By Staci Wolfson

Online Exclusive

Trying to forget about the recent past, Baltimore fans got the chance Thursday night to meet the Orioles’ brightest hope for the future.

First-round draft pick Matt Wieters was introduced to the crowd during the fifth inning of the Orioles’ game against the Minnesota Twins. Wearing an Orioles jersey with the number “07” on it, Wieters waved to a welcoming crowd and took some time to appreciate Camden Yards.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “I saw it last night, it’s an unbelievable ballpark. I always thought behind right field it was just an abandoned warehouse, but I went inside. It’s pretty nice inside.”

Wieters, who played three years for Georgia Tech, had been the talk of the Warehouse for much of the summer after the Orioles drafted him fifth overall. There was some concern that the Orioles would not be able to sign him by the Aug. 15 deadline due to the organization’s prior difficulties with his agent, Scott Boras.

Still, the team was able to sign the 6-foot-5, 225-pound switch hitter minutes before the deadline.

“You’ve always got to prepare for it to come down to the end,” he said. “You’ve always got to prepare for the worst and when it happens, it looks like something great happens to you. So that’s what we did and when it came down to 11:52 on Aug. 15 it was the most exciting feeling I could have had.”

Wieters said he will fly to Massachusetts tomorrow to join the Aberdeen IronBirds. There, he plans on getting back in baseball shape and will begin playing when the team returns to Maryland.

Touted as the next Jason Varitek or Joe Mauer, Wieters hit .359 with 35 home runs and 198 RBIs in his career with the Yellow Jackets. In 2005, he was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year.

He said he plans to continue playing the way he always has.

“I just think that I’ve always been a winner and I’ve never really played on a losing team,” he said. “I like to bring my winning attitude and my knowledge of the game because I love studying the game, I love talking baseball, I love watching baseball. So that’s what I feel I can bring to the ballclub.”

Posted on August 23, 2007