The Chop is very sad today Baltimore. Why are we sad, you ask? Because our beloved Orioles are in Chicago for an entire week and are winning games left and right out there. As soon as the schedule was released last year we circled this week as a great time for a road trip, but alas! the vagaries of sea life prevented us from booking the trip early not knowing if we’d actually be ashore in time. When we looked into it again last week the prices of flights were sky-high, so to speak. It’s an extra bitter pill to swallow because we have a few friends out there and there’s a hell of a lot of orange in those seats this week.

But there’s no game today, and since we’re still in town we get the silver lining of being able to slide over to Atomic Books tonight at 7 to see the legend himself, Boog Powell hold forth on all things baseball and barbecue. The Boog should be enough to get you in the door by himself, but if you still need convincing the co-author of his new book, Baltimore Baseball and Barbecue with Boog Powell: Stories from the Orioles’ Smokey Slugger, erstwhile Sun columnist Rob Kasper will be in attendance as well, along with plenty of ‘cue from Hampden’s Blue Pit.