The O’s know how to have fun, and that is what will help them win

By: Corey Johns

Baseball can be a long and boring at times. It can drag on. It can be too serious with old, crusty baseball guys talking about tradition and unwritten rules and the standards of excellence and professionalism. If you ask a baseball purist, flipping a bat after hitting a home run is a mortal sin worse than intentionally throwing a 90-mile per hour fastball at the head of an opposing batter.

But when Adam Jones ran out on opening day to throw some sort of pastry in the face of Matt Wieters after his game-winning RBI hit, the Orioles once again showed that they are not going to abide by baseball’s traditionalist rules.

The club itself banned pies to the face this year. They tried to stop a great, fun tradition that fans love, the players love and Adam Jones really loves.

So he bent the rules a little bit. It might have been in a pie dish, but that was a cake. Nobody said he could not throw a cake in anybody’s face.

The Orioles are 2-0 right now, with Joey Rickard coming out of nowhere and hitting the lights out of the ball all the way through spring training until now. Chris Davis has already smacked a ball out of the park to kick off what he and the Orioles are hoping will be a third season in four years in which he proves to be the home run king, and the pitching has been fantastic.

It’s early, but there is no denying that these guys are having a lot of fun.

When the Orioles were losing there was no excitement or emotion from the players. They just went out, did what they did and that was it. Ever since Jones joined the team the Orioles have gone through a major culture change. He and Manny Machado can be described as goofballs and can keep having as much fun as they want because they are as good as they come.

And who better to be leading this club with such great personality than Buck Showalter.

Here is a manager that has been known to be an old, crusty, manager who yells and screams a lot. But while he is still known for his complete lack of facial expressions, the Orioles have made it impossible for him to not have fun. We’ve gotten to see the great personality of Showalter these past few years. He’s having a good time and even joked in a sarcastic way that he lost control of the team after Jones caked Wieters.

In reality, he doesn’t want to stop the guys from having fun. He probably embraces Jones’ shenanigans because he has a team that just loves playing together. And that is the kind of team that is going to go a long way.

This article was provided by So Much Sports. For more great sports coverage by So Much Sports please visit somuchsports.com and baltimore.somuchsports.com.