Hello everyone! I hope you have had a couple of good weeks. Sorry for my absence. I will explain that in a later blog about censorship, Stay tuned.

My wife and I bought a home in the upper valley of New Hampshire. It is beautiful up here and in fact, I am kinda locked in my house for the weekend because this is the biggest “peepers” weekend of the fall. As for those that don’t know, that is the name for the flood of tourists that come to the National Forest right by my house and ride up and down the mountains to get a picture of the breathtaking views around my adopted hometown. It is not that I blame them, but to get to a few towns over, the quickest route is up and down a mountain that is a total of 36 miles. Last year, my wife and I took a trip on this weekend and made it over the mountain at 7am in under an hour. When we came back at 11am to come back home, we were stuck on the road for over 3 hours. With this being a holiday weekend, people come up by the thousands, tour buses all over the roads, and people taking their campers and RVs home for the winter.

Luckily, I couldn’t be happier to be stuck in the house this weekend. As some may know, I am originally from Baltimore City, MD. Yeah, that Baltimore. Growing up there in the 80s was excellent, and one of those reasons was I lived less than 15 minutes from Memorial Stadium, home of the Orioles and the Baltimore Colts. In fact, one day, I will tell you more about the Baltimore Colts, but that is a tale for another time. Growing up so closely, we went to many Orioles games. I was 9 when the Colts left Baltimore, and we didn’t get another team for over a decade that became the Baltimore Ravens!!!! Now, I am a huge football fan, and in high school, I even managed the JV Football team. Go, Engineers!!!! Since their inception, the Ravens have had a rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers. There were a lot of houses divided, as during the Baltimore football drought, half of Baltimore fans became Washington Football fans, half became Steelers fans, and half just watched football, never giving up hope that Baltimore would one day get our team. (Yes, I know I had 3 halves. It is the new math, haha) And when we did, some fans returned to the hometown team, but many stayed Steelers fans. Today, the Ravens play at the Steelers, and these are the games I love. Smash Mouth Football.

That isn’t even the highlight of my sports day. The Baltimore Orioles are in game 2 of the ALDS, losing the first to the Rangers. It is a good time to be an Orioles fan, and there has not been many days like that this millenium. Orioles made post season in 2012 and 2014, when I still resided in Baltimore. To be able to purchase post season tickets at that time, you entered your name into a lottery. I, along with some family members, entered into the drawings and got to go to all of the home games in the 2012 season and most of the first round and one of the second round in 2014. Most of these games, we were in the last row, but it didn’t matter, we were there. It was like the fans cheering would change your heartbeat and the whole stadium cheered as one! The first game we went to in 2012 was broadcast on TBS and we battled the Spankees, or as many may know, the Yankees. Sorry, as I said, I am a Baltimoron. We had rain delays for hours these first two games and when we were finally able to start the first game, they announced we were about to go live on TBS, wave the towels all fans were given, and make some noise. Then we were clicked on to what was on TBS on our big screen. I am getting goosebumps as I write this, just remembering this!!!! As TBS showed the fans in Camden Yards, we were cheering and going balistic. They had a sound measuring device on a cutaway and we ranked as one of the loudest crowds in history of any sporting event. And with good reason. Baltimore has created legends, including Jim Palmer, Brooke Robinson, Boog Powell, Cal Ripken Jr, Frank Robinson, Rick Dempsey, Eddie Murray, Adam Jones, and we also hosted some of the best players for times in their career such as Mike Mussina, Reggie Jackson, Bobbie Bonilla, and Manny Machado. In fact, one of the reasons we often heard through our football drought was that Baltimore was a “Baseball” town and that is why we didn’t need a football team. While that has proven to be false, Baltimore loves our Orioles, even in years where we lost 100+ games.

The last time the Orioles won the World Series was in 1983. Although we were in the playoffs in 2012 and 2014, we were proud of our boys but knew it wasn’t our time. This year feels better. We have this team full of young players who are insanely talented, as the Orioles are regularly rated as either the top farm system in baseball or close to it. This year, it feels like it is coming together. While I watched the first game yesterday, I saw a lot of shirts in the stands that had emblazoned on it “Party Like it is 1983.” That was the year I went from a casual watcher to a fan. That was the World Series that during a rain delay, our catcher, Rick Dempsey, sang “Old Time Rock N Roll” while sliding on a rain covered tarp in the field, turning the field into a giant Slip N Slide. As a 10-year-old, I loved this, watching grown men having so much fun. Years later, I was in a post office and turned to see who entered in line behind me, and I almost fainted when I saw it was him. Rick Dempsey. After some self-talk in my head, convincing myself I would regret it if I didn’t say anything, I turned to him and uttered one question.

*Please not I get flustered around famous people. No matter their level of fame. Thankfully I haven’t met many.

“Do you know who you are?”

No, unfortunately, I am not lying. I said this to the 1983 World Series MVP, restaurant owner, and Orioles TV announcer. And in the style of any childhood hero you meet, he answered in an absolute perfect way.

“Yeah, I have an idea.” At this point, I realized this was my baseball hero and just a nice guy, as we have always heard about Mr Dempsey. I then told him how he instilled the love of baseball into a 10-year-old’s heart that still beats orange and black for my boys. Once again, in true hero’s fashion, he told me I made his day and that he never tires of hearing fans talk to him about his memories. That opened up the floodgates, and the other 15 or so people in the post office all fawned over him for about 5 minutes. Then, we all just went back to standing in line. There were murmurings about how people’s spouses and families would not believe it. I couldn’t wait to tell my brother, a HUGE baseball and especially Orioles fan.

One more quick thing. Oriole Park at Camden Yards allows outside food and drink. The ballpark is in the epicenter of downtown Baltimore, just a few very short city blocks from the Inner Harbor. There are tons of food places around, and at a postseason game in 2014, my brother brought us dinner from a little restaurant nearby. I can’t remember whether I ate it on a roll or with a fork, but I was eating some chicken dish. As I was eating, in true Messie Jessie form, I accidentally dropped a piece of chicken in the hoodie of the person in the row in front of me. I pointed it out to my brother, and we were kinda like crap, now what. Okay, I get the obvious. Just tell the guy it wasn’t on purpose, no biggie. Only one problem. This is Baltimore. BAL-TI-MORE. You know, that Baltimore. The place that sells t-shirts that claim, “There is more than murder here.” Additionally, at the playoffs in 2012, we turned in an aggressive fan throwing things in a drunken stupor. Not only did they talk to him and let him return, but as he got more aggressive and my brother tried to report him again, the stadium blocked his number. Eleven years later, it is still blocked. So, we don’t get a lot of support from aggressive fans. Additionally, this gentleman was alone, so we couldn’t gauge his mood. Later in the game, he had friends arrive and seemed nice, but it had now been over an hour since I had dropped the food and way past the statute of limitations of letting him know nicely. Luckily, he took his hoodie off, and I finally got the chicken out of the hoodie. Sir, if you happen to be reading this, I am so sorry. Not my intention, and I swear, I am not a horrible person.

Go Orioles!!! Go Ravens!!!! Until next time, EGA!!!!