Buck Showalter Almost Burned Down Orioles Plane

The Orioles clinched a playoff birth on Sunday. The Orioles. Not only did they clinch a playoff birth, the Orioles are tied for first with the Yankees in the AL East. The Orioles. The team that finished last in the East just a year ago by losing 93 games. The Orioles. A team with a rotation built around Joe Saunders, bandaids, Wei-Yin Chen, a catapult made from Legos and praying for rain. The Orioles. The team that employs and starts two players with career strikeout rates over 30% (Chris Davis and Mark Reynolds).

Davis is having his best season and his second with a positive Wins Above Replacement. He's been crushing it in September hitting .337/.419/.652 with eight home runs including five in his last four games. But it wasn't Davis' smoking hot streak that caused the fire on the Orioles charter plane forcing an emergency landing.

In what I assume was a team-building exercise, manager extraordinaire Buck Showalter was responsible for the kitchen fire and the unscheduled trip to the Jacksonville airport en route to St. Petersburg. I hope they got to use the inflatable slide. Maybe it wasn't technically Showalter's fault but he is taking the blame...

“I didn’t get my coffee so I am a little ornery," he said. "You all know how I am when I don’t get a cup of coffee. They were getting ready to heat up coffee, that’s what happened. So it’s my fault.”

To recap, the Orioles are somehow in the playoffs and do not heat up a tin foil bowl of coffee in the plane's microwave.

Buck Showalter Gets The Interwebs

The Baltimore Orioles snapped an 8 game losing streak Tuesday night exploding for 11 runs while shutting out the Twins. The Buck Showalter Express has been quite streaky this season after opening the year 6-1 before the aforementioned 8 game losing streak. Prior to last night's victory, Showalter was asked if his hitters were pressing. Now watch me blockquote an entire article from The Baltimore Sun...

Last night, after the Orioles dropped their eighth consecutive game, manager Buck Showalter admitted that his players were pressing. "Of course they are," he said. He then turned the attention to the reporter who asked the question and made an analogy about him pressing to produce stories with new-fangled technology.

“You’re pressing to come up with a great … whatever you call it," Showalter said at the post-game press conference. "I mean, that’s what you’re assigned to do. You know, whatever. Blog or blip, or whatever they call them. Or Tweets or Twocks. I don’t know. That’s what you’re paid to do. I got it. I got it.”

I assume he followed that with,"In my day, we used to have to call the bullpen with two cans attached by a piece of string and we had to carve our own bats from hobo carcasses we found on trains." Wow, it got a bit dark at the end of that made up quote.

Anyway, I'm glad that Buck "gets" that blipping and twocking are the future of sports media and isn't afraid that his iPhone will eventually enslave him. I tried to teach my grandpa to use a Wii and now he hides in his room all day from the "robot TV."

Buck Showalter Tries To Downplay Comments

Buck Showalter is awesome. From what I remember, he took over the Orioles half way through last season and managed them to the Maryland state little league championship. But he's become more famous for a recent article published by Men's Journal where he made some comments about Derek Jeter and Theo Epstein which he may or may not remember. I missed that article because I was under the assumption that stuff wasn't printed on paper anymore. So here's a summary from a website...

In the article, titled "Is This Man Too Smart for Baseball?" the magazine quotes Showalter as saying about Jeter: "The first time we went to Yankee Stadium, I screamed at Derek Jeter from the dugout. Our guys are thinking, 'Wow, he's screaming at Derek Jeter.' Well, he's always jumping back from balls just off the plate. I know how many calls that team gets — and yes, he [ticks] me off."

About Epstein, Showalter told the magazine: "I'd like to see how smart Theo Epstein is with the Tampa Bay payroll. You got Carl Crawford 'cause you paid more than anyone else, and that's what makes you smarter? That's why I like whipping their [butts]. It's great, knowing those guys with the $205 million payroll are saying, 'How the hell are they beating us?'"

Showalter goes on to say that he respects both Jeter and the Red Sox organization but I prefer to imagine that he had too many lunch cocktails during that interview and threw a wine glass at a bus boy wearing a Yankees hat.

Brian Roberts Concussed Himself?

Baseball has a long and grueling 162 game regular season. It's not unusual for a player to take a trip or two to the 15-day DL. How they get injured, well that's the fun part. Sammy Sosa hit the DL after a sneeze destroyed his back. Clint Barmes, and this might be my favorite, spent some time on the disabled list after falling down a flight of stairs while carrying deer meat. While Brian Roberts didn't make it to the DL to close the season, he's pretty sure he delivered the blow that led to his concussion-esque symptoms...

“I don’t know 100 percent sure, but it was Monday night. In frustration (after a strikeout), I whacked myself on the head with my bat in the ninth. I had my helmet on,” Roberts said. “It’s something I’ve done a million times, but I still can’t tell you for sure if that was it. But that’s the only thing that I can point to because that night and the next morning, I just didn’t feel good. So it’s been going on since then.”

Bo Jackson disapproves of Brian Roberts technique. I just spent a good 10 minutes trying to find a video of Bo Jackson breaking a bat over his head and came up empty. What's up Internet? Are we not cool anymore? Roberts will undergo a CT scan today in hopes to reveal the cause of his head pain. Roberts missed most of the first half with a herniated disk and only made 261 plate appearances. He posted a .278/.354/.391 line which wasn't too far below his career averages.

We hope Brian has a speedy recovery since concussions are all the new medical rage in sports nowadays. And I also bet my retirement fund on the Buck Showalter Express (34-23 this season) finishing above .500 next season. I'm not a wise investor.

Unrelated note: Brian Roberts' wife is hot.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bay boy is Choo Freeman and he's here because he's Torii Hunter's cousin.

I haven't forgotten about you guys but it's been an almost Internet-free week for me in Baton Rouge. I'll try to make it up to you if I ever get a steady stream of stolen borrowed WiFi.

Rockies 6, Padres 4. The Rox make it back to the top billing after a couple of losses. The Rockies run their September record to 11-4 but remain 2.5 games out of first. New blog favorite Troy Tulowitzki went 3-5 with 2 more home runs and 7 RBI. Tulo has 11 homers and 27 RBI to go with a .361/.409/.984 line in September. Yikes. Adrian Gonzalez also smacked a pair for the first place Pads.

Rangers 11, Tigers 7. Not much quality pitching to be found as the Rangers cruised to their 7th straight win. Vladdy hit his 27th home run of the season proving last year was just a fluky down season. He's back to a respectable .305/.348/.506 line while I yell profanities at my computer every time Hideki Matsui gets an at bat for the Angels.

Angels 7, Indians 0. Speaking of my Halos, Jered Weaver pitched a 7 inning gem, striking out 7. He leads the league in strikeouts (218) and is 5th in ERA (2.96) and FIP (3.05) but with a 12-11 record won't sniff many CY Young votes. Catching prospect Hank Conger got the start for the Angels and went 1-4. The aforementioned Matsui went 1-3, jerk.

Rays 4, Yankees 3. The Rays flip-flopped back into first place on the ridiculous power of Dan Johnson who hit his 4th and 5th homers of the season. Capt'n Jetes showed off his acting chops, hopefully more on that later, after a ball almost hit him. By almost hit him, I mean hit his bat. But he's the almighty Jetes so he was awarded first base. That would draw the ire of Joe Maddon and he'd end up getting tossed. I really don't like the Yankees and I'm not afraid to admit it.

Orioles 3, Blue Jays 1. Pitching prospect Kyle Drabek made his debut for the Jays last night. It wasn't the cleanest outing but the kid is only 22-years-old and the Orioles have been much better under the guidance of the Buck Showalter express. Drabek went 6 innings allowing 3 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5. The future is bright for the Blue Jays rotation. Crazy Jose Bautista hit his 47th home run. I've kind of become fascinated by the Blue Jays.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Quinton Antoine "True QAM" McCracken and he's here to tell you that Carlos Gonzalez is good at baseball.

What's up kids? I'm bringing you a super late edition of Jobu today because Derwood spent all day at a bindle packing seminar at the ATL hobo conference. I'll probably be in charge tomorrow too seeing as how they have a big canned bean exhibit.

Rockies 10, Dodgers 5. The aforementioned CarGo went 3-4 with 2 home runs taking him to 29 on the season. Gonzalez is hitting .326/.360/.595 for the season and makes the Rox a dangerous team next year if Tulo can stay healthy. Manny Ramirez was ejected after the first pitch he saw when he pinch hit in the 6th inning. A classic Manny send off for his final Dodgers' plate appearance.

Orioles 1, Angels 0. Jered Weaver gave up the lone run in 8 innings of 11 strikeout ball. He was no match for the Buck Showalter express though. Showalter is now 6-0 against the Angels this season which makes me both drink and cry.

Phillies 5, Padres 0. Cole Hamels cruised through 8 innings of 4-hit shutout ball and it's a good thing because Chase Utley isn't helping at all. Utley continues to struggle after his return from the DL going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. He must still be hurt, there's no other explanation.

Royals 6, Indians 2. Wilson Betemit went 0-2 with 3 walks and has a .420 OBP this year. That is all.

Mets 5, Astros 1. Who would have thought R.A. Dickey and Josh Thole would be dragging the Mets to wins in late August? Thole went 2-3 with a home run. Dickey went 2-3 with 2 RBI and pitched 7 innings of 1 run ball. I have got to learn how to throw a knuckleball before I turn 35.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Kevin Flora and he's here to remind me that the 1995 Angels' season was more soul crushing than this year.

Hey kids, I'm in charge of Jobu again while Derwood is hard at work. And by work, I mean hunting empty cans in downtown Atlanta to finance his box wine addiction. Let's take a look at a few of yesterday's highlights while I try to contain my excitement for tonight's fight between Jacare and Tim Kennedy...

Rangers 2, Orioles 0. I was relying on the Buck Showalter express too much to help save the Angels season and it was no match for C.J. Wilson. The former set-up man pitched 8.2 innings of 3-hit shutout ball while striking out 12. Neftali Feliz would relieve Wilson and throw 4 pitches to pick up his 30th save of the season. Nick Markakis and Ty Wiggington combined to go 0-6 with 5 strikeouts.

Mets 7, Pirates 2. Sweet sassy molassy get out the checkbook and pay grandma for the rub down! The Pirates are now officially participating in their 18th consecutive losing season. In 1992 the Pirates had their last winning record. Also in 1992, George H.W. Bush vomited on Japan's Prime Minister, Mike Tyson was convicted of rape, Silence of the Lambs won Best Picture and swept the Academy Awards, John Gotti was sentenced to life in prison, Johnny Carson retired from the Tonight Show and Brett Favre made his first start with the Packers. In other 1992 baseball news, I hit a back door Wiffle Ball slider out of my backyard into the neighbors' above ground pool.

Mariners 6, Yankees 0. Felix Hernandez keeps dominating in his quest to contend for the Cy Young with around 10 wins. He struck out 11 in his 8 innings of 4-hit shutout ball. A-Rod returned to the lineup for 30 seconds. Rodriguez grounded out on the only pitch he saw and "felt something pull" before exiting the game. There's a possibility A-Rod might have a DL stint in his future. Now who wishes they didn't let Andy Marte go? Oh, nobody?

Phillies 1, Nationals 0. Roy Halladay keeps cruising. He allowed 7 hits and 3 free passes over his 7 innings but he struck out 5 and didn't give up a run. His 16-8 record and 2.16 ERA have everything Cy Young voters will be looking for towards the end of the season. Kevin Mench: 0-1 with a strikeout.

White Sox, Royals: DNP

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Tim Hyers and he only had 135 fewer hits than Tony Gwynn in 1994.

It looks like I'll be guiding you through some of yesterday's game because Derwood forgot his dial-up Internet password again. But it's alright kids, we're going to treat this like a pub crawl. Go grab a six pack and we'll chug a beer at each stop.

Red Sox 7, Angels 5. The Angels had the opportunity to get within 7 games of the Rangers and were up thanks to home runs by Mike Napoli and Alberto Callaspo. But then Kevin Jepsen happened. Already in trouble and giving up the tying run, he walked the bases loaded to get to Daniel Nava. With an 0-2 count, Jepsen hit Nava to force home the winning run. Jepsen owes me a new TV and he might as well send me a 4 pack of them if he continues to pitch like that.

Reds 11, Diamondbacks 7. The Diamondbacks had a 7-3 lead going into the 8th inning when Sam Demel and Aaron Heilman took that as a challenge. Demel gave up 4 straight hits and was responsible for 4 runs, 3 earned. Heilman was unimpressed and allowed 4 runs on 5 hits to blow the save and get the loss. The pair of relievers celebrated by shame eating a dozen pizzas.

Mariners 6, Orioles 5. The Buck Showalter express seems to losing a little steam. Matt Tuiasosopo, who I think was a backup quarterback for the Raiders, smacked a 3-run home run in the 3rd for half of the Mariners' runs. Matt Wieters hit his 10th homer of the season. According to my math, Wieters only needs to hit one home run per game for the rest of the season to live up to the hype.

Brewers 3, Cardinals 1. Here's a crazy sentence. Randy Wolf outdueled Adam Wainwright to hand the Cy Young candidate his first home loss at home this season. Someone named Lorenzo Cain hit a double and a triple of off Wainwright and Trevor Hoffman held the fort down striking out the only hitter he faced.

Twins 7, White Sox 6. Joe Mauer hit his first home run at Target Field. His 4-5 night raised his disappointing season's slash line to .335/.407/.496. Francisco Liriano, following in the footsteps of Cliff Lee and Jered Weaver, got blasted over 5 innings to the tune of 6 hits, 4 walks and 5 runs. My imaginary Cy Young ballot looks worse by the start.

Royals 9, Indians 7. The Royals refuse to not strikeout. No Royal struck out in this game giving them a league low 611 for the season. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have struck out 1,113 times this season because that's how they roll.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Milciades Arturo Diaz "Junior" Noboa and he's here to remind you that I have a weird fascination with the Montreal Expos.

Jobu is late and slightly hungover today which can only mean one thing. It went out drinking with me last night and passed out a couple of feet away from the couch. I should never be left in charge of Jobu, I'm a terrible influence.

Orioles 5, Rays 0. The Buck Showalter express keeps rolling right along improving to 9-2. Eleven games seems like a big enough sample size for me to give the Manager of the Year award to Showalter, right? The Orioles won despite being dressed for Halloween.

Hideous. That's Luke Scott pictured celebrating after hitting his 22nd homer of the season in the 7th inning. Also pictured, Adam Jones doing his best impersonation of a candy corn.

Mets 1, Phillies 0. R.A. Dickey leads me to believe that if I can learn to throw a knuckleball, I can get my major league career back on track. The resurgent Dickey 1-hit the Phillies for the shutout with 7 strikeouts. Cole Hamels pitched all 8 innings for the Phils but allowed the lone run and took the loss. This never would have happened if Chase Utley was healthy.

Rangers 10, Red Sox 9 (11). I despise the Rangers. Almost everybody in both lineups hit home runs but Nelson Cruz's walk-off in the 11th was the one that counted the most. The Sox were up 8-2 in the 4th but couldn't hold off Josh Hamilton who went 4-5 with a homer and a walk. Mitch Moreland hit his first homer of the season because why not.

Nationals 4, Diamondbacks 2. Joe Saunders gave up 10 hits and all 4 runs in a less than optimal 6 innings. It may seem like I pick on Saunders a lot but that's only because I do and he's not so good at the pitching. Wil Nieves, inspired by Mitch Moreland, hit his second home run of the season.

White Sox 8, Tigers 4. Gordon Beckham temporarily remembered he was good at baseball going 2-4 with a home run and 3 RBI. Juan Pierre keeps leading off and went 1-4 to keep his OBP (.337) a good 30 points higher than his SLG (.307).

Cardinals 6, Cubs 3. Albert Pujols went 3-5 and hit his 29th homer of the season. Who knew a .313/.408/.579 line could be so disappointing? Colby Rasmus had a reverse Golden Sombrero going 0-0 with 4 walks.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Luis Ordaz and he's here to tell you about the time he watched Mark McGwire hit 65 home runs in 1999 from his view on the bench.

Hey kids, I'm still in charge of Jobu this weekend but I'm going to try to get this out before 5 pm. I'm dedicated to my craft today. Hmm, now I want cheese, I'll be back around 4 pm.

Blue Jays 17, Rays 11. Remember when you had that bad day when you were choking on a pretzel and pooped yourself a little? Yeah, James Shields and Dale Thayer would have killed for that day yesterday. Shields went 4 innings and gave up 8 runs and 6 home runs. I didn't watch the game but I assume he sat on the plate and put the ball on his head. Thayer only gave up 1 home run but allowed 6 earned runs over his 2 marvelous innings. Jays' rookie catcher J.P. Arencibia smacked 2 home runs in his debut. Aaron Hill also hit 2 home runs and I'm guessing Joe Carter hit a couple of home runs too.

Angels 10, Tigers 1. Scott Kazmir returned from the DL from his case of "not a good pitcher anymore" and managed to not get lit up by Miguel Cabrera and the rest of the Tigers Triple A lineup. Alberto Callaspo hit cleanup for the Halos. No joke needed for that one, I guess. Angels rookie center fielder Peter Bourjos went 0-5 to get his batting average to match his slugging percentage at .105. I'm still investigating how the Angels scored 10 runs.

Mets 1, Phillies 0. Johan Santana and K-Rod combined for a 5-hit shutout of the Phils. This never would have happened if Chase Utley was healthy. Jeff Fancoeur hit a solo shot off of Cole Hamels to ruin Hamels' 7 inning, 11 strikeout day.

Brewers 5, Astros 2. I'm trying to decide which was more rare from this game. Rickie Weeks hitting an inside the park home run or a Trevor Hoffman led Brewers' bullpen throwing 2.1 innings of shut out ball? I'm leaning bullpen.

White Sox 4, Orioles 2. The O's were up in this game until Jason Berken relieved Kevin Millwood and gave up 2 runs on 4 hits to derail the Buck Showalter express. It was a devastating blow to the Orioles who are now 31 games out of a wild card birth. If the O's miss the playoffs now, I think we can all blame it solely on Jason Berken's performance from this game.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Marcus Lawton but he won't be spending much more time here than he did in the majors.

Jobu is late again which either means it's taking birth control tips from your sister or I'm in charge while Derwood is out collecting butterflies or whatever he does on the weekends. Let's take a quick spin around yesterday's games while I get fired up to watch Anderson Silva destroy Chael Sonnen tonight...

Angels 4, Tigers 2. The Angels snapped their losing streak now that they're done with AL East powerhouse Baltimore Orioles (more on them later). Torii Hunter smacked a 2-run home run in the 1st off Justin Verlander and got ejected in the 8th for arguing balls and strikes. It didn't take Mike Scioscia long to also get tossed. Jered Weaver struck out 9 to increase his AL lead to 15 over Francisco Liriano.

Orioles 2, White Sox 1 (10). The Buck Showalter express keeps rolling right along. The deadly trio of Brad Bergesen, Koji Uehara and Alfredo Simon held the Sox to 1-run on 8-hits. 2010 White Sox draftee Chris Sale pitched 0.0 innings allowing a hit and a walk running his ERA to ### according to ESPN.

Rangers 5, A's 1. Cliff Lee only pitched 8 innings giving up 1 run while striking out 8 and walking none. Lee now has an insane 14.00 K/BB ratio furthering Derwood's theory that Lee is actually a robot. Remember when he was sent to the minors in 2007? That's when they turned him into a robot. That's the theory we're kicking around the office anyway. I'll admit it's not very good.

Diamondbacks 2, Padres 1. Dan Hudson is trying his best to make Kenny Williams look foolish. The former White Sox prospect pitched 7.2 innings of 3-hit ball allowing only one run on a Will Venable solo shot. Jordan Norberto pitched a clean 0.1 inning to lower his ERA to 9.00.

Curveballs for Jobu

Curveballs for Jobu is Offbasepercentage's daily trip around the ballparks.

Today's honorary bat boy is Alexis Infante and he's here to remind you that all the defense in the world can't save your career if you hit .109.

I claimed Jobu off of waivers today and worked out a deal with Derwood for 2 posts to be named later. The PTBNL are rumored to be a Shot of the Night and a Golden Sombrero but I can neither confirm nor deny said rumors. You'll just have to stay tuned to find out.

Orioles 5, Angels 4. You have got to be kidding me. The Buck Showalter express ran right through the Angels for a 3 game sweep. The 3-0 Buck Orioles are now a mere 32 games out of the wild card spot. Meanwhile, the Angels just keep hurting my feeling on a nightly basis.

Braves 3, Giants 2. The showdown between super rookies Jason Heyward (we refuse to call him J-Hey) and blog favorite Buster Posey didn't live up to the hype in game 1. Heyward went 1-3 with a walk and Posey went 0-4. Tim Lincecum gave up home runs to Alex Gonzalez and Eric Hinske to take the loss. Go read that sentence again, it's weird.

Twins 8, Rays 6. Jason Kubel hit a go ahead single off of one of the catwalks in the dome at Tropicana Field. Haha, the Rays' stadium is a dump. Joe Maddon expressed his delight for the unique features of their home field...

"It pretty much can't happen any place but here," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "I know it works both ways but to lose a game in a pennant situation like that because of a roof indicates why there's a crying need for a new ballpark."

Philies 5, Marlins 4 (10). In another strange ending, third base umpire Bob Davidson ruled Gaby Sanchez's walk off hit foul sending the game into extra innings. Then Chooch happened. Carlos Ruiz homered in the top half of the 10th and Brad Lidge struck out 2 while recording the save in the bottom half.