What a Difference a Year Can Make

One of the more frustrating aspects of being a Baltimore Orioles fan the past fourteen years was the insinuation from the media, other teams, and other fans that the Orioles have always been a poor organization.  It was the fact that this claim was absurdly false – Baltimore was the class of the American League and the envy of every other team in baseball for a period roughly spanning from 1966 to 1983 – that made it so frustrating.  We live in a society where present circumstances make up our entire realities – our past, current, and future realities.  Sports are no exception to this phenomenon.  If a team is not very good at the present, they were never any good.  An unproven player just called up and batting .200 will never be any good.  The present shapes the past and future.

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Written by Paul Cooke On In

Relax.

The Orioles have lost 2 of their past 3 games which of course means that unnecessary panic is setting in amongst the fans. Take a step back from the ledge and relax.  Everything is still okay.

The Orioles currently sit at 88 wins with 8 games left to play.  Realistically, I think we could conservatively peg the worst case scenario at 2-6, base case at 4-4, and best case at 6-2.  Again, that’s being conservative.  It could be argued that the way the team has played for the past two months should lead us to believe that the worst and base case might be slightly better than that, but it is always better to look at these things through a more conservative viewpoint.  Those scenarios would put the O’s at 90, 92, and 94 wins, respectively.

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Written by Paul Cooke On In Tagged

After 14 Long Years . . .

. . . it is finally over.  The Orioles captured their 81st victory of the 2012 season this evening.  They did so in typical 2012 Orioles fashion by walking off after a 14-inning, 5-hour long marathon.  It couldn't have happened any other way.  Coming into this season, all of us would have been content with the Orioles' ending the streak of consecutive losing seasons and calling it a day.  With 19 more games left to play and the playoffs in their sights, the team and fans now have our sights set on something much bigger.. Now that the O's have win #81, there is only one thing left to do . . .

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Written by Paul Cooke On In Tagged ,

The Baltimore Orioles . . . America's team?

ESPN is running a reader's poll today on which team will win the AL East: http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/8369488/orioles-win-al-east

I kind of liked it better when nobody thought we had a chance.  Flying under the radar is something I am used to.  I liked it better earlier in the season when the Orioles owned one of the wild card spots, were eight or more games ahead of the Red Sox, and were still given 5% odds of making the playoffs to Boston’s 50% odds.  Those were the days . . .

Now?  Now I don’t quite know how to deal with these . . . these expectations.  I am much more comfortable when the team is being trashed.

Although I guess I can live with that pressure.  It beats the alternative of having your state vote for another team over their own team to win the division.  Get it together, Florida.

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Written by Paul Cooke On In

Final Exams

The “Baltimore Orioles?” (insert confused sounding, national sports media broadcast voice who still doesn’t believe there is a professional baseball team in Baltimore) have been facing a series of tests all year. Each long road trip has supposedly determined the fate of the season. Every tough AL East home series has supposedly done the same. And as of September 10, 2012, all of those tests have been passed, mostly with flying colors.

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Written by Tim Cooke On In