So today was the deadline for entering into my Caps tickets contest.  And I came back from class and the gym, filmed a whole setup I had for picking the name at random…and of course, the video clips on my iPhone won’t open on iMovie on my computer for me to put together to show here.  Of course that would happen when I try to use two Apple products together (as you can tell, not the biggest fan of Apple, but switched over to a MacBook and iPhone because they work better for the field I am going into supposedly).

So.  Tomorrow I will continue to try to piece that movie together somehow because it’s funny watching me fail time after time to get a name selected.

But for now, I will announce that the winner of the Capitals tickets is JASON FORREST.

Woooooooooohoooooo.

Jason, I’ll be in touch with you by e-mail, or you tweet at me or whatever works best.  To everyone else, sorry it didn’t work out in your favor.  I will be doing more and more giveaways all season long, and as you know if you’ve been following me on Twitter lately, I have a problem with hoarding baseball shenanigans, so definitely have a lot of cool stuff to give away.

Stay tuned!  And follow me on Twitter @2131andbeyond!!!

Woah. I can blog from this WordPress app on my new iPhone. Too bad I hate typing on this thing…

I know the Capitals don’t play baseball and this is a baseball blog.  So what.

I have a pair of Capitals tickets for the game being played on Sunday, March 11 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Verizon Center that I cannot do prior to my commitment to baseball (member of D3 baseball, more on that some other time).  The tickets retail for $140 for the pair, but they’re yours at no cost in this fun little contest.

No need to answer some crazy trivia question or dedicate hours to drawing a portrait of your favorite baseball player.  All you need to do is leave a comment below telling me absolutely anything, and you’re automatically entered.

My orange hockey puck will pick the winner next week.

Questions? Tweet at me. @2131andBeyond. Boom.

While blogs and writing all over the internet allow basically an unlimited word count, Twitter limits people to 140 characters or less in every single message that they send out.

So…after asking many people across the Twitterverse to give me their outlook on the Orioles 2012 season in 140 characters or less, I got some interesting responses:

Orioles Fans:

@beatlefnatic: I’d love to see a .500 season, but my concern is to see the pitching shored up. I’m finding myself becoming more cynical this year.

@MagicOn33rd: Hate to say it, but cellar dwellers again. the Cartoon bird is here and Orioles magic is coming, but not this year. we need pitching.

@B_MoreFanatic: I’m not expecting greatness from the Orioles in 2012. Only for our young players to take that next step and then another. No regressions.

@onshortrest: Orioles 2012 Outlook: Last place in AL East; close to 100 losses; brisk sales of Brown Paper Bag caps. #OriolesTragic

@ProtectThisYard: Hope. Every year. I’m a glass-half full guy. 1st place? No. But I’m hopeful that we’re competitive. Win or Lose, Rain or shine. I’ll support

@MattCLund: The key for the Orioles this season is if the young pitchers can improve and make the progress needed to compete in the AL East.

@JoePappa: The O’s are like golf. You’re not fantastic but you’ll have that 1 round that will surprise you. 2012 is that round for the O’s.

@JoePappa (again…13 hours later): (Another thought…) We’ve got superstars that haven’t shown their full potential. It’s only a matter of time before the show begins.

@marylandgirlie:  Will be interesting with all the international signings. I have a feeling that the wins will be up. I am still worried about pitching though

@SportsNickelTim:  Everything has gotten worse. A lot of player must prove themselves. Hardly 60 W’s.

@margeemateo:  M positive when it comes 2 my team. Although we kindda don’t have d depth, i am hopeful we’d be going 2 July & Sept in decent standings. =)

@mattmgardner:  This will be a losing season. But Duquette seems to be less clueless than MacPhail, so maybe there is hope for the Orioles in this century.

@MasonFanatic:  O’s can finish .500 if a) 2 pitchers not named Guthrie throw 190+ IP b) 2B not a platoon c) Reimold & Davis (or other CI) have breakout year

@MasonFanatic (side note): [I don't expect more than 1 of those 3 to happen, so 93 losses here we come]

@ESHJjaksClayton:  A lot like the movie Major League but without all the winning. Matusz will improve. 5th in the AL East, trade deadline could be fun.

@kt1000:  Orioles 2012: Wake me when it’s over.

@connorguercio:  No playoffs, but 3rd/4th place is possible. Hardy/Markakis/Wieters/Jones Allstars, B-Rob all year, Wada/Chen standout, Reynolds mosts HRs

Orioles fans that failed to follow the whole “140 characters or less” guideline:

@d_flo3r: If our pitching staff and hitting with risp improves then the O’s with probably win 10-15 more games this year, otherwise I think everything will pretty much stay the same wins/stats wise.

@simplyaustin31: The Os ended 2011 on a high note by taking out the pink hat nation, I feel like the Orioles added a lot of international depth that could surprise a lot of people with Chen, Wada… Orioles signed many of veteran players that could bounce back with Ronny Paulino, Pat Neshek, Matt Antonelli, Wilson Betemit. Orioles rotation and bullpen will be the question entering the 2012 season.. Will the young pitching staff step up and startp pitching to their calibar

Orioles fans that lived in the MLB Fan Cave last year:

@rwags614: It will be another rough year wins wise, but O’s fans can look forward to watching the young pitching continue to develop.

Non-Orioles fans:

@Dave_Gershman: Unless things somehow go in the O’s favor they have a chance to trade for some talent in July. The farm also needs to progress like lastyear

@ZK065:  They’ll go as far as their SP will. Offense looks good, wouldn’t be surprised to see them add a DH bat. 75-78 wins is optimistic but doable.

@observebaseball:  Slightly pessimistic. Everyone, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, realizes that last offseason was far better as far as additions

@MadSports8: They’ll be better than the A’s. Brooks Robinson for president.

As we can tell by all of these responses, nobody really expects the Orioles to be too good in 2012.  Though there is some optimism in terms of growing toward the future, 2012 looks to be another building year if these baseball fans are right.

But hey…I can still love me some Orioles baseball.

And by the way, I recommend following all of the tweeps quoted above.  All good people.  Well, maybe not @MadSports8, but we can still show the west coast some respect anyways.

The Rangers are shopping Koji Uehara.  The Cardinals are shopping Kyle McClellan.  The Orioles are window shopping.  As for Roy Oswalt…who knows.

Who would you rather have?

I say Koji.

Why?  Because he has had success in Baltimore, he would get along with the new Asian pitchers, and let’s face it, his sideburns rock.

Nothing against McClellan, but Koji belongs here.

So as I talked about on the blog for Friday’s game, I was hoping that on Saturday I would be able to meet up with J.P. Arencibia to return his first career grand slam ball to him, and *hopefully* get something in return.

Well, here goes.

I tweeted at Arencibia when I got home from the game, and got an e-mail the following morning:

Followed by a direct message:

So there it was.

At batting practice that day, I snagged one ground rule double during Orioles BP, and as soon as the Jays started hitting, I jolted over to the Jays dugout.

Arencibia was in the first group, so as I waited for him to finish, Zevi (welcome home from Israel!) took this photo of me with the ball:

When we saw J.P. finish hitting and walking to the dugout, I shouted to him that I had the ball.  Right then, the usher let me down into the area by the dugout, I handed the ball of to J.P.:

And as he took it and I said congrats, he said “hold on, I want to go get you a bat.” Um, okay!

So he went off:

And came back with a gorgeous new bat.  Black, shiny, and brand spankin’ new.  I had a silver sharpie on me (thank you Tim for randomly having bought them that day and lending it to me!), so he signed it beautifully by the engraved name:

And I got a picture with him (at an awkward angle sorta):

I thanked him a ton and congratulated him again, Then he went off to do catcher stuff.

I got a few more pics with the bat:

And one of Zevi with it, thanking him for taking all the photos while this happened:

Then, with all the ushers eyeing me, I had to go to fan assistance to turn the bat in.  They make you do that, then pick it up at the end of the game.  The whole “it could be used as a weapon” thing.

Since it was Zevi’s first game back, and we both had gotten a baseball (and hell, a bat!), we decided to go chill down the 3B line and talk to Tom the security guy and just hang out.

So… I randomly got my picture taken with Luis Perez:

And Frank Francisco (laughing. He was being hilarious right before the picture, making some funny poses):

Plus, it was getting pretty crowded in LF anyways:

When Arencibia came out to warm up, I thanked and congratulated him again:

And then chilled in left field during the game.  I just remember wanting the game to end so I could go get my bat asap.

And I did.

Here it is:

When I got back to my apartment and took those photos, I couldn’t help but sit there and hold it for a while.  It is a glorious object.

Then Sunday came.  I went to the game late.  I knew it was Little League Day so there’d be no BP and I’d probably get shut out since the last two days, no Jays players threw pre-game.

But whaddya know.  Corey Patterson (high socks-less) and Rajai Davis were throwing:

And I got Rajai to toss me the ball afterward.

Chilled on club level with Zevi, Segev (and his brother), Matt, Matt G (and friends).  In the shade.  It was nice.  And not in foul ball area, mainly because both lineups were all righties and we were on the 3B side, but we didn’t care.  Was a relaxing day.

And I dropped my spoon eating ice cream, so instead, ate it with a soft pretzel:

That was the excitement of the day.

That, and the nuns Tim and I spotted pre-game:

Along with this guy in an Orioles Laird shirt (LOL):

Oh, and Tim sat out in CF (LF was packed) and got screwed by both Adam Lind HRs that were right near him but in clumps of people that he couldn’t get into.  Almost got shut out, but I was happy to hear he did get an ump ball after the game.

Mazel tov.

Oh, and the Orioles lost.  So they only got Saturday’s win in the series. Woo.  We won’t talk about the Mark Reynolds grand slam I should have had on Saturday.  Now THAT would have been a news story.