It's hard out there for an Orioles fan
by Scott Christ on May 11, 2006 5:09 AM EDT
in News & Rumors
15 comments
You know what scares the hell out of me? If you live a normal life, length-wise, chances are at least OK that you're going to see your team win the World Series. What if my team was 1983, when I was one year old?
If you ask me, baseball fandom is a love affair unlike any other sport. There are 162 games. No once a week, no 81 or 82, no chance to really catch your breath like you can with other sports. Even basketball and hockey have a bunch of days off. If you're a diehard fan of a bad baseball team, it is a constant bludgeoning for six months. The days your team isn't playing start to look like relief, and even then, if you're like me, you kinda wish you had a game to watch.
The Orioles have really tested us since '97 was over, let's be serious. And yet we're still here. Yeah, those numbers in the park are going down, but there are still a lot of us.
And I've complained plenty lately about watching this team, and it's justified. It's been a wreck lately, and it's just more on top of the last near decade of utter futility.
But I love this goddamn team all the same. I'm pretty certain we all do. Things like Brandon Fahey running his heart out on another routine chopper to second base, or Chris Gomez taking whatever position he has to that day, or Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora basically trying to WILL this team into winning right now.
I mean, I don't want Gomez out there any more than the rest of you do. I don't want to see Jeff Conine and Kevin Millar pop out, and I'm sure you don't either. The pitching offends me as much as anyone, probably more than a lot of people.
And still I watch these games, and I get excited when the Orioles are sure to let me down trying to rally against the Tigers for the second straight day. I put my cap on, I shout encouragement that nobody but me and maybe my neighbor can hear, my foot taps uncontrollably on a 3-2 count with runners on and Nick Markakis up at the plate.
I know they're going to lose more than they win. I know it. And yet every time some powerhouse team comes knocking at our door, I sit here and think we're going to pull the thing open and start slapping people around.
I have no faith in this franchise as long as Angelos is at the helm, no matter who the GM/s is/are, or who the manager is, or anything else. And I still watch every game I can. Why?
Because I'm a damn fool, otherwise known as an Orioles fan. But, I mean, aren't those days we win awesome? We'll turn it around after that next one. I see some signs of life. So-and-so is about to get off the schneid. We're ready to get on a roll.
You can't help it, really. It's natural. The pessimism is natural, too, of course, but we don't tune in because we know we'll lose, we tune in because we might win.
Damn Orioles are going to drive me insane.
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Yep
hear, hear...
of course the internal pessimist is just a little bit tired of being charlie brown to peter angelos' lucy.
by jq higgins on May 11, 2006 8:13 AM EDT reply actions
Awesome Post, SC
Ron Swoboda and Don Clendenon are still names that are not permitted to be said in my father's home on Thanksgiving!
Our current team is driving me crazy..we have some talent, but not enough to really compete.
We have some heart, but it doens't flow thru the entire roster.
We have some decent arms, but not enough to stop the bleeding when the arterial lacerations like a 5 game losing streak is in force.
We have a decent front office, but these guys are no Hank Dalton's either.
It's going to be a long year, and no one here is thinking we have a shot at winning more than we lose...but gosh darn it can't we at least compete every night?
Give us something to cheer for at least three or four times a week. Make it fun for us, fellas. We're all you've got! Well, us and multi million dollar contracts!
Great post.
Two nights ago, I had basically written off the game, and the team surprised me (and maybe itself) by coming back and winning in the very late innings.
Then last night, I allowed myself some measure of hope that we might get on a roll, what with Lopez pitching six great innings: only to see him pitch a horrible seventh.
I kind of like being an Orioles fan (as opposed to another team), in a perverse sort of way. If I woke up a Yankees or Red Sox fan, with all that attendant drama, I think I'd be miserable in a different way. And if I was the former, I'd have to watch my team play in a disgusting stinkhole. If I woke up a KC fan (seriously, imagine that for a second), I'd have to accept a culture of losing instead of holding out some hope every year.
Nope, we Orioles fans are somewhere in the middle: good enough to make it interesting most nights, but never for a week or a month at a time. A once-proud franchise searching for its way back. Now there's some pain I can relate to.
If there's one thing that keeps be going, it's the memories of '79 and '83 (I was a teenager for both of those Series), and to a lesser extent, '96 and '97. It's like: I've seen us do it, so I know it's not impossible. It just seems impossible with the current setup.
Great one, SC.
Because I do love this team. I like being an Orioles fan, one of the last (not really, but it seems like it) in a York County that has increasingly forgotten about them. I know that if I do get to see them win another WS (I was 7 when they won in '83...I remember it, but not specific moments from the games, and I know I wasn't able to appreciate it enough at that age) it will be made all the sweeter for having continued to be a fan during the bad times (I love listening to my Yankee fan friend bitch because his team hasn't won the WS in 5 f***ing years!. While I hate the newly-minted Sox fans around here, I'm happy for the die-hards of both Sox that finally got to see a win. I want that feeling, hopefully without THAT long a wait, of course.
I guess what's starting to really turn me "against" the Orioles (in a sense of perpetual pessimism, not rooting against them) or at least the Angelos regime is that I really feel like we're slipping closer to being the Royals or Pirates than to being the White Sox or the Indians.
I don't expect to contend overnight. I know the Yankees and Red Sox are so much better right now. But I want a team that has a chance to impact the division. A team that can have a winning record. My wife's a Phillies fan, and she complains about them all the time and I just can't take it. Sure, they rip her heart out year after year, but the last few years they've been over .500. They've had a shot at the wild card. That's all I want out of the O's right now. Be interesting. Make fans want to come to the ballpark. Make ME want to come to the ballpark. Keep me believing there's a chance all the way to August. Don't have a total meltdown in the 2nd half. Take a step forward.
Throw us a frickin' bone.
I think...
I'm too young to remember the '69, '70 and '71 World Series. I do remember '79 and '83 well. But what I remember more than anything is that the Orioles were always in contention, a "down" year was when the Orioles "only" won 85 games and finished third in the AL East. We expected the Orioles to be in the thick of things the last couple weeks of the season, and most of the time they were.
Beyond this, the Orioles were a "model" organization. Their farm system was the envy of all of baseball. "The Oriole Way" is nothing but an empty slogan now, but back then it really did mean something. It meant that if you were going to stick around in the Orioles organization you needed to work your butt off and learn solid fundamentals. This was gospel at every level of the organization, and since every member of the organization was taught the game the same way, the Os always had a "replacement part" ready at Rochester that could be moved into the big league team seamlessly.
The Orioles organization was like a brilliant machine that was capable of producing winning teams every year. The Orioles organization was the envy of baseball and the pride of Baltimore. Now the team is an embarrassment, especially after last year. And it really chafes fans that remember when things were different. That's why some of us have such hostility to the current ownership; we've seen how far this organization has fallen.
And it's not just the losing either (although that is a big part of it). It's seeing true Orioles like Brooks treated like persona-non-grata because of Angelos' pettiness. It's hearing Ellie's wife talk about how the Orioles broke her husband's heart. It's reading about how of the all the current Orioles players, only Mora bothered to show at Ellie's funeral. It's the little things that connect a professional sports team to a community, and I've sat and watched as those ties have been unbound, and it just pisses me off.
Some of this has to do with changes in the sports industry, and have nothing to do with Angelos. But professional sports teams are still more than just entertainment, and they are more than just a business; they are part of a community's shared history.
The first (and worst) blow to Baltimore sports fans was when Irsay snuck the Colts out of town in the middle of the night because he thought he could make more money in a sterile dome in Indianapolis. To him, the Colts were nothing more than a business, but for us fans they were so much more. Watching the Orioles' decline has been a softer blow that has been absorbed over time, but it still hurts. With no offense intended to the younger fans on this site, I think it's hard for you guys to understand the depth of anger that some of us "old-timers" feel.
Whew! Glad I got that off my chest. It's official--I'm a cranky old man at only 36.
O's fans
We have the best hitting shortstop in the AL, a fantastic second baseman/leadoff hitter, a clutch 3rd baseman, a solid-hitting right fielder, one of the best defensive catchers and pitch callers in the game, a terrific young closer, and three adequate starters, two of which have a fairly high ceiling. On top of all that, we've got two or three prospects/rookies that may be able to produce at the major league level soon.
Our glaring inefficiencies, as you all know, are two of our starting pitchers, our middle relief, two outfield positions, and at 1st base. If we were able to pick up a solid #2 starter, a slugging first baseman or outfileder, and one or two relievers that don't suck, this is a much better team. And if we can plug the rest of the holes with some guys from our farm system with some success, than this is a playoff team. And don't forget we've got one of the best ballparks in the country. So the way I see it is that we're only 4 or 5 players away from being competitive. Of course, this would require front office activity and owner spending that we haven't seen in about 9 years. But we can hope, right?
I'm with you on how tough it is to be an O's fan right now. But we have a lot of practice. And this team is not nearly as bad as it has been in the recent past, and we're not as far away from winning as it seems. This is what keeps me watching despite Angelos, despite the steamrolling by the hated Yankess and Bo Sox, despite the losing streaks, the controversies, the free agents that don't sign, and the silence of Camden Yards.
Go O's!
by BleedingOrange on May 11, 2006 12:05 PM EDT reply actions
Agreed, kind of...
The bullpen has actually been quite good as of late. Since Brower was sent packing, they've only given up 7 runs in nearly 30 innings (and one of those runs was Chen). Hopefully Perlozzo has finally found a group of young guys who can consistently get outs.
The offense on the otherhand doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Between our DH, 1B, and OF'ers we have a total of 1 guy who is actually adequate right now. Maybe 2 if you count Patterson. You can't have that and actually win. Sure, it's nice having a SS who is a good hitter, but it really doesn't matter when your major hitting positions are a joke. And really that isn't the way to build a team. It's much cheaper to buy a good hitting OF'er than it is a good hitting SS (even though Tejada is probably paid under market value). Even if Markakis ends up being a good hitter, we are still extremely defficient.
As for what the O's need, I really think they should hold off on a starter. Like I said, hopefully Chen or Lopez will figure out something, and if they need to maybe they should give Penn another shot. Bullpen, I wouldn't do anything. I think with Todd being healthy, Ray, Rleal, Birkins and Manon pitching well there isn't really a major need to make a move. Hitting? Thats where a huge improvement needs to be made. There has to be someone, somewhere who can put up a 800 OPS at the DH position. And there has to be some 1B who can hit better 220.
That being said, you know as well as I do that the O's aren't going to do a god damn thing. The best I think we can hope for is the O's to pick up another guy like Ruben Sierra or Julio Franco. Another guy who was pretty good 5 years ago, and is described as a "great locker-room prescense and able to provide veteran leadership." Ugh. When I hear anything like that; I know he's going to suck.
by BirdFanInPhilly on May 11, 2006 12:28 PM EDT up reply actions
I can't take them seriously anymore
Ryan Shealy is the perfect example of a type of player the O's should try to acquire. He's a terrific young slugger who is blocked by Todd Helton. This is how the Indians landed Hafner from the Rangers (for nothing - Einar Diaz), and there are numerous similar players that the O's could have gone after if the FO were only pro-active and creative. Ryan Howard, Josh Willingham, Chris Shelton are just a couple that come to mind from the last few years.
Instead, every year, we are treated to a new collection of washups that we coax to Baltimore for another losing season of ineffectiveness - Millar, Burnitz, Conine (although I'll always be a Conine fan), etc... you all know the drill.
Until I see just a glimmer of creativity from this FO I'm going to keep being pessimistic and bitter, and frankly, it stinks.
by Dingbat Charlie on May 11, 2006 12:55 PM EDT reply actions
yes!
one of the biggest things about the last few years, to me anyways, is the idea that dh is for someone who just isn't good enough to hack it in the field anymore, not for someone who can actually hit. when was the last time the o's had a decent player who pretty much was only a dh...harold baines?
by jq higgins on May 11, 2006 1:47 PM EDT reply actions
plus
of course, it doesn't really matter how the offense does if the pitchers not named Chris Ray don't improve dramatically.
by Dingbat Charlie on May 11, 2006 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions
depends...
by jq higgins on May 11, 2006 3:39 PM EDT up reply actions
I sure do miss
by BleedingOrange on May 11, 2006 3:13 PM EDT up reply actions
Re:
Get ready for more losing in 2006. This season is an experiment where we'll see who can stick, particularly with the young pitchers. I look for Loewen and Penn to get call ups and who knows what will happen with Lopez and Chen. If the minor league pitching develops, and I believe Mazzone will be looking more there than to bolster what we currently have, the O's actually have trade potential to fill other holes. That would be a change. I'm not too distraught now, as I expected a crappy year. I just hope the "kids" develop. If they do, then it will be interesting to see how the FO responds.
Again, assuming the kids start to pan out, I view the 2006 off season as the time the O's may possibly crush me once again. Given Peter Angelos' and his revolving FO's track record... ah, I'll hold that thought.
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