“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone?” — Joni Mitchell, singing about Nick Markakis, probably
It’s hard to say a guy ranked among the top 20 Orioles of all time could be considered underrated. But perhaps a better descriptor of Markakis would be underappreciated. For nearly a decade, the homegrown right fielder was a mainstay in the Orioles’ lineup, but he was rarely its biggest star. He wasn’t the flashiest player, and he certainly wasn’t the most vocal; Nick’s unfailingly boring, monotone responses in media interviews became a running joke among O’s fans.