Calling the Pen
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December 15, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: The gift of love
The backyard ball field with the chicken wire backstop and the marble bases carefully set at ground level was my sanctuary. It was where I would go to use my imagination, making up rosters and playing imaginary games with a Wiffle ball that I pretended was a baseball. It was where I...
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December 8, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Covering the Orioles’ longest season
The famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh, once described flying as “hours of boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror.” Lindbergh, who was a devoted St. Louis Cardinals fan, didn’t know he could have been referring to the 2018 Baltimore Orioles. I covered 126 Orioles games in 2018. Most of them were less than...
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November 24, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Thankful for blessings amid life’s storms
The initial plan sounded like a tale from the old west. Dave Glenn and his dad, Mike, had sent the women and children out of town before a dangerous stranger arrived, threatening all that they owned. But it wasn’t long before they decided that they, too, should leave. Hurricane Florence was bearing...
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November 9, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Buck Showalter writes a letter to Baltimore
When I met with Andy MacPhail about the Orioles job, I knew Baltimore was a great baseball city. I knew what the tenor was like, I knew what the atmosphere was like. When I was at ESPN, I was at peace with my life. It was a great time. My son was...
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November 3, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: The search continues
We were assembling joggers for the seven participants from Athletes Serving Athletes to compete in the marathon relay of the Baltimore Running Festival when I realized we were in the shadows of The Warehouse at Camden Yards. Except we weren’t really in the shadows, we were in the dark before sunrise, when...
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October 13, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: A father’s pride, and a daughter’s love
You know the clear plastic sleeve on older wallets? The part where people keep their driver’s license or other form of ID easily accessible? All it takes is a flip of the wrist to show the guy at the bar you’re of age or pick up a package at UPS. That’s where...
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October 6, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Showalter and Duquette deserve our thanks
In my professional career — one that has now spanned more than 10 years — I’ve only “played hooky” from work once. (Apologies to AOL, my employer at the time.) The date was Sept. 13, 2012, and the Orioles were in the midst of an exciting push toward the playoffs that caught...
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September 27, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Calling the Pen: Oriole fans get a final chance to show that all is not lost
Passion and compassion. Passion for one’s team. Compassion for its players, when it’s evident the struggle is real. A Sports Illustrated story about Chris Davis triggered these thoughts as the Orioles come home to play the Houston Astros in their final games of the season. It’s fan appreciation weekend in a season...
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September 22, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Rich memories and big-time names from a childhood in Brooklyn
Last week was the end of an era for my family. For the first time since April 1955, someone other than a Dubroff owns what was our house in Brooklyn. My mother lived there for nearly 63 years, and neither my brother, his children nor I had any interest in keeping it....
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September 15, 2018 at 9:44 am
Calling the Pen: He couldn’t hit left-handed, but everything else was right
Before organized sports became, well, organized, the kids in our neighborhood did it ourselves. We loved to be outdoors playing ball during the day and hide-and-seek at night. There were a lot of us close to the same age and a lot of parents who had simple rules — be home for...
