Perhaps it's simply a lesson in empathy.
Do you have friends who celebrate different holidays than you do - maybe Christmas or maybe Arbor Day or maybe Rosh Hashana? You ever wonder what it's like to partake in those annual celebrations?
Of course you do. You're an Orioles fan. You go through this routine every year. You watch as seemingly every other team opts to recognize and honor Major League Baseball's annual trading deadline, while your team instead treats the event as just another day on the calendar.
Will this year be different? Will tomorrow be different?
I don't want to blow up your daily planner, but there's probably no need to take the day off work. There won't likely be a flurry of activity. Expect another trading deadline at which anxious, office-bound Orioles fans have zero use for the F5 refresh key as they troll baseball Web sites.
But does it have to be this way?
In years past, the trade deadline could come and go and it was tough to blame the Orioles' front office for being stagnant (tough, but not impossible). In recent years, the Orioles had little use for an end-of-the-year hired gun and little in the way of trade bait to accumulate young prospects.
But as midseason has come and gone, this looked like a year the Orioles could actually be a player in the annual midseason roster shuffle. The Orioles weren't bulking for a late push. In fact, the past couple of weeks have shown the starting rotation is about four starters short of a full staff and there are still plenty of holes offensively and defensively.
But the Orioles had something to offer this year. Team president Andy MacPhail could finally flash open his coat and dangle actual quality goods for other teams to peruse.
Yet here we are, Deadline Eve at the Warehouse, and once again it's crickets chirping, not phones ringing.
The most likely trade possibility before the nonwaiver deadline always involved George Sherrill. With an uncertain role entering the spring, the All-Star left-hander suddenly finds himself with 30 saves and a 3.71 ERA. Plus, his salary is manageable and he's 31 years old.
With a long list of teams looking for bullpen help - including the Marlins, Tigers, Cardinals, Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, Rays, Red Sox, Yankees and White Sox - you would think he could be moved for something.
