Not too late to jump on the Orioles' bandwagon

Your empire is in shambles, Yankees fans. Your nation has fallen, Red Sox faithful. Out of the ashes of the old powers of Major League Baseball's American League East division, a new bird is rising. Resplendent in hues of orange and black that would make even Shirley Tilghman blush, the Baltimore Orioles are on top once again in the only division that matters, and they are there to stay.

The gritty O's have a 14-7 overall record, including a 12-4 performance within their division, the most competitive, most relentless and richest in all of baseball. The Birds are three games ahead of their closest follower, the Pedro-less Red Sox. The Yankees are treading water below .500, trailing even the Toronto Blue Jays — that last Canadian bastion of baseball. As for the Devil Rays ... well, look them up in the encyclopedia and you'll see that their natural environment is the ocean floor, not unlike the cellar of this perennially deep division.

Yes, vindication has come at last to Charm City, in defiance of Bud Selig's callous off-season decision to steal away half of the Orioles' market, taking away what meager resources they had to compete with in the first place.

Not that Baltimore is lacking star power. The O's have two members of the 500 home run club (Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro), a knight in the Order of the Dutch Royal House in the starting rotation (Sidney Ponson) and an AL MVP at shortstop (Miguel Tejada). And that's forgetting our deadliest weapon of all: five-foot, nine-inch, 180-pound second baseman Brian Roberts, currently in the top 10 in the MLB in home runs, hits, runs batted in and stolen bases.

Who is this Roberts character, you ask? What sort of breakout year is he having? In just one month, having played one eighth of the games he did last season, he's one home run away from doubling his season total from last year.

His slugging percentage so far this year is 25 points above the all-time leader in that stat, a guy named George Herman Ruth (some people called him Babe).

And then there's the pitching staff. Rodrigo Lopez, three seasons removed from his Rookie of the Year runner-up season, is on course for another stellar season, with his only loss of the year coming on an eight-inning, no-earned-run gem against Boston. Bruce Chen, who's played for eight different teams in as many seasons in the bigs, is 2-1 with a 3.62 ERA, including a four-hitter complete game against the New York Yankees.

Now what would success like this mean to you and me, unless we could see where Old Nassau had its orange tentacles in this organization? Look no further than Opening Day this year, when Senator Paul Sarbanes '55 (D-Md.) threw out the ceremonial first pitch. A lifelong Marylander, Sarbanes still keeps his office in Baltimore. On a recent visit to campus, he reiterated his devotion to the Orioles despite the fanfare over the new team a few miles down I-95.

And then there's Maryland's governor, Bob Ehrlich '79, a former athlete himself, who recently complimented the efforts of Orioles majority owner Peter Angelos to protect the future of the franchise against the Nationals. Ehrlich put out a press release stating, "I congratulate and compliment Mr. Angelos for protecting the Baltimore Orioles, now and in the future."

So all you Orange and Black faithful out there who need somewhere to turn now, look closely, south of the Mason-Dixon Line but north of the Potomac, and you'll see familiar colors and familiar faces carrying on a winning tradition of their own.