not so cheery O’s

Men of a certain age — OK, and women, too — remember the Baltimore Orioles as a model franchise. Perennial contenders. The Robinson Boys. Jim Palmer. Boog Powell. Dave McNally. Eddie Murray. Cal Ripken. The Oriole Way. But that was a generation ago. The Orioles have been irrelevant for most of the SportsCenter Era, which is just about the worst thing that can happen to a team. New manager Buck Showalter, the former Mississippi State All-American, takes his turn, starting tonight at Camden Yards, at rebuilding the fallen O’s. He talked at his Monday press conference about sifting through personnel to find the right pieces. “When you get 25 nuggets, you get to play in October,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.” Obviously, that’s not simple. He has a few nuggets on the current club — Matt Wieters, Adam Jones, a couple of young arms — but not many. On top of everything else, the Orioles play in the brutal American League East. He’s got a tough row to hoe. Known for his attention to detail, Showalter has a winning record as a big league manager. But obsessiveness isn’t necessarily a good trait in that profession. It’s hard to overlook the fact that Showalter has worn out his welcome relatively quickly at each of his previous three stops: New York Yankees (1992-95), Arizona (1998-2000) and Texas (2003-06).
P.S. Belhaven’s hopes of making a repeat run to the NAIA World Series were significantly enhanced with the recent addition of Southern Miss transfer Anthony Doss, an outfielder, and Mississippi State transfer Jared Miller, a pitcher. Both were highly decorated high school players in the state. … Also on the move for this fall: Hinds Community College slugger Zach Polzin, who signed with NAIA Trevecca Nazarene. Polzin hit 11 homers for the Eagles last spring.