Jim Palmer

The slumping Orioles have lost five in a row, but on Monday, they came away with a win off the diamond. The Orioles have the best uniforms in the major leagues, according to a recent fan poll conducted by ESPN. The O's entered the SportsNation bracket, dubbed the Battle of the Uniforms , as the 13th seed in the American League. “Always liked the orange-and-black scheme, but the white-paneled cap is a bad, bad look from the '70s,” wrote ESPN's Jim Caple, who seeded the AL side of the bracket.

The slumping Orioles have lost five in a row, but on Monday, they came away with a win off the diamond. The Orioles have the best uniforms in the major leagues, according to a recent fan poll conducted by ESPN. The O's entered the SportsNation bracket, dubbed the Battle of the Uniforms , as the 13th seed in the American League. “Always liked the orange-and-black scheme, but the white-paneled cap is a bad, bad look from the '70s,” wrote ESPN's Jim Caple, who seeded the AL side of the bracket.

The pose was pure Jim Palmer. The ceremony to unveil his sculpture, as you might expect, was pitch perfect. Palmer became the third Orioles great to be immortalized in bronze and put on display in the Garden of Greats behind center field at Camden Yards on Saturday afternoon, joining Frank Robinson and Earl Weaver and awaiting the arrival of Eddie Murray , Cal Ripken and  Brooks Robinson later this season. It was a special day made even more special by the surprise appearance of Brooks, who has been in ill health and had to postpone his own statue unveiling until late September while he continues to regain his strength.

Each Wednesday, blogger Matt Vensel will highlight five statistics that really mean something for the Orioles. .341 -- Matt Wieters' career batting average against the Tampa Bay Rays. Orioles catcher Matt Wieters has been slumping over the past 10 days, and his season batting average dipped below .200 during the New York Yankees series over the weekend. But if there is a sure bet to get him out of his slump, it might be playing the Tampa Bay Rays. Wieters hit a solo home run in Tuesday night's 5-4 win. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Wieters is batting .341 with 12 home runs and 40 RBIs in 60 career games against the Rays.

The major league call-up of Orioles 19-year-old phenom Dylan Bundy to help replenish the club's bullpen after an 18-inning game Tuesday night is a surprise. But it's being made for the right reasons, according to franchise's most heralded and successful pitcher. “It's a prudent move, it's not a knee jerk reaction,” says Jim Palmer, MASN color analyst and the Orioles' Hall of Fame pitcher. “Because of the condition of the bullpen there is a need. It makes sense to me.” Bundy, the club's fourth overall pick in last year's draft, was in the organization's instructional league in Sarasota, Fla., after a season in which he was 9-3 with a 2.08 ERA in 23 starts at three levels.

I'M PROBABLY the only person who has Jim Palmer's autograph on the inside cover of "The Feminine Mystique." "To Lucy -- Best Regards, Jim Palmer -- 1984," it reads. I'm also probably the only person who didn't know who he was that December morning he boarded the flight in Baltimore.My husband, two daughters, and I were en route from Roanoke, Va., to New York to see the Big Apple in its Christmas splendor. The plane touched down in Baltimore to let on a few passengers.While we waited, I walked up the aisle to talk to a woman from home.

Nostalgia is a big part of baseball. The two newest stadiums, the one opening in Chicago this year and the one being built in Baltimore, mimic old ball parks. The Orioles wear new hats and uniforms which resemble their old (mid-1950s) caps and uniforms -- belts and shirt buttons are back. Memorabilia (old baseball cards, bats and so on) command prices so high it would seem only a $700,000-a-year utility infielder could afford them.All too briefly, Jim Palmer gave us living nostalgia. Attempting a comeback seven years after his retirement, he pitched two innings in a spring training exhibition game, got hit hard and said his sore hamstrings would not allow him to continue.

This is worth writing about, even though in Jamie Moyer's last game as an Oriole I was still single. I got married a week after Moyer last pitched for Baltimore, back in 1995, his third and final season here. That was before three kids and 16 years of wedded bliss for me. That's how we mark Moyer's career these days, in our own timeline: where we were when he did what. His first win, June 16, 1986 with the Chicago Cubs, came as I had just finished my junior year in high school.

One of the perks of covering the Orioles is that we have easy access to Jim Palmer, a Hall of Fame pitcher who, unlike some other great players, has no problem speaking his mind. I talked to Palmer on Wednesday after he deplaned in Southern California - he will be presented with the Professional Baseball Scouts' Foundation's lifetime achievement award on Saturday in Los Angeles - about the Baseball Writers' of America Association failing to induct anyone into this year's Hall of Fame class, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Hall of Famer Jim Palmer was found in contempt of court and ordered to pay $13,500 in legal fees yesterday for failing to live up to the terms of his divorce in May. Baltimore Circuit Judge James T. Smith, Jr. cited Palmer for contempt for failing to transfer $175,000 from his pension fund to his ex-wife, Joan H. Palmer. Smith also ordered Palmer, a former Oriole pitcher, to pay Joan Palmer's legal fees within 30 days. The couple were divorced in May after a 10-year marriage. Under terms of a settlement agreement reached in May, the couple's condominium in Juno Beach, Fla., and their house in the Brooklandville section of Baltimore County will be put up for sale.

No one wants to be a downer when writing about opening day especially when the Orioles pull off a comeback victory like they did Friday over the Minnesota Twins by a score of 9-5. But  MASN's telecast of the home opener featuring Gary Thorne, Jim Palmer and Mike Bordick was nowhere near worthy of the play on the field by the Orioles. Someone needs to tell the boys in the booth it's the Orioles who made the playoffs last year - not them - and it's time for them to raise their games.

Earl Weaver, the former Orioles Hall of Fame manager who died Friday night, left those around him with such great memories and stories, that it was hard to get them all in for the one story I did Sunday. So here are some of the leftovers. My most personal one came last year in Sarasota during spring training. Weaver was at the Ed Smith complex to talk Buck Showalter and his coaches. He was sitting in the lobby near the clubhouse, waiting by himself. So I went up to chat with him. I had interviewed Weaver several times before.

Earl Weaver was a reporter's dream-come-true. If you were a young columnist covering the Orioles in the early 80s, as I was for the old Evening Sun, you couldn't ask to be around a more colorful manager. You almost didn't have to talk to any of the players on those great Orioles' teams. Weaver would fill your notebook all by himself. With Weaver, baseball meant show-time and the ballpark was his theater. His hat-spinning, spittle-flying confrontations with umpires were legendary, some of the funniest bits of vaudeville I've ever seen in the game.

For all the years that they did battle in the clubhouse or the sports pages or on the dais of some charity roast, Jim Palmer knew how Earl Weaver really felt about him. That's why he had to hold back tears Saturday when he related his favorite memory of the Earl of Baltimore - a memory made more poignant because it also involved his late teammate Mike Flanagan. It was way back, on one of those balmy spring training days in Miami, when the Orioles were always one of the best teams in baseball and Palmer was their pitching ace. Flanagan, still figuring things out in his early 20s, was sitting on the bench next to Weaver.

One of the perks of covering the Orioles is that we have easy access to Jim Palmer, a Hall of Fame pitcher who, unlike some other great players, has no problem speaking his mind. I talked to Palmer on Wednesday after he deplaned in Southern California - he will be presented with the Professional Baseball Scouts' Foundation's lifetime achievement award on Saturday in Los Angeles - about the Baseball Writers' of America Association failing to induct anyone into this year's Hall of Fame class, including Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Lee MacPhail, a Hall of Fame baseball executive who served as Orioles general manager from 1959 to 1965, died Thursday evening at his home in Delray Beach, Fla. He was 95. Mr. MacPhail, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998, represented the middle of a four-generation baseball dynasty. His father, Larry, was also a Hall of Fame executive. His son, Andy, became the Orioles' top baseball executive from 2007 to 2011 after serving in similar roles for the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs.

Hall of Famer Jim Palmer was found in contempt of court and ordered to pay $13,500 in legal fees yesterday for failing to live up to the terms of his divorce in May. Baltimore Circuit Judge James T. Smith, Jr. cited Palmer for contempt for failing to transfer $175,000 from his pension fund to his ex-wife, Joan H. Palmer. Smith also ordered the former Orioles pitcher to pay Joan Palmer's legal fees within 30 days. The couple were divorced in May after a 10-year marriage. Under terms of a settlement reached in May, the couple's condominium in Juno Beach, Fla., and their house in the Brooklandville section of Baltimore County will be put up for sale.

Hall of Famer Jim Palmer was granted a divorce yesterday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, ending his 10-year marriage but not the legal disputes with his ex-wife. Palmer, who filed for divorce in 1998, sat stone-faced as Joan H. Palmer's lawyer read a settlement agreement in court that allows him to keep his three World Championship rings from his career with the Orioles, three Cy Young Awards and his mother's desk. Joan Palmer will be allowed to keep her jewelry collection, china set, cameras and camera equipment and an Andy Warhol silk-screen, "Lifesavers."

Lee MacPhail, a Hall of Fame baseball executive who served as the Orioles' general manager from 1959 to 1965, died Thursday evening at his home in Delray Beach, Fla. He was 95. Mr. MacPhail, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1998, represented the middle of a four-generation baseball dynasty. His father, Larry, was also a Hall of Fame executive. His son Andy became the Orioles' top baseball executive from 2007 to 2011 after serving in similar roles for the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs.

Forty-one years. Until now, that's how long it had been since Baltimore's baseball and football teams thrilled fans by making their respective playoffs in the same year. In January, the Ravens played New England for the AFC championship, and lost to the Patriots. Earlier this month, the Orioles advanced to the American League Division Series, bowing to the New York Yankees. For the first time in decades, Baltimoreans can wear the colors of two teams with equal pride. Orange one day, purple the next.