who won the PGA Championship. Burns is just hot-and-cold enough to come through with a win out of nowhere this week.

He drives it far enough.

He drives it straight enough.

He hits enough greens in regulation.

And he's currently ranked 1st on the PGA Tour in putting.

His blemish? He's not a finisher. Some might even say, "he's not a winner".

But he does have 5 wins on TOUR, remember.

And when he has a big week with the irons, his putting usually gets him into contention.

He's 90-1 this week, which is a pretty large number for the guy who putts better than anyone on the entire PGA Tour.

Sunday May 11, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3911

"the toughest job in the world"

Happy Mother's Day to all of the great moms out there in our #DMD world!

If you're reading this and you, in fact, are a mother yourself, congratulations on handling the "toughest job in the world".

My son loves to ask me questions about sports history these days.

"Dad, was Tiger the G.O.A.T.?"

"Dad, was Barry Bonds the G.O.A.T.?"

"Dad, was Wayne Gretzky the G.O.A.T."

"Dad, was Michael Jordan the G.O.A.T."

We've had each of those conversations at some point over the last year, while it was during a long car ride, over a round of golf, or watching "The Last Dance" on ESPN or Tiger highlights on YouTube.

Mothers are the "Greatest Of All Time" in my opinion. You want to know who the G.O.A.T. is? It's your mother, it's her mother and it's the mother of your children.

Dads are usually the ones you hear it from first in youth sports after you've had a tough day on the field, court, course or rink.

"You didn't play well today. What's wrong with you? You need to practice more and get better."

Moms are usually the ones who quickly follow that up with, "Don't let it bother you, sweetie. You did your best. I'm sure you're going to play better next time. Either way, I love you."

Both presentations have their place in sports. But hearing that feedback from your mother? Well, that was priceless.

My mom passed away when I was 24 but I got a lifetime of joy out of both competing for her and watching her embrace sports. She loved watching me play whatever it was in that particular season, and she also enthusiastically supported both the Colts and Orioles with equal degrees of fandom.

I'm sure glad Brooks Robinson didn't propose to my mom when we -- along with a thousand other folks in Glen Burnie -- met him at Two Guys in the mid 1970's or I might have become Drew Forrester-Robinson. My mother loved her some Brooks Robinson.

She was also a huge Johnny Unitas fan.

The world stopped in my house on Sundays when the Colts played. My mom knew every player, every number and so on. My love for sports was given to me by both of my parents. But my love for statistics and numbers and talking about sports? That definitely came from my mom.

The mother of my two awesome kids is also a G.O.A.T. She's the car pool coordinator, the schedule overseer and the non-judgemental parent who just wants to see everyone have fun.

At a swim meet last summer, Eagle's Nest beat an opponent they hadn't defeated in more than a decade. It was a joyous occasion for our kids even though most of them -- or nearly all of them -- hadn't been part of that 10-year-plus losing streak.

We got in the car to head home and it was my wife who broke the silence by saying, "I feel bad for (the other team)."

That's a mom for you.

And that's why they're all G.O.A.T.'s.

Dads are busy coaching and, sometimes, celebrating and gloating.

Moms are busy supporting and, almost always, showing empathy and humility.

God certainly knew what he was doing when he created women.

"I need someone on earth to be kind and beautiful and caring...I'll make a woman and she will do those things."

God bless all the moms out there today.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Well, that Orioles win "streak" didn't even become a streak, as they followed up Friday night's rare win in L.A. with a 5-2 loss to the Angels last night.

That's 14-24 now for the O's.

Silver lining stuff from last night's loss?

The bullpen was excellent. Selby, Perez and -- get this -- Morton didn't allow a run in 4 innings of work.

I know what you're thinking.

"Do the Orioles have two guys on the team with the last name of Morton?"

No, smart guy, they don't. It was Charlie Morton who shut down the Angels in the 7th and 8th innings last night.

More good stuff from a night where there wasn't much good stuff?

Ryan Mountcastle had two hits. He's now hitting .218 on the year. They're probably going to do a 30-for-30 on ESPN someday and try to figure out what happened to his home run power, but last night, at least, he looked competent at the plate for once.

That's really about it, from the "good stuff" department.

You need some balance with your O's news?

OK, well, here's some balance.

Adley Rutschman went 0-for-4 and is now hitting .195 at the quarter-pole (essentially) of the season. Remember when he hit beat the Blue Jays by himself in Toronto on opening day? Those were good times, indeed.

Cedric Mullins is mired in an awful slump. It feels like he hasn't had a hit since Rory won the Masters.

Jorge Mateo hasn't had a hit since Biden was President, it seems.

The good news last night? The O's "only" went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

The bad news? They only had three runners in scoring position all night.

There's no truth to the rumor that the O's are trying to coax Tomoyuki Sugano into pitching every other day. On paper, that sounds good though, doesn't it?

But there is good news from the pitching department. Zach Eflin gets the start today for the Birds. If he can return to his pre-injury form, the O's will certainly benefit at a time when they greatly need "benefit" of any kind.

The Capitals are looking a bit like a team that is starting to feel the weight of a playoff draw gone wrong. Last night's 4-0 loss in Carolina puts the Hurricanes up 2-1 in the series.

Washington has now scored a grand total of 3 "real" goals in the three-games to date. One of the goals in the 3-1 win in Game 2 came via an empty net tally from Tom Wilson, remember.

Three goals in 180 minutes of hockey is lousy. And that's how you get beat in the post-season, no matter who you draw as your opponent.

But of all the teams that Caps could have faced in this post-season, the Hurricanes were probably the one they wanted to avoid the most.

That's why you can't possibly go down 3-1 on Monday night in Raleigh.

Game 4 is must-win supremely critical for the Caps. They have to get back on track.

They were excellent in the first period last night. But when they couldn't score, all the air left their balloon. And the second and third periods were about as lifeless as side 2 of Abbey Road as Shedeur Sanders' round one draft party.

You're not beating anyone when you score zero goals. As I wrote before the series, that was my fear with the Caps. Their offense would somehow dissolve and they wouldn't be able to score 3 or 4 goals per-game to offset the offensive prowess of the 'Canes.

The good news? Carolina has only scored 7 goals in the 3 games.

The bad news? The Caps have scored a total of 4 goals.

We're not yet to the point where "Caps gonna Caps", but those of us who have been longtime followers of the franchise can feel something in the air.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia. Erik van Rooyen is at #10. #9 is Keith Mitchell. #8 is Daniel Berger.

Now we get to the "Major-less no more?" category. This is the one where we strongly consider four players who haven't yet won a major title but might very well finally do so next week in Charlotte.

#7 Sepp Straka -- Much like I mentioned a couple of days ago when I listed Keith Mitchell, I love Straka's chances next week at the PGA but those chances would be reduced if he winds up winning today's Truist Championship in Philadelphia. It's just too hard to win back-to-back weeks. (Straka is currently tied for the lead with Shane Lowry).

But either way, really, I love, love, love Straka at Quail Hollow next week. He's having the best year of his career and, statistically at least, he's having one of the 5 best seasons of any player on the PGA Tour in 2025.

His only small flaw for next week is his driving distance (295 yard per), which is bottom 10% on the TOUR as a whole.

But he makes up for that in every other category.

He's 13th in accuracy off the tee.

He's 2nd in greens in regulation.

He's 5th in proximity to the hole.

He's 30th in approach shots 200 or more yards to the hole.

He's 63rd in shots gained: putting.

Straka's only real blemish is his driving distance.

As long as Quail Hollow doesn't get a bunch of rain during the tournament, the course should play firm and fast, which will greatly help him. They are calling for wet weather down there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, but I can't imagine that will create a sloppy track for them over the weekend.

The Austrian is, right now, one of the top 5 players in golf without a major championship. That might very well change next week at the PGA, where he is currently listed at 90-1.

Saturday May 10, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3910

"it's just like talk radio"

We'll get to some interesting reader questions in a few seconds but let's celebrate an awesome Orioles win, shall we?

As I put this edition of #DMD together at 10:52 pm on Friday night, the O's are coasting in Anaheim, 3-0, and look like a cinch to finally win a baseball game this week.

Tomoyuki Sugano was superb again last night, which must warm the heart of Mike Elias. At least one of his acquisitions over the last 12 months has proved to be a good decision.

At any rate, the O's are back in the win column. For one Friday night, at least, the beer was cold.

Editor's note: I was right. The O's did win. The final was 4-1. Happy days are here again.

On we go...

#DMD reader Bill submitted a thoughtful question in the Comments section yesterday.

He wondered if website traffic here is "down" when either the Orioles or Ravens are posting a losing record.

Well, first of all, the Ravens haven't been "bad" in forever, pretty much, so they're not even a factor in that question. Plus, they're the Ravens. They're always interesting, good record or bad record.

As for the Orioles, it's fair to point out they also haven't been "bad" in a few years, their sluggish start to the '25 campaign notwithstanding.

But the answer to Bill's question is a resounding "no!".

In fact, website traffic actually goes "up" following a Ravens loss or Orioles tailspin.

Our highest day of #DMD traffic ever was the Monday following the Ravens loss to the Chiefs in the 2024 AFC Championship Game in Baltimore.

Our second highest day of traffic ever? The day after the playoff loss to the Bills this past January.

This website is just like talk radio.

Controversy, drama and bad news actually helps business. It certainly doesn't hurt it.

In the old days on the radio, on the morning following a Ravens loss, the phone lines would actually be blinking at 6:07 am when I prepared to open the show with the morning ritual of "Raised on the Radio" by the Ravyns followed by the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.

I didn't have to open the microphone and say, "OK, Ravens lose 23-20 in Pittsburgh, the phone lines are open..."

When I got into the studio, all four lines were blinking. And they stayed blinking for most, if not all, of the four hour show.

If the Ravens would have won that game, 27-10, I would have been begging for phone calls all morning.

It's human nature. Nothing more, nothing less.

People like to complain.

It's not "Baltimore" or "Maryland". It's not even "sports fans".

It's just "people". I'm not nearly smart enough to know what it is about our DNA that makes us want to complain far more often than offer praise, but it's the way we're wired.

And, so, talk radio -- whether it's sports or political in nature -- lends itself to negativity and doom and gloom.

Political radio is probably the easiest format in the world.

You pick a side to lean on.

You then spend a year or two beating up the other side and boast how great the candidates are on your side.

If your side wins the election, you spend the next couple of years pointing out how great things are now that your candidate is in office.

If your side loses the election, you spend the next couple of years pointing out how terrible things are because your candidate didn't get into office.

Easy money called and said, "I'm jealous of how easy it is to generate revenue in political radio."

Sports talk isn't quite as easy from a financial standpoint because the internet has really carved into that format, but from the standpoint of generating interest and feedback from listeners, all you need to do is either report on controversy or make some up on your own and you're golden.

So, Bill, website traffic here is actually boosted when the Orioles stink.

I'm not sure they'll ever actually win 4 games in a row this year, but if they do, day 5 of that streak will almost assuredly feature less traffic than if the O's would have lost 4 straight games.

It is what it is.

Human nature.

John L. asks -- "I'm going in for knee replacement on June 3rd and plan to spend some of my down time diving into on-line golf theories and instructors. Who is the best on-line teacher in your opinion? I know there are hundreds out there on digital platforms. If you were out of commission for 6 weeks and wanted to go down the golf teaching rabbit hole who would you watch? Thanks Drew!"

DF says -- "Six weeks? You need more than one! Here are three guys to watch. Just go to YouTube and put their name in the search bar and you'll get so much video content you might want to get your other knee replaced.

Pete Cowen is probably one of the five best golf teachers in the world, in my opinion. He's a huge believer in the right arm and right hand doing most of the crucial work in delivering the club to the ball, which I also happen to think is a critical component of the swing.

Mike Malaska is an awesome teacher out of Arizona who has hundreds of hours of instructional videos available free of charge. He's simple and uncomplicated.

And I am a huge fan of Padraig Harrington's teaching content on YouTube. Harrington, of course, is still playing for a living, but he's also taken up teaching the golf swing as well and a lot of what he's touting these days is very easy to understand and put into action.

Any of those three would be great to follow during your recovery. But, I'm telling you, once you get started with one of them, you'll want to move on to the next one and the next one after that.

Best wishes for a successful surgery and recovery, John."

Mark asks -- "Do you think Justin Tucker signs somewhere for the 2025 season or is his career in the NFL over?"

DF says -- "Presupposing he's not suspended by the league, I'd be shocked if Tucker isn't kicking in 2025.

Maybe he doesn't join a team until late September when someone's kicker starts off the season 3-for-7 and misses a 40-yarder at the buzzer to cost his team a game, but Tucker will kick for a team at some point in 2025.

I mean, if Deshaun Watson could sign somewhere else after what happened to him in Houston, Justin Tucker can most certainly land a job in his post-Baltimore days.

I think we all know there's probably a 50% chance (or better) that the #1 kicker in Pittsburgh, Cleveland or Cincinnati gets hurt and Tucker winds up with one of those three and has to kick against the Ravens once, if not twice. You just know the football gods have that trick up their sleeves."

Rick P. asks -- "What do you think about Charlie Woods, Tiger's son, not making the U.S. Open again this year?"

DF says -- "What do I think? He's 16 years old. He's an exceptionally talented player, but he's only 16. Have 16 year olds made it through the first stage of U.S. Open qualifying? For sure. But that's no easy feat.

Charlie shot 75 this week to miss the first stage of qualifying by 7 shots. Even had he made it through the first round, there's almost no way he would have successfully navigated his way through the 36-hole "final qualifying" stage for the U.S. Open.

But make no mistake about it, a 16 year old shooting 3-over par 75 in a "real" golf tournament is really solid golf.

And here's my prediction: At some point in his life, Charlie Woods will qualify for and play in a U.S. Open. I don't know if that happens in four years or ten years, but I'd wager Charlie will play in at least one U.S. Open, if not more than one."

Joe Kesering asks -- "Of all the trades and signings made by Mike Elias, what's the worst one of them all in your opinion?

DF says -- "There's no doubt at all about this, it's the deal for Trevor Rogers last July at the trade deadline. And, no, not necessarily because Stowers and Norby have done fairly well in Miami, but more because Rogers has been an absolute NON-FACTOR in Baltimore.

If you're going to trade away two reasonably decent prospects, you have to get some real value in return. As it stands now, the O's gave away Norby and Stowers and got nothing in return. Nothing. At all.

I'm sure Elias would love to have that one back."

Elliott asks -- "Hey Drew, for your Question/Answer segment, I'm asking you to change any three rules in the world of sports in any league. They can even all be from the same league if you want. What would they be? Thank you. Love the Morning Dish."

DF says -- "Well thank you, Elliott, we love you too. Any three rules? I know two right away. Have to think of the third.

"First, the out-of-bounds rule in golf is really dumb. I can stand on the tee and make almost perfect contact with the ball, send it 250 yards away, it hits a sprinkler head on the left side of the fairway, bounces wildly off a cart path from there and settles out of bounds and I have to take a 2-stroke penalty and hit again from the tee box. You laugh at me and then you swing and miss at the ball on the tee and you suffer NO penalty at all and simply swing again hitting your second shot.

That's just dumb.

The OB rule in golf should be this. You can either go back to where you hit your ball from and add ONE penalty shot or you can take relief from where your ball entered the OB and add TWO shots, just like if you hit it into a penalty area (we used to call those "hazards"). Making me go back to where I hit from and adding TWO shots (current rule) is incredibly stupid and time consuming.

The next rule would be any field goal in the NFL over 55 yards is worth 4 points, not three. In addition, once per-game, a team can attempt an extra point from 50 yards away or more and that kick is worth 3 points, not 1. That would make any game where a team trails by 17 points still "alive", since they could still score a TD/extra point (traditional) and a TD/extra point from 50 (3 points). So, yeah, I sorta-kinda did TWO new rules there, I know, but they both fall under kicking so I'll count them as one rule.

Last one...let me think about that. I want to come up with something off the radar screen.

(15 minutes later).

I got it.

I love this one.

In any game where a baseball umpire throws someone out for arguing with them, the umpire also gets ejected if, later in the game, any call he/she is involved in gets overturned by video replay. Maybe that will stop them from having rabbit ears.

Or, at the very least, they can keep their rabbit ears but they have to be a little more tolerant."

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia. Erik van Rooyen is at #10. #9 is Keith Mitchell.

Now we get to the "Major-less no more?" category. This is the one where we strongly consider four players who haven't yet won a major title but might very well finally do so next week in Charlotte.

#8 Daniel Berger -- OK, we'll let the cat out of the bag here. Daniel Berger is our absolute darkhorse to win next week. He has quietly put together a monster statistical year and is so far under the radar screen it's crazy.

Shots gained off the tee: 30th on TOUR.

Total driving (accuracy and length combined): 12th

Driving accuracy (percentage of tee shots in the fairway): 8th

Approach to green: 38th

Proximity to the hole: 23rd

There's more, and it's all good. Even his putting numbers are fine. He's 50th on TOUR in shots gained: putting.

It's so strange to find someone as "locked in" statistically as Berger is without the fanfare or "push" from the experts.

Shhhhhhh.....don't tell a soul.

Daniel Berger is currently at 100-1 to win the PGA Championship. I don't get it. He should be more like 40-1. But I'm not complaining.

Friday May 9, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3909

back on track

You see that headline and you wonder if I'm taking a dig at the Orioles.

No, of course not.

The Minnesota Twins might be back on track, thanks to the Orioles, but our beloved orange-and-black birds are most certainly not back on track after getting run out of the gym three straight times in Minneapolis.

The Capitals? Ah, yes. They're back on track after last night's 3-1 win over Carolina that evened their Eastern Conference semifinal series at 1-1.

Last night certainly wasn't a "must win" situation, but it was pretty close given that Games 3 and 4 shift to Raleigh. Going down 2-0 to a really good team would be tough to rebound from for sure.

Alas, that worry no longer exists. The Caps played much better in Game 2 than they did in Game 1 and got the justifiable result they deserved as a reward.

The story of the series for D.C. so far is precisely what you want the story to be if you intend on winning four playoff series' and earning the Stanley Cup. Logan Thompson, the D.C. goaltender, has been magnificent in both games, allowing just two goals (one of which was a fluky shot in OT) in Game 1 and one goal last night.

You need your goaltender to stand on his head in April, May and June if you're going to win 16 games along the way. Thompson, thus far, is doing just that.

Back on track.

Now...the Orioles? Yeah, not back on track.

They actually had one in the jaws yesterday and then crumbled in the 8th inning, allowing the Twins to score three times and win the get-away game, 5-2.

Who was in the crosshairs after the game?

You know who...

The manager, of course.

Dean Kremer was buzzing through the Minnesota lineup like Bob Gibson in 1968, allowing just 3 hits and 2 earned runs in 7 innings of work. He had thrown a whopping total of 86 pitches before Brandon Hyde "went with his gut" and inserted Yennier Cano into the game and sent Kremer to the showers.

86 pitches.

Can you imagine going out to get Nolan Ryan or Roger Clemens after 86 pitches in a tie game in the 8th inning when they were mowing down the other team like Cy Young?

Now, in complete fairness to Hyde, it appeared after the game that Kremer might have begged out of the 8th inning due to "stiffness" in his leg after being hit with a line drive earlier in the game.

"I could tell he (Kremer) had left it all out there in the 7th inning, so he was coming out regardless of what we did in the top of the 8th," said Hyde afterwards.

But local baseball followers promptly roasted Hyde for the decision and, because it was always either going to work out brilliantly or completely blow up in his face, Cano walked two hitters and then Gregory Soto came in, got a strike out, and all heck broke loose thereafter, as Minnesota produced two big hits to put the game away.

There was a glimmer of hope for the O's in the 9th inning because they had their big three coming up: Rutschman, Henderson and Holliday.

I assume you know how that went: Ground out, ground out, strike out.

Ballgame. The Twins win. Theeeeeeeee Twwwwiiiiinnnnnns wiiiiinnnnnn!

Oops, wrong team.

Anyway, Hyde got raked over the coals after the game for his Kremer decision, which certainly did seem puzzling at the time, but perhaps more understandable if it was Kremer himself who told the skipper he'd had enough fun for one day.

Hyde chiding aside, you know who really deserves to be raked over the coals?

Anyone who swings a bat on the Orioles roster not named Ryan O'Hearn, basically. Even Cedric Mullins (.237 average) has tailed off over the last couple of weeks. I assume he was tired of carrying the team offensively.

Through 36 games, the Orioles offense makes the Beatles Bad News Bears look competent.

Prior to yesterday's debacle, the Orioles were putrid with runners in scoring position. So far in '25, they're hitting .192/.268/305/.574 with RISP. All four of those numbers are 30th and last in all of MLB.

So, yes, the manager does some weird stuff. That said, he's cooking the food with the ingredients the restaurant GM put in his freezer.

The Orioles offense is lousy. Period. In their last 16 games -- hang on, this is a staggering statistic -- the Orioles have scored over 4 runs TWICE. And one of those occasions was the loss to the Royals when K.C. hit 23 home runs in that Sunday afternoon loss in Baltimore.

And, so, here they now are at 13-23, a full 10 games under .500.

Mike Elias appeared on a local radio show a few days ago and deflected any talk of firing the manager, saying, point blank, "There's really no fault of the manager, here. This is on our players to do better."

I find that sort of review refreshing in a lot of ways, since most higher-ups in sports are petrified of ever actually making the players take responsibility for their poor performance.

But if this downward spiral continues for the O's and they're at 18-32 at the 50-game mark, let's say, how on earth do you keep the manager around?

The good news? Kremer had his second straight excellent start yesterday. Zach Eflin's returning this weekend. Charlie Morton will be moved to the bullpen. Those three things alone give O's fans a smidgen of hope.

But this is and has been far more about the team's offense than anything else.

You just can't keep scoring 2.9 runs per-game and expect to beat anyone.

There have been bubbling stories around town about the young make-up of the O's roster perhaps lending itself to an environment that, let's say, is a little more playful than it should be given the team's second half play in '24, their playoff disaster vs. K.C., and the woeful start to the '25 campaign.

If there's any substance to those stories, someone has to fix it. Who will that be? Brandon Hyde? A new manager? Ryan O'Hearn? The general manager himself?

One thing for sure: With each passing series where the Birds look listless and out of it, the heat gets turned up on everyone involved.

#DMD reader and regular contributor "Tom J" posted something interesting here yesterday that got me to thinking throughout Thursday afternoon.

Yesterday here at #DMD, I wrote this about Justin Tucker's potential inclusion into the Ravens Ring of Honor someday:

It is, after all, called the Ring of "Honor", not the Ring of Great Football Players.

There has to be a little bit of integrity attached to the honor, I think.

Tom posted an interesting rebuttal to that yesterday, saying this:

Drew, the Ring of Honor has nothing to do with integrity. It has to do with "Honoring" those players and contributors for what they did for the organization on the field. If integrity was criteria to get in, then Ray Lewis, Jamal Lewis and certainly Terrell Suggs would not have been inducted given their transgressions with the law. Now while I believe Tucker was involved with this behavior, he's the only one that was accused yet never found guilty of what they were accused of so far...

That commentary is true. All of it.

Here, though, is where I personally see Tucker's situation as being different enough that the Ring of Honor might not be for him.

His "crimes" (loose word there) were here, in Baltimore, and reportedly took place "against" Baltimore women.

I'm not trying to gloss over what Ray Lewis did in Atlanta or Jamal Lewis did in Tennessee or what Terrell Suggs did in Arizona or Maryland.

But to me, Tucker's situation is much different because it's actually a LOCAL story that impacted our community.

I could be the only one that sees it that way and, if so, I get it. I might be the lone wolf here.

If these allegations took place in Delray Beach, Florida over a decade of summers where Tucker (theoretically) resides in the off-season, I think we look at them totally different than we do when they occur here, in Baltimore, within our own streets and towns.

That's just me.

But Tom J might be right. If it's "only" about kicking a football, Tucker is a Ring of Honor guy and that's that.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia. Erik van Rooyen is at #10.

#9 Keith Mitchell -- OK, so, one thing for sure. If Keith Mitchell (who shot -9 yesterday at Philly Cricket Club) wins the Truist this weekend, he's NOT winning the PGA Championship next weekend.

But when I put my Top 12 together and had Mitchell at #9, I didn't know he'd shoot 61 on day one of the Truist.

By the way, if there was ever a golf course in this area that I've played where I can't believe guys are shooting 61-62-63 with ease, it's Philly Cricket. For most humans, that place is hard. Like, really hard.

Alas, it wasn't hard for those guys yesterday. But anyway...

Keith Mitchell is the perfect conclusion to our "Outsiders with a chance" group that make up our 12 through 9 players we like for next week's PGA.

You're going to hear (read) a familiar theme with Mitchell.

His driving stats are top of the order on the PGA Tour. He drives it straight. He drives it long. He can give himself reasonable eagle chances on almost every par 5 because of his length off the tee.

His iron play is outstanding. Again, he's among the best on TOUR in several shots gained categories when it comes to approaching the green.

His putting...is not very good.

And that's why Keith Mitchell has one career win instead of 6 or 7 at least.

But if you're looking for a Rich Beem or Shaun Micheel winner next week, this could be the guy. If he gets any kind of solid week from his putter, Mitchell could be a major champion next Sunday night.

Best of all? He's currently at 275-1 to win. The people who set PGA Tour odds must not actually "watch" golf and follow the TOUR.

275-1 for one of the best tee-to-green players in golf is incredibly attractive.

faith in sports

I have to admit, I missed this one six or so weeks ago when it first came out on CBN Sports.

But I'm glad I found it now.

I hope you'll give a little over 4 minutes of your time today to watch the video below that details how Auburn's basketball team came together in '24-25 thanks, in part, to a team Bible study that got started this past season.

I say this all the time. Nothing in sports is better than when an athlete has a chance to talk about himself/herself and they instead talk about God.

We've conditioned our athletes to brag about themselves. They have a big game and we immediately stick a microphone in front of their face and say, "Tell me about YOU."

What's best is when a player says, "No, I'd rather tell you about God."

That's when you know a player really "gets it".

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment here.

Thursday May 8, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3908

is it officially a "freefall"?

I stole the headline from my crazy friend, Chris, who interrupted my evening of watching awesome Mike Malaska golf lessons on YouTube last night with this text at 10:11 pm.

"Well, is this officially a freefall now, Drewski?"

I guess that's a good word for where the Orioles are at this point.

Last night's 5-2 loss in Minnesota drops the Birds to 13-22. That's also four straight losses, but we're not counting, right?

In a cruel twist of fate, Charlie Morton fell to 0-7 on the year but almost produced an acceptable outing last night, going 4 innings and "only" allowing 3 earned runs, which all came off the swing of one bat in the 3rd inning.

Former Oriole Danny Coulombe was the winning pitcher, speaking of cruel twists of fate.

At 13-22, this is now starting to merge from "got to get it going soon" to "if we don't fix this soon we're in big trouble".

There's also the ongoing "Hyde watch".

I know Mike Elias said all the right things about the Orioles manager last week, but at some point, if this turns into an embarrassing collapse in May and the O's are something like 16-34 after 50 games, you'd have to move him on, right?

If Elias sticks with him, what message does that send?

Anyway...

Let's do some quick math.

It's likely going to take 88 wins to make the playoffs in the American League.

The O's would need to go 75-52 over their final 127 games to make the post-season.

Impossible? Of course not.

But you'd be asking a team who has 22 losses in roughly six weeks to "only" lose 10 games a month, basically, between now and the end of September.

Impossible? No. Ambitious? Very.

I'll repeat what I've been saying for a while now about the O's and their pitching and hitting woes.

I've seen a lot of teams start the season hitting, as a team, to a "4" on a 1-to-10 scale, but they wind up getting their act together in the summer and finish the year hitting a "7" on that scale by season's end.

In other words, I've seen plenty of teams start off slow on the offensive end but get it going as the season goes on.

You almost never see that with pitching.

It's actually the opposite.

I've seen lots of teams start out the year pitching, as a team, to a "7" or "8" on that 1-to-10 scale. But as the innings pile up and the games come fast and furious, that "7" becomes a "5" and later, in September, everyone's throwing on fumes and the season ends with the team's pitching staff at about a "4".

You almost never, ever see a team start out the season pitching terribly and somehow turning it around over the last 3-4 months of the season.

Hate to be a Debbie Downer.

But I don't know if it's going to get much better.

Sure, Zach Eflin's return will help.

But there's only one of him, not four of him.

And he also can't start and pitch in relief, either.

Is it officially a "downfall"? Yeah, I'd say so.

I'd say they're getting a break by going out to Los Angeles to take on the Angels over the weekend, but they're 13-22. At this point, the Angels are probably foaming at the mouth at the thought of hosting the Orioles for three games.

Glenn Clark and I got into a spirited discussion during my weekly appearance on his show yesterday, and it predictably centered on Justin Tucker, his release, and, of course, the prospects of the kicker someday being added to the Ravens Ring of Honor.

Tucker, Clark says, is facing a serious dilemma. In order for Tucker to even have a shot at the Ring of Honor, Glenn says he'll have to admit to his inappropriate behavior and "repair" the damage done along the way.

Clark says it will take at least 10 years for the fan base to "forgive and forget", but he's adamant that the only way Tucker ever reaches the "in consideration" stage is by admitting to his wrongdoings.

I don't know that I disagree with that.

But doing that would be a terrible look for Tucker, who adamantly denied the allegations the same day they were published by the Baltimore Banner back on January 30.

It would be one thing if Tucker never made a public comment and then, someday down the road, came out and admitted to everything.

But by saying "all of that stuff is made up, it never happened", Tucker has put himself in the awkward position of almost never being able to change his tune at all.

It's similar, I told Clark yesterday, to what happened with Pete Rose once upon a time.

Everyone in the baseball world knew Pete Rose gambled on baseball. It was actually more of a slam dunk than Bonds, McGwire and Sosa and the steroids speculation.

Rose gambled on baseball. Period. Everyone knew it.

And had Rose just 'fessed up from jump street, things might have turned out much differently for him.

Alas, he stuck to his guns and that became his undoing.

When he finally did admit to it, it was too late. The damage had been done.

Everyone was done with Pete Rose by the time he finally got smart and said, "Yeah, OK, you got me."

Do I think Justin Tucker belongs in the Ravens Ring of Honor? Well, frankly, I'd almost say "yes, if he never admits to the bad behavior" and "no, if admits to it".

Seems weird, right?

Tucker coming clean might be good for his soul and all, but I don't know that it would or should help his chances of getting in the Ring of Honor.

I mean, if he did it, you can't put him in, right? At least by contending he didn't do it and leaving a sliver of doubt, there's potentially a way to include him in the Ring of Honor down the road.

But I'm splitting hairs with that one.

It is, after all, called the Ring of "Honor", not the Ring of Great Football Players.

There has to be a little bit of integrity attached to the honor, I think.

In the end, it's so confusing and so double-sided that I'd almost just say to Tucker, "I'm sorry, but we're not going to be able to put you in. Like, ever. It's part of the collateral damage of the whole story. We love ya. But we can't do it."

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

With the first month of the 2025 regular season behind us, we had our 1st MVP poll of the 2025 season.

There are 46 experts who casted their votes for their MVP thus far in each league. The American League unanimous winner was Aaron Judge, who received all 46 votes for 1st place. Judge has seemed to reach a new level this season. Not only is he still hitting for power like we’ve seen from him in the past, but he is spraying the ball across the field. Judge is batting a ridiculous .412 and leading MLB in almost every stat.

He has 56 hits, 34 RBI, and 12 home runs with a 1.275 OPS. Judge is due for some sort of regression, but a .350 average 50 home run season is very much in play for him. The only player to ever do that was Mickey Mantle in 1956, where he hit .353 with 52 home runs.

To round out the remaining top 5 AL players in the poll, they were Bobby Witt Jr. (Royals), Alex Bregman (Red Sox), Cal Raleigh (Mariners), and Jose Ramirez (Guardians). These are all superstar players, but none of them received a 1st place vote. So far, it’s all Aaron Judge.

In the National League, the MVP race is much closer. As of now, it seems to be a race between Fernando Tatis Jr. from the Padres, Pete Alonso from the Mets, and Shohei Ohtani from the Dodgers.

Tatis Jr. & Ohtani are both on track to have 40-40 seasons (40 home runs and 40 stolen bases). Tatis Jr came close to having a 30-30 season back in 2023, where he had 25 homers and 29 stolen bases.

Ohtani is very capable of having a 40-40 season. Last year, he had a 50-50 season, which was the first time a player has ever done that.

Alonso is off to his best start yet in his career. He leads the National League in batting average at .341 and has a 1.123 OPS. Alonso received the most 1st place votes in the national league with 17.

With all this in mind, my money is on the 3-time MVP winner Ohtani to take home the hardware. Ohtani is a unicorn in the sport and is one of the game’s greatest hitters. Ohtani has started throwing bullpens as he recovers from Tommy John surgery and is expected to pitch at some point this season, which will greatly improve his chances of winning the MVP.

He is the current betting favorite to win the NL MVP at +220 odds which in my opinion, is great value. Going into the season I predicted Corbin Carroll to win the NL MVP, and he still has a chance to do so. It’s hard to pass on those odds right now for Ohtani.

We had another baseball oddity last Friday night in the Angels/Tigers game in Anaheim. The game was tied 1-1 going into the top of the 9th.

That’s where Riley Greene homered twice in the same inning and became the first player ever in MLB history to hit 2 home runs in the 9th inning.

I did some digging on this and a player hitting 2 home runs in the same inning is much more rare than you might think. Greene is the 62nd player in history to have 2 homers in 1 inning and, as mentioned, the 1st to do it in the 9th inning.

For there to even be a chance, a team needs to bat around the order which, from my memory this Orioles season, I only recall the Reds doing when they played in Baltimore on Easter.

Then, of course, a player hitting a home run in his first at bat of the inning, followed by a 2nd at bat where he most likely is facing a new pitcher and homering again. A lot of things have to go right for this to happen, especially in the 9th inning where the home team sometimes doesn’t even hit.

This is the 2nd time a player has homered in the same inning this season. Oddly enough, the other player that did this was Jo Adell of the LA Angels who the Tigers faced last Friday.

It’s strange that this has already happened twice this season, especially this early, when last year it only happened once. To highlight how rare of an occurrence this is, in Orioles history there has only been one player to homer twice in 1 inning.

Does anyone have a guess?

The answer is…… Mark Trumbo who did it on April 15th, 2016.

One month into the season, what has surprised everyone the most so far?

For me, I’ll start with my favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles. I wasn’t expecting this disappointing of a start from them. Going into the season, the O's had an over/under 87.5 win total. Their current over/under win total is 76.5.

I also wasn’t expecting the Detroit Tigers to be leading the American League after 1 month. I think most people expected the Tigers to be good and compete for their division with the Royals and Guardians, but not leading the entire league.

But the biggest surprise to me is what the Athletics have done so far this year. They’re 2 games back in the AL West with a respectable 20-17 record. This is a team that won just 69 games last season and were the 5th worst team in baseball.

With such a young team, it’s hard to tell if they will be able to keep this pace going all season. Needless to say, the future is looking very promising for the A's.

Players of the Week

Position Player: Marlins fans must be excited from what they have seen so far from former Oriole Kyle Stowers. This past week, Stowers batted .381 with 4 homers and 10 RBI.

Last Saturday, Stowers put the team on his back against the Athletics with 2 homers and 6 RBI, and his 2nd home run of the game was a walk off grand slam from a 102 MPH fastball thrown by the A's flame throwing closer, Mason Miller. I do wish we still had Stowers on the Orioles, but I’m happy for him that he has an opportunity to play every day and is proving he belongs in the bigs.

Pitcher: Jake deGrom is looking like the guy we saw in 2018 & 2019 where he won back to back Cy Young awards. deGrom recorded 2 wins for the Rangers last week and through 11 innings, had 10 strikeouts, 2 walks, and allowed just 1 earned run.

This past Sunday, DeGrom became the 1st MLB pitcher to reach 1,700 career strikeouts in 225 games or less. deGrom has 2 years left on his contract with the Rangers and a club option in the 3rd year.

Now at 36, it’s hard to say if he will play after his contract is up. Regardless, he is a first ballot hall of famer in my opinion.

Rookie: It’s not every week that a player on the White Sox will be highlighted in the players of the week section. Shane Smith was selected by the White Sox from the rule 5 draft this past winter from the Brewers.

In 10 innings of work this past week, he allowed 3 earned runs and had 9 strikeouts. The walks are high for Smith as he had 6 over his last 2 starts, but he manages to keep runners stranded on base. Smith hasn’t allowed more than 3 runs in all 7 of his starts this season and as you would expect from the White Sox, he doesn’t get much run support which speaks to his 1-2 record.

Smith is one of the bright spots for the White Sox this season, with a 2.41 ERA and 1.15 WHIP. I would expect him to get better as the season continues.

Games of the Week

Friday, May 9th: LA Dodgers vs Arizona Dbacks (Roki Sasaki vs Eduardo Rodriguez)

This marks the first matchup of the year between these division rivals. Roki Sasaki was one of the biggest names in baseball this past winter as an international prospect and a betting favorite to win NL rookie of the year. He’s off to a good start with a 3.86 ERA through 30.1 innings.

Can Eduardo Rodriguez get back on track for the Diamondbacks and shutdown the star-studded Dodgers? Rodriguez has not lived up to expectations since he was signed 2 years ago, let’s see if he can turn it around.

Saturday, May 10th: Texas Rangers vs Detroit Tigers (Jake deGrom vs Jack Flaherty)

This should be a great pitching matchup, and we will see The Hot Corner’s pitcher of the week in deGrom. What also makes this game interesting is watching what the Rangers do on offense as they just fired their hitting coach earlier this week.

Sunday, May 11th: Chicago Cubs vs New York Mets (Matthew Boyd vs Griffin Canning)

This series will be very fun to watch all weekend as 2 of the top 3 teams in the National League face off against one another. Another great pitching matchup also as both starting pitchers have sub 3 ERAs. I can see this game being the rubber match for the series. Keep in mind though, the Mets splits show they are much better at home this year with a 13-3 record, and they will be home in this series.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us. #11 was Akshay Bhatia.

#10 Erik van Rooyen -- OK, so, like anyone at 150-1 for next week's PGA Championship, van Rooyen has a significant flaw in his game. He's not a great putter. But he sure was a great putter last week at TPC Craig Ranch when he finished second to Scottie Scheffler.

Off the tee, he's a dynamo. He's in the top half of the TOUR in almost every driving stat, including distance, accuracy and shots gained.

And if that data isn't convincing, this stuff below all bodes well for him next week at Quail Hollow.

He's 38th in greens hit in regulation.

He's 35th in proximity to the hole.

And he's 3rd on the TOUR in approach shots from 200 yards or more at 44 feet.

He's just not a great putter. But he has weeks where he putts great, which is all he needs next week, just like he had last week in Dallas.

van Rooyen is an exceptionally underrated player. If he putted like Scottie Scheffler, he'd win 3 or 4 times a year.

The golf course won't intimidate him next week. He hits it plenty far enough to compete. Can he get the ball in the hole quickly enough? That's the question.

I do know this. He's a great investment at 150-1, that's for sure.

Wednesday May 7, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3907

wednesday quick hits

There's so much to unpack from a day of Tuesday news, I don't know where to start.

The Orioles had a Beatles Stray Cats in their 9-1 loss to Minnesota last night. That is, 3 hits. In total. Mountcastle, Holliday and Kjerstad were the only O's with hits in the shellacking.

Cade Povich was good for 2 innings. Coby Mayo didn't help in the field, with two errors at third base.

That's pretty much the game review. Minnesota scored 5 times in the second inning and the game was basically over at that point.

It's not time to panic just yet, but you can definitely make sure the batteries are charged in the panic button so it lights up and makes a loud noise when you press it.

The Birds are now 13-21. They've played 34 games. In order to be .500 through 50 games, they need to go 12-4 in their next 16. I don't see that happening at this point.

Flyers fans, go ahead and rush for your calculators to check my math if you want, but I'm telling you, 13 plus 21 equals 34.

There was some internet aggravation on Tuesday that fueled the masses in advance of the O's getting drubbed, 9-1, by the Twins.

The Birds unveiled several of their planned stadium improvements that are in the development stage thanks to the free $600 million they arm-twisted out of the state of Maryland.

A new sound system and right field scoreboard are among the (needed) improvements.

People were apoplectic about the O's distributing that information on Tuesday. I don't know why, though.

The team was given $600 million from the state to improve/upgrade the ballpark. That's what the money is to be used for.

Fans were yelling at the team to "extend your players" or "sign some real free agents" but that's not the by-product of the $600 million.

The Orioles are going to have to spend their own $600 million on players. And that, of course, is a sticky point. The most they would spend on a free MLB pitcher this past off-season was $15 million. They're not giving a pitcher $250 million. Or, at least, to date they haven't showed us they're willing to do that. Maybe they will in the future. So far, though, they haven't.

I have no problem holding the organization's feet to the fire with regard to spending money on baseball players, but the free money handed to them by the state has nothing to do with player payroll. I'm sure they'd like to figure out a way to somehow sneak that $600 million into their payroll department and let the scoreboard and sound system rust, but it doesn't work like that.

The Kentucky Derby winning horse, Sovereignty, will not be racing in next weekend's Preakness, it was announced yesterday.

So, there goes that race.

The money in horse racing has gotten so big that not even the prospect of winning the Triple Crown can motivate owners and trainers to run their horse through the grind of Derby-Preakness-Belmont within a six-week window.

If your horse wins the Derby, you're set for life with stud fees and such.

Why bother bringing him to Pimlico and potentially wrecking him (or her, perhaps) for more money (or not) when you've already made enough money on the horse?

It's a bummer, for sure.

From a horse racing perspective, the only thing that makes the Preakness interesting is having the Derby winner on hand to attempt to win the second leg of the Triple Crown.

The event itself will go on, of course. 90% of the people there next Saturday don't care at all about the racing.

But from the racing perspective, the race is pretty much ruined by not having the Derby winner on hand.

Maybe the people at Pimlico don't care. Maybe "horse racing" in general doesn't care. But they might both be wise to at least consider moving the Preakness back another two weeks to see if that doesn't eliminate the concerns of the owners and trainers.

Just a thought...

You can file last night's loss under 'Caps gonna Caps' if you want, because that's sorta-kinda precisely how you expected them to lose.

One goal in 60 minutes, great goaltending to keep them in it, and then nothing of substance in overtime, where it was the visiting Hurricanes who eventually snagged the game-winning tally on a fluky shot from the point that went through four players before slipping under Logan Thompson's pads and into the net.

There's a long way to go. Caps diehards will, of course, remember going down 2-0 to Columbus in the 2018 playoffs, losing both of those games at home in overtime before rallying to win four straight.

But that Columbus team wasn't all that good.

This Carolina team is solid and seasoned. Game 2 on Thursday night isn't "must win" by any means, but if the Caps do manage to lose Game 2 at home, their backs will really be against the wall heading back to Raleigh for Games 3 and 4.

Any Caps fan worth his/her salt is already prepared for the 4-game Hurricanes sweep. Or the Game 7 double OT loss at home when Ovechkin and Wilson both hit the post in the first overtime and then Seth Jarvis snaps a shot past Logan Thompson on an underserved power play to end the series.

As a Caps fan, you go into every series thinking the best, hoping for a win, but always being prepared for disappointment.

The Ravens are still getting raked over the coals both locally and, now, nationally, for the way they handled the news of Justin Tucker's release on Monday.

A couple of national pundits crushed Eric DeCosta yesterday for his "lack of awareness" in not addressing the allegations in the team's press release.

I'm still trying to understand what good it does the Ravens to mention or highlight the story about Tucker's issues with the massage therapist story in town.

They've addressed all of it recently, essentially saying, "The league is investigating it and we'll wait to hear from them and we'll go from there." I'm not sure what else they're supposed to say in the meantime.

You're certainly not going to release Tucker and punch him in the face on the way out. All you really need to say is what the Ravens said on Monday: "We drafted a new kicker. He's going to kick for us. We have to release our veteran kicker to make room for the new kicker."

That's all that needs to be said. That might be the truth. Or perhaps the Ravens heard from the NFL and their findings weren't good and maybe the Ravens assume or have been told Tucker's going to be suspended for some of the 2025 season. Again, there's no value at all in spilling those beans once you've decided to release the guy.

The new, hot topic in town is the white elephant in the corner of the room: Should Tucker someday be in the team's Ring of Honor? That one is going to be met with a lot of discussion and controversy for sure.

The PGA Tour is in Philadelphia this weekend for the Truist Championship, which is essentially the old Wells Fargo at a different venue since Quail Hollow is the site of next week's PGA Championship.

The Philadelphia Cricket Club is an old-school Tillinghast design with all the tricks and gimmicks of a "Tilly" course. The greens have several "tricky" pin placement options, the course will play firm and fast, and the rough and bunkers are particularly penal for players who can't keep their ball in the short grass.

The top players on TOUR are in the event because it's a money-grab "Signature" tournament and it will, in part, prepare players for what they'll face next week in Charlotte at the PGA.

You can go ahead and throw your money down on Rory and Scottie if you want. We're not judging you. But the thought here is neither of them probably "wants" to win this week knowing how hard it is to win in successive weeks on TOUR. They'd much rather finish T7 this week and win next week's PGA.

We're giving you four names to strngly consider this week plus a few more who could be in the hunt on Sunday.

Ludvig Aberg comes in at +1800 and seems like a very logical candidate to win if Rory or Scottie don't. Everything Aberg does well (which, actually, IS "everything") bodes well for a completely 72 hole event at Philly Cricket. It's a new course for everyone, so it's not like others have an advantage in that department. It seems like a long, tough, course is perfect for him.

Collin Morikawa isn't "desperate" for a win, but he's getting close. He has a new caddie on the bag, which must mean he's starting to panic a little bit, but Philly Cricket is a ball striker's course and few guys on TOUR strike it as well as Morikawa. His putting is always a concern, but the layout this week will resemble a major championship in some ways and Morikawa is always up for the challenge of a major. The folks in Vegas like him. He's +1400.

Xander Schauffele is a little bit like Morikawa in that he's not "desperate" for a win, but he doesn't have one yet this year and we're in early May. This seems like the kind of tournament he wins. A "mini-major", if you will, where ball striking and thinking your way around the track is what gets the job done. He's at +1600, which is pretty inviting number for a 2-time major champion in the last 12 months.

Corey Conners is a little bit off the radar screen and his odds (+3300) are generous for sure, but if you're at a golf course where ball striking is a premium need, Conners has to be on your short list. He's still looking for that "big win" on TOUR, but he's been in the hunt enough now to put it all together this week and win. As always, it's all about putting with Conners. He could have, should have, would have won this year's Masters if he would have putted well. Maybe this is the week it comes together.

Other "shots gained" leaders who should factor in this week include Sepp Straka, Daniel Berger and Keegan Bradley. All three of them are Philly Cricket fits for sure.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

Kurt Kitayama came in at #12 for us.

#11, Akshay Bhatia -- The only concern with Bhatia are his driving stats. He definitely doesn't hit it far enough off the tee (292 yards) to be considered a favorite in next week's event. That's the problem.

The solution? He is a great ball striker who generally gets his ball on the green in regulation and he's having the best putting season of his career. He's in the top 30 in the shots gained: approach category and he's top 35 in proximity to the hole as well.

It's definitely a big boy golf course and it stands to reason that all things being equal, Bhatia might not have the required distance off the tee to win next week. But...

If the weather in Charlotte stays hot and humid and the course dries out and affords the shorter hitters 10 or 15 more yards off the tee, that could come in huge for someone like Bhatia. Sure, DeChambeau or Rory or Scottie will also get that additional 10 or 15 more yards, but they don't need more length. Bhatia does.

If the course somehow gets wet and plays longer, he's in big trouble.

But his golf game is ripe for a big win and he's a great investment at 150-1.

Keep your eye on the weather and the extended forecast for Quail Hollow. If the course plays dry, firm and fast, Bhatia could definitely sneak in there and be a contender on Sunday at the PGA.

Tuesday May 6, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3906

the hay...is in the barn

And, so, Justin Tucker is now a former Baltimore Ravens kicker.

Just like that yesterday, with the distribution of one carefully-worded press release, the Ravens parted company with their embattled kicker.

Tucker is now free to sign anywhere of his choosing, although there's still the potential for some kind of league mandated punishment stemming from the allegations against him in Baltimore.

The Ravens will (apparently) now turn their kicking job over to Tyler Loop, who was drafted in the 6th round in the recent NFL Draft.

In the aftermath of Monday's announcement that Tucker was being released, the internet was on fire with people chiding the Ravens for their statement and the way they soft-peddled their way around the idea that Tucker was being released more because of the allegations than for "footbal reasons".

I usually try my very best to see both sides of a story or a debate, even if I have an opinion already in place.

In this case, I just don't see why people are hot and bothered about what the Ravens said.

"Sometimes football decisions are incredibly difficult, and this is one of those instances," Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said in the statement. "Considering our current roster, we have made the tough decision to release Justin Tucker."

DeCosta continued: "Justin created many significant and unforgettable moments in Ravens history. His reliability, focus, drive, resilience and extraordinary talent made him one of the league's best kickers for over a decade. We are grateful for Justin's many contributions while playing for the Ravens. We sincerely wish him and his family the very best in this next chapter of their lives."

A large number of people chastised DeCosta and the team for calling the decision to cut Tucker "incredibly difficult".

Of course it was difficult.

He's your longtime, incumbent, veteran kicker, he's been under the public-eye-microscope for four months now, the details of the allegations are still largely uncomfirmed by any kind of law enforcement agency and, don't forget, there are financial ramifications that come into play by cutting Tucker on May 5.

I'm certainly not saying Tucker shouldn't have been cut. I said from day one late last January I didn't see any way the Ravens could keep him around.

That said, I also agree it must have been "incredibly difficult" to call Tucker and deliver the news.

Some folks were upset that the Ravens didn't offer a more direct statement about Tucker's role in the alleged "massage therapist stories", but, again, I'm not sure what you want them to say.

Nothing at all has been finalized with regard to the story. There are no police reports. There aren't any looming (that we know of) police investigations into any of the alleged allegations. There's a newspaper account of what happened and it certainly seems well sourced, but that's all there is at this point.

So the Ravens had no reason at all yesterday to address anything relating to the allegations.

The organization's "actions speak louder than words" moment came when they released Tucker. If you wanted them to "do something" about him and the decade-ago allegations, they did. He's no longer employed by the team. What good does it do to carve him up and spit on him while he's cleaning out his locker?

I think the Ravens handled yesterday's press release perfectly. They said what they were allowed to say -- legally -- and also made sure to make it clear that letting Tucker go was for "football reasons", which, remember, is why they're in business in the first place.

If the NFL investigation finds nothing worth punishing Tucker for, the Ravens will have done the right thing by letting him go for "football reasons".

The obvious question that will always linger is, "Would they have drafted Tyler Loop in 2025 and cut Justin Tucker in 2025 had those allegations from a decade ago not surfaced in January?"

I don't know the answer to that.

But I think the answer is "no".

Tucker's release on Monday was probably a year earlier than the team once figured it would be. In the end, it was about football, but it was also about putting out a fire that was going to roar on if someone didn't do something about it.

The Capitals kick-off their Eastern Conference semifinals tonight at home vs. Carolina, with the winner of this series facing the Toronto-Florida winner for the right to play for the Stanley Cup later this month.

Caps fans are worried about this series.

I am not, which certainly seems and feels weird to me since I'm always the guy who figures "Caps gonna Caps".

It might take 6 games, but the Caps are going to prevail.

The Hurricanes are a formidable foe, no two ways about it. Their style has always given Washington problems and they can get goals from a bunch of different players. I will say, unlike most NHL playoff series', where defense is premium, that Washington has to put pucks in the net to win and advance.

I don't see many 2-1 games against Carolina. I think it takes at least 3 goals to win every game if not 4 or more.

I'm going with Washington in 6 and hoping Toronto prevails in the other semifinal series since, we all know, there's just no way the Maple Leafs are going to the Stanley Cup Finals.

pga championship preview

This year's edition of the PGA Championship seems like such a no-brainer that it will probably be the year that someone like Alex Noren or Taylor Moore wins out of nowhere.

The second major of the golf calendar moves to Charlotte, North Carolina (May 15-18) at Quail Hollow, where there is a regular TOUR stop (except for this year) every May. It's also the course where Justin Thomas won his first major (PGA) in 2017.

There was a time -- a long while back -- where the PGA Championship was sorta-kinda known for producing "odd" winners. Sure, it provided household name champions like Paul Azinger ('93), Nick Price ('94) and Davis Love III ('97) but it also threw in the occasional "who's that?" champion like Jeff Sluman, Shaun Micheel, David Toms, Rich Beem and Y.E. Yang.

Of late, it's morphed more into a household name event based mainly on the PGA of America deciding they want their championship course to play at some ridiculous number like 7,700 yards. The only "odd" winner of the last decade or so is probably Jimmy Walker back in 2014. Since then, it's been guys like Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Collin Morikawa and last year's winner, Xander Schauffele.

As you'll later on, we're of the mindset that the winner is going to be "a name". That said, we've done something different this time around. We're going to give you our top 12, but in groups of four.

The first group will be "Outsiders with a chance".

The second group will be "Major-less no more?", which will focus on four top players who have never won a major that might be good fits for Quail Hollow and this year's PGA.

And the last four will be our "go-to-four", the final four players we feel have the best chance of winning this year.

#12, Kurt Kitayama -- Our first player in the "outsiders with a chance" group is someone with one career TOUR win.

Kurt Kitayama does one thing great. He drives the golf ball like a madman. He is NOT great at getting the ball close to the hole from there and is NOT a great putter if you follow along with the TOUR putting stats.

But I always say this and stress this anytime we're talking about a "bad" putter on TOUR.

No one who makes a living playing golf on the PGA Tour is a "bad" putter. There are, however, plenty of great ball strikers and players who don't have the same abilities with their putter as they do, say, with their driver or 7 iron.

Kitayama can handle the distance at Quail Hollow. He's 4th on TOUR in average driving distance at 314.9 yards. He can bomb it. He also hits it fairly straight off the tee, ranking 11th in the "Shots Gained, Off The Tee" category. He can get the ball in play. He's just not great at hitting it close from there.

Again, though, let's be measured in our criticism of him. He's coming off of a really nice CJ Cup, where he finished T5 at 17-under par. And that course played to 7,400 yards, although it was a fairly benign 7,400 yards.

Kitayama is cut from the same cloth as Shaun Micheel and Rich Beem. He's a nice player that very few people would consider to win a major championship in golf. I always look at driving stats first. I like what I see from Kitayama. If he gets any kind of decent week with the putter, he could finish Top 20, Top 10 or be in the hunt on Sunday.

Oh, and he will offer a very nice return on investment next week. He's currently at 280-1.

Monday May 5, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3905

"that one is on hyde, period!"

My maniacal Orioles-loving friend, Chris, wasted no time at all burying Brandon Hyde yesterday after he opted for Charlie Morton in a 2-run game where the Birds were actually, almost mysteriously, enjoying a productive day at the plate.

"Is this guy drunk?" Chris asked via text as Morton took the ball in the top of the 8th with O's trailing, 7-5.

He meant Hyde, not Morton.

The veteran right hander, banished to the bullpen last week after starting the campaign 0-6, promptly retired the first two hitters he faced, then gave up a home run to make it 8-5. He then allowed a single and a run scoring double by Bobby Witt Jr. to turn a 7-5 game into a 9-5 game.

As the O's went out meekly in the bottom of the 9th to lose, 11-6, Chris chimed back in, agitated and ready for action.

"That one is on Hyde, period!" he texted to me. "I know we're not going to lose the division or miss the playoffs by one game, but if we do, this was Hyde's Mona Lisa. Morton is toast. You have a day off tomorrow and you're hitting the cover off the ball today. Why throw in the towel like that?"

A moment later my phone chimed again with more agitation from Chris.

"Why aren't you rushing to defend him? You even know it was a dumb move!"

Morton being on the team, still, isn't Brandon Hyde's fault. He doesn't compile or maintain the playing roster. That job falls to Mike Elias and his staff.

But, sure, Hyde deciding the 8th inning was a suitable time to see if Morton could get three outs, without any damage, definitely fell on the manager.

Smart move?

Well, I don't think I would have brought Morton in. But it's easy for me to say that from the comfort of my kitchen table.

Then again, I probably would have opted for Bryan Baker or Yennier Cano yesterday and both of them got roasted by the light-hitting Royals. The Orioles actually employed six different pitchers on Sunday and five of them gave up at least two runs each.

The only guy with a clean scoresheet was Keegan Akin.

So, in the end, every Baltimore pitcher but Akin was ineffective on Sunday.

I realize Brandon Hyde is low-hanging fruit these days and the insertion of Morton yesterday was definitely odd given the O's aren't playing this evening.

I'm not a subscriber to the concept of "The manager/coach did 'x' so he has to be fired." Nothing I've seen from Hyde in the first two months of the season has changed my opinion one way or the other on him, but I'm not going to allow the Morton decision on Sunday to get me to slap my thigh and say, "That's it! He's done!"

That Charlie Morton is still on the team's roster is the real head scratcher. It's not my $15 million, granted, but I'm sure the O's have seen enough of Morton to know he's baseball's version of Paul McCartney. In other words, he just doesn't have it any longer.

That Mike Elias hasn't cut the cord with Morton is a far bigger story than Hyde trying to coax him into a clean 8th inning on Sunday in Baltimore.

There was a moment in yesterday's final round of the CJ Cup in Dallas where Scottie Scheffler had played 36 holes of front nine golf in the four day tournament and was, on those 36 holes, a whopping 22-under par.

As I mentioned here on Wednesday in the tournament preview, TPC Craig Ranch is a powder-puff golf course as far as TOUR layouts go. It might measure out to 7,400 yards, but it's an easy 7,400 yards. Scheffler finished the tournament at 31 under par to win by eight shots, and that included a bogey at the 71st hole and a par on the 18th hole which was an easy par 5 for Scheffler and the rest of the field.

31 under par in 72 holes of golf.

On a supposed "real" golf course.

Remarkable.

Scheffler earned his first win of the 2025 season and moved to 2nd in the FedEx Cup standings with the victory. It was his 14th career PGA Tour win.

The PGA Championship is two weeks away. Quail Hollow in Charlotte will reward a player who hits it a long way off the tee (Scheffler), can put his irons in the right spot on the greens (Scheffler) and can make enough birdies to offset the two or three bogeys he'll no doubt make each day (Scheffler).

Rory McIlroy is the current betting favorite, which makes sense, given both his play in 2025 thus far and his track record at Quail Hollow.

Bryson DeChambeau won yesterday on the LIV Tour (yes, it's still in business) and should be a definite factor at the PGA Championship.

The layout and the requirements for success are perfect for a guy like Ludvig Aberg as well.

It just seems almost impossible for one of those four, if not two, three or all four of them, to be in contention on Sunday, May 18 at Quail Hollow.

Scottie Scheffler's game is definitely percolating at the right time, as he showed everyone on Sunday in Dallas.

31 under par in 72 holes.

It's hard to believe.

The Ravens are keeping the Justin Tucker story as quiet as they can as April turns into May, but it's fairly evident something is brewing in Owings Mills.

There's the massage therapists angle they have to consider.

There's his spotty kicking record in 2024, too.

And there's the benefit, if you will, of designating him as a post-June-1 cut to save some money on the salary cap.

There are, as Buck Showalter used to say, "lots of moving parts".

Here's what John Harbaugh told the media on Sunday when asked about the team drafting Tyler Loop last weekend.

"Every decision we make has to be based on football. There's a lot of layers to that. You've got a rookie kicker and here you took him in the sixth round, early in the sixth round. He's a talented guy. Just from a football standpoint -- salary cap, all the different things that you just take into consideration -- whatever we decide to do over the next few weeks will be based on football."

"Based on football" could lead people to believe the team isn't all that concerned with the Tucker massage therapist saga that surfaced in January.

Harbaugh did acknowledge the Ravens are still waiting to hear from the NFL about their investigation of the Tucker allegations.

"I would just say from a standpoint of the investigation and all that, I mean we don't know anything," Harbaugh said. "We haven't been given any information, and as it should be. It's all done the way it's done. So, we don't know anything along those lines, so we can't make any decisions based on that."

So the Ravens are going to make a "football call" on Tucker as long as they get information from the NFL sometime this month. Right?

But what if they don't get information from the NFL in May?

Do they roll the dice and keep Tucker around, risking a possible suspension by the league for some portion of the 2025 season?

If they do keep him around, there's a cost associated with that move.

They can decide now that no matter what the league does, Tucker's going to be a post-June-1 cut. That seems like the safest, cleanest way to go about it, particularly in light of drafting Loop.

The way I see it, if the Ravens were definitely going to keep Tucker around, wouldn't they just say that now? I mean, if you announce you're keeping him and then he gets suspended for 4 games, you have an in-house replacement in Loop ready to go in September.

If you are keeping Tucker, just say that now.

Using the month of May to supposedly put the pieces together to make the right decision just seems like an attempt to kill time and deflect the inevitable news that's coming.

All that said, here's my "official" hunch on Tucker. No one in the Ravens organization has told me this, hinted at this or otherwise suggested this to me. This hunch is all mine. It's just the way I've pieced it together.

Deep down, I don't think the Ravens want to get rid of Tucker because of the massage therapists story. I do (mostly) believe Harbaugh when he says it's a football issue. If Tucker is still a better kicker than Loop, he remains the team's #1 kicker.

I'm not saying they think the massage story is a total nothing-burger, but I do think they're of the mindset that it happened a decade ago when he was younger and dumber and holding him accountable now to the point where he loses his job over it is harsh.

That said, they're also leery of the fact that by keeping him around they risk alienating a segment of their fan base who wants their athletes to be held responsible for mistakes/crimes in the same way regular citizens would be. They also know they once pledged "zero tolerance" for issues of (general term here) "abuse" and by keeping Tucker around, it could look like they're ignoring that self-edict.

So, what the Ravens really prefer is that the NFL handles it. It's a little bit like Kendrick in the movie "A Few Good Men" wanting the guys in his platoon to handle the Santiago situation. Kendrick knew he would be in deep doo-doo if the story got to Jessup that Santiago was trying to rat out someone in the platoon in exchange for a transfer. So he issued the code red and said, "You boys take care of the situation."

That's what the Ravens are doing.

They'd prefer the NFL issues the code red on Tucker rather than Bisciotti having to do it himself.

The Ravens can then say all the right things about the NFL and respecting the process and blah, blah, blah.

If the NFL hands this back to the Ravens and says, "We find no fault with this man," then the Ravens are in a pickle. They'll be forced to do "something" themselves.

And I think they'd rather avoid that if at all possible.

But the kicker to the whole thing (no pun intended) is they used a 6th round draft pick on a replacement for Justin Tucker. And that replacement is either going to play in 2025 or 2026. There's almost zero chance the Ravens would keep Loop around for two full years without using him.

If they decide to keep Tucker around, I'm sure Loop will get a late August knee injury or toe injury that will -- *ahem* -- require him to be placed on the injured reserve list for the 2025 season. They didn't draft that kid to not have be their next full-time kicker, that's for sure.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

orioles week in review

Week Record: 3-3

Season Record: 13-20

AL East Standing: 5th (5.5 GB of NYY)

Player of the Week: Ryan O’Hearn - .316 AVG 3 HR 6 RBI

The good news…it was better than last week.

The bad news…the Orioles dropped two of three over the weekend series with Kansas City and remain in the cellar of the AL East after a 3-3 week.

With the chance for a rare winning week on Sunday, the pitching once again doomed the O’s as Kyle Gibson struggled for the second straight outing and the Royals lit up an overtaxed bullpen, ending the week on a down note.

The week opened positively as the Orioles edged out the Yankees 4-3 behind Tomoyuki Sugano’s eight strikeouts over five scoreless innings on Monday. Ryan O’Hearn provided the key offense with a three-run homer in the third inning. Felix Bautista sealed the victory with a perfect final inning, striking out two Yankees for his fourth save.

That was followed by a disaster on Tuesday, as the Yankees hammered the O’s 15-3, highlighted by six home runs, including three consecutive homers to start the game off Kyle Gibson, who struggled in his season debut. Gunnar Henderson hit a solo shot in the seventh, but the game was already out of hand.

The Orioles bounced back to clinch the series against New York on Wednesday, winning 5-4. Ryan Mountcastle snapped an 0-for-18 skid with a two-run homer, Ramón Urías followed with a solo blast, and Adley Rutschman added an RBI single. The bullpen held firm, and The Mountain closed it out again, fanning Trent Grisham to strand Aaron Judge in the on-deck circle.

After a day off, the Birds shut out Kansas City 3-0 on Friday. Dean Kremer delivered his best outing of the season, throwing seven stellar innings, allowing just three hits. Ryan O’Hearn continued his clutch hitting with a decisive two-run homer, and Emmanuel Rivera added insurance with an RBI single. Bautista notched his sixth save, preserving the Orioles' second win streak of the season.

The momentum was halted on Saturday as Kansas City returned the favor, with lefty Kris Bubic once again blanking the Orioles in a 4-0 loss. A strong effort from Sugano (6 IP, 2 ER) wasn't enough as Baltimore managed just six hits, three from Gunnar, but none timely.

The Royals then took the rubber match on Sunday, prevailing 11-6 in a back and forth game. Jackson Holliday crushed two homers and Cedric Mullins and Ryan O’Hearn joined him with solo shots, but it was all for naught. Kyle Gibson surrendered three runs in just four innings and a tired bullpen melted down after the starter turned it over.

Despite the mediocre results there were a handful of standout individual performers this week. Tomoyuki Sugano continues to be one of the bright spots of the season, allowing just two runs in eleven innings while striking out twelve in two starts this week.

Dean Kremer also bounced back to pitch a gem on Friday. Jackson Holliday had a breakout week at the plate, batting .467 on the week with two homers and fellow young star Gunnar Henderson batted over .400 as well.

However, it was Ryan O’Hearn who did the most damage and earned the Player of the Week award. O’Hearn not only belted three homers and drove in six runs, but came up with timely hits throughout the week. Along with Cedric Mullins, O’Hearn has been one of the only consistent hitters throughout the first month of the season.

Down on the Farm –

AAA Norfolk had an up and down week but finished on a positive with a 9-3 win on Sunday. Coby Mayo kept his bat hot earlier in the week, hitting two homers on Wednesday before being called up to the big leagues to replace the injured Ramon Urias.

Outfield prospect Dylan Beavers continued to lead the Tides offense, hitting .417 on the week with two doubles, five RBI and two stolen bases and extending his hitting streak to 13 games on Sunday.

In addition, top prospect Samuel Basallo returned from injury and launched a mammoth homer and pitching prospect Chayce McDermott made his return from injury as well. Brandon Young delivered a solid start after dropping down from the big leagues last week.

At AA Chesapeake, catching prospect Creed Willems continued his strong season, hitting two more homers and driving in four runs. Meanwhile, 24 year old pitching prospect Braxton Bragg was outstanding on the mound, striking out 13 over 9 innings while walking only two and allowing just two runs over two starts. The 2023 8th round pick, lowered his season ERA to 0.61 with 39 Ks over 29.2 innings.

Also of note, Zach Eflin made his first rehab start in High-A on Sunday, throwing four scoreless innings. He can’t return soon enough.

Question of the Week –

Where do the Orioles stand after one month and what are their playoff chances?

A month into the 2025 season, the Orioles are staring at a much different scenario than the club or its fans had envisioned.

With a 13-20 record through approximately the first month of games, Baltimore currently occupies last place in the AL East, trailing the first-place Yankees by 5.5 games and sitting 5 games back from an AL Wild Card spot. Coming off two consecutive postseason berths, the O's now face a significant uphill battle.

Offensive Struggles: Despite potentially turning a corner this week, the offense has notably underperformed. Through early May, the Orioles are slashing just .224/.295/.378, ranking 23rd in MLB with a .673 OPS, a far cry from last year's robust .751 OPS, which ranked fifth overall.

Their OPS+ sits at 97 or 3% below league average and they've scored only 123 runs, placing them in the bottom third of the league in offensive production, compared to 786 runs (4th-best in MLB) in 2024.

As discussed here last week, the underlying numbers are positive for the O's bats and this week seemed to show some light at the end of the tunnel, with Gunnar's hard hit balls starting to find the holes and Jackson Holliday beginning to breakout in his second season. They’ll need to realize that potential if this team is going to get back on track to make any kind of postseason push.

Pitching Woes: If the bats have been shaky, pitching has been downright disastrous. Baltimore’s pitching staff currently sports a troubling 5.24 ERA, ranked 28th in MLB. The starting rotation, in particular, has struggled mightily, posting an alarming ERA of 5.66. The team ERA+ of 71 is a dramatic drop-off from their roughly league average 97 ERA+ in 2024.

The absence of projected top starters Grayson Rodriguez and Zach Eflin has severely limited rotation depth. Veteran Charlie Morton, initially slated as a stabilizing presence, appears to have lost his battle with Father Time and has already been demoted from the rotation. Though he continues to do damage from the bullpen.

On a brighter note, the bullpen has been effective, highlighted by Yennier Cano’s continued reliability and Félix Bautista’s gradual return to form after Tommy John surgery. Though the bullpen ERA of 4.69 ranks just 24th in MLB, that is inflated quite a bit by some of the mop up innings in blowouts.

If the starters can get decent depth in a game, the back end of the O's bullpen should provide confidence they can close out games. However, the bullpen’s heavy workload due to short outings by starters risks burnout as the season progresses.

Playoff Prospects: While the current outlook seems grim, history suggests all is not lost. Teams like last season's Astros, who overcame a 7-18 start to win their division, offer some hope. Though it's unlikely 88 wins will take the AL East. For the Orioles, a turnaround isn't impossible, but it demands immediate improvement.

It would need to start with a relative return to health for the starting rotation. Getting Eflin back at the top of the rotation would be a huge boost, and there have been signs of improvement from Kremer and Povich. Some stabilization could hold the rotation over in the near term before a major trade addition or the return of injured Kyle Bradish provides a second half boost.

The offense seems destined to turn around with Henderson and Holliday coming on strong and returns on the horizon for Westburg and Cowser.

Despite that, it can't be sugar coated. Though there is some precedent for a season turnaround, it's a giant hill to climb.

Currently sitting at 13-20, the O's would need to win around 75 of their remaining 129 games, or a win percentage around .581. That's better than the .562 win percentage they produced last season, though not quite the .623 they produced in the 101 win 2023 season.

In short, while playoff prospects seem remote right now, a resurgence isn't out of the question. The Orioles must quickly regain health, shore up the rotation, and find offensive consistency to have any shot at returning to October baseball.

The next few weeks will be crucial, determining whether Baltimore's early woes are a prelude to a lost season or the start of a remarkable comeback story.

Sunday May 4, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3904

sunday q and a

I saw in the Comments section where George checked in with yet another witch hunt for the golfing-soul of one Rick Yutaka Fowler, or "Rickie" as we've always known him.

George didn't pick on Gary Woodland, Jordan Spieth or Keith Mitchell, the other three PGA Tour players who earned an exemption into next week's Truist Championship up at Philadelphia Cricket Club. His pitchfork for Fowler, though, was as sharp as ever.

Here's the thing, though. Unlike George's antiquated overview of the difficulty of Mount Pleasant, he's dead-red-right about the sponsor exemption protocols on the PGA Tour.

I'm sure you're shocked. "Did Drew just agree with George?"

I did.

Now, I might tweak a couple of things he wrote. I do believe a PGA Tour sponsor should feel free to invite any player of their choosing. That's why they're called "sponsor exemptions". The key word there is "sponsor".

I'm not willing to say, "You can invite Luke List or Scott Stallings (just pulling two names out of the air) but you can't invite Rickie Fowler or Keith Mitchell because we're tired of them getting free rides into tournaments." If you're a sponsor and you want Fowler and/or Mitchell, you can invite them whenever you want.

Almost...

I think the PGA Tour should allow each player (or, any player) a maximum of three sponsor exemptions in any one PGA Tour season. Once you've asked for three and received three, you're done asking until next season.

You can ask for as many as you want. But you can only be awarded three per-season.

That's what I would do if I ran the PGA Tour.

And if you want to argue that three should be two, I'll listen to that. Or if you want to say a player can only receive two exemptions into Signature events and the other one has to be at a "non-Signature" event, I'm good with that.

I understand what sponsors of sports events want, in terms of marquee value of the athletes and how they draw (or don't draw) crowds to the event and eyeballs to the TV sets.

No matter what any of us thinks about Rickie Fowler and how much he "deserves" a sponsor's exemption, it is undeniable that more people in Philadelphia will pile into their vehicles next week to see him play than they would to see Joe Bramlett or Aaron Wise play in the Truist.

And should Fowler somehow play his way into one of the three or four final groups on Saturday or Sunday, far more people will be inclined to tune in and watch him over, say, Davis Riley or Ben Kohles.

In the end, I understand why the folks at Truist want Spieth (3-time major champion), Fowler (multiple time Ryder Cup player and longtime TOUR veteran) and Woodland (2019 U.S. Open champ). I'm not sure what their affection is for Mitchell, but he's certainly a very nice, underrated player.

But there has to be a limit to how many times a player can get exempted into an event he otherwise failed to qualify for.

George and I have the same general agreement in principle: Make the players earn their way into (most of) the tournaments they want to play.

Sovereignty got a great ride from Junior Alvarado and outdueled race favorite Journalism in the final 200 yards to capture Saturday's Kentucky Derby on a sloppy, lifeless track at Churchill Downs.

Citizen Bull and Neoequos set the pace, as expected, and Neoequos actually hung around much longer than expected before shutting it down with a quarter-mile left in the race.

Late race entry Baeza made a spirited rally to claim third and Final Gambit also showed some late eagerness that resulted in a surprising 4th place finish.

There weren't any real surprises in the race, other than, perhaps, a sluggish, awkward performance from Publisher, whom some experts thought might sneak in and hit the board. The mud hit his face early in the race and Publisher snarled and said, "Yeah, I'm not up for this today."

One other horse who was heavily pushed at the betting windows on Saturday afternoon, American Promise, wound up not showing any promise at all en-route to a 16th place finish in the 19-horse field. Like Publisher, the muddy track threw him off as the horses battled for position.

Sovereignty trainer Bill Mott said afterwards, "The two best horses in the field dueled it out today. It's what horse racing is all about."

He was exactly right.

There were some horses who didn't belong in the race, which always happens at any Triple Crown race.

There were some good horses who just didn't have enough under the hood to compete at the Derby level.

And there were the two who finished 1-2. They were, without question, the best two participants in the race.

We won't gush and go overboard about the prospects of two more head-on-confrontations between the winner and the second place finisher, but it would be great for racing if both Sovereignty and Journalism make the trip to Old Hilltop in 13 days.

And if Journalism somehow triumphs at the Preakness, that would set up a best-of-3 finale at the Belmont in early June.

Let's hope it happens that way.

Horse racing deserves it.

Brad asks -- "What's your opinion on the team Buzz Williams has assembled so far in College Park?"

DF says -- "I mean, he's getting experienced college basketball players. It's not like he's bringing scrubs in and hoping they come through for him. The guys he's bringing to Maryland certainly have the "look" of Big Ten quality players.

But I have no way of knowing if they're going to be good enough to compete in conference play. And even if they have success in the conference, how do we know they're good enough at the next level?

We all thought Kevin Willard had the right team and right players this past season and they got vanquished by Florida rather easily in the NCAA tournament.

I do think Buzz Williams has said the right things and truly appears to be "all in" at Maryland. That said, Willard gave off the same impression when he took over the program. And three years later, he was breaking up with the Terps the way Tiger breaks up with his girlfriends. Sly and sleazy, in other words. I hope Buzz Williams isn't of that ilk, but only time will tell."

J.C. asks -- "You can pick one of these and bet $1,000 to win $100,000 that it happens in 2025. Which one would you choose? Rory McIlroy wins all 4 major championships in golf. The Dodgers win 100 regular season games AND go undefeated in the playoffs, winning their first series 3-0, the NLCS 4-0 and the World Series 4-0. The Ravens go 17-0 in the regular season."

DF says -- "Well, Rory could definitely win all four in the same calendar year. He has one out of the way already and the PGA Championship is at a venue where he's won multiple times in the last decade. But you're asking him to do something that Tiger and Jack never did. No one in the modern era of golf has ever done it, in fact.

On the subject of the Ravens and if they could go 17-0. Their non-divisional home opponents are New England, New York Jets, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles Rams and Houston. Detroit might be a worthy opponent. LA and Houston are decent, but nothing more than that. New England stinks, the Jets stink and Chicago will probably stink for at least one more season.

On the road, it's a different story. The Ravens non-divisional away games are at Kansas City, Buffalo, Green Bay, Minnesota and Miami. That's pretty close to a murderer's row, Miami notwithstanding.

So, they'd have to sweep the Steelers, Bengals and Browns, which is HIGHLY unlikely just on its own. And they'd also have to win those other six non-divisional home games, which is actually quite possible.

And then they'd have to go 5-0 in those tough away games. 3-2 is possible, I guess. 4-1 would be amazing. But I don't think 5-0 is realistic.

The answer to your question is, of course, "the Dodgers winning 100 regular season games AND posting three straight sweeps in the post-season." Do I think that will happen? I do not. But if you made me bet $1,000 on one of those three set of circumstances actually happening in 2025, it would be the one involving the Dodgers."

Chris P. asks -- "This question has been tossed around recently about O's owner David Rubenstein and I thought I'd pose it to you for your Q and A column. What's your grade for Rubenstein after one full year of ownership of the Orioles?"

DF says -- "Eh, I don't know how to judge him, honestly. I thought the raising of season ticket prices and the reduction of benefits for plan holders was a bogus move last summer (for the 2025 season). That certainly would have left a bad taste in my mouth if I were still a mini-plan holder.

I don't really know any of the inner workings, money wise, that came into play during the off-season as it related to signing free agents.

The O's did spend some money, that much is true. They signed Tyler O'Neill (jury's out), Charlie Morton (jury's verdict is in), Gary Sanchez (verdict in) and Ramon Laureano (jury still out).

But once they lost Burnes, or in preparation for losing Burnes, why wouldn't they have taken that money they were willing to allocate to Burnes and give it to another free agent pitcher? Some folks would say Sugano replaced Burnes, but purely from a money standpoint, that wasn't a replacement at all.

Anyway, spending money for the sake of spending it is obviously not a guarantee for success. I think we all sorta-kinda agree with that.

But not spending money on baseball players is also not a recipe for success. You're not winning that way, as the team's 13-19 early-season record would support.

So, look, I'll give him a "C" so far. It's a little early to be doing any formal kind of grading, I'd say. But if you're pressing me for a grade, it's a "C". He hasn't been terrible. But he certainly hasn't been a revelation, either. Is the organization really any different -- at least publicly -- than it was under the Angelos regime? I'm not sure."

Tom Warnquist asks -- "Help settle a friendly bar bet amongst my golfing friends. We have a 10-handicap player in our group who has shot 79, 77 and 79 his last 3 rounds. We're telling him that's more like a 5 handicap. What do you think the odds are that a 10 handicap golfer can shoot 3 straight rounds in the 70's?"

DF says -- "There's more to the question than meets the eye, but I get it. What course did he shoot those three rounds at? That's the first and most important question. What's the par on the course(s)? That's also important.

But, in general, I'd say it's mathematically "almost impossible" for a 10-handicap player to shoot consecutive rounds of 79, 77 and 79 if those rounds occur on a par 72 course of at least 6,500 yards.

It's not completely impossible. But it's close. Someone shooting 79, 77, 79 on a par 72 course is more like a 5 handicap, maybe a 6 at most. They're certainly not a "10"."

Saturday May 3, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3903

it's derby day!

Before we get to Mike Elias and the soft golf-clap he deserves for standing up and saying "this mess is my fault", let's look at today's Kentucky Derby and figure out who crosses the finish line first.

The weather in Louisville (that's, "Louis-ville" to Scottie Scheffler, remember) has gone from wildly promising to ugly-and-concerning over the last 72 hours.

Earlier in the week, the extended forecast was for blue skies and a fast track later on today.

But storms over the midwest have popped up over the last 24 hours and a more steady rain is expected throughout the morning and afternoon today. Track officials are so concerned about the precipitation they've gone to "sealing" the track with the hope it keeps the running surface from building up too much mud.

Most experts are tweaking their race predictions in anticipation of an "off" track later today.

A total of 19 horses are running in the Derby, with the #4 (Rodriguez) and #10 (Grande) horses being scratched from the race due to injuries earlier this week.

Journalism will likely go off as the race favorite at post time. Trained by Michael McCarthy and ridden by Umberto Rispoli, Journalism gives those two a shot at their first-ever Derby wins respectively. He will be at 5-2 or perhaps even 2-1 when all wagers are placed.

Sovereignty (Bill Mott/Junior Alvarado) finished 2nd in the Florida Derby earlier this year and has the kind of closing speed that racing enthusiasts love from Derby hopefuls. He'll likely be somewhere in the 4-1 range at post time.

Sandman (Mark Casse/Jose Ortiz) won the Arkansas Derby and also has that late closing speed that could come in handy today. His only flaw? In two previous races at Churchill Downs he has run very poorly in each. He should also be in that 4-1 betting range.

Three mid-priced horses could be formidable foes today if they handle the suspected "off track" well.

Publisher (Steve Asmussen/Irad Ortiz Jr.) is highly touted but has yet to win a race of any kind in his career. While Ortiz Jr. is a well respected jockey and Asmussen is a highly regarded trainer, asking a horse to make his first-ever win a Kentucky Derby triumph is probably a tad too ambitious. He might be bet down to the 12-1 or 10-1 range by post-time.

Burnham Square (Ian Wilkes/Brian Hernandez Jr.) has two recent wins on his chart (Holy Bull Stakes and Blue Grass Stakes) and a qualified guy in the irons in Brian Hernandez Jr., but his penchant for coming off the pace might be challenged with the large field bunched up around him as the race goes on. Expect him in the 15-1 range, perhaps a smidgen lower.

Citizen Bull (Bob Baffert/Martin Garcia) is one of the more interesting entries in the race. He loves being the front runner, although it's worth noting he coughed up a late lead at the Santa Anita Derby last month in a race won by today's projected favorite, Journalism. The big question: Can Citizen Bull get out of the gate quickly and jump to the lead from the #1 post position he occupies? Expect him to be in the 8-1 range.

One very interesting "off the radar" opportunity involves the Japanese horse, Luxor Cafe. He got into this race strictly from his performances in stakes races in Japan, so there's not much real intel on him. He's sired by 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh, which makes the horse definitely worth your consideration based on bloodlines alone.

How do we see the race?

We're going to go on the hunch that the track will be "off" by race time. If it's not, oh well. But given that the experts are calling for bad weather up until about 4:30 pm in the Churchill Downs area, we're going to mix in the expected and unexpected with our wagering decisions.

#2 Neoequos (Luis Saez, jockey) hasn't won a graded stakes race, but two of his other victories, albeit at shorter distances than the one he faces today, came on sloppy, rainy days. Saez can get the best out of this horse if the track is off.

#9 Burnham Square will settle in nicely in the early going and make his move at the mid-way point. As long as he doesn't get rattled in traffic, expect Brian Hernandez to have him there at the final turn.

#14 Tiztastic (Joel Rosario, jockey) is another Steve Asmussen entry, and if Asmussen didn't think this horse had a shot at hitting the board, he wouldn't in the race. He's a closer. The off track might be a nuisance for him, but nothing in his past tells us that.

#17, Sandman (Jose Ortiz) is a late closer type who just needs to make sure he doesn't get too far behind while jetting out of that outside post position. If Ortiz gets him settled in nicely at the quarter mark of the race, he should do just fine.

#DMD's projected order of finish:

#17, Sandman

#9, Burnham Square

#14, Tiztastic

#2, Neoequos

Mike Elias met with the media on Friday night before the Orioles 3-0 win over Kansas City and basically said this in a nutshell: "We're not happy with where we are but we're going to be OK."

He basically took the blame for the team's 12-18 (now 13-18) start and noted that he wasn't going to panic or do something goofy like fire the manager six weeks into the season.

The O's then went out and blanked the Royals, 3-0, as we got one of those high quality starts from Dean Kremer that we seem to get about six times per-season.

"It is difficult to contend with [that] level of injuries, but even that aside, they've had a poor start, and that's my responsibility. I'm in charge of baseball operations," Elias told the media. "When we have a bad record to start the year, that's my responsibility."

I hope the folks in town who have been clamoring for Elias to say "this is on me" are happy now.

It's also worth nothing Elias defended Brandon Hyde when asked about his evaluation of the manager in the midst of the team's rocky start.

"When things are going great -- and they have at times here, we've had that -- and then when we're experiencing failure, it's really important in that job, and in my job too, to be consistent with your approach," Elias said. "He's doing that."

OK, so it wasn't a rock-solid, glowing, "hear me loud and clear, the manager's not getting fired" kind of statement. But everything in Elias's voice and body language indicated he was telling the truth when he made that comment about Hyde and then moved on to another subject.

"We are all working very hard, and we have a lot of faith in this very talented group," Elias stated. "Piece by piece, step by step, we're going to get guys healthier; we're going to get guys performing more to their norms. If there's something we can fix with a player, we're working on that."

He sounded a lot like most of the words you've seen written here from time to time over the last 3-4 weeks.

"The Orioles need their injured players to get healthy more than anything else..."

A fully healthy roster might not be good enough for this edition of the O's, but it's going to yield them much better results than 12-18 every thirty games.

Starts like the one they got from Dean Kremer last night also help.

Friday May 2, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3902

the derby is this saturday, yes

There was a time, maybe 20 or 25 years ago, where the Kentucky Derby was a really big deal.

I mean, it was a big deal 50 years ago too. And 40 years ago as well.

At some point in this century, though, the race lost its "global luster", if you will.

There are still lots of people who care about the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Each of those three events will feature large, bulging crowds in the stands and in the infield. When I say "global luster", I'm mainly referring to the casual sports fan, not the horse racing enthusiast.

The race is this Saturday and I'm one of those "casual fans" who loves the Triple Crown series and I have almost no idea of what's going on this Saturday at Churchill Downs.

I know there are 20 horses in the race, which is pretty much eight too many. But there are always horses in the Derby who have no business racing at that level. What it means, a lot of times, is the best horse in the field winds up not winning because some scrub horse gets in his/her way at some point during the trip.

But it's still one of the 10 best days of the annual sporting calendar. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes are junior varsity events in comparison to the Derby.

It's just a shame no one knows the Derby is tomorrow.

We'll have our breakdown here in Saturday's edition of #DMD. By "breakdown", we basically mean we'll draw names out of a hat and throw a few bucks their way.

OK, we're kidding about that. It's a little more sophisticated than names-in-a-hat.

Oh, and there was some silver lining news on Thursday, when it was announced that Rodriguez, one of Bob Baffert's entries, was scrached from the race due to an injury. That means Mike Smith will not have a mount in this Saturday's Derby.

Smith cost me $8,800 (cash) at the 2011 Preakness when he let Animal Kingdom scoot past his horse, Astrology, in the final 300 yards and I've never forgiven him for that lack of quality jockey work.

Enjoy your day off on Saturday, Smitty.

I've enjoyed reading the Comments section over the last couple of days as people go back-and-forth about "leadership" and what not with both the current Orioles and O's teams of yesteryear.

I have no idea who this team's "leader" is. My gut says there probably isn't one, really, unless you put some stock in the recent no-manager-invited meeting supposedly organized by Ryan O'Hearn. That's a "leader" kind of thing to do, particularly if you think the manager might be offended but you couldn't care less either way.

Leaders are important in any organized structure, whether it's an office setting or an athletic team. There are a variety of leadership levels, if you will, and occasionally a leader surfaces organically or he/she is groomed for the position based on tenure within the organization or some other factor that is respected by his/her peers.

I don't see anyone outwardly having leadership qualities with the Orioles, but that doesn't mean they don't have a leader or two in their midst.

For all we know, Cedric Mullins is the absolute team leader of the Orioles and calls the shots within the locker room.

It just doesn't seem like his style, mind you. But sometimes the team leader does it quietly.

Ray Lewis was an obvious and very deserving "leader" of the Ravens throughout his career.

Ray didn't do anything quietly, whether it was crunching running backs or firing up his teammates in the locker room or on the sidelines.

Ed Reed was a great football player. No two ways about it. But Ed Reed wasn't anything close to the same kind of leader as Ray. Reed was far too moody and mercurial to be a complete leader of the team.

Joe Flacco was a leader.

It feels like Marlon Humphrey is a leader.

Most of the time, a team leader also has to be a high quality player. That's the way they gain that first layer of respect from their teammates. It's not mandatory that a team leader be a marquee name, but it's certainly "preferred".

I don't see Gunnar Henderson, Adley Rutschman or Colton Cowser being a leader of the current Orioles team. They're simply too young and haven't earned their stripes, yet.

Strictly from an age and experience perspective, Mullins and O'Hearn would be the obvious choices for the unofficial position of "team leader".

And of all the sports, my hunch is "leadership" within the team itself is the least needed in baseball. What's Cedric Mullins going to do with Adley Rutschman? Scream at him and say, "You better start hitting you creep!!"?

Baseball is such a weird sport. The players look lazy and meandering because the season is six months long and it's built to be that way. You can be hitting .210 for the two months and then go 10-for-20 and now you're suddenly hitting .275 and all is well with the world.

But a leader who yells and screams and tells you to "wake up!" doesn't seem like a natural fit in baseball.

The ultimate leader of the team -- of any team, really -- is the head coach, manager, etc. If Brandon Hyde isn't the best leader on the Orioles, something is definitely "off" within the framework of their team environment.

But aside from the manager or coach, each team does need someone "in the trenches" to serve as a conduit between the players/employees and organizational leadership.

I don't know who that conduit "in the trenches" is with the Orioles. And I'm not sure they'd be any better than 12-18 if they had someone to fulfill those leadership duties.

Let's not get it twisted, though. Leadership is important. The O's need as much of it as they can get.

Along with better pitching and betting hitting.

I don't want to steal Jack Herb's thunder, but his column yesterday about 4-home-run-games got me to thinking about other historical records of importance in baseball.

There have been 23 players in Major League history who have recorded a base hit in 33 or more consecutive games.

How many of those 23 are post-1975?

Don't go hitting the Google search bar.

Think about it. How many?

For the record, I guessed 6.

I knew Rose, Molitor, Rollins, Santiago and Uggla. I figured there was one more I couldn't remember. There were actually two more. I didn't get Chase Utley and Luis Castillo.

The answer, then, is 7.

Since 1975, that's 50 years, only seven players have recorded a hit in 33 or more consecutive games.

33 games takes roughly 5 weeks to complete. Imagine that for a second. You get at least one base hit in every game you play for a period of 5 weeks or so!

And here's the weird thing about hitting and streaks and such. It's not like you only get one chance every game to get a hit. You get, in most games, at least FOUR opportunities! Hitting a baseball thrown at you 90-plus MPH is hard enough. Hitting it into a spot where no one can catch it before you reach first base is twice as hard.

Oh, and the strangest thing of all, I guess, is this: It's getting harder and harder to have hitting streaks, apparently. The last time someone in Major League Baseball had a hit streak of 30 games or more was back in 2018-2019 when Whit Merrifield bridged a 31-game streak over those two seasons.

I don't know why that is, but the longer we go on in baseball, the harder it is to put together a hitting streak of any substance.

Pitching a perfect game is obviously very tough to do. Only 24 pitchers have ever done it.

So, too, is hitting 4 home runs in a game. Only 19 guys have managed to do that.

But 33 games in a row (or more) with a base hit? Well, only 23 guys have done it. Ever. But only 7 have done it over the last 50 years.

I thought you'd like to know.

faith in sports

If you don't know the story of Nick Vujicic, today is a good day for a crash course. There's so much more to him than I'm going to show you in the 9 minute video below.

But this 9 minutes you're hopefully going to watch will show you the ultimate test of faith and why, with God, all things are possible.

Vujicic is an amazing story.

Born with no arms or legs. And yet, he's made an incredible contribution to our world.

Imagine that for a second.

And all because he believes that God has a plan for him.

It's not a sports story, per se. But it's a story I wanted to share with all of you.

No matter what you're going through, God has a plan for you. Believe it.

Thanks to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment.

Thursday May 1, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3901

les capitaux avancent

Nighty-night up there in Montreal.

Thanks for coming.

For the first time since 2018, the Capitals have advanced to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs after last night's 4-1 win over Montreal gave Washington a 4-1 series win.

It was a little nervy early on, as the Caps needed overtime in Game 1 and an empty net goal in Game 2 to forge ahead in the series, 2-0.

After the Canadiens snuck out a win in Game 3, the Caps rebounded with a nice victory in Game 4 to set up last night's series clincher. In the end, the better team definitely won, although Montreal was most certainly not a series pushover by any means.

The Carolina Hurricanes are next up for the Caps. And they will pose another formidable challenge for Alex Ovechkin and Company.

The return of Logan Thompson in Game 4 (after leaving Game 3 with an injury) was huge for the Capitals. He surrendered just three goals in the next two games and was certainly one of the three stars of the series for D.C., with Alex Ovechkin and Tom Wilson joining him for that honorary status.

Wilson's punishing hit near mid-ice in Game 4 was a series-changer. The Caps scored immediately thereafter and Montreal seemingly never regained their momentum in the series, as Washington piled on from there to win Game 4 and then pretty much cruised to a Game 5 win last night.

There's a lot of hockey left between now and early June, but the Caps got out of that Montreal series unscathed and should be up for the next challenge against Carolina.

The Orioles picked up a nice win last night, turning back the Yankees, 5-4, before 22,381 at Yankee Stadium South.

That victory gets the Birds to 12-18 at the 30-game mark. That's not very good, of course, but two wins in three games with New York is at least a little something to build on.

Kansas City comes to town for a 3-game weekend series that starts this Friday.

Adley Rutschman and Heston Kjerstad had two hits last night and Cade Povich was "decent" on the mound, going 4.2 innings and allowing 3 earned runs.

Six Orioles relievers allowed the Yankees just 4 hits and 1 earned run in the game's final 4.1 innings, with Felix Bautista retiring New York in order in the 9th inning to secure his second save of the series.

After this 3-game series with the Royals, the O's head to Minnesota for three and to Los Angeles for three games with the Angels. They'll then return home for three with the Twins and three with the Nationals.

Would it be too much to ask the O's to go 10-5 in those five series'? 10-5 would be great. 9-6 would be fine. 8-7 would be acceptable, I guess.

If the O's can't play over .500 baseball against these five opponents, they're in more trouble than we already think they are.

The Bill Belichick story is getting more crazy by the day, which is really saying something when you realize how bizarre his life has been for the last 12 months.

He's 73 years old and he has a 24 year old girlfriend. That, in and of itself, is tough enough to wrap your head around.

Belichick is now the head football coach at the University of North Carolina, which seems like perhaps one of the more unnatural moves in the world of sports over the last 25 years. Why on earth would the (arguably) best coach in NFL history want to drop down three notches to coach an ACC football program where 94% of the athletic supporters care only about the men's basketball program in Chapel Hill?

But as if that weren't enough chaos, he recently decided to write a book detailing all of that "winning" he did while he coached at New England.

The only problem? The book is pretty much awful.

There's nothing earth shattering in the book. No revelations about how he and Tom Brady hated one another or how he and Robert Kraft went 6 years straight without sending one another a Christmas card.

The closest we got to learning about their fractured relationship was during a recent CBS interview when Belichick admitted he didn't mention Kraft in the book or list him in the "acknowledgements" section.

That interview with CBS has sparked the latest round of controversy, as his girlfriend, Jordon Hudson, was apparently calling the shots during the interview and interrupting on several occasions to admonish the network and the interview host for asking questions she says were on the "do not ask" list.

Yesterday, Belichick made a statement through the University of North Carolina where he asserts that Ms. Hudson was not "controlling the conversation" during the interview.

"CBS selectively edited clips and stills from just a few minutes of the interview to suggest a false narrative -- that Jordon was attempting to control the conversation -- which is simply not true," Belichick said in the statement.

OK, so here's what's bizarre. To me, at least.

Why on earth would Bill Belichick write a book in the first place?

He needs $2.1 million that badly?

The man made over $70 million coaching and countless millions more endorsing stuff, doing speaking engagements, and so forth.

Why would a guy who adamantly disliked dealing with the media and the public and was as "closed off" as possible about his private life suddenly want to write a book about his life in football?

Sure, he'll make some money off the book. But at what point is that income worth ruining whatever reputation he still has in the sport?

It makes zero sense. And then to cap it off, you have a sorority sister at your side guiding you around the campus like you're there for Grandparent's Day.

The whole thing is really, really weird.

But we love ourselves a good love story in this country, even one that's bizarre like the one involving Belichick and Hudson.

Oh, and let's face it. The whole thing between Belichick and his girlfriend is probably more entertaining than Tar Heels football will be in 2025.

I've enjoyed these back-and-forth discussions about Mount Pleasant over the years with my longtime friend, George. He thinks I'm crazy when I say PGA Tour players would shoot 32-under for four days at "the Mount" and I think he's completely nuts for suggesting that because PGA Tour players in 1957 couldn't blister the course that today's players wouldn't blister the course.

Mount Pleasant is a very good test of golf. That much is true.

But it's a good test of golf for amateur players who are prone to the occasional foul ball off the tee or the three-putt-out-of-nowhere.

It would not be a good test of golf for the best 30 players in the world.

Back in the late 1950's when they held the Eastern Open at the Mount, those guys couldn't hit the first green (a par 5) in two shots on the 535 yard opening hole.

Today, the best players in the world would hit driver, followed by a 6 or 7 iron there and be putting for eagle.

I don't want to go through the place hole-by-hole, because all I would do is "cut and paste" this comment.

"On hole (x), the best players in the world would drive the ball up by the green and have an eagle chip that would likely result in another birdie."

I don't think anyone would go 61-61-61-61 (71 is par at the Mount), but the winner would have at least one round of 61, for sure.

It's important to understand, at least from my perspective, that predicting a winning score of 32 under par at the Mount for four rounds is not a slight at the golf course. I'm not poking fun at Mount Pleasant.

Instead, a score of 32 under par is simply proof-positive of how good guys like Scheffler, DeChambeau, Schauffele and McIlroy are. They can shoot 20 under par on a "tournament prepared" course with PGA Tour length, 2-3 inches of rough and greens that run 12 or 13 on the stimp meter.

That Doug Ford and Arnold Palmer and Art Wall couldn't make 8 birdies in a round 60 years ago has nothing at all to do with what Rory McIlroy would do today.

My guess is this: If you brought the top 30 players in the world to Mount Pleasant and the course was "dressed up" to the max, there would be at least two rounds in the 50's over four days, if not more.

These guys are just too freakin' good.

	"Jack Herb's Hot Corner" #DMD's weekly look at Major League Baseball
Jack Herb chimes in weekly here at #DMD with his insight on what's going on in baseball outside of Baltimore, with predictions, analysis and "Game of the Week" previews.

Another exciting week of baseball is in the books and before we break it down, we must start with what happened in the Diamondbacks game last Saturday.

Arizona’s Eugenio Suarez went 4-4 with 4 homers and became the 19th player in MLB history to have 4 home runs in a single game.

I looked a little more into this and was shocked when I learned that a player hitting 4 homers in a game is rarer than a pitcher throwing a perfect game (24 pitchers in MLB history). What makes this occurrence even more interesting is Suarez also became the 3rd player in baseball history to have 4 home runs in a game that his team lost.

Unfortunately for Suarez, the Dbacks lost 8-7 on Saturday against the Atlanta Braves in extra innings. We highlighted the Braves last week here at The Hot Corner as a team to look out for as the season goes on.

How did they manage to pull that rabbit out of their hat and come away with a win? Kudos to Eugenio Suarez and his performance. On behalf of baseball fans everywhere, we tip our hat to you.

On the other side of baseball history, the Colorado Rockies set a record going 4-24 through their first 28 games, which is the worst start to a season ever.

Orioles fans might remember (or have tried to forget) the 1988 season where we started 0-21.

This Rockies team has dethroned the O’s as well as the 2003 Tigers for worst start to a season.

There isn’t much to be excited about if you’re a Rockies fan. They have the 13th ranked farm system according to Baseball America, a little better than half the league, but you would hope to have the farm higher ranked at this rate.

Colorado is currently on pace for 23 wins over 162 games, which will be worse than the 2024 White Sox who went 41-121. I can’t imagine the Rockies only winning 23 games this year, and I really hope it doesn’t happen.

Any team losing that many games is bad for baseball in general, especially when the sport is trying to grow and reach new fans. Maybe the Rockies will go on a few winning streaks and sort of turn things around. Even the ‘88 Orioles finished the season 54-107, which is still not good but a whole lot better than 23-139.

On a more positive note, how about the Cincinnati Reds, who have looked very good this season?

They did have a 5-game winning streak snapped last night by St. Louis, but they’ve been getting contributions from everyone in their lineup.

Off-season acquisition Gavin Lux has been a key contributor, batting .352 with 14 RBIs and a .911 OPS as well as Jose Trevino, former Yankee, batting .323 with a .889 OPS.

The Reds’ pitching has also been phenomenal so far, led by young ace Hunter Greene, who has a 2.70 ERA and .85 WHIP through 36.2 innings.

A few keys to their success this year can be credited to their offense and how they bat overall as a team. They have the 6th highest batting average and have the 9th most walks. As we saw a few weeks ago against the Orioles, they constantly have traffic on the bases, which is a great formula for producing runs.

On the pitching side, Cincinnati has the 6th best team ERA at 3.37 and gives up the sixth fewest walks in baseball.

Elly De La Cruz is their superstar player at shortstop, but other than that, there aren’t many names that stick out. This Reds team meshes very well together. They’re a gritty team and are equipped to really surprise some people this year in a division, the NL Central, that’s up for grabs, especially now with injuries throughout the division.

There’s a strange thing happening right now with Devin Williams of the New York Yankees, who was once considered one of the game’s best closers. Williams is healthy as far as what we’ve been told. The problem is he has had trouble closing out a game.

Williams used to be untouchable when he played for the Brewers the past few seasons. So far in ‘25, Williams has allowed 14 earned runs through 9.2 innings of work.

To put it in perspective, his career high in earned runs is 15 through 58 innings of work back in 2021. Unless he’s perfect the rest of the way, he’s looking to set a new career high in earned runs.

It’s gotten so bad that the Yankees have moved him out of the closer role to get him lower leverage looks (If you play fantasy baseball, look to add Luke Weaver who is taking over the closer role for the Yanks for the time being). We’ll monitor the situation with Williams as the season continues, but as an Orioles fan, we won’t complain hearing this news.

Players of the Week –

Position Player: We discussed Eugenio Suarez’s historic day earlier, but let’s take a look at another player who had a great week. Andy Pages of the LA Dodgers had himself a monster week, batting .600 with 3 homers, 7 RBIs & 3 stolen bases

Pages has truly cemented himself as the everyday center fielder for the Dodgers. Keep in mind, this is a guy who Dodger fans wanted gone last year because he was struggling at the dish. The 24-year-old outfielder is proving he belongs in a Dodgers lineup that is filled with superstars.

Pages also plays fantastic defense. Just ask Rookie phenom Roki Sasaki, who is an international rookie starting pitcher for the Dodgers. Pages has robbed an opposing hitter of a home run in 3 different Sasaki starts this year.

Pitcher: Andres Munoz is the closer for the Seattle Mariners and during a time where closers across the league are struggling, Munoz is standing out amongst his peers.

With a fastball clocking in around 99 MPH paired with a devastating slider, he is a hitter’s worst nightmare to see in the 9th inning. This past week, he recorded 5 strikeouts and 4 saves through 4 innings of work.

He is currently tied for 1st in saves (11), and has a 0.00 ERA through 15 innings. Will the Mariners finally be able to win that division, where they’ve struggled in the past with the Astros and Rangers? We shall see, but they currently lead the AL West by 1 game.

Honorable Mention: Paul Skenes of the Pittsburgh Pirates blanked the Dodgers last Friday night in front of a sold-out ballpark in LA, where he went 6.1 innings with 9 strikeouts and recorded a win for the Pirates. He also went against NL Cy Young favorite Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and in this instant pitching classic, Skenes won the duel.

Rookie of the Week: Jacob Wilson is off to a great start for the Athletics and, although this past week his stats may have been down (.261 average 1 homer and 4 RBIs), he is emerging as a cornerstone piece for the A’s.

Through 28 games, he is batting .321 with a .792 OPS. He leads the team in batting average, .321, hits with 35, and tied for 3rd on the team with 14 RBI. Wilson has only struck out 6 times in 106 at bats, which is 2nd fewest on the team.

One of the approaches to rebuilding a franchise is to develop position players that play up the middle of the field (Catcher, Middle Infield, Center Field). You can compare that philosophy to the Orioles and who they drafted during the rebuild phase. That’s exactly what the A’s have done with a young catcher in Shea Langeliers and Wilson at short. Center field is still up in the air, but all signs are pointing towards the A’s turning the corner in the next couple of years.

Games of the Week –

Friday, May 2nd, Detroit Tigers vs LA Angels (Tarik Skubal vs Yusi Kikuchi)

The Tigers have proven that their postseason appearance last October was no fluke, and they are here to compete this year. We’ll get to see Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young winner, against Yusi Kikuchi, a journeyman who signed a 3-year, $64 million deal last winter with the Angels. Can the Angels get to Skubal and beat the red-hot Tigers? I don’t see it happening.

Saturday, May 3rd, Seattle Mariners vs Texas Rangers (Luis Castillo vs Patrick Corbin)

With how close this division is to start the season; this is a series for both teams that could potentially come back to bite someone at the end of the year. The Astros have not looked like the Astros this year, which means this division is a race between the Mariners and Rangers, in my opinion.

Sunday, May 4th, Arizona Diamondbacks vs Philadelphia Phillies (Eduardo Rodriguez vs Zack Wheeler)

A rematch of the 2023 NLCS, where the Dbacks won in game 7. The Phillies will be putting up one of their best starters in Wheeler, who leads the team and 2nd in baseball in strikeouts, and look to silence the Dbacks offense, which has been red hot of late.

Wednesday April 30, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3900

3,900!

I know what you're thinking.

That headline...

The number of times Bill Belichick has said to himself, "Why am I with this woman?" since the recent CBS interview was aired.

No, no, no. Come on. It's well into the 5,000's by now.

The number of runs the Orioles pitching staff might give up in the 2025 season?

No, no, no. Come on. 1,300 maybe. But not 3,900.

The number of fans the O's will be drawing every night by mid-June if they keep playing the way they have thus far this season?

No chance. They'd draw at least 5,200 per-game.

No, 3,900 is the number of consecutive days we've published Drew's Morning Dish. Every single day since August 25, 2014, in fact.

We weren't going to bring it up at all until the Orioles got shellacked last night, 15-3.

We figured we'd start off with something positive, like publishing 3900 straight days, before we start ripping through another heartless O's performance last night. Get the good stuff out of the way first, we say, and then go for the jugular.

So, there's the good news. 3,900 consecutive days. Thank you to everyone involved for helping us make that happen.

Everyone.

Behind the scenes staffers and web developers. Our long list of marketing partners over the last 10-plus years. Our various writers, past and present. And, of course, all of you have stopped by to read the site and participate in the Comments section.

Let's celebrate Kyle Gibson's return to the majors our feat with a golf clap and an extra cup of morning coffee or juice.

And now...about those Orioles.

OK, we can either jump to conclusions with Kyle Gibson or be patient and give him a few starts to get his "feels" back and see if he can actually make a positive contribution to the O's in 2025.

Which way do you want to go?

I'm normally the patient type.

"It's a marathon, not a sprint," I'll say quite often.

I don't feel very patient this morning.

Nothing about last night was really all that surprising. I mean, sure, I didn't expect the first inning to go quite like that. Three straight homers to lead off the game? I didn't have that one on my FanDuel account, no.

I did have a nice 3-way parlay of Aaron Judge and Gunnar Henderson to homer in Baltimore, along with Shohei Ohtani to homer for the Dodgers, so let's just say I wasn't totally bummed out about that 15-3 loss and the fact that the O's managed just three hits on the night.

But I digress...

I suspected Kyle Gibson wouldn't be sharp, although I didn't think he'd give up 11 hits and 9 earned runs before 8:00 pm.

He did strike out two guys. So there's that, at least.

But last night can't really be blamed on Gibson. He's on the roster and was pressed into duty last night because the O's have nowhere else to turn. They don't have anyone on the farm worth bringing up for a spot-start and there's no one floating around on the waiver wire worth bringing to Baltimore, either.

And while their offense wasn't the reason the O's lost last night, it's more than fair to point out they were no-hit for five innings and managed just three hits in nine innings.

My O's crazy friend Chris texted me in the 5th inning: "Going through the motions. They look like a team that's quit on the manager."

Later, after a Gunnar Henderson fielding error, he added: "Gunnar's a leader? haha"

It's hard to argue with any of that commentary.

Last night, at least, it sure did look like they were going through the motions. Then again, they were losing 5-0 in the first inning and 9-0 in the 4th inning. Who wants to break a sweat when the game's over before the stadium lights come on?

As for "quitting on the manager", I don't know how that works. I don't think Kyle Gibson "quit". I just think he threw too many 91 mile-per-pitches over the heart of the plate in the first four innings.

Gunnar did manage to hit a home run in the 7th inning, but there's no denying his 2025 start is starting to approach the "concerning" level. He's hitting .227 and, even worse, his on-base-percentage is a woeful .269.

Defensively, he has 4 errors in 21 games.

Henderson won't approach 30 errors, I don't think, but he's currently on that pace.

Maybe he isn't a leader. That wouldn't be a total shock. He's 23 years old and in his third full big league season. As they like to say in the big leagues, "he still needs to earn his chops".

That said, a lot is expected of him, especially in the next couple of years when the O's have to start putting a blueprint together for giving him $500 million-plus to sign a new contract in Baltimore.

Other than Cedric Mullins and Ryan O'Hearn, no one's doing anything offensively.

That's one of the big reasons why the O's are 11-18.

Their starting pitching is terrible.

The bullpen might not be "terrible", but it's approaching "lousy".

Even their defense is suspect.

"You are what your record says you are..."

We've heard that one before.

Frankly, I'm not sure how the O's have won 11.

In tonight's series finale, it's Carlos Carrasco vs. Cade Povich.

The good news? Carrasco's washed. If ever the O's were going to get back on track offensively, it's tonight.

The bad news? Povich had a great start in D.C. last Wednesday night. He's due for a stinker this evening.

Take the "over" in this one, whatever it is, and hope for a 9-8 Birds win.

Both the internet and sports radio in town -- and even commenters here, it's worth noting -- are starting to percolate with "time to fire the manager" chatter, which isn't anything new in Charm City. As soon as the football team loses twice in five games people want John Harbaugh jettisoned.

I'm not a "fire the coach" guy. I never have been.

We've covered this edition of the O's quite a bit here and wondered how Brandon Hyde can be held responsible for Corbin Burnes leaving and Charlie Morton showing up. Or Anthony Santander leaving and Tyler O'Neill coming to Baltimore. Or Gary Sanchez coming on board to replace James McCann.

Those things can't be laid at the feet of Brandon Hyde.

That said, it's not the "losing" that generally dooms the coach/manager.

It's the "way" those losses pile up that sends the message to ownership that it's time for a change.

In the last 10 days, the O's have lost 24-2, 7-0 and 15-3.

Sure, losing 24-2 is just like losing 3-2 in the standings.

But it's not the same. The optics of losing 24-2 are far worse than losing 3-2.

Yes, they faced Tarik Skubal in that 7-0 loss. That's true.

At some point soon, though, the excuses and reasons for the losing aren't going to be enough.

I'll continue to say it here.

If the O's reach the 50-game mark and they don't have at least 20 wins, the manager has to go. That is, unless at that point the front office simply agrees that even a managerial change isn't going to save the season.

Lots of people ask me what the O's need.

That answer is very obvious.

"They need a few of their good pitchers to get healthy and return to the lineup."

I'm talking about the likes of Eflin and Grayson and Kyle Bradish, who might be able to pitch again sometime in June. Eflin should return in early May. Rodriguez might not return at all in 2025.

If the Birds get two of those three guys back, they'll help. All three would be huge.

But by the time they get two or three of them back, the season could be lost entirely.

The next 20 games basically decide their season.

If they can squirm their way to something like 22-28 after 50 games, they certainly have a puncher's chance of getting back into the playoff picture.

But if they're 18-32 after 50 games, it's night-night time for the 2025 Orioles.

I just don't see how the manager can be the difference between 22-28 and 18-32. Players play and coaches coach.

If Gunnar starts hitting, they can be 22-28. If Adley starts hitting they can be 22-28. If Holliday starts hitting they can be 22-28.

If those three continue to sputter at the plate, they'll be 18-32. And that happens no matter who manages the team.

But at some point, the guy running the ship has to pay the price for his players stinking it up.

This week's PGA Tour stop is played at perhaps the easiest venue of the entire season, TPC Craig Ranch just outside of Dallas, Texas.

It's going to be a birdie fest. Imagine if the TOUR came to Mount Pleasant for a 4-day tournament. The winner would make 32 birdies/eagles in 4 rounds at a minimum. TPC Craig Ranch won't yield 32 birdies to the winner, but I bet it will yield at least 24 subpar scores to the winning player.

The value of wagering on Scottie Scheffler to win (+280) is minimal. But this certainly feels like the event Scheffler should win to break out of his 2025 winless skid. You won't get much in return, obviously, but a winning ticket is always better than a losing ticket.

Si Woo Kim is a horses-for-courses guy at this venue and he has great value at +3000. He finished T2 in 2023 and 13th in 2023 at TPC Craig Ranch, so the course obviously suits him well. Add to that he's 3rd in the field in strokes gained since February and you have the makings of a winning player this weekend.

I'm not sure how Ben An is at +2500 and Kim (above) is at +3000, but whatever. An is having a very good last 12 months on TOUR despite not winning an event. He slumped a little earlier in the season but has rebounded nicely over the last 8 weeks. He's made 8 of 11 cuts in 2025 and has 4 top 25's to go with it. He might not be the guy to win this week, especially if the winning score will be in the 20-something under par range, but if his putter gets hot, watch out.

Because I feel like making someone a lot of summer spending money, I'm now going to go "way off the beaten bath" and give you three potential longshot winners who can also make you a nice return on Top 20 and Top 10 finishes as well.

These guys are each priced at +6600. All three have been up and down in 2025, but a week at Birdies For Everyone Country Club TPC Craig Ranch could be just what they need. Tom Kim has mysteriously wavered throughout the current season, but all he needs is one weekend with a hot putter.

Austin Eckroat hasn't done much since winning on TOUR last season, but he's a guy that's hard to pass up at that +6600 number. He'll chew up the par 5's at TPC Craig Ranch. What he does elsewhere on the course will be his determining factor.

And if you're looking for someone you've never heard of who could win this weekend, go with Jacob Bridgeman, who has very quietly put together an excellent 2025 season, with 8/12 cuts made and 3 top 10 finishes along the way.

Tuesday April 29, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3899

back....on track?

Well, that Orioles win on Monday night should quiet everyone in town until tonight when they lose 7-3.

Here's the good news: When Tomoyuki Sugano pitches, the O's have a legit chance of winning that game.

The bad news? He can't pitch every day.

Or every other day, for that matter.

So, we know the Birds are winning once every 5 days, at a minimum. So let's start there, I suppose.

Before we move on to other stuff, let's create a smidgen of balance here and give Mike Elias a polite golf clap for digging up and signing Sugano in the off-season.

It hasn't been a great 12 months for Elias.

He traded away two prospects who are prospering in Miami for a pitcher who would give up a hit to your Uncle Ned at the family picnic in August.

He failed to sign a worthy free agent pitcher with MLB experience in the off-season and the one he did manage to bring to town hasn't won a game this season.

He allowed the team's popular and successful back-up catcher to scoot out of town and replaced him with a guy who has fewer hits than Loverboy, who might have had six if you're being overly generous.

Those are just the ones that are top of mind.

If you think Steelers, Ravens, Texans Cleveland Browns wide receiver Diontae Johnson has had a rough last 12 months, his has been a walk in the park compared to what Elias has experienced.

So let's applaud him for the Sugano signing. The early returns are very favorable. He might not be following exactly in the footsteps of our 47th President, but the Japanese hurler is doing his part in helping to Make The Orioles Great Again.

Last night's 4-3 win over the Yankees was huge, particuarly given the injury news that came out late in the afternoon.

Jordan Westburg (hamstring) and Gary Sanchez (wrist) are out for at least 10 days. I know what you're thinking about Sanchez. Just don't say it out loud.

Grayson Rodriguez and Colton Cowser were both transferred to the 60-day injury list, which doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things other than both of those guys will be out at least through the end of May. I think we all suspect we won't see GrayRod pitch again this season, but getting Cowser back sometime in June would be a bonus for sure.

The Westburg departure won't be massive if Ramon Urias continues to hit, but I think we all know Urias is best used as a "semi-regular" player and not someone you have to rely on six days a week. Still, Urias is having a nice start to the 2025 season despite last night's 0-for-4 performance vs. New York.

Adley Rutschman had a base hit last night. That was good to see.

Ramon Laureano had TWO hits actually, which was probably two more than I thought he'd get this week.

And the aforementioned Sugano struck out 8 Yankees in 5 innings of work to improve to 3-1 on the year. He had good stuff on Monday evening in front of 10,000 Yankees fans and 12,775 Orioles fans on a Chamber of Commerce night in The Land of Pleasant Living.

But the big story from Monday night was what happened in the 9th inning.

With the game on the line after Brandon Hyde mysteriously removed Keegan Akin, who retired 4 hitters on 17 pitches, and Cano and Soto promptly gave up 3 runs thereafter, in came Felix Bautista to try to silence the Yankees in their final at-bat.

He got Trent Grisham to pop out, then whiffed Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger to earn the save and give the Birds a much-needed win.

Bautista's save also kept the wolves from Hyde's door for the bizarre decision to remove Akin in the 7th inning while the Birds owned a 4-0 lead and Akin was cruising without incident.

Because they're (now) 11-17, there haven't been many moments so far this season for Bautista to enthusiastically announce "I'm back!", but last night was indeed that opportunity.

It's worth noting that his control has been a bit spotty thus far in '25, but for a guy coming off of Tommy John surgery, the early returns are pleasing.

Last night's 9th inning was very impressive and much-needed. For one night, at least, all was well in Birdland.

Check back with us the next time Sugano pitches for even more delightful news. And maybe even a win for the Orioles.

Hyde also got into some hot internet water on Monday when he offered a weird, perhaps cryptic comment about pitcher Kyle Gibson, who is making the start tonight vs. the Yankees.

In the aftermath of announcing that the 37-year old right hander will start Tuesday's game vs. New York, Hyde said, "I know we’re getting an unbelievable person and a human being and a real leader, and an adult in the room I think, which is great.”

"An adult in the room..."

Hyde, I'm sure, will have to explain that one today at some point when he meets with the media at Camden Yards.

The internet lit up with speculation about that comment. There have been reports and "stories on the street" over the last 12 months that the O's locker room has, at times, been deemed "too playful" after losses. Perhaps that's what Hyde was hinting at with his remark about Gibson on Monday.

Let's hope Hyde gets to talk about 5.2 innings pitched, 5 hits and 2 earned runs allowed and not the "adult in the room" comment tonight.

Greg asks -- "I know you're not one to grade a team's draft, but overall how do you think the Ravens did last weekend?"

DF says -- "Fine. I guess? I mean, Starks looks like he's can't-miss, so that should work out very well for the Ravens. It's truly incredible how one of those kind of players always seems to fall in their lap. They should do a 30-for-30 special on it.

The other guys certainly appear as if they're going to be legit. Everyone raves about Mike Green. As long as the personal stuff is part of his past and not a life pattern, I suspect he'll be an outstanding Raven.

I know most people don't care about a kicker until he misses a 39 yarder at the buzzer to lose a game, but it would appear to me the Ravens are very convinced that Tyler Loop is going to be a bonafide kicker in the NFL. If, let's say, he's the team's "next Justin Tucker", that would mean drafting him was definitely the right move.

I don't follow college football nearly enough to have a "real" opinion on any of those players. I just assume DeCosta and his staff know what they're doing. The performance of the '25 draft class over the next four to five years will tell us if they do."

John L. asks -- "Hey Drew, I'm in one of those major championship contests that I've told you about before where you have to put 3 of your 5 players in three weeks before the tournament starts and then the other two go in on Monday of tournament week. You gave me Rory, Day and Lowry for the Masters and that worked out great! How about 3 for the PGA Championship that I can send in this week? Thanks and Go Hall!"

DF says -- "Well, you have to put Rory in either now or later. I mean, he's won at that golf course four times and he's coming in off the biggest win of his career. He's already won three times in four months. He is the definite favorite at Quail Hollow.

Justin Thomas has also won there before, in the PGA Championship no less. I think winning at Hilton Head was a big deal for him. It might get him back on track for a bigger win in '25. I'd go with him for sure.

I'm going to stick with driving distance as a key stat given how long and difficult the course will play, which means someone like Min Woo Lee makes sense. He's averaging 314 yards per-drive in '25 and it just "feels" like he's on the verge of something big this season. He's my (sorta kinda) off the radar screen guy for the PGA Championship."

Brian Preller asks -- "What was your official "take" on the Shedeur Sanders story in the draft? What happened to him?"

DF says -- "I have no idea, but I'm guessing two things rose to the top. First, without question, was the way he conducted himself at the various meetings he had with NFL teams in the weeks leading up to the draft. There are too many stories out there about his attitude and such. He definitely hurt his chances in that regard.

No matter what college football players think about themselves, people in the NFL don't give a rat's rear end how many bowl games you won or anything like that. They only care about how you project as a NFL player. Sanders walking around like he's already a Pro Bowl QB probably turned off a lot of scouts and coaches.

You can also throw Deion's involvement in there if you want, but if Shedeur was coming into the league with the skills and reputation of C.J. Stroud or some other top notch college QB and the meetings with him were impressive and favorable, NFL teams would take the "Deion baggage", so to speak.

Second, and this was sort of the point I tried to make last Thursday and Friday that no one seemed to understand: No matter what Mel Kiper or any of the other "experts" felt about him on the field, people in the trenches who do professional football for a living just don't think Shedeur is all that good.

No one is willing to turn their football team over to him on day one and say, "Here you go, take us to the promised land."

Maybe he works out as a NFL quarterback. Maybe he doesn't. The jury is very much out on him. The Saints or Raiders or Steelers weren't willing to take him and say, "Here's the keys to our franchise. Drive it around for us for the next 10 years."

Now, in fairness, a lot of teams said the same thing about Lamar Jackson. Heck, the Ravens even said it about Lamar Jackson in some ways. He wouldn't have played at all in that 2018 season if not for Joe getting hurt mid-season.

It all comes down to talent and the perceived "ceiling" you have. I don't think teams see Sanders as a guy who can turn a franchise around. This isn't the CYO or high school football. It's the big leagues."

Monday April 28, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3898

a lost weekend in detroit

No one expected the Orioles to win yesterday in Detroit.

The manager even used a lineup that was 95% guaranteed to fail in the series finale against the Tigers.

It didn't help that the Birds were facing perhaps the best pitcher in all of baseball. Tarik Skubal shut down the visitors, as expected, and the Tigers completed the 3-game sweep with a 7-0 win in the Motor City.

The baseball was so lifeless and the result so highly anticipated that someone in the main bar at Eagle's Nest asked one of the management folks to switch the TV from the O's game to a NBA playoff game. The score at the time was only 2-0.

"They could play until tomorrow against this guy (Skubal) and they wouldn't score a (effing) run," the guy said to me as the TV was switched from baseball to basketball.

Funny enough, no one else at the bar batted an eye when the channel was changed.

The Birds did manage to scrape together five hits on the day, including two from Jorge Mateo, who saw his batting average balloon all the way up to .136 with that performance. Skubal struck out 11 batters in six innings of work and allowed four of those five hits in improving to 3-2 on the year.

Dean Kremer produced what we should now just call "a Kremer". He did work into the 6th inning, which is good, but allowed 5 earned runs and walked more guys (4) than he struck out (3). Kremer's ERA on the year is 7.04. That's, uhhhh, not good.

The Orioles offense continues to be a disaster.

Sure, you're probably not winning many games when the pitchers allow 7 runs. That much is true. But I've never known it possible to win a game by scoring zero runs.

I have no idea what went into compiling Sunday's starting lineup. With their "regular group", the O's would have probably been a 25% favorite to win the game. With the lineup they posted on Sunday, that number dropped to 5%.

Maybe that's what Hyde was figuring all along.

"Why not just give Westburg, Mullins and O'Hearn the day off? Even with them, we're probably losing. Without them, they get a nice day of rest and we still lose."

And lose they did.

The O's struck out more times than a bunch of Beatles fans Flyers fans at an escort convention in Las Vegas. Heston Kjerstad had four at-bats and whiffed on all four occasions. Ramon Laureano, Gary Sanchez and Jackson Holliday each struck out twice. All nine O's batters struck out at least once.

Once again, driving in runners was a problem for the Birds. They went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. In the 3-game series in Detroit, they were 2-for-23 in that category.

As the losses continue to pile up, the internet burner on Brandon Hyde continues to increase.

I can't imagine Mike Elias is seriously considering firing the manager of a 10-17 baseball team. They have six home games with the Yankees and Royals coming up this week. If they go 4-2 there, they're at 14-19 and within a quick winning streak of being a .500 team again.

But if something weird happens and the O's drop 5 of 6 to New York and K.C.? That would put the O's at 11-22. Now you're starting to think about doing "something...anything" to get the team back on track.

I'll continue to say this: I'm not sure firing Brandon Hyde is even close to "the answer" for this baseball team. Nearly all of their best players are hitting .220 or lower. No one on the team is driving in runners when they're on second or third base. I don't know how the manager is to blame for that kind of lethargy at the plate.

That said, if the O's are something like 14-26 at the 25% mark (40 games), you'd have to consider making a managerial change just for the sake of doing it.

For sure if they reach the 50-game plateau and they have anything less than 20 wins, a change is in order.

That said, getting better baseball players back in the off-season would have helped.

However, guys like Laureano and Sanchez would be once-a-week throw-ins if the team's real players were hitting and producing.

Their pitching stinks.

Their offense stinks.

Their record, therefore, stinks.

It is still early, as Dean Kremer pointed out after yesterday's 7-0 loss.

The Orioles are like a Beatles album. They're better than you think they are. Mainly because they have to be.

But these next six games against the Yankees and Royals will go a long way in telling us if that's true.

Better than we think?

Or worse than we thought?

We're about to find out more.

It wasn't the prettiest way to win a playoff game, but the Caps got the road win they needed last night in Montreal, 5-2, to go up 3-1 in their Eastern Conference series with the Canadiens.

Washington can put the series away on Wednesday night back in D.C.

Because they're the Capitals, nothing is in concrete just yet. Montreal is certainly playing "up" in the series thus far. They haven't necessarily been the better team, but they also haven't resembled an 8-seed, either. A win for the Habs on Wednesday would shift momentum back in their favor for Game 6 back in Canada.

Last night, though, was about the (unexpected) return of goaltender Logan Thompson, who got the surprising start in goal and was outstanding throughout the sixty minutes. He was the main reason the score was "only" 2-1 in favor of Montreal after two periods.

The Caps got a late third period goal from Andrew Mangiapane to go up 3-2, then tallied a pair of empty net goals to put the game away.

If Thompson stays healthy and continues to play the way he has in the first four games of the series, the Caps have a real puncher's chance of sticking around for a while in these NHL playoffs.

But first they have to dispose of the scrappy Canadiens, who have their own goaltending issues to contend with, as their #1 netminder, Sam Montembeault, missed Sunday's tilt with a groin injury.

If the Caps do get by Montreal, the Carolina-New Jersey winners awaits in the next round, with the Hurricanes currently up 3-1 in that series.

On yesterday's radio show on 105.7, I welcomed Kevin Van Valkenburg of the golf podcasting site, "No Laying Up", for a lengthy interview.

Kevin just worked his 6th Masters, so I thought it was a great time to bring him in and soak him for information and details.

One of the things we discussed was a "Sounds of the Masters" piece that he and a No Laying Up content creator worked on during their weeklong stay at Augusta National.

As you can expect, I consume a lot of golf "content" on the internet. Every day of my life, I'm reading or watching something related to golf.

I can say, without hesitation, "Sounds of the Masters" is one of the best pieces of golf content I've ever seen (in this case...heard).

If you're a golf enthusiast, please give yourself one hour and sit down and take this in. If you've never been to the Masters, this episode of No Laying Up will take you there unlike anything else you could imagine.

To watch "Sounds of the Masters", just click here.

	"Randy On The O's"
Randy Morgan takes #DMD readers through the recent week in Orioles baseball as the Birds try to earn a third straight A.L. playoff appearance.

orioles week in review

Week Record: 1-5

Season Record: 10-17

AL East Standing: 5th (6 GB of NYY)

Player of the Week: Cade Povich - 6.2IP 4H 1BB 5K 1.35 ERA

I’m not going to lie, it’s already getting pretty hard to write these recaps. We’re not even in May and the team is on the verge of a lost season.

At 10-17, currently the only teams in MLB worse than the Orioles are the moribund/tanking White Sox and Rockies.

A combination of poor offseason planning and rotten injury luck have unsurprisingly produced the worst rotation in the majors. With a 71 ERA+ (29% worse than average), the Orioles’ rotation isn’t just at the bottom of the league, but is 15% worse than the 29th ranked Marlins (86 ERA+).

While the rotation has been putrid and owes most of the blame for the terrible start, the bats have underperformed as well, with just about everyone not named Cedric Mullins mired in a spring slump.

While they sit “only” six games behind the first place Yankees, and there are reasons to believe the lineup can rebound, with limited remedies on the mound, the window to alter their trajectory is rapidly narrowing.

It was a horrid week for the Orioles as they continue to struggle on both sides of the plate, managing just a single win.

The O’s started the week off poorly against the Nationals before losing both ends of a doubleheader in Detroit, before getting swept on Sunday, leaving them with plenty of questions to address as April draws to a close.

The week opened on a sour note as the Orioles were dominated by Nationals pitcher Mitchell Parker, who allowed just one hit across eight innings in a 7-0 defeat. Cedric Mullins’ third-inning single was Baltimore's lone bright spot. Starter Dean Kremer continued his tough start to the season, allowing six runs over 5.1 innings, including homers by Nathaniel Lowe and Dylan Crews.

Baltimore battled more closely on Wednesday, falling short in a 4-3 heartbreaker. After surrendering early home runs to James Wood and Josh Bell, Tomoyuki Sugano settled down to complete seven solid innings.

The Orioles clawed back into the game, tying it in the 8th on a Ramón Urías sac fly. But the Nationals took the lead right back with Luis García Jr.’s sac fly in the bottom of the inning and the O’s couldn’t respond again.

Cade Povich finally gave Orioles fans something to cheer about on Thursday, delivering a gem to snap the team's three-game skid. The rookie left-hander carried a shutout into the seventh inning, finishing with 6.2 innings of one-run ball.

Ryan O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins provided key RBI singles in the 5th inning for the 2-1 victory. Félix Bautista secured his third save despite some late drama, marking Baltimore’s first win in 2025 when scoring three or fewer runs.

After a rainout on Friday, the Orioles faced a challenging doubleheader on Saturday in Detroit, ultimately getting swept. Game one saw Baltimore hold a slim 3-2 lead into the seventh inning before the Tigers tied it and won 4-3 with a walk-off single in the 9th.

Rookie Brandon Young had a decent showing (5 IP, 3 ER) but the bullpen faltered late.

In the nightcap, Detroit's Riley Greene delivered the decisive blow with a three-run homer off veteran Charlie Morton, resulting in a 6-2 Tigers victory. Baltimore's offense was limited again, with Gunnar Henderson providing the lone bright spots with two RBI across the doubleheader.

The O’s capped the week off in fitting fashion, getting demolished 7-0 by the Tigers, led by a gem from ace Tarik Skubal. Skubal went six shutout innings, fanning 11 Orioles.

The Birds were missing several banged up players after the Saturday double-header and Dean Kremer did the limited offense no favors, surrendering five runs in five innings to drive his season ERA to 7.04.

In such a dismal week it's hard to find standout performers. Cade Povich provided one of the lone bright spots, going 6.2 innings in his start on Thursday. Povich limited the Nats to one run on four hits and struck out five, leading the O’s to their only win of the week.

Given the current state of the Orioles rotation, a sign of positive momentum for Povich could at least provide hope for one slot in the rotation.

Aside from Povich, Tomoyuki Sugano delivered another solid start, allowing three runs in seven innings. Sugano is currently the O’s only reliable pitcher with Zach Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez out injured.

At the plate there wasn’t much to write home about, but Ryan O’Hearn managed a .333 average on the week, with a homer and two RBI. Ramon Urias also batted over .300 with a homer and two RBI.

Down on the Farm –

The Norfolk Tides had a week to forget, going 1-5 and dropping to 9-17 overall, though they did end the week with a 6-4 win on Sunday. Dylan Beavers and Coby Mayo provided some spark to the offense.

Beavers continued his stellar season with a .480 OBP on the week, including a homer, five RBI, and three stolen bases. Mayo batted .316 on the week with two triples and two RBI, pulling his season average up to .256 with an .861 OPS.

At AA, 25 year old pitching prospect Alex Pham had an outstanding week, striking out 17 batters over 10 innings in two dominant starts. Pham limited Altoona to two earned runs over his 10 innings, lowering his season ERA to 3.42.

Notably, top pitching prospect Chayce McDermott started Sunday’s game for the Baysox, throwing 1.2 innings in his first rehab start from a preseason injury.

Catching prospect Creed Willems led the Baysox at the plate, collecting several crucial hits while reaching base at a .522 clip for the week and smacking a homer and two doubles.

Question of the Week –

What’s going on with the Orioles’ bats?

The starting pitching has rightfully earned most of the scorn during this miserable start to the season, but a surprising lack of pop from a talented young offense has greatly contributed to the funk.

After finishing 2024 with the second-best offense in baseball (118 OPS+), the Orioles entered 2025 with expectations of another explosive year at the plate. Instead, through the first month of the season, the lineup has been frustratingly average, ranking middle-of-the-pack in most offensive categories.

The team’s batting average sits at a paltry .226, with a disappointing .299 OBP and a .388 slugging percentage, good for an OPS+ of 103 (11th in MLB).

What’s behind this drastic shift from elite to mediocre? A closer look at advanced metrics reveals a blend of bad luck and poor situational hitting.

Baltimore’s batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is just .262, significantly lower than the league average generally around .300, indicating that the team is making decent contact but finding fielders' gloves too often.

The Orioles actually lead MLB In Hard-Hit rate, at 35.8%, though counterintuitively they are also last in the league in Line-Drive rate at 16.8%.

They are also sixth in the league in Barrel rate, or the percentage of time hitters are connecting on the sweet spot of the bat. This suggests that the O’s may be hitting a large amount of hard ground balls that are not finding the holes.

Statcast data further supports this point. Orioles hitters like Gunnar Henderson have an elite Hard-Hit rate (97th percentile) and a high average exit velocity (~96 mph, 99th percentile), yet Henderson’s OBP is just .256, with a wOBA (weighted OBP) at .267 compared to an expected wOBA of .287.

This substantial gap between actual and expected results suggests Henderson—and by extension, the Orioles as a team—have been unlucky, with hard-hit balls consistently turning into outs.

Moreover, the team's wRC+ (Fangraphs’ overall offensive metric) is hovering around 102 (13th best), barely above league average and far from last year's potent figure. Similarly, their OPS+ has plummeted from 118 in 2024 to 103 this year, emphasizing a notable regression in overall offensive production.

Plate discipline has also been an issue, with a team strikeout rate around 23% and a walk rate in the bottom third of the league at 8.2%. The team walk-to-strikeout ratio is fifth worst in the league.

These numbers indicate some Orioles hitters are expanding their strike zones and not maximizing their at-bats, leading to wasted scoring opportunities. Situational hitting has compounded the problem as well, too often, runners are left stranded, especially in scoring positions.

Several key young hitters have simultaneously slumped. Adley Rutschman (.209 AVG, .677 OPS, 102 OPS+), Gunnar Henderson (.218 AVG, .641 OPS, 88 OPS+), and Jordan Westburg (.217 AVG, .656 OPS, 93 OPS+) have been cornerstones of the offense, but have yet to find their rhythm.

Rutschman, despite solid plate discipline, is saddled with an extraordinarily low .217 BABIP, suggesting that his average and slugging percentage should rise significantly as his luck evens out.

Looking forward, there’s ample reason for optimism. The advanced metrics point clearly to underperformance due to bad luck rather than a fundamental lack of skill. Expected metrics suggest positive regression is inevitable, particularly for Henderson, whose high barrel rate and exit velocities are elite. Similarly, Rutschman and Westburg's underlying metrics imply they are due to see better results soon.

As warmer weather arrives and these hitters adjust their approach, Baltimore’s offensive output is likely to improve. The talent is still very much present in this lineup, and history suggests that sustained bad luck is unlikely to continue indefinitely.

While the Orioles’ bats have undoubtedly disappointed through April, the underlying data signals that brighter days are ahead.

As long as injuries don’t continue to derail the offense, with Cowser already out for extended time and O’Neill now on the IL, the production at the plate should rebound.

Fans can only hope this turnaround happens quickly and dramatically enough to keep the team afloat until drastic measures are taken to solve the pitching mess.

Sunday April 27, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3897

got a kicker, need two wins

OK, so unless something is really "off" with the news from Saturday that the Ravens drafted a kicker, it would appear the Justin Tucker era is over in Baltimore.

I mean, sure, they could keep both Tucker and the new guy, Tyler Loop, for the 2025 season. If Loop's going to spend a season as a NFL understudy, who better to learn from than one of the greatest kickers in NFL history?

Eric DeCosta said all the right things on Saturday when asked about the team drafting a kicker for the first time in the team's 30 year history.

"I haven't really thought about that at this point. I just thought [Loop] was a really talented player and it made sense for us to do that for a lot of different reasons," DeCosta told the media. "We've told you guys multiple times this spring that we would look at kickers, and so for us it's like any other position. This year we evaluated all these guys, we felt like he was draftable. We felt like he was the best kicker, and it made sense for us to take him."

The "haven't thought about it at this point" comment is eye-wash. Of course he's "thought about it", which is why they drafted Loop, a kicker, instead of a running back, linebacker or wide receiver, for example.

DeCosta and the Ravens still don't know what punishment, if any, Tucker is going to receive from the NFL as a result of their investigation into the sexual assault allegations that surfaced in Baltimore this past January.

The selection of Loop makes sense in that regard. For all the Ravens know, the NFL comes forward in mid-May and says, "Oh, right, we forgot to mention to you before the draft. Tucker's suspended for the first 8 games of the 2025 season."

Loop, had he not been drafted yesterday, would have almost assuredly signed with a team as a free agent either last night or today sometime. By drafting him, the Ravens have protection in the event the league tells Tucker to take a seat for a few weeks or few months this coming season.

But there's also the lingering possibility that all of this is a smoke screen for the Ravens beating the NFL to the punch and simply cutting Tucker after June 1st, which will help the team's salary cap and, presumably, help them save face within their fan base as well.

Either way, whether it's this year or next, Tyler Loop is your next kicker in Baltimore. He's either replacing Tucker in 2025 or 2026.

DeCosta can wordsmith it in whatever fashion he chooses, but the Ravens wouldn't use a draft pick on a kicker unless they were of the mindset they were going to need someone other than Tucker to kick for them. And soon.

Don't look now, but only three teams in all of baseball have more losses than the Orioles thus far in the 2025 campaign.

I told you not to look.

It's ugly, I know.

After yesterday's doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Tigers, the O's are now 10-16 on the campaign. Only the Pirates (17), White Sox (20) and Rockies (22) have more losses than the battlin' Birds. The Twins, I should point out, also have 16 losses so far.

The White Sox and Rockies were supposed to be terrible this season. Heck, the White Sox are preparing for a parade with 7-20 record. I don't think they won their 7th game until Memorial Day in 2024.

Oh, and here's a not-so-good note about today's game in Detroit. The Tigers are throwing the best pitcher in baseball (Tarik Skubal) at the O's.

Watch, today will be the day the Birds either get no-hit or they pound out 14 hits (9 off of Skubal) in a 7-3 win. You know one of those two is in the offing.

Anyway, Brandon Hyde's team continued to struggle at the plate yesterday.

In the opener, they did manage an almost unthinkable 11 hits, but were 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 9 guys on base in the loss. Jordan Westburg, Ramon Urias and Ryan O'Hearn each had 3 hits.

In the nightcap, a 6-2 loss, the Birds left 8 runners on base and were 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Flyers fans, please don't rush for your calculators. We'll do the quick math for you right here, by hand. 1-for-8 plus 1-for-6 is 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position in the doubleheader sweep.

2-for-14 isn't good. In fact, it's terrible.

Charlie Morton didn't start the second game, as Hyde went with Keegan Akin to open the contest and he handled 1.2 innings of work before turning things over to Morton.

I know what you're wondering.

Did Morton wind up getting the loss?

He did, indeed.

Morton went 3.2 innings and allowed 3 earned runs while walking 5 Detroit hitters. He's now 0-6 on the season. The end has to be coming soon.

The O's "big four" -- I made that up, of course, but they do represent four of the team's most-relied-upon-hitters -- of Henderson, Westburg, Rutschman and Mountcastle, all continue to struggle.

Not one of them is hitting over .220 a month into the season.

Slow starts happen all the time, to players of various quality levels.

Westburg looks like he might be starting to break out of his early-season funk.

Henderson is also showing signs of an uptick.

The biggest worry, though, is Adley Rutschman, who has a couple of oddly concerning statistical notes worth mentioning.

Not once this season has he produced two or more hits in consecutive games.

And he's now gone 11 straight games without getting a hit in consecutive games.

The Orioles have played 26 games in 2025 and Rutschman has three, yes, three, multi-hit games. And one of those was the opener in Toronto when he hit two home runs and produced three hits on the day.

It's way too early to judge his '25 season against what we saw from him in the second half of the '24 season. Everyone, as I wrote above, is capable of a slow start.

But if Rutschman's numbers don't improve, significantly, in the team's next 26 games, something is definitely "up" at that point.

His last 90 games, offensively, have been woeful.

In fact, "woeful" called and snickered.

Henderson's going to come around. I don't see any reason to worry with him.

The same with Westburg. He'll be hitting .260 by Memorial Day, if not higher.

I don't concern myself much with Mountcastle because we all know he'll hit Toronto like Ichiro used to hit everyone and he'll have the occasional power surge over a two week run that will boost his numbers to the "acceptable" level. He is what he is. A platoon guy at first base who helps out here and there against left handed pitchers and the Blue Jays.

Rutschman is the chief concern.

He doesn't have to be Johnny Bench.

But he can't be Brook Fordyce, either.

Heck, at this point, Fordyce's numbers look favorable in contrast to what we're seeing from Adley so far in 2025.

The Orioles have three guys hitting the ball through 26 games; Mullins, O'Hearn and Urias.

That's it.

Everyone else is under .250.

The starting pitching is shaky. We know that.

But yesterday, the Tigers scored a total of 10 runs in two games and won them both.

The Orioles went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position.

You're just not going to win like that, no matter how good or bad you're pitching is in the moment.

The Rutschman saga is the story worth following the most, but others have to start percolating at the plate as well.

A 10-16 record can become a 14-25 record "like that" (snap of the fingers) and then you're in trouble.

Tonight's playoff game in Montreal isn't "must win" for the Capitals, but I'd call it a crucial game for Ovechkin and Company.

Washington is up 2-1 in the series, but it's a very tenuous one-game lead for sure. The Caps snuck out close wins in D.C. to open the series, winning the opener in overtime, 3-2, and then winning 3-1 in Game 2 but that one went down to the 20 seconds before Washington sealed it with an empty net goal.

Friday night's 6-3 loss in Game 3 was equal parts ugly and concerning, as the Caps' defense wasn't very good and they lost starting goaltender Logan Thompson to some kind of lower body (leg) injury.

Spencer Carbery wouldn't provide any news on Saturday, naturally. "I don’t have an update on LT," Carbery said. "I’ll get an update later on today from our training staff."

That, of course, isn't true. Carbery has an update. He's the head coach of the team and his best goalie was hurt on Friday night and might be out for an extended period of time. He has probably texted with the team's training staff more times in the last 24 hours than your teenage daughter has checked her TikTok account.

Carbery knows. He's just not disclosing any news. And that's perfectly fine. It's the Stanley Cup playoffs, not the CYO under-12 soccer team.

Montreal is dealing with their own goaltending issue, as their starter (Sam Montembeault) left Friday's game with his lower body injury but the Habs have listed him as "questionable" for tonight's game.

Add it all up and there's lots of drama this evening (6:30 pm start), including a lot of tension and ill will that surfaced throughout Friday's tilt in Canada.

Oh, and the Caps need a win, too.

Since they're still the Caps, there's always that possibility that this playoff series against the 8th seed Canadiens could go sideways.

I don't know what's worse.

Being the Flyers and not making the playoffs for five years.

Or being the Caps and cruising to the best record in the Eastern Conference only to lose your opening playoff series to a team that didn't get in the post-season until their final game of the year.

Because they're the Capitals, I have to consider all the possibilities.

I called this one a 4-1 Caps series win before it started, and tonight's the night that sets me up to be right on that one or wrong on that one.

A Washington win in Game 4 and they should be able to put the Habs away in Game 5 back home.

But a Montreal win tonight and it's a new series, totally, and the Canadiens will have all the momentum heading back to D.C. on Wednesday night.

When I said "Caps in 5" last week, I didn't know they were going to lose Logan Thompson, though. If he can't return in this series, the Capitals are going to have to step up their game, big time, in order to dispose of the pesky Canadiens.

Charlie Lindgren is decent enough. But not much more than that. He isn't going to lead the Capitals to the Stanley Cup title, I'm sorry.

If Thompson's injury is serious enough to keep him out for any extended period of time, D.C.'s hopes for a second championship are severely dented.

First things first, though. They need a win tonight in Montreal.

It's not must win. But it's close.

For you golf enthusiasts out there, I'll be hosting a 2-hour edition of "Fairways and Greens" later today on 105.7. The show airs from 4-6 pm.

I'm excited to be joined at 5 pm by Kevin Van Valkenburg of the extraordinarily successful website/podcasting group, "No Laying Up". Van Valkenburg will join me to talk about the recent Masters, Rory's win, and lots of other great topics from the world of professional golf.

I'm also unveiling my Top 10 "most underrated things about golf", a segment suggested to me by regular listener and e-mailer Steve Kline. I put a lot of time and effort into compiling the list for him today. I'll even run some of them by Kevin when he joins me at 5 pm.

I hope you can tune in.

Saturday April 26, 2025

#DMD

Issue #3896

"can he play football?"

The Ravens drafted a player last night with a bit of a troubled past.

Having seen several edge rushers go earlier in the night, Eric DeCosta addressed a vital team need with the 27th pick in the second round when he selected Marshall's Mike Green.

The selection was met with equal parts enthusiasm and confusion, for Green has twice been accused of sexual assault in his young life.

The Ravens "thoroughly" investigated those two charges, says DeCosta, and were obviously comfortable enough with their findings to take Green despite having another sexual assault situation still brewing within their own organization involving Justin Tucker.

"We understand the severity of what these allegations were, of course," DeCosta said on Friday night when questioned about taking Green. "But doing our due diligence, we are comfortable with Mike. I think the best is yet to come with him, and I'm glad we got him."

I hope no one misconstrues what I'm about to write as any sort of tacit approval of sexual assault. It's not that at all. And I'm speaking unofficially, of course, on the mindset of the team(s), not my own personal opinion of how these sorts of scenarios should be handled.

NFL teams, including the Ravens, are almost-entirely worried about one thing: Can he play football?

The words "almost-entirely" leave a smidgen of wiggle room for a club to pass on a college player if there's something in his past or present that is simply too much to ignore or overlook.

But for the most part, these days, that's the question teams ask when they're evaluating a player with a checkered past: "Can he play football?"

In Mike Green's case, the answer was a resounding "yes". He led the nation in sacks last year with 17.5 and there's almost no doubt had he arrived at this year's draft without so much as a parking ticket at Marshall, he would have been a top 10 pick.

When he was there late in the 2nd round on Friday, DeCosta didn't hesitate to snag him.

"We got as much information as we could," DeCosta said. "We considered the facts, we considered the allegations. We considered what the reports actually were and what they actually weren't, and we made the decision based off of that."

The decision they made was clear. "We're taking the best football player available to us right now. He's been involved in some things that may or may not have been entirely true. In the end, we got a terrific football player."

My phone lit up last night with people besmirching the Ravens for once again taking a troubled athlete.

I sent the same thing to all of them in reply.

"Give it a rest. If they win the Super Bowl next year, you'll be the first guy in Target buying a 'World Champs' tee-shirt on Monday morning."

The Ravens can only think one of two ways about Mike Green.

1) They investigated the (past) charges against him and are convinced there's not nearly enough evidence in place to find him guilty, let alone turn it into a criminal case.

Or...

2) They investigated the (past) charges against him and are convinced that, even if he is (was) guilty of sexual assault, no criminal record or prosecution means he's worthy of employment.

It's really that simple.

They either think he didn't do it or they think he did do it but there's not enough there to worry about.

And in both of those cases, the same question still winds up on the table: "Can he play football?"

You don't have to like that question. You might run your organization differently if given the chance. I get it.

But the days of NFL teams being worried about "criminal conduct", "allegations" and "stories from the past" are pretty much done.

The league stil cares about that stuff, because they like to act as if their brand is worthy of protection. But the teams? They're trying to win football games.

That's mostly why Justin Tucker is still on the team. Sure, that post-June-1 cut date still looms for Tucker and that might very well wind up being all the Ravens care about in the end. "Cut him after June 1 and save money..."

But if Tucker does return to kick for the team in 2025, it's simply a very public and open admission from the Ravens that they were not able to find a better kicker for the upcoming season so.......Tucker stays and kicks, despite the allegations against him in Baltimore.

Like I said earlier, you don't have to like it.

But it's not changing.

"Can he play football?" is all that matters to the Ravens and anyone else. Well, "almost-entirely" matters. There's that sliver of a chance a team might push back and say, "I don't care how many sacks he gets or touchdowns he throws, we're not employing (insert name here)".

In Mike Green's case, the Ravens were obviously more than comfortable taking him, while other teams clearly weren't.

The Ravens are tired of losing to the Bills and Chiefs. They hope Mike Green will help them beat those teams.

You can be upset with that if you want, but you're (likely) still going to the games next year and you're still wearing a purple jersey to the office on Friday and, you know, you'll check your morals at the door on Monday morning when you gather around the coffee machine at work and speak glowingly about Green sacking Joe Burrow twice in a 24-17 Ravens win over the Bengals.

Deep down at places you don't talk about at parties, you just want the Ravens to win, too.

It's just easier for you and others like you to portray outrage at the selection of Mike Green because it's not you that might lose your job if you don't improve the team's defense and the Bills roll past the Ravens again in the playoffs next January, 30-20.

"Can he play football?"

That's the only question any longer.

And this whole thing in Baltimore makes the Shedeur Sanders situation even more obvious and, yet, puzzling.

Sanders, depending on which expert you believe, was either the 1st or 2nd best quarterback available in the draft.

He was either #1 and Cam Ward was #2 or Ward was #1 and Sanders was #2.

You found no experts claiming that Jaxson Dart (who went to the Giants in the first round) was better than Sanders, although a few folks had it "too close to call" when choosing between the two.

Sanders has not yet been selected and the draft enters Round 4 today.

"Can he play football?" never seemed to be a tough question to answer when it came to Sanders.

Sure, his arm strength is a tad limited. That's his biggest weakness. You're not getting many 55-yard bombs out of him.

But everything else about him looked "NFL" according to the experts.

His scarlet letter isn't a sexual assault case or a domestic violence issue. He seems very "clean" when it comes to his personal life. No criminal activity, etc.

Sanders' issue appears to be more connected to his personality. "Brash, arrogant, abrasive, entitled..." Those are four words that have been associated with the former University of Colorado quarterback.

His dad, one of the best players at his position in the last 50 years, was also known to be "brash, arrogant, abrasive and entitled" both while he played and, more recently, while he coaches at the college level.

It seems sort of weird that "Can he play football?" matters when it's Mike Green but doesn't matter when it's Shedeur Sanders.

One of the worst phrases in sports is "black balled" because it opens up a can of worms that could lead to a dark, troubled path that people don't want to travel on.

"Black balled" was the source of the Colin Kaepernick saga, obviously. It's why he won a gazillion law suit.

Unless I'm reading the tea leaves wrong -- and taking into account what all of the experts said about Sanders leading up to the draft -- it would appear he might be being black balled by the 32 teams in the league. Or, at the very least, black balled by the eight or so teams that need a quarterback now or in their immediate future.

The Titans, Browns, Giants, Saints and Seahawks have all selected a QB in the first three rounds. The Raiders, Steelers and Jets both need one and haven't gone down that road yet, for some weird reason. Well, the Jets do have Justin Fields, so they won't need a quarterback until 2026, probably.

And the Raiders have Geno Smith. They might be OK until week 10 of the upcoming season.

But I digress...

Eight teams who needed a QB passed on Sanders with the first 100-plus picks in the draft.

Five of the eight actually took someone instead of him.

It would be different if the experts wouldn't have all agreed he was the 2nd best QB available in the draft, at a minimum. Some people even ranked Sanders above Ward, who went #1 to the Titans.

If there was a large general disagreement about Sanders' skill set, that would be one thing.

But there wasn't, really.

Yes, he can play football.

"But we're not touching him..."

It sure does seem weird.

But you go get 'em, Mike Green. Sack that quarterback, will ya!!??