The truth about me is that, outside of my friends and family, I don't really care about many things. But one thing I really do love is the holiday season. From Thanksgiving to New Years I'm happy to be around the decorations and the music and the food. I revel in it. I love finding new recipes for Thanksgiving and buying new ornaments for the tree. I love Christmas cookies and Christmas music. I love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and finding that perfect present for someone.

I get schmaltzy this time of year; I can't help it. It's a time when I feel thankful and happy and grateful for pretty much anything that gets in my way. That includes the Orioles and Camden Chat and Andy MacPhail.

I wrote a Thanksgiving post here a few years ago and I feel that since then we have a lot more to be thankful for. Don't get me wrong, I know the work isn't even close to being done. There are plenty of questions to be asked, plenty of criticisms to be made. The Orioles need 4/5 of a rotation and at least half of an infield. They need to be more proactive in searching for international talent and they need to continue to woo the fan base beyond new uniforms. Oh, and winning would be nice too.

But.

Our farm system has gone from barren to respectable. Recent drafts have given us Matt Wieters and Jake Arrieta. Trades that just a few years ago wouldn't have been pulled off provided us with Chris Tillman and Adam Jones. Gone are the days when the GM not only tries to build a .500 team and nothing more, but actually admits it in public. No longer do we hear the infuriating assurances from Peter Angelos that next year the team will definitely be competitive even though everyone knows it isn't true. In Andy MacPhail, the team has a man at the helm with a track record and a plan. And of course there's Nick Markakis.

There are positives here in Birdland. I can only hope that the Orioles will continue to address shortcomings and needs of this broken franchise and provide us with even more reasons to be thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Exitfare already posted a fanpost on this, but I felt compelled to write something myself.

As this season ended it was always a very real possibility that Mike Mussina would retire. We all speculated that he'd like to stick around for a few more years to get three hundred wins (he will end his career with 270), and that speculation seemed true when he filed for free agency. But at the age of 39 and 11 months, after 18 seasons in the majors, he decided enough was enough.

When I got in my car this evening the first thing that flashed on my XM radio was, "Report: Mike Mussina to retire," and I'll be honest, it caught me off guard how emotional I felt. I sat in the parking lot looking at those words flash across the screen and I welled up with emotion. Since he'd declared free agency, I'd harbored this fantasy that Mussina would sign a three year deal with the O's and during those three years he'd get his 300th win and also the WS ring he's been chasing his whole career. I knew it wouldn't happen, but I wanted it to so badly.

Mike Mussina is a player from my childhood and one of my all time favorites. As a very young child I went to baseball games and watched them on tv with my dad, but I didn't start to truly get into baseball until my early teen years. I was 12 years old when Mike Mussina came up to the bigs and I came of age with him, Cal, and Brady. To me, those are the good old days.

I know there are a lot of mixed feelings about Mike Mussina here in Birdland. But I hope that if you are one of those who was never able to come to terms with his departure, you'll set that aside for a moment and remember the 10 amazing seasons Mike Mussina spent as a Baltimore Oriole. He was a great pitcher with a great career, and now that he's retired none of my childhood favorites are still in the game.

Mike Mussina's stats as a Baltimore Oriole:

Along with those numbers are 5 All Star games and 4 Gold Gloves. No Cy Youngs, but he finished in the top 5 five times as an Oriole.

From Yahoo

BOSTON (AP)—Outfielder Coco Crisp was traded from the Boston Red Sox to the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Royals general manager Dayton Moore called the switch-hitting Crisp a “championship-caliber player” who will help Kansas City move forward. Crisp is a career .280 batter in seven seasons with the Cleveland and the Red Sox.

The 29-year-old stared 98 games for the Red Sox last season while sharing the center field job with rookie Jacoby Ellsbury. He stole 20 bases in 27 attempts, marking the third season in a row he’s reached the 20-steal mark.

The trade frees up some money for Boston. Crisp is owed $5.75 million next season, with an $8 million club option for 2010 or a $500,000 buyout.

Ramirez is a 27-year-old right-hander who had a 2.64 ERA in 71 2-3 innings last season.

Apparently the Royals just HATE having good relievers so they're going to trade them all away.

According to Ken Rosenthal.

Proefrock, the Orioles' director of baseball administration, will join the Phillies as an assistant GM, according to major-league sources. An announcement is expected Monday.

The Phillies selected Proefrock over Jim Duquette, a former GM with the Mets and Orioles; Wayne Krivsky, a former GM with the Reds; and Muzzy Jackson, a former assistant GM with the Royals.

Proefrock will play a major role in contract negotiations and other administrative duties. Prior to joining the Orioles in Oct. 2005, he spent 10 1/2 years in a similar capacity with the Rays.

I don't really know much about what Proefrock did with the O's, but best of luck to him in Philly. I'm sure it's a better gig than here.

This morning on Baseball This AM on XM they were discussing the NL Cy Young winner TIm Lincecum and Mark Patrick says that he's surprised it was such a landslide seeing as how Brandon Webb had so many more wins to which Buck Martinez replies, "When you're evaluating a pitcher the first thing you look at is wins." WHY is he so stupid? Then some guy calls in and gives Buck the what for about how that's the most ridiculous thing you can say and I'm laughing because it's the same sort of thing I want to say to stupid baseball announcers all the time. Buck's response? "Say what you want about ERA and other stats, but ask any pitcher if he'd rather have a low ERA or a win and he'll say win every time." Which, DUH, Buck, but that doesn't make the guy with more wins a better pitcher.

Free Agents can begin talking to other teams this Friday, and Yahoo has a nifty list of Free Agents that will be updated as the off season progresses. I'll be glad when Teixeira is signed somewhere and we can stop pretending he'll end up in Baltimore.

Trades! Reports are the Matt Holliday has been traded to the Oakland A's. In return for Holliday, the A's will send the Rockies Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith, and Huston Street. This trade perplexes me just a bit as it seems to be the opposite of Billy Beane's MO, although if he in turn flips Holliday before the deadline I'll feel better about my understanding of the world. Beane is regarded as being brilliant, and I'll give him that his trades do make sense generally, but he is perpetually rebuilding which will never let the A's catch the Angels. Maybe Billy Beane is realizing that.

In the "who cares" category, the Nationals traded Emilio Bonafacio plus minor leaguers to the Marlins for Josh Willingham and Scott Olsen. The Nats were just god awful last year so they can use any pitching they can get, even if it is Scott Olsen.

No news on the Orioles front yet, although that's hardly surprising. If Andy doesn't pick up his snail pace this off season I might go insane. In looking for any information on the O's, I found mlb.com's Orioles Hot Stove Blog. Nothing much going on over there except for the Khalil Greene rumor and Danyz Baez's desire to be a starter, but it might be a good place to keep an eye on.

Tomorrow is the big Orioles rally at the Gallery to reveal their new uniforms. Some info on the uniforms from Roch's blog. It seems that Nick Markakis, Jeremy Guthrie, and George Sherrill will be there for the big reveal. A co-worker and I are planning on taking a long lunch to check it out, so hopefully I'll get some good pictures for you.