O’s Fan Spotlight: The Baltimorons

In this version of Orioles Fan Spotlight, I am going to switch gears and spotlight fans that you might not normally find in your trip to Camden Yards.

Some background:

I have recently become obsessed with podcasts. An hour+ commute from Baltimore to Montgomery County and back leaves a crap-ton of time to listen to the world of online and streaming content. In my resent searches for an Orioles related podcast, I stumbled upon the Baltimorons podcast.

Sam Dingman and Alan Smith are two Orioles fans who currently reside in enemy territory, New York City. They produce a weekly podcast chock full of insight, facts and a lot of humor. They claim to be the official home of the “all-weather” Orioles fan, and five minutes into my first listen, I couldn’t agree more. These guys are smart, witty and very knowledgeable of the Orioles franchise. They know the ins and outs from the minor leagues all the way through ownership. The approach is informative and not at all condescending (even a little self deprecating at times), which can often be a problem with local sports radio.

I promptly sent them an email to find out more about these Baltimorons. Here is what they had to say:

First, what is your real name, age and what neighborhood are you from:

Sam Dingman, age 30, from Alexandria, VA and Alan Smith, also age 30, from Nelson County Virginia

Does your fan “character” have a name?

ALAN: We mostly go by Sam and Alan, although we’ve noticed that the CHARACTERS of Sam and Alan have become more pronounced the more we do Baltimorons. Sure, they are mostly just us, but there are bits and pieces of how our personality that have started to get played up more on the pod.

SAM: My fan character definitely has a name, and it is Facepunch McSnapdragon. Also, to go off what Alan said, I think we’ve started to notice over time that we each bring something unique to the show beyond just really freaking adoring the Orioles, and we’ve been able to gradually work those traits into the podcast, which I think has helped the overall quality of the show. For example: Alan has a tremendous amount of experience in progressive organizing circles, and is really good at finding parallels between the struggles of oppressed interest groups and those of smaller-market baseball fans. I have a lot of experience in sketch comedy, so I’ve enjoyed finding ways of writing comedy bits to incorporate into our commentary.

Tell me a little about yourself:

ALAN: I’m basically a sports nerd to go along with many other types of nerddom. I adopted the Orioles as a kid when they were the only game in town for a Virginia native, and now I fit the Orioles in around being an organizer and policy director for a progressive policy writing student think-tank, and consider myself a jack of many trades.

SAM: I grew up playing baseball and following the Orioles in northern Virginia, in the bright and glorious days before the scourge of the Nationals was brought to bear. I’m an active performer around New York, where I’ve done sketch, improv comedy, and storytelling for many years, and recently won the Moth GrandSLAM. I also have a storytelling podcast called “Dingmantics” where I produce radio stories similar to the sorts of things you might hear on the Moth. In my spare time I work as an administrative assistant, which has the convenient feature of paying the bills.

How many games do you plan on attending this year?

ALAN: As a Brooklyn resident, its hard to make it to games! But I plan on getting to 3-5 if possible, plus a few Orioles @ Yankees games.

SAM: Likewise! I take particular joy in attending O’s games in the Bronx, because it allows me to boldly sport my cap in enemy territory and shout obnoxiously in much the same fashion as Yanks fans did at Camden Yards all through my youth.

Where do you normally hang out at games?

ALAN: When I get to games, I can be found as near as possible to Boogs BBQ at all times.

SAM: Also likewise! I also have a particular fondness for Section 43, under the Roma Pizzeria sign, which is where I used to sit when I went to games with my Dad growing up.

What inspired you to be a crazy Orioles fan?

ALAN: Sam Dingman inspired me to keep my faith in the team during the Orioles’ Dark Years, keeping me as an all-weather fan through thin and thin. I think that has helped me in my greater reflections of why I like sports and why all this matters (if it does ;)).

SAM: Being an O’s fan for me offers a very powerful source of connection to my roots. Watching games and staying up-to-date on the team makes me think of home and of my formative years, when possibilities seemed a bit more limitless than they sometimes do these days. I think a lot of that has to do with my life in New York following a much different roadmap than I ever expected for myself, so it’s comforting for me to feel like I’m not totally defined by my surroundings. Also, if you’ve never watched an Orioles game with Alan, who has terrifyingly accurate powers of prediction, you simply haven’t lived.

What is your craziest experience from when you were dressed up?

ALAN: Don’t really… dress up per say. Though I really enjoyed an experience where I was out for a run in Brooklyn listening to an Orioles game through headphones. I was stopped at a light when Nick Markakis ripped a three RBI double, putting the Orioles ahead (the opposing team in question has faded from memory) and resulting in a huge fist pump from yours truly. Despite not wearing any orioles gear or being dressed up in any way, another runner on the same corner pulled his ear bud out and asked me a single, simple question: Markakis?

The resulting chest bump from a complete stranger in the midst of Enemy Territory (Yankees Land) was a glorious moment, to be sure.

SAM: I don’t really think I can top Alan’s story, but I will say that I’ve engaged in numerous shouting matches at Yankee Stadium resulting from my O’s-themed attire, most of them centered around Yankee fans making fun of my sideburns. I’ve never understood this, since I am a man with decidedly unremarkable sideburns.

Who is your favorite Oriole (current or all time)?

Alan’s Favorite Oriole of all time: Jeremy Guthrie

Sam’s Favorite Oriole of all time: Wait–really Alan? That’s…that’s bold. I was going to say Cal Ripken, but if we’re playing that game, I’m going to go with Jeffrey Hammonds.

How many Orioles wins do you predict for THIS season?

ALAN: 89

SAM: NINETY-SIX, BITCHES.

How did you end up in New York?

ALAN: My desire to work in the fast paced world of media made NYC the logical choice. Even though I no longer work in said world, it’s been hard to extricate myself from the gravitational pull of the city.

SAM: I came here to pursue acting, and like Alan have more or less just gotten stuck. I feel like it’s taken me a few years to pull my head out of the aspirational clouds and stop treating the city as a place that represents disappointment, and recently I’d like to think I’ve been doing a better job of appreciating everything it has to offer. CASE IN POINT: the other day I discovered a place that serves Colombian hot dogs. They are similar to your American hot dogs, but garnished with chorizo and crushed potato chips.

How hard is it to be an Oriole fan living with the enemy?

ALAN: I think it’s going to be harder now that the Orioles are decent. Before, there was a gentle pity that, while galling, was mostly harmless. I think the specter of a real threat to the throne is going to gear Yankees fans up a little more this year.

SAM: Alan makes a good point; it would probably be wise for us to start carrying samurai swords just in case. On a more serious note, one thing I’ve noticed about Yankee fans in general is that they tend to view their fandom as some kind of badge of honor. They actually seem to associate the team’s success with the idea that they are, by extension, more valuable or worthwhile people. Because of that, they take it MUCH harder when the Yanks go through even the shortest of rough stretches–like, even a bad inning–and in those moments a boiling rage flares up in them that I find frankly terrifying. I think there’s a larger point here about the degree to which living in New York requires you to forge the thickest possible armor you can muster, and it makes me appreciate being an Orioles fan that much more, because I tend to associate the Orioles with baseball, community, fun, and beer, and if success is part of the equation as well, that’s kind of just a cherry on top. Yankees fans will read that and think I’m just rationalizing being a loser, I suppose, but even if that’s part of what’s going on, I’d rather baseball be a source of joy than a thin firewall between the world and my own pent-up rage.

What made you decide to start a podcast?

ALAN: We started a podcast as an act of therapy to get us through another losing season. It was designed to be a joint attempt at coming to terms with why we root for such a terrible organization, for why we care about a sport with no positive rewards – ever – and why we continued to be so emotionally invested in a group of strangers failing to play a game well. Instead, we got the 2012 season and its amazing battle against Pythagoras.

SAM: Yes, what Alan said. At the outset with Baltimorons, we figured if we were going to waste another summer obsessing over every minute of another pathetic season, we might as well make something, and lo and behold we ended up with an audio chronicle of our evolution–and, if I may, that of the baseball world–from doubters to believers in a team a Yankee-loving friend of mine refers to as “The Fightin’ Showalters.” Once the season ended, we decided we wanted to see what we could do to take the show to the next level, beyond just an Orioles chat show and into hopefully more broadly-appealing territory. Let us know how we’re doing!

If you want to listen to their podcast, you can check them out on iTunes (search: Baltimorons), go to their website, check them out on Facebook, give them a call at 909-RIB-WARS (909-742-9277), or follow them on twitter: Alan is @ASmith4OurTime and Sam is @samdingman

As always, if you or anyone you know wants to be featured in our Oriole’s Fan Spotlight, send me an email to

ca***@ca*********.com