For the Birds #5

This is my fifth post on the Orioles and when I see "#5" anywhere, I think of Brooks Robinson. I wore "5" and played third base when my traveling team won the Baltimore County championship at age 10. My cleats were black with orange stripes, just like the Birds. I learned to play the hot corner by watching Brooks set himself, knees bent on the balls of his feet, ready to lunge in either direction. Along with my teammates, we pretended we were Brooks or Frank or Jim Palmer--they were our role models, and, I'm pretty sure, never took steroids. They taught us how to play the game, and we bought the same gloves they used, bent our caps and wore our stirrup socks yanked up over our sanitary hose they way they did. Sometimes we kept their baseball cards in our pockets for good luck. On game days, I was dressed in full uniform at least four hours prior to the first pitch. We followed their examples and routed Woodlawn in the championship, 18-5. The Orioles defeated the Yankees today, 12-2 in the Bronx and have won their last two games against the Yankees. The rookie, Nick Markakis homered to right to give the O's a 7-2 lead. The kid has made himself into a good hitter. These two games will get me through the winter. My dad says we're three players away. I'm happy to end the season now.