Once it was all mentioned and performed — the throng of cameras round Trey Mancini’s locker, the standing ovation for the beloved former Oriole and eventually a baseball sport — Mancini and Sara Perlman, his fiancée, returned to their resort room Thursday evening within the metropolis they as soon as referred to as house.
From throughout the water, they might spot their previous condominium in Locust Point. But in Harbor East, the couple are away from all of the espresso outlets and eating places they knew and liked of their previous neighborhood. For the primary time in his profession, Mancini rode the staff bus to Camden Yards. Perlman sat close to the customer’s dugout, a brand new vantage level in a stadium she is in any other case effectively accustomed to.
So, Perlman requested Mancini a easy query: Was it bizarre being again?
“No,” Mancini replied. “It was nice.”
It was a sense of contentment, for them each. Mancini and Perlman can look again on their time in Baltimore with fondness — it’s the place they met and fell in love, the place Mancini overcame colon most cancers and the place he turned an All-Star.
But now they’re in Houston, with a rental house for the rest of the season. Now Mancini is an Astro after a transfer on the commerce deadline propelled him right into a World Series race. There’s a lot to like about Baltimore — and so they’ll always remember it — however there’s a lot to concentrate on transferring ahead.
They’d by no means commerce their time with the Orioles. But to be with the Astros now, discovering a brand new metropolis whereas gearing up for the postseason? Mancini and Perlman may flip off the lights of their resort room figuring out there have been no regrets about how this all performed out.
“The reality is, Trey’s now on a playoff team, with a team he loves that’s given him an opportunity he hasn’t had since the first month of his career,” Perlman mentioned, sitting beside the customer’s dugout as Mancini stood with a bat in his arms, carrying a highway gray uniform.
“He looks back with nothing but love for Baltimore,” Perlman continued. “But at the same time, I’d be lying if I said Trey really didn’t love Houston.”
The commerce to the Astros moved Mancini away from a fan base that related with him on a private degree. It’s laborious to seek out that in a brand new metropolis, at the least instantly. Throughout his time with the Orioles, Mancini jerseys have been seen all around the ballpark. The standing ovation and helmet tip Mancini gave upon arriving within the field for his first at-bat Thursday was anticipated and appreciated.
It’s totally different in Houston, and he doesn’t essentially thoughts it. Perlman joked that there are about 4 Mancini jerseys at Minute Maid Park, “and I’m one of them.” He doesn’t should be the face of the franchise, a 30-year-old thrust into veteran standing with the Orioles as a result of the remainder of the clubhouse has such restricted expertise.
Instead, he’s a strong participant on a membership full of huge names, from right-hander Justin Verlander to infielder José Altuve. That permits Mancini to show inward, working to interrupt out of the droop he’s discovered himself in of late. And with the primary homecoming sport performed Thursday, Friday and the remainder of the collection in Baltimore solely can be simpler.
“You get the first game over with, and like I said, it’s just like any other series,” Mancini mentioned. “More importantly to me, there’s a couple things I’m battling through at the plate, just a couple habits that I’ve had in the games the past couple weeks that have been tough. So more than anything, I want to feel a bit better in that sense, because this team I’m on, we have big goals ahead of us. And my main goal and the reason I got traded here was to help us accomplish that.”
As Mancini nears free company for the primary time in his profession, the commerce affords one other alternative. When Mancini hears affords from groups this offseason — be it from the Orioles or Astros or one other staff — he can weigh what he discovered from enjoying with two golf equipment.
The added perspective can form his choice. But earlier than that, with out figuring out whether or not he’ll discover himself on one other playoff staff the remainder of his profession, Mancini and Perlman can take pleasure in all that is available in October.
After Mancini’s first at-bat as a customer at Camden Yards, Perlman posted a photograph of Mancini on the plate carrying his new No. 26 jersey. The deluge of responses have been all related, expressing how bizarre it regarded to see Mancini at Camden Yards with a special quantity on the again of a special uniform.
“To me, it’s funny, it didn’t look as weird as everyone else thought,” Perlman mentioned, “because I’ve had so much time looking at the No. 26 in a Houston Astros uniform. I thought it would feel more strange coming back than it does. It is weird — don’t get me wrong. But, I don’t know, I guess because I’ve seen him so much in an Astros uniform, it didn’t feel as strange.”
It’s the identical for Mancini, regardless that it’s his first journey again. Barring a special view from the customer’s dugout — searching on the B&O Warehouse as an alternative of the left discipline wall — not a lot shook Mancini.
Some of the uncooked emotion left Mancini after the Orioles visited Houston to face the Astros final month. He noticed his former teammates and coaches carrying a special uniform than him, then went on together with his new staff towards the postseason.
“I think it’s healthy,” Perlman mentioned. “I think if he was longing to be back here, I’d be like, ‘Damn, that really stinks.’ Instead, he’s like, best memories, but he’s so happy where he is.”
On Thursday, as Perlman and Mancini regarded throughout the water from the Astros resort to their previous condominium, Perlman turned to her fiancée.
“Should we go home?” she requested.
But she requested with the data that the condominium in Locust Point is now not their house, simply as Camden Yards is now not Mancini’s house ballpark. That chapter ended. And regardless of how a lot they liked experiencing Baltimore, they’ve a brand new house they’re studying to like simply as a lot.
ASTROS@ORIOLES
Saturday, 7:05 p.m.
TV: MASN
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com