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Their magic number is 156. And you’'d better believe every Orioles fan knows it. After 10 years of purgatory, the baseball gods gave the Birds a week to remember to open 2008, as they completed a four-game sweep of Seattle on Monday to improve to 5-1 and remain in SOLE possession of first place in the AL East. Someone posting under the handle “"Aubrey Huff"” chimed in on the blog at roanoke.com under my quick thought from last Monday, an Opening Day loss-inspired rant headlined “"Optimism low for Orioles."” Huff’s post? “"Don’t look now...but the O’s are 3-1!!”" Know what? Huff’s right. Scrap that previous post. Optimism is HIGH for the Orioles. Crazy, irrational, loony-bin, never-gonna-last high. And I love it. —-- Aaron McFarling

Have you seen the cool commercial where Tiger Woods hits a drive off the moon? Nothing wrong with the commercial, but do we really need Gatorade Tiger? A press release came today saying that he selected the flavors. Was this a blindfolded taste test? It goes on to report that Gatorade Tiger contains 25 percent more electrolytes than your average non-Tiger Gatorade to advance fluid and electrolyte replacement. I assume this is being marketed to golfers. But do golfers really need a higher octane Gatorade than other athletes? Yeah, 18 holes can be grind, but come on. I'm wondering if I should try Red Drive (cherry blend), Quiet Storm (grape blend) or Cool Fusion (citrus blend) first? -- Jeff Gilbert

On this Web site, you’ll see a fine column by Doug Doughty about attending the Nationals’ opener. I also attended an opener this week — Monday’s Orioles-Rays game in Baltimore, a family tradition dating back to the early 1980s. Let’s just say optimism was in lesser supply just 30 minutes up I-95 than it was in Washington. And it was in lesser supply than I’ve ever seen in all my years of traveling to Memorial Stadium and Camden Yards for the season lid-lifters. Large sections of empty seats, merciless booing of Aubrey Huff, shoddy defense and a punchless performance from the offense confirmed something we already knew: It’s going to be another very, very long season for the once-proud Birds. — Aaron McFarling