Baltimore Orioles celebrate 2015 at FanFest

I really want to keep this brief today, because sports fans have a more important calling on this Super Sunday. Having said that, yesterday the Baltimore Orioles hosted their annual FanFest celebration at the Baltimore Convention Center, and as always it was a rousing success. As I’ve said many times, FanFest is a great family-centric event which features player appearances, autographs, pictures, merchandise, games, etc. Pretty much everything that one gets and an actual Orioles’ game – without the game itself.

To his credit, GM Dan Duquette appeared in several different places over the course of the day, including a Q & A session in front of fans. He seemed to deflect questions about the Toronto situation to the best of his ability, which is what I would have expected. However again – to his credit, he showed up. Many people might read that and say that’s his job, and they’d be right. But it would have been just as easy to have found an excuse not to go.

One thing that struck me about Duquette’s remarks came after he was asked about possible trades and when they might come in season. Duquette admitted that he started to look in June for potential trade partners, as at that point he generally has a feel as to how the season is going – meaning whether they’re buyers or sellers. However in saying this, he also dropped a bit of a nugget regarding what he’s planning on doing between now and Opening Day…

…he said that while he’ll continue to look for trades in June, he hopes to add either a reliever or perhaps a utility player before the season begins. He also referenced having to replace Andrew Miller, which tells me that they might be leaning towards adding a reliever. But time will tell. One thing we do know (if his comments mean anything) is that the Orioles are still open for business when it comes to adding guys for the 2015 O’s.

On behalf of the O’s themselves, I’d like to thank anyone who attended yesterday’s FanFest celebration. As always, it was a rousing success, and that wouldn’t have been possible if not for the fans.

Speaking of big events, my prediction for tonight’s Super Bowl is 34-31 in favor of – WAIT FOR IT – New England. I know that most of Birdland was looking forward to my prediction for tonight’s game, so now you have it. Seeing how close that score is, I am thinking the game itself will be an instant classic.