With all due respect to the 0-6 Tigers and 1-5 Rockies, the award for the most surprising first week of the 2008 MLB season oughta go to the Baltimore Orioles, who improved to 5-1 today after beating the Mariners, 5-4 on Aubrey Huff’s tie-breaking HR in the 8th. The Baltimore Sun‘s Scott Templeton Dan Connolly credits the turnaround to….a band that makes Godsmack seem downright experimental by comparison.
The campy ” Orioles Magic” song that hearkens to the days when there was a “thundering roar from [Section] 34” got scratched after Opening Day.
In the past four games, the Orioles have darted out of the dugout before the first pitch to “Click Click Boom,” a song by the rock band Saliva, which might or might not have been inspired by former Oriole Roberto Alomar.
Don’t start mourning yet, oh tradition-obsessed Orioles fans. Or at least know this before you pine for the olden days: In those four games, without hearing about “when Weaver moves,” the Orioles are undefeated. That includes an Orioles Magic-esque comeback against the Seattle Mariners yesterday, when they scored three runs in the ninth against a team that didn’t blow a game like that all last season.
So when a keyed-up Orioles team returned to the clubhouse after the inspiring victory, how did it celebrate? By blasting “Orioles Magic” as loud as it could on the clubhouse stereo.
“I don’t care if it is in the clubhouse, just not when we take the field,” Aubrey Huff said. “I think we are … 0-1 when we came out to it Opening Day, and we haven’t lost since we quit playing it. So let’s just keep that off the field.”
Huff is not exactly the ambassador of all things Baltimore since his “horse – -” comment in the offseason, but he is right on this one.
As he said, “It was great for the ’80s.”