O's drop a close one in Florida

[KamaAina]

to a community college team!!



http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/baltimore-orioles-drop-exhibition-game-community-college-164735728.html

Baltimore Orioles manager Buck Showalter termed the event a "controlled scrimmage." The opponent used pitchers (including left-hander Tsuyoshi Wada) and a catcher from the Orioles roster. Major league stars such as J.J. Hardy, Adam Jones and Matt Wieters took only a couple of turns apiece at the plate and played about five innings. And the adversaries played for eight innings total, not a full regulation game.

With that context — perhaps you call it "spin" — understood, there's no other way to put this: A community college team beat the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday.

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota chapter, edged the O's 2-1 in a charity game at Ed Smith Stadium. The O's look like a charity case, all right. If this were European soccer, or if baseball did relegation, Nick Markakis might be carrying a book bag and a class schedule around Camden Yards this spring. And he didn't even play!

If the name "State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota" rings a bell, it might be because of this:

And if that college's name is familiar, you might remember their team beating the Pittsburgh Pirates three years ago. But that was against rookies and minor leaguers, mostly. This game had real Orioles in it. Not that the Manatees are going to gloat, with the O's taking over for the Pirates this season to keep the charity game going. (It's still going, right?)

To recap, the mighty Manatees of State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota have now defeated both the O's AND the Pirates in recent years.

[Renew Deal]

1. I think it's pretty cool that the major league teams play the minors or colleges occasionally

The Yankees played Virginia Tech a couple years ago, though that was a charity type game as well.