Matthew Taylor: For Horn, plenty of memories in Kansas City

Matthew Taylor: For Horn, plenty of memories in Kansas City
The Orioles are in Kansas City, and while there are plenty of current storylines to consider, I can't help but think of Sam Horn. It happens to me whenever the O's play at Kaufman Stadium. Horn is one of my favorite former Orioles, and he simply had a way of producing against the Royals. Horn's O's debut came at Kansas City on April 9, 1990. He went 4-for-5 with a pair of three-run home runs, including one into the stadium fountain. His eighth-inning homer erased a 6-3 deficit in a game...

Matthew Taylor: An historical comparison to the start of Hunter's closer tenure

Matthew Taylor: An historical comparison to the start of Hunter's closer tenure
Getting a knot in your stomach while watching your team's closer, like tying your shoes, quickly becomes second nature. Orioles closer Tommy Hunter has had my insides tangled from day one of the 2014 season. This week's series with the Rays was particularly challenging. In two innings pitched, Hunter faced 12 batters and allowed four hits, two walks and one run. He left the bases loaded in a two-run victory on Tuesday and stranded runners on first and third in a one-run victory on Wednesday....

Matthew Taylor: My memorable turn as a minor league mascot

Matthew Taylor: My memorable turn as a minor league mascot
What's it like to be a baseball mascot? Biographile provided a peek into the unseen world of the men behind the mascots on Thursday in its interview with AJ Mass, a former Mr. Met and author of "Yes, It's Hot In Here; Adventures in the Weird, Wooly World of Sports Mascots." The end result is what the article's author, Patrick Sauer, terms "Nine Mascot Life Lessons, one for each inning of life." I've learned some mascot lessons firsthand thanks to my own admittedly curious ambition and...

Matthew Taylor: An historical look at multi-homer games by Orioles

Matthew Taylor: An historical look at multi-homer games by Orioles
Nelson Cruz had the Orioles' first multi-homer game of the 2014 season on Wednesday. It continues a career-long streak for Cruz, who has had at least one multi-homer game in each of his big league seasons. The lone exception, if you can call it that, came in 2005 when he had seven at-bats as part of a late-season call-up with the Brewers. With Wednesday's performance, Cruz's streak of seasons with a multi-homer game has reached nine. Since I had multi-homer games on the brain, I went back...

Matthew Taylor: In 1954 for Orioles, Larsen was far from perfect

Matthew Taylor: In 1954 for Orioles, Larsen was far from perfect
Orioles fans woke up on this day in 1954, which was Easter Sunday, with a .500 baseball team in town. The 20,000-plus fans who headed to Memorial Stadium to see their 2-2 Orioles play were the last group to see a non-losing baseball team take the field in Baltimore. The O's crept back to 4-4 with an extra-inning win in Chicago the following Friday and never reached the break-even point again. It might seem like some consolation that those fans at the ballpark on Easter had the opportunity to...

Matthew Taylor: Developing patience for the Orioles' lack of patience

Matthew Taylor: Developing patience for the Orioles' lack of patience
The opening weeks of the 2014 season are offering Orioles fans a contrast in team hitting styles that will continue into this weekend's series with Toronto. Orioles batters do not see a lot of pitches; their opponents do. One approach is not inherently better than the other despite assumptions to that effect. I'm therefore working to accept this team as the largely free-swinging bunch that it is even if its lack of patience at the plate occasionally tests my patience. The 3.68 pitches per...

Matthew Taylor: An opening day parade would've been a good way to start 60th anniversary celebration

Matthew Taylor: An opening day parade would've been a good way to start 60th anniversary celebration
The Orioles are celebrating the diamond anniversary of their arrival in Baltimore, an occasion the team is marking with a special 60th anniversary website and promotional days at the ballpark in August. If it were up to me, the season-long celebration would have started on Monday with an opening day parade, a nod to the celebratory atmosphere that pervaded Baltimore on April 15, 1954. I enjoy learning about Orioles history, and the story of the 1954 parade is one of my favorites that I've...

Orioles guest bloggers returning to MASNsports.com for 2014 season

Orioles guest bloggers returning to MASNsports.com for 2014 season
Baseball's back - well, almost - and so are the guest bloggers that have been a staple at MASNsports.com since 2011. Starting with March 31, the date of the Orioles' home and season opener at Camden Yards, a different guest blogger will share their opinions each weekday. There are a host of fan blogs that follow the Orioles, and welcoming guest bloggers to our pages is a way for MASNsports.com to both offer a platform for their distinctive voices and supplement our beat writers' work with a...

Matthew Taylor: J. Johnson, Davis and O's still have something to play for

Matthew Taylor: J. Johnson, Davis and O's still have something to play for
The Orioles and Red Sox wrap up the 2013 regular season with a three-game set at Camden Yards starting this evening. Both teams' regular season fates have been decided, but these remaining games aren't as meaningless as they might seem. (And I'm not talking about the opportunities that Chris Davis has to increase his team records for home runs and extra-base hits, although those matter, too.) With one win, the O's could earn consecutive season series victories against Boston for the first...

Matthew Taylor: Memories made in Boston and beyond

Matthew Taylor: Memories made in Boston and beyond
The Orioles' final trip to Fenway Park is in the history books. Those history books already contain several big moments with ties to the current season that occurred on this day. Sept. 20, 2011: The 63-90 Orioles defeat the 88-67 Red Sox by a score of 7-5 as part of a four-game series at Fenway Park. Starter and former Oriole Erik Bedard goes 2 2/3 innings for Boston. Fellow former Oriole Matt Albers provides an inning of scoreless relief with two strikeouts. Robert Andino's eighth-inning,...

Matthew Taylor: After excruciating loss, remembering better times

Matthew Taylor: After excruciating loss, remembering better times
The Orioles won't win the division this year, but on this day in 1969, they clinched the first American League East title. After a loss to Washington by the defending World Series champion Detroit Tigers gave them the division, the O's went out and beat Cleveland 10-5 for good measure, their seventh win in what would become a season-best eight-game winning streak. The win extended the O's division lead to 18 1/2 with 17 games remaining. Baseball had no divisions - only a 10-team AL and a...

Matthew Taylor: A history lesson of hope and uncertainty

Matthew Taylor: A history lesson of hope and uncertainty
Call it a baseball revival. Long-suffering franchises are seeing the light after extended periods of darkness. But after the emotion of the moment passes, will fans keep the faith? The Orioles entered the winning tent last year after 14 consecutive losing seasons. The Pittsburgh Pirates followed suit this week, ending their worst-in-any-sport streak of 20 consecutive losing seasons when they won their 81st game. Baseball is fun again in both cities. Or at least I think it is. The Orioles'...

Matthew Taylor: Comparing 2012 and 2013 in terms of bullpens and bats

Matthew Taylor: Comparing 2012 and 2013 in terms of bullpens and bats
How are the 2013 Orioles different from the 2012 Orioles? If you answered that the bullpen isn't as good this year, you're right. If you said this year's team doesn't hit as well with runners in scoring position, you're wrong. And if you concluded that this year's team is a heavier hitting bunch, you're both right and wrong. Let's address each one in order. First, the bullpen. The 2012 Orioles bullpen was lights-out while the 2013 version is more of a dimmer switch. O's...

Matthew Taylor: Rewritten history shouldn't be forgotten

Matthew Taylor: Rewritten history shouldn't be forgotten
Chris Davis has tied Jim Gentile for third on the Orioles' all-time single-season home run list. Barring injury or an unimaginable power outage, Davis will hit his 47th homer and push Gentile further down the list he once topped. This is familiar territory for Gentile, who established at least a half-dozen team records in 1961. The past half-century has been an extended exercise in removing pieces of that magical 1961 season from the record books, one by one. Rather than diminishing the...

Matthew Taylor: Jim Johnson, meet Don Aase

Matthew Taylor: Jim Johnson, meet Don Aase
The Orioles are coming off a demoralizing three-game sweep at the hands (actually, the bats) of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who won each game in walk-off fashion. I don't need to tell you that Jim Johnson recorded blown saves in the final two games of the series. Johnson currently ranks as the major league leader in both saves (39) and blown saves (nine). In the same season that he tallied his club-record 35th consecutive save, Johnson appears to be on the verge of setting an ignominious team...

Matthew Taylor: Most bases on balls

Matthew Taylor: Most bases on balls
Fans of plate discipline and on-base percentage, this blog post is for you. Today is the anniversary of Bobby Grich's record-setting ability to get on base without hitting the ball. Grich established a team record for walks in a game with five on Aug. 9, 1975. Grich ended the day 0-for-0 and scored three times, the most of any Orioles player that day, in a 12-6 victory against the White Sox. Grich finished the 1975 season with 107 walks. Meanwhile, Ken Singleton had 118 walks to establish a...

Matthew Taylor: It's hard not to respect the Rays

Matthew Taylor: It's hard not to respect the Rays
The first-place Red Sox are coming to town this weekend, but I have the Tampa Bay Rays on my find. I've feared that the Rays are the biggest threat to win the American League East ever since David Price returned to form. Price came off the disabled list in early July and the Rays are 15-3 since his return. Overall, the Rays pitching staff has five complete games in July, which MLB.com tells us is the most in the month since the Mets had five in August 2010. As I sat at my computer Thursday...

Matthew Taylor: Machado, McLouth and the O's defensive renaissance

Matthew Taylor: Machado, McLouth and the O's defensive renaissance
Manny Machado hasn't even completed his first full season in the majors, and it's already difficult to discern which of his defensive efforts qualifies as "the play." Until Sunday, it was the pump-fake-to-first-throw-to-third showing against the Rays from last season; then he went gunning down the Yankees' Luis Cruz last week on an off-balance throw from foul territory to one-up himself. Manny does more than doubles. Machado's efforts are part of an overall defensive renaissance in...

Matthew Taylor: Statistically speaking, Davis stacks up with O's All-Star first basemen

Matthew Taylor: Statistically speaking, Davis stacks up with O's All-Star first basemen
Chris Davis is in the midst of an historic offensive season that is likely to rank among the greatest in team history. However, the season's not complete. So as we head toward the All-Star Game, I chose to look at what Davis has done thus far and compare his numbers to those of all of the Orioles' previous All-Star first baseman prior to the break. As you might guess, Davis' first-half totals stack up favorably with his O's competition through the years. He has had the best first-half...

Matthew Taylor: Plenty of reason to stay alert on Eutaw Street this year

Matthew Taylor: Plenty of reason to stay alert on Eutaw Street this year
It continues to be a busy time on Eutaw Street. After the 2012 season produced a record nine Eutaw Street home runs, the Indians' Lonnie Chisenhall hit the fourth such home run of the 2013 season Thursday night. His blast was the 70th home run to reach Eutaw Street since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992. There have only been five seasons when batters reached Eutaw Street more than four times - 1996 (seven), 1999 (five), 2008 (eight), 2011 (five) and 2012 (nine). This could be the...