Thursday Bird Droppings: Where we hope the Orioles stave off the brooms

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The Orioles are six games out and everything kind of sucks right now, but the cognoscenti have yet to coalesce around the idea that the Orioles should sell. Your Thursday Bird Droppings.

Hello, friends.

After last night's Orioles game, even the normally sunny Rick Dempsey said, "It's getting a little depressing to see the Orioles play like this." And the Demper was absolutely right about that. It's depressing. We're all in the varying stages of grief over the season. I think I might be in the bargaining stage - I just want them to please not suck for the last two months, or maybe I want them to please get everything they can for their soon-to-be free agents. I haven't really decided yet.

To avoid the sweep today, they are going to have to triumph against Masahiro Tanaka. If there's one good sign it's that Tanaka hasn't been his 2014 self in the 2015 season. But then again, that may not be a very good sign, because if I might again recite from Dempsey's post-game show remarks, "These are the kinds of pitchers mired in that state - mediocrity - who seem to be pitching well against the Orioles." And he was absolutely right about that too.

Yesterday in the Tour de France, American Andrew Talansky came in second on the stage, but top contender Tejay Van Garderen had to abandon the tour due to an illness. A punishing 186.5km stage awaits the peloton on Thursday, with seven climbs of third category or higher, including the Hors Categorie Col du Glandon, a 21.7km climb at an average gradient of 5.1%. Included in part of today's stage is part of the Route Napoleon, along which Bonaparte traveled on his return from Elba.

Around the blogO'sphere

Ken Singleton Does Not Think The Orioles Should Sell Yet " CBS Baltimore
Orioles great and current Yankees broadcaster Ken Singleton weighed in with the people of 105.7 and he doesn't think it's time to sell. But if they get swept today they'll be seven games back. That's pretty bad.

Big choices loom for Baltimore Orioles as trade deadline draws near | Sport | The Guardian
What makes the Guardian sweep its gaze across the Orioles? I don't know, but their writer weighs in on the choice ahead of the Orioles. Just days ago I didn't want them to sell, but they just look so bad lately...

Orioles pitcher Billy Loes once lost a grounder 'in the sun' - Baltimore Sun
Some ancient Orioles history in The Sun. Do you think this is more or less embarrassing than the time Ed Rogers lost a baseball in his jersey?

School of Roch: Wrapping up a 4-3 loss 
If for some reason you just can't get enough of reading about last night's loss, and I don't know why that would be the case, here's Roch Kubatko running through some of the post-game quotes.

Birthdays and anniversaries

On this day in 2013, the Orioles completed a trade with the Brewers that broughtFrancisco Rodriguez to the O's. The once-strong K-Rod pitched more like K-Rud in Baltimore. The O's gave up Nick Delmonico in the trade, though by the end of the 2014 season, the Brewers had given up on Delmonico in turn.

For the second straight day, there are no current or former Orioles with birthdays on this date. If today's your birthday, happy birthday! But you just don't have any Orioles birthday buddies.

There aren't many interesting birthday buddies among the wider world of people, either, though you do share the day with departed souls such as Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (1892), Nobel Prize-winning chemist Vladimir Prelog (1906), old-time baseballer Pee Wee Reese (1919), and actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967).

Your still-living birthday buddies include Woody Harrelson (1961), Slash (1965), and a person who the July 23 birthdays section of Wikipedia describes as "American author and handbag designer" but I have a feeling you might recognize for something else, Monica Lewinsky (1973). I may have to stop the birthday segment, because that can't be topped.

On this day in history...

In 1903, the Ford Motor Company sold its very first car.

In 1914, Austria made a bunch of demands of Serbia in the aftermath of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Serbia gave in to nearly every demand and Austria ended up declaring war anyway.

In 1995, the comet Hale-Bopp was discovered, although it wasn't visible to the naked eye until 1996.

It was not a very exciting day in history.

And that's the way it is in Birdland on July 23 - or at least, unless something happens later. Have a safe Thursday, and go Orioles