Minnesota Twins

The question is posed with the understanding that there's no definite answer and the evidence can be bent in a variety of ways. But as interleague play begins tonight, it's worth at least asking: Who will find success first - the Orioles or the Nationals? When the Nats moved into the neighborhood more than two years ago, most of the initial hand-wringing centered on having to share the economic pie. Because both teams have floundered in the standings, discussion about which organization could consistently field the more competitive team has lacked punch.

Before taking the field for yesterday's game against the Minnesota Twins, Orioles first baseman Jeff Conine had a brief chat with hitting coach Terry Crowley. Buried beneath a 1-for-19 slump, he was open to any suggestions.Even the simple ones."He told me to go up there and let it go. If I get a pitch in the strike zone, let it go. Don't wait for that perfect pitch down the middle. It might not come," Conine said."You've got to hit a strike. Not a perfect strike, just a strike."Conine and Rich Amaral saw a few of them yesterday and didn't miss.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Matt Riley makes his much-anticipated major-league debut tonight against the Minnesota Twins. Played between two teams a combined 35 games under .500, the game will be witnessed by fewer than 10,000 fans within the cavernous Metrodome but scrutinized to an exponential degree by virtually every member of the Orioles' front office.The precocious, left-handed Riley -- 20 years, 39 days old -- becomes the youngest Orioles pitcher to make a start since Mike Adamson appeared July 1, 1967, at 19 years, 291 days.

Davey Johnson would have called yesterday a "JV game." A lifetime ago in 1997 he used lineups heavily composed of role players while sitting Roberto Alomar and Rafael Palmeiro to defeat the Seattle Mariners' Randy Johnson twice in the American League Division Series.Ray Miller instead called it a necessity as he started third baseman Jeff Reboulet, designated hitter Willis Otanez, shortstop Jesse Garcia and center fielder Rich Amaral, a concoction never seen before outside Fort Lauderdale, Fla. There it might have been classified as a split squad.

Quote: "There was no message to send. If I wanted to send them a message, I'll write Joe [Torre] a letter. Once you get to the postseason, you throw it all out the window." -- Indians manager Mike Hargrove, dismissing talk that the New York-Cleveland series was anything more than four games in late SeptemberIt's a fact: The Tigers are 56-51 when homering at least once, and 4-37 when they don't homer.Who's hot: Jason Giambi has 225 RBIs over two consecutive seasons, third-best in Oakland history.

Quote: "It's my 15th season. I feel fortunate my body still responds to what I ask it to do." -- Blue Jays' Roger Clemens.It's a fact: Mo Vaughn's homer yesterday was the 198th of his career, making him the all-time leader in home runs for a player born in Connecticut, surpassing former Tigers second baseman Dick McAuliffe.Who's hot: Juan Gonzalez had a four-RBI game and a five-RBI game back-to- back last week, giving him 20 games with four RBIs or more since 1996.Who's not: Tigers first baseman Tony Clark finished April batting .232, with just two homers and 12 RBIs.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- An assumption that the Orioles had obtained a left fielder and cleanup hitter when they signed Albert Belle to a $65 million contract suffered another hit yesterday when manager Ray Miller said he plans to place Belle third in his reconfigured batting order, ahead of first baseman Will Clark.Miller's move sounds unorthodox but is based more upon flow than convention. Belle has led the major leagues in home runs the past eight seasons and last year produced 99 extra-base hits, but he also represents a potent right-handed bat in a lineup stacked with left-handers.

Last month in Philadelphia, Jeff Reboulet joked to a reporter who was looking for a story: "If I demanded a trade with just 40 at-bats, it would be nothing more than a note."It was just one of many times in his career that Reboulet has laughed at himself and his role as a utility infielder.But once Reboulet steps on the field, all the jokes stop."I told Syd Thrift [director of player development] last year, they ought to put a camera on Jeff every time he walks on the field and show it to all the minor-leaguers," said Orioles manager Ray Miller last night before Reboulet started his fifth straight game, four of them at second base because of a finger injury to Roberto Alomar.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Orioles further beefed up their spring training pitching staff yesterday by inviting left-hander John Parrish to camp, a move made necessary by injuries to Steve Montgomery and Everett Stull. Parrish joins left-hander Vince Horsman and right-hander Matt Snyder as late additions.Montgomery was told Tuesday that he would be sidelined for six to 10 days because of inflammation in his right shoulder. Stull's left knee was scoped yesterday to remove slightly torn meniscus and will need at least three weeks to rehabilitate.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Something snapped in 1997. The whistle was blown on the stadium extortion racket. Pro sports stopped being America's civic opiate.Indeed, teams that go running off to other cities, looking for a better deal after their current towns refuse to pay hundreds of millions in stadium ransom, may be in for a rude surprise: equally irate, anti-subsidy forces waiting for them in the next city down Subsidy Boulevard.Twin failureCase in point: Reacting to a populace steaming with exasperation toward millionaire players and billionaire owners, the Minnesota legislature refused to guarantee $356 million in public payments for a new stadium for the Minnesota Twins -- even when owner Carl Pohlad, rebuffed in offers earlier in the year, said he'd eventually donate the team to a nonprofit foundation.

MINNEAPOLIS - - Even in their losses recently, and there have been plenty of them, the Orioles have played pretty good baseball. But in Tuesday night's deflating 7-6 defeat to the Minnesota Twins before an announced 23,690 at the Metrodome, they did just enough to make sure that they wound up with the loss. The Twins scored three times in the sixth inning to tie the game and then won it in the ninth on Delmon Young's RBI single to right field off Kam Mickolio, his fourth hit of the night.

The Minnesota Twins are barely hanging on in the playoff race as they've struggled to compensate for an injury-ravaged rotation and a pitching staff that has the fourth worst ERA in the American League. Kevin Slowey (right wrist surgery) is out for the season, while Glen Perkins (left shoulder tendinitis) and Francisco Liriano (left arm fatigue) are also both on the disabled list. The Twins do have superstar catcher Joe Mauer, one of the front-runners for the AL Most Valuable Player award.

WIGGINTON AT WORK Ty Wigginton has been impressing the coaching staff with his bat all spring, but he had a particularly productive afternoon. He doubled home the first run in the first inning, singled in another in the second and broke a tie at 3 with a run-scoring single in the seventh. He's batting .308 in 39 at-bats and leads the Orioles with 10 RBIs. JONES STAYS HOT Center fielder Adam Jones had two hits and scored two runs. He has been one of the most productive hitters of the spring, raising his average to .342.

At the outset of this season, one of the Orioles' primary goals was to identify younger players for the future. The losing record and last-place finish would be tolerable if proper building blocks were established. So the frustration level of Orioles manager Dave Trembley boiled over the past few weeks, not because of the continual losses, but because borderline major leaguers were getting ample opportunities and few were seizing them. Yesterday, after the Orioles beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-3, to avoid a home sweep, Trembley saw some glimpses of what could be. "I think today was a game that gives us something to be excited about for the future," Trembley said.

People accuse us old liberals of smarmy self-righteousness, and God knows they are right. Four of us had lunch the other day and we agreed before we sat down: no politics. We know what we're going to say, so why say it? Self-righteousness is a good old American vice, and we have it, and though preferable to cruelty and cynicism and deliberate dumbheadedness, nonetheless remind yourself: You are not so different from the others. So when we got onto politics halfway through my tuna sandwich, I said a deliberate unself-righteous thing: "I don't think any of us believes what we say we believe.

Blogging about the Orioles isn't for the faint of heart. The team, which opens the 2008 season tomorrow, used to have about 30 blogs focused on it, according to baseballblogs.org. That was on a par with the San Francisco Giants (30 blogs) and Seattle Mariners (31), but well below the rabid followings of the Boston Red Sox (145) and New York Yankees (112). Even some teams without the Orioles' pedigree or in smaller markets had more blogs about them, such as the 3-year-old Washington Nationals (34)

Noteworthy home runs Sept. 6, 1995, against the California Angels' Shawn Boskie. Who cares if it was a meatball served up in a 2-1 game? On the night he broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive-games streak, with the world watching and flashes popping, Ripken hit the pitch from Boskie over the leftfield wall. Sept. 2, 1999, against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' Rolando Arrojo. A three-run homer in the third inning deep down the left-field line was the 400th of Ripken?s career. He was the 29th player to reach the mark.

MINNESOTA -- Thankfully for Frank Thomas, his family had to catch an early flight yesterday. That meant his wife, three children and father-in-law got to see Thomas hit his 500th home run. And they were gone when Thomas got ejected. "They had to leave for the airport at 1:45. My daughter said, `Dad, you've got to do it in the first couple of at-bats,'" he said. Thomas hit a three-run shot in the first inning of the Toronto Blue Jays' 8-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins, becoming the 21st major leaguer to reach 500. But in the ninth, Thomas was ejected by plate umpire Mark Wegner after being called out on strikes for the second time in the game.

Andy MacPhail's love of baseball bloomed in Baltimore, and now he is apparently heading back. The Orioles have agreed in principle with former Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins executive MacPhail - whose father once was Baltimore's general manager - to be the club's next chief operating officer, a baseball official confirmed yesterday. Reached by phone yesterday morning, MacPhail, 54, a consultant for Major League Baseball and commissioner Bud Selig, would not comment. "I am just not really at liberty to discuss the situation at present," MacPhail said.

The question is posed with the understanding that there's no definite answer and the evidence can be bent in a variety of ways. But as interleague play begins tonight, it's worth at least asking: Who will find success first - the Orioles or the Nationals? When the Nats moved into the neighborhood more than two years ago, most of the initial hand-wringing centered on having to share the economic pie. Because both teams have floundered in the standings, discussion about which organization could consistently field the more competitive team has lacked punch.