Matt Wieters might or might not be the greatest Orioles prospect in history, but there is little doubt that he will arrive today at Camden Yards to greater fanfare than any young Orioles player who has come before him.
Want proof? That's easy enough.
The only O's prospect in the same category was pitcher Ben McDonald, who perhaps was a bigger deal when he was the first overall pick in the 1989 draft. He was valued by many as the top pitcher in the history of the amateur draft, and he didn't get anything close to the pre-promotion buildup that has accompanied Wieters to Baltimore for his debut against the Detroit Tigers. McDonald debuted late in the Orioles "Why Not?" season and made - drum roll please - six relief appearances.
Orioles fans were eager to see him, but they weren't refusing to buy tickets until the Orioles brought him up.
It was a different time. The Orioles were a different organization. Baltimore was a different place.
McDonald joined a team in the middle of the Orioles' unlikely 1989 division title challenge, so he didn't have "Savior" printed across the back of his jersey. Wieters joins a team that has not had a winning season since 1997 and has seen attendance fall by nearly half since then.
Fair or not, he will take the field for the first time as a major league player bearing the hopes of a disenchanted fan base that is having trouble deciding whether to jump on the Orioles' rebuilding bandwagon or give up completely on a once-proud team that has been in decline for more than a decade.
That's a lot to put on a 23-year-old kid, but he really is that important. Just ask one of the greatest Orioles of them all.
"I'll be peeking in on Matt," said Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr., "whether I'm there [at the park] or watching on TV. I'm an excited fan as well."
Truly, this is a watershed moment in Orioles history. The club is in the midst of a great transition, and Wieters - though not the first to arrive - has become the symbol of this new generation of Orioles talent.
Maybe that designation should have gone to center fielder Adam Jones, who is already here and appears to be headed for superstardom, but Wieters was the cornerstone of the club's long-term future before the big trade that brought Jones to town. The Orioles also have two other established team leaders in Nick Markakis and Brian Roberts, but they were here before this current rebuilding program was put in place.
