Big, Round Numbers

Fifty posts and 20 interviews in the books. A thousand subscribers (almost). My 40th wedding anniversary. A lot going on here at the Bird Tapes!

When I launched the Bird Tapes on Substack around the start of the 2024 major league season, my goal was to provide context and history that enhanced the experience of rooting for the Baltimore Orioles — a prospect that figured to be especially exciting coming off the team’s 101-win season in 2023.

Well, the Orioles’ 2024 season has been … a journey. There was a great start followed by a run of key injuries, some middling months, and now, the likelihood of a playoff appearance, never to be taken for granted, even as the team seemingly struggles every night.

Kind of weird, all in all.

Hopefully, the Bird Tapes have helped you through the highs and lows. I couldn’t be happier with how the project has gone and been received.

Substack suggests that I let everyone know when I reach certain thresholds, and I’m in the neighborhood of several big, round numbers, so here goes. Monday’s article containing the first half of my interview with Elrod Hendricks was my 50th post since I launched the Bird Tapes with an introductory post in early April. Hendricks’ interview is the 20th with a former Oriole player or executive to be featured, meaning I’m about halfway through my collection of vintage interviews that were stored on microcassettes in a shoebox in my office closet for two decades.

Tapes of the interviews I’ve already digitized and posted. Out of the shoebox and into a bag.

I’ve discussed the Bird Tapes on Sirius XM radio, Maryland Public Television’s “Direction Connection,” WYPR’s “Midday with Tom Hall,” Tom Davis’ “Wall to Wall Baseball,” WNST 1570 and the Orioles’ pregame show on MASN. A partnership with BaltimoreBaseball.com has helped introduce the project to a wider audience, and a partnership with the Baltimore Banner is under consideration. Substack has already declared the Bird Tapes a bestseller.

The interview lineup has been strong so far, headed by my vintage conversations with with Brooks, Frank, Earl, Eddie, Boog, etc., and I’m pleased to report there are numerous big-fish interviews still to come, with such subjects as Peter Angelos, Rick Dempsey and another Hall of Famer who shall remain nameless for now.

My shoebox today, with about half of the tapes gone … but plenty left!

I’m not going to stop when the baseball season ends; I’ll keep rolling right through the offseason, posting new interviews every week as well as new articles on various people and moments from the Orioles’ first half-century. The latter pieces have been popular — my recent feature on the last game at Memorial Stadium elicited a big response.

Along those lines, the Bird Tapes community has grown so quickly that it’s on the verge of a major big, round number — a thousand subscribers. Given the current rate of growth, it’ll happen any day now, and all I can say is thanks, everyone. Oh, and if you’re in touch with any Oriole fans who might not know about the Bird Tapes, please don’t hesitate to make them aware.

There’s one more big, round number I want to pass along — 40. That’s how many years I’ve been married, and I’m going to take a few days off to celebrate with my wife. I’ve arranged it so the Bird Tapes will continue to generate fresh content while I’m away. There’ll be several guest posts, more of my interview with Elrod, a surprise or two.

I’ll be back in time for the major league playoffs, which, hopefully, will include the Orioles faring better than they did a year ago.