From BGSU Orange to Baltimore Orange

DETROIT, Michigan - Four years ago, Nolan Reimold left Bowling Green for the majors. Now, he's making a big splash in the big leagues as a bona-fide AL Rookie of the Year candidate.

"I really do try not to think about it too much," said the Baltimore Orioles leftfielder. "There's still 2 months left to go in the year. A lot of things can happen, so you know, I want to go out there and keep doing what I've been doing up here and hopefully at the end of the year, look back and have a good year."

So far, Reimold certainly qualifies as having a "good" year. After starting the year at Triple-A, he was called up to platoon with Felix Pie. Since then, he has taken over the regular spot in left field. He's batting .281with 10 home runs and 29 RBI through Monday.

Those 10 homers lead all American League rookies. He's jockeying with Chicago's Gordon Beckham for the other key offensive rookie categories like slugging percentage, RBI, and on-base percentage.

"Yea, coming into this year, I didn't really think about this year too much, so just probably, coming in the year, just thinking about having a big year at Triple-A, and I ended up starting out really well, got to come up here, and play in the big leagues, so (it's) pretty exciting," said Reimold.

Another sign of Reimold's rising stock is that last Tuesday, the Orioles held "Nolan Reimold T-shirt" night in a game against Kansas City.

"Yea, that was awesome," said Reimold. "I didn't really think about that at the start of the year either, having my own T-shirt night, so... but that was a lot of fun, you know. I don't know how many T-shirts got handed out, but I guess it was a lot, and I see them (people) walking around town with my name on the back now," he said, jokingly.

But through all his success, Reimold remembers where he came from: Bowling Green State University, the 2-time defending MAC regular-season champions.

"I follow them a little bit, check to see how they're doing, talk to Coach (Danny) Schmitz every now and then. They've been doing pretty well since I left, so hopefully they keep doing that."

"That was the first step in getting here, I guess, was going to college at Bowling Green and getting my baseball career started off there, the right way."

And now, four years removed from success in the Orange and Brown, Reimold is finding success in the Orange and Black, of the Baltimore Orioles.