By DEAN BARTOLI SMITH

If you were going to design a sushi roll to commemorate the beginnning of the Orioles 2009 season, it would have to have raw emotion, hot Japanese pitching and some sweet, sweet victories.

The first week is in the books and the Orioles have come out swinging to win their first two series against the elite of the American League East. The momentous opening day nail biter had the feel of a playoff game and it has set the tone for the season.

I heard the deafening boos for local boy Mark Texeira on the radio and attended Wednesday’s game just to get my fill of it. It reminded me of when Reggie Jackson came back to Baltimore in 1977 as a Yankee after being a Bird the previous year. Hot dogs and batteries littered the field and Bronx cheers reverberated around the circular concrete bowl of Memorial Stadium.

Boos thundered from the rafters and, for the first time in more than a decade, I felt raw emotion at the Yards. It’s a beautiful place to watch baseball but it rarely turns nasty or even electrifying, as it did when Cal broke Gehrig’s record. Up until this year, it’s been a comfortable setting for the opposition. Booing Texeira returned me to 33rd street.

And it was merely a side show.

Far East Baltimore
The Orioles were in the process of making history. Koji Uehara–the first Japanese born player to wear an Orioles uniform–took the field and then the pitching mound wearing number nineteen. The legendary Dave McNally wore that number in 1970. In 1983, Oriole shortstop Lenn Sakata became the first Japanese-American position player in Major League Baseball.

Walking up to the stadium, I saw at least two Asian film crews capturing the moment by the Babe Ruth statue. Two young Asian women, one with orange hair, held up a sign for Chin-Mien Wang who is Taiwanese. But the big buzz was for Koji. A local Japanese restaurant invented the “O’s Roll” in his honor.

To better understand the fanaticism the Japanese have for their baseball superheroes, one must travel to Tokyo during the season and watch their coverage of Hideki Matsui (a.k.a. Godzilla). Every cab has an advertisement for Yankee games.

On Saturday mornings, Matsui is broadcast around the entire country and the camera remains focused on him, standing at the ready in left field, in the on-deck circle, or running to the dugout. In fact, television cameras miss key plays and important moments in games are forever lost, because of this fixation.
He is a baseball god.

The former Tokyo Giant hurler, Uehara, held the Yankees spellbound for five solid innings. He exuded a calm presence on the mound—unveiling an uncanny power to needle the strike zone with precision. Oriole hitters continued their barrage from opening day. The crowd was modest and not too Yankee. The Birds prevailed again.

“It was a big night for baseball,” said Dave Trembley at the postgame press conference referring to Uehara’s performance.

Fear the Yankees? Meh, I don’t think so.
I booed Texeira until my voice gave out. It’s not because I wanted him to be an Oriole—I didn’t appreciate the way he used us for a bigger salary. He’s played in Texas, Anaheim, and Atlanta—hardly known for their brutal media. He will need to produce or he will be devoured in New York. He’s good—but the Yankees lack the mystique and the power of previous campaigns.

There isn’t anything about the current Yankee line-up or organization that gives me pause. The chemistry is off as long as A-Rod is in the mix and the Steinbrenner offspring carry all the gravitas of Moe and Curly. They could be staring at a fourth-place finish.

Sometime in the mid-nineties, I remember watching Bernie Williams in his rookie season chase down a deep fly to left center from right center and thinking it was going to be a long decade for the opposition.

I have the same thoughts about Adam Jones.

We’ve won championships without the Mark Texeiras or Reggie Jacksons. The time to make Tex an Oriole would have been when he was in high school at Mt. St. Joe. Management had better ideas—focusing on talent in Aruba and Canada instead. Occasionally Baltimore and the state of Maryland have produced some pretty good players—Babe Ruth, Al Kaline, Harold Baines and Cal Ripken to name a few.

Beating the best in baseball
We took it to the Rays, beating them in two out of three games. Twenty games against the Rays used to be the most dismal part of the last eleven seasons—especially watching the road games in Tampa Bay. The stadium resembles a jai-alai facility. Now they are the team to beat. With former Rays Huff, Baez, and Hendrickson on the team, we might give them fits as well.

The Oriole season is an interesting experiment thus far—and will be one of continual evaluation. Bass, Simon and Eaton will get a few chances to produce as will a host of other pitchers. The bench is not deep—any key injury will have catastrophic results. You will see a number of hurlers before it’s over.

Watching the Orioles cling masterfully to a 10-9 lead against the Rangers in Texas, I remain cautiously optimistic. Brian Roberts dives to rob a Texas hitter of a sure single in the eighth. Nick Markakis crashes against the wall to snare a Michael Young extra-base hit with a runner on second in the ninth.

Koji is 2-0.