Rob Long: West Coast Baseball
I have a love/hate relationship with the Baltimore Orioles West Coast trips. I love it because I can do everything I'm suppose to do during the day and early evening and not miss an inning. In fact, I can even get a workout in and not have to battle the ladies at my gym for television time. They want to watch reality tv, some sitcom, a cooking show and something else uninteresting on the televisions at my gym. This is the joy of the O's playing in California or Washington.
However, West Coast trips bring a very early alarm clock. When my wife tapped me to get up this morning, I literally felt like sand was in my eyes. When the game was over, I looked at the clock and it read 1:10 am.
The Orioles won, once again increasing their lead in the American League East to four games over both the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays with them losing Monday. The biggest fear of this trip was that it would give teams in the division a chance to catch the Birds. The Orioles are 2-2 on the trip so far but so are the Blue Jays.. The two teams at the bottom of the division, Red Sox and Rays, are the hottest teams in the division sporting five game winning streaks. The O's are hoping to at least maintain until they meet up again with their A.L. East brethren.
In the meantime, fans like us will continue to have long days while trying to be productive at work during this trip in the Pacific timezone. As long as Adam Jones keeps hitting home runs and the rotation can get quality starts like the one Bud Norris put together Monday, this has a chance to be a productive trip.
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