I didn't see any posts about Fan Fest here, and since I don't frequent any other O's blogs on a regular basis, I thought I'd post something that I found.

Over at Sons of Sam Horn (Red Sox community that really puts OH to shame), they have a section where members can "adopt" an MLB team and follow it like a journalist, posting tidbits of info and whatever else they happen to come across about the team. Here's a link to the thread about the Orioles, specifically an entry about Fan Fest:

Orioles Fan Fest observations

The highlights from the Q&A session with the O's coaching staff and brass were really interesting.  You can read them for yourself when you follow the link, and some of the topics (like the blue-collar attitude of the club, the grow arms buy bats philosophy) have been covered here already.  I'll just highlight a few other points that I liked:

• Orioles felt Pedro was asking for reasonable money and would consider him if they were one man away, but they obviously aren't.  Also, Pedro brings his "own program" to the clubhouse and that doesn't jive with the objectives in place right now
• Rick Kranitz will not tolerate people calling his players "clowns"
• O's starters will be given more rope than you might expect - the consensus is that the perennial August collapses are due to overworking the bullpen
• Teixeira comments were the most interesting to me - it doesn't seem like he was ever interested in the Orioles, despite what the media claimed.  The fact that this version of events was revealed at fanfest - you know, April 5th, 2009 - really puts in perspective Teixeira's comments that teams used the media to further their agenda 
• Trembley really, really, really, really, really, really loves the WBC, even if it means less ST time for BRob.

That's it.  I know the whole Teixeira thing is really starting to get old, but it's nice to finally hear what was happening behind the scenes re: Tex and the O's.

Guts is getting straight-up smoked.  It's 5-1 Venezuela in the bottom of the second inning... maybe Ramon and Melvin spilled all of Guthrie's secrets?  Anyway, not a good showing for Guts so far.  What are some thoughts about how this will affect the regular season?  Is Guthrie really going to be this bad?  Is Guthrie's poor performance going to overshadow Jeter's awful performances?  Have I reached the word count yet?

Around 2PM I was driving home and for some reason I had my XM off, so I was listening first to 105.7 The Fan, but changed the station after some inane caller was asking if the Terps could win the tournament.  Um, the answer to that question is no.  Anyway, I switched to WTMD and it was some kind of cool twangy song, so I kept it there.

The next song came on and it sounded really familiar, but I couldn't really place it... it was just a piano and some guy singing about hanging on for the past ten years... and I was totally digging it.  And then the song kicked up a notch and I knew that it was the How Bout Dem O's song.

Even though I've listened to the song a bunch of times on the internet, listening to it on the radio, especially when I wasn't expecting to hear it, was such a joy.  I turned it up and was singing along... I was literally pounding my fist onto my gear shift knob to the beat as I drove.

I'm so ready for the season to begin.  As one spammer on the Midnight Sun blog commented, "0-162 I don't care! Die Hard Fans just love 'em all the time!"

Hell yeah, spammy.  Hell yeah.

http://www.myspace.com/howboutdemos