I shot the video accompanying this post from the upper deck behind home plate last night at Camden Yards. It’s less than a minute and a half — the last two pitches from Jim Johnson striking out Alex Rodriguez — and the wild scene during and after the final out of the O’s huge 3-2 win.

The clip starts with fans rising to their feet with two strikes on A-Rod, and then booing loudly when he calls timeout and steps from the batter’s box. The crowd soon rises again, cheering madly until Rodriguez takes Johnson’s ensuing pitch for a ball. (At this point, you can hear Baltimore author and life-long O's fan Rafael Alvarez, standing next to me, chime in: “You don't want Cano coming to the plate,” referring to the Yankee slugger in the on-deck circle.)

Finally, Johnson, who had already retired future Hall of Famers Derek Jeter and Ichiro Suzuki, punches out A-Rod and Camden Yards explodes. Fireworks go off over the Eutaw Street scoreboard as the Oriole outfielders leap for a victory bump in centerfield.

I didn’t know if the craziness at Camden Yards was translating to television last night, but the...

Concerned that the Orioles finished the year with a loss? Or that our bats went cold in the final two games?

Hey, they are truly downhearted in Texas. The Rangers led their division by five games with nine left to play until the Oakland A’s literally swept the rug out from under their feet.

Let’s not forget the Rangers dropped the last two World Series. That has raised expectations in Texas and, at the same time, created a burden of inevitable disappointment.

I mean, we’re still thrilled just to make the playoffs after a decade-and-a-half drought. Right? The only question tonight in Baltimore is what neighborhood and which bar to watch and cheer. Game time is 8:30 p.m.

We all know by now that the numbers aren’t on our side: Joe Saunders, our starting pitcher, has never beaten the Rangers in Texas, getting shellacked while posting a 9.36 ERA.

Ranger starter Yu Darvish, on the other hand, is 5-1 with a 2.35 ERA since mid-August. And the O’s have never faced...

Classic cars, Rockabilly bands, a vintage swap meet, tattoo art shows and a pinup contest — what's not to love about the annual Mobtown Greaseball?

Presented by Charm City's Karb Kings Car Club and benefitting the Baltimore Zoo, the 15th annual event attracted some 600 cars this year outside the Dundalk Moose Lodge Saturday afternoon. Inside the lodge, the music and swing dancing continued late into the night.

Somehow this long-running, quintessential Baltimore car culture festival still flies under the radar, but it's one-of-a-kind. Keep an eye out next September.

Last year at this time, Orioles gear was the 20th most popular in the majors.

This month, according to ESPN, they have the third bestselling merch in baseball, behind only the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants.

Their stellar play and feel good story is obvioulsy a huge factor. (Did you see that game last night? No? Me neither. Sooooo sleepy. But holy $#!@!—that's 14 straight extra inning wins!)

But there's another contributing factor: Our gear is AWESOME.

It really was just a matter of time before the Orioles brass woke up and noticed that the fans vastly preferred the adorable three-tone cartoon bird cap over the serious "ornithologically correct" bird logo. ("We're ornithologically correct!" is hardly a great rallying cry.) So the fact that the Orioles went all-cartoon-bird-all-the-time this year was inevitably going to boost sales.

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