Thanks! Just freakin' thanks!

I've already dealt with this embarrassment, and I come to my favorite blog and it's the first post.

When I first got the email alert of the game and it said

Texas - 30
Baltimore - 3

I went to check at FOX Sports, 'cuz AOL alerts has been wrong in the past.

Alas, it was true.

It has been a tough ten years for us Orioles fans. It's a far cry from the late sixties and early seventies O's, when I first started following them as kid.

That's what happens when your majority owner is a trial lawyer.

[sigh]

An incredible achievement - and by a last-place team!

Not only that, but the bottom of the lineup powered much of it:

Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Ramon Vazquez, the bottom two batters in Texas' lineup, each homered twice and finished with seven RBIs. The last time two teammates had as many as seven RBIs in a game was 1962, when Elston Howard had eight and Mickey Mantle added seven for the New York Yankees against the Kansas City Athletics.

Mantle and Howard . . . back in the days of my youth. They won the World Series that year against the Giants and Willie Mays, the first Series I can remember following game by game.

John in CA:

Salt for your wound: 0-21.

A blast from the past....

;-)

OK, FUBAR baseball stat re: this game:

Littleton actually earned the SAVE in the game.

And only the true baseball fan can explain how. ;-)

LOVE IT!

Littleton got the save because he pitched "effectively" for three innings. Guess that should be pitched effectively in relief. He must have pitched the last three innings in relief.

And yes, 1988 wasn't good either. They fired Cal Ripken, Sr. at 0-6, hired Frank Robinson who skippered them to 0-21.

Just looked it up, the O's went 54-107 in 1988.

When your roster sucks, the manager can't do a whole lot.

tek... tsk... why so hard on the "O's," they were up by three at one point! And they held them to less hits than runs. Not an easy accomplishment with such a high score.

(who am I kidding they got hammered, slaughtered, emasculated, they left their nuts with the hat check girl)

John in CA, I'd give you my sympathy but, as a former Tiger fan (I gave up everything but auto racing) my sympathy card is overdrawn.

Was on cruise when the '84 season started. The guy who racked above me, a PH1, was a Tigers fan from Detroit. Every night he'd come into berthing and inform me how far ahead of the Orioles his Tigers were.

Eck...! A PH1? There were some pretty weird dudes in that rate.

'84, I was barely a fan of MLB then and that year almost brought me back as did the homer race between Mcguire and Sosa one year. All the BB strikes among the steroid issue has kept me away.

Same goes for the NBA, too many gangbangers, wife beaters, rapist and now WHAT A SHOCK... gambling refs.

My last resort was racing and the NHL. The year long NHL cured me on the NHL.

It's at the point now I couldn't tell you who the current champs are in any of the "big three" stick & ball sports.

Good riddence to all of them.

NattyBo drinking

One of the worst tasting beers made today. Went to school in Baltimore and our fraternity wouldn't serve it because it was so bad.

Peter Angelos is one of the worst owners in baseball and he has ruined that franchise.

Don't mess with Texas. ww

14 RBI from their 8&9 hitters.

That's just nuts.

#3 Peter F: I lived through that season, game by game. 'How 'bout them Os?' took on a whole new meaning.

This game brings up memories of the last time I saw Baltimore and Texas play in person. It was in 1996, when the Rangers squeezed out a narrow 26-7 victory. That game was interesting for a number of reasons. The starting pitcher for Texas didn't get the win because he got chased before 5 innings.

The Rangers put up 18 runs in the 8th inning that game. Which was great, except they stop selling beer after the 7th inning, and the game went on for almost 2 hours after the 7th.

Ah, the memories.

SO Rove turned his mindbeams on the Orioles to make them lose to BusHitler's old team?

Have you heard about the highist football score ever? it was 222 to 0 and there was another collage football score not real high but that fact is that WICHITA STATE had 35 to 3 lead over MOREHEAD STATE in the first half but blew the big lead and lost 36 to 35

J.R. I bet you drink Miller Lite don't you? And you say Natty Boh is bad!! So where were you, Hopkins or Towson?

Littleton got the save because he pitched "effectively" for three innings. Guess that should be pitched effectively in relief. He must have pitched the last three innings in relief.

Very good! A lot of people don't know that one.

May be the cheapest, most lopsided save in the history of the game! LOL

(I'm sure the guys at Elias Sports Bureau would have the answer.)

And the O's manager, Trembley, had just sign a contract extension for '08 earlier in the day. Poor bastard....

Eck...! A PH1? There were some pretty weird dudes in that rate.

Yes, there were. We had them because we were a TARPS squadron. This PH that was the Detroit fan was pretty much okay. Most of them weren't.

Peter Angelos is one of the worst owners in baseball and he has ruined that franchise.

That's what happens when your owner is a trial lawyer. He thought he was so much smarter than the baseball people. He's sort of been a George Steinbrenner, back before George let the baseball people run the baseball operations.

So, he let the farm system run dry, trading away young comers for big names and has beens.

Very few ball teams are successful in the long run without a good farm system and populating the team with home grown talent.

His biggest sin was letting the AL Mansger of the Year leave. All because some disgruntled prima donna, overly sensitive ball player or two didn't like the way Johnson talked to them.

Doesn't matter that he skippered them to their first division title in 14 years, two ALCS series, and possibly one over eager fan away from the 1996 World Series.

Very good! A lot of people don't know that one.

It's probably something I heard from Vin Scully.

But, what's effective in relation to a save? I guess in this case not letting the other team win.

I wonder how long the rule has been in effect. Seems like a cheap way to get a save. I think they used to call that a mop up appearance.

John in CA:

Good question. I've been meaning to look how pitchers qualify for a save but I just haven't had time.

Maybe in the next day or two when I get a few I'll look it up and post it back here.

It is a goofy way to get a save.