![\"Gunnar](\"https:\/\/images2.minutemediacdn.com\/image\/upload\/c_crop,x_0,y_81,w_3109,h_1748\/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto\/images\/ImagnImages\/mmsport\/11\/01jx0gmra4fsgmhwvvn8.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA rare piece of Orioles memorabilia has a funny story behind it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Much of the Baltimore Orioles’ core has played together at multiple levels of professional baseball.<\/p>\n
The O’s once had the best farm system in Major League Baseball, a perk of picking high in the draft several years in a row. Among those draft picks were Gunnar Henderson and Colton Cowser.<\/p>\n
Henderson made his MLB debut late in the 2022 season.<\/p>\n
Cowser’s debut followed less than a year later, and both were established Orioles starters by the 2024 season.<\/p>\n
They continued to establish a friendship, too, one that began in Triple-A in 2022.<\/p>\n
That friendship lent itself to a hilarious story from Cowser, prompted by some words written by Henderson on a baseball card.<\/p>\n
The Orioles shortstop signed a rare one of 20 card, adding “Cowser is afraid of shrimp” to his signature. One lucky collector will be in for quite the laugh when they open that card.<\/p>\n
Cowser said he and a bunch of Orioles players went on group fishing trips during Spring Training. The origin of the shrimp scare stems from one of those times on a boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne time, one jumped out of my hand and I had to grab it off the ground and it took a little bit longer because it was in the crevice of the deck,\u201d Cowser said, per Melanie Newman. \u201cSo he assumed I was afraid of it.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Cowser said he was not afraid, but it was a fun preseason moment nevertheless. Apparently, Henderson had a few more jokes on his mind when signing other cards, but Cowser only went as far as telling fans to “be on the lookout” for other Henderson cards.<\/p>\n Colton Cowser makes a statement in return, Orioles continue to roll<\/strong><\/p>\n Cowser had over 50 extra-base hits as a rookie and posted an .814 on-base plus slugging percentage after the All-Star break.<\/p>\n There’s no wonder Baltimore’s offense struggled without him in the lineup for over two months. He returned in time to join the O’s on their hottest stretch of the season.<\/p>\n Amid the Orioles’ fourth win in a row (now five after Wednesday’s win), Cowser smacked a solo home run to give Baltimore insurance in their series-opening victory in Seattle. He reached base twice in his second game back and now has a four-game hitting streak.<\/p>\n Having Cowser in the lineup makes the Orioles deeper offensively. If everyone can start to click, the O’s can have a dangerous offense capable of keeping them in every game.<\/p>\n Not only have the Orioles won five games in a row, but they were also victorious in nine of their previous 13 games. A win on Thursday would secure a second consecutive series sweep for the O’s. They haven’t done that since July 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A rare piece of Orioles memorabilia has a funny story behind it. Much of the Baltimore Orioles’ core has played together at multiple levels of professional baseball…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n