During the final moments of the Orioles’ pregame hitting meeting on opening day, those gathered realized a critical omission in their season preparation. When one of them got on base, what would they do?

For the past two years, Baltimore’s players engaged in a series of water-themed celebrations that spawned the Bird Bath Splash Zone in left field. The pitchers in the dugout would spray water out of their mouths and batters mimicked a sprinkler motion upon reaching second base on doubles.

But this is a new season and a new era. There’s a new leadership team with manager Craig Albernaz and others, and while many of the players are the same as previous seasons, those within the hitting meeting agreed that something new would be ideal.

So, here it is: The bird-hand celebration … or a butterfly … or whatever the Orioles call it. They haven’t really figured out the name. For the sake of this story, it’ll be called the Flapping Wings, because that’s how catcher Adley Rutschman described it. And it was his idea, after all.

Even before the hitting meeting, Rutschman seemed locked in on his idea.

“Hey, if I hit a double today, I’m doing it,” Rutschman told infielder Coby Mayo.

Of course, Rutschman hit a double. And then he bent low and wrapped his thumbs together, then wiggled his fingers like a bird. Or something.

“His mind was set and he hit the double and he had first dibs for it,” Mayo said. “So it was kind of his opportunity to run with.”

The inspiration was unclear at first. Jackson Holliday, who has since joined Triple-A Norfolk for a rehab assignment, thought it stemmed from the Happy Hands Club scene of “Napoleon Dynamite.” Outfielder Dylan Beavers thought it was a butterfly. Rutschman set the record straight.

His hand-wiggling celebration is a nod to Danny McBride in the 2013 movie “This Is the End,” which came out when Rutschman was 15 years old.

“Hilarious movie,” Rutschman said, before describing in great detail the scene in which McBride (playing a fictionalized version of himself) doesn’t realize the world is ending and cooks all of the group’s rations. As McBride cooks the eggs, the camera turns to an over-the-skillet view, and McBride connects his thumbs and wiggles his fingers. Rutschman cracks up even thinking about it.

“I think it’s just the funniest thing,” Rutschman said.

Anyway, Rutschman hit the first double of the season, and his teammates in the dugout waited to see what he’d do. The wing-flapping finger wiggle came next, and it has stuck so far as the new Orioles celebration.

“Stuff gets worn out, and it just doesn’t have the same excitement that it did,” said Rutschman when asked about this group creating a new tradition rather than returning to the waterworks theme. “I think guys always want to come up with something new, or try to, with the celebrations and stuff, because everyone wants to get to be excited when they get to do something new. It’s a small part of the game, but a fun part.”

Still, this is very much a work in progress.

“Once Adley got the double, he kind of set the tone with the boys,” infielder Jeremiah Jackson said. “We were kind of waiting for someone to get the double and break the ice, and from there, we just kind of ran with it. That’s where we are now.”

The Orioles don’t have a home run celebration yet, so when outfielder Tyler O’Neill blasted one Sunday, he just “slapped a bunch of hands” in the dugout. As the group meshes together, the rest of the celebrations will grow organically.

And there’s not even a guarantee Baltimore sticks with the McBride-inspired hand gesture.

“I don’t know if this is going to stick for the whole year. It could, it could not,” Mayo said. “It’s been cool so far. Whenever guys are bought into something, it’s good for team morale.”

At least for now, though, Rutschman is getting the chance to pay tribute to one of his favorite movies quite a lot. He has four hits this year. Three of them have been two-baggers.