Orioles hope batters will fear the beard of reliever Colin Selby; Povich returns to Norfolk

BALTIMORE—When the Orioles needed another reliever after sending Cade Povich down to Triple-A Norfolk after Saturday’s impressive start against the Boston Red Sox, they chose right-hander Colin Selby.

Selby was recalled from Norfolk, and he has some big league experience. In 23 games with Pittsburgh last year and Kansas City this year, he’s 2-2 with an 8.67 ERA.

The Pirates traded  him to the Royals in early April, and the Orioles purchased him from Kansas City on July 11^th. In  nine games with the Tides, he was 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA, striking out 11 and walking five in 10 innings.

“It’s a little bumpy,” Selby said. “It’s the first time I’ve experienced this, being traded almost out of spring training. It’s settled down now and I’m comfortable where I’m at. I[m ready to push forward and help the team any way I can.”

What stands out about Selby isn’t his stats or that he’s only the third player who went to Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, but his luxuriant beard.

“It does need some care when I wake up and when I go to bed,” Selby said. “I wake up and it smashes out of my face half the time. I’ve been working on it for coming up on three years now. I don’t really have a plan for it, just going to keep it going, I guess.

“In college, we always had to shave in the fall and then when we were ranked, we were allowed to keep it. When I first got drafted by the Pirates, we had to have clean shaved faces until right after Covid, so I would usually have a beard and then shave it to a mustache in the offseason and restart, and then about three years ago, I let it ride.”