The best of your “best Orioles game I ever went to” stories

Last Friday, I challenged people to write a FanPost telling about the favorite Orioles game they ever attended. As expected, there were some favorites that you could easily predict, but there’s been a great variety. Have a story you want to share? Get to the FanPosts!

Let’s not waste any time getting to the good stuff, because one popular choice was one that’s still to come on the Orioles top 25 games at Camden Yards countdown. There are three left to unveil, and if the same poor judgment is used that has gone into the Orioles-chosen list so far, the Delmon Young double game will be #3 on Sunday. (It should be higher.)

One Camden Chatter, Jakubazookas, flew all the way out from Hawaii to get to be up close to the legendary play:

The crowd's enthusiasm rang to the heavens. I turned around to celebrate with the random stranger behind me. He offered a high five. My exuberance demanded more. I bear hugged him, my face right in his crotch. While this may be a faux pas in many other public situations, here it was acceptable.

Another one in the stands that day was Knightley (full disclosure, she’s my girlfriend - and I’m jealous she was there and I wasn’t) who got her work-Orioles priorities straight to be there:

I was lucky to get to the game at all. MLB had screwed over the Orioles by giving them the noon start on that Friday, and having been at my job only a few months, I didn't have leave built up. But my boss supported me prioritizing baseball over my job, so I could attend guilt-free.

Although it’s the Young double that gets all the glory - understandably so - the game before it was pretty special too, as Russellgood2573 reminds us:

Then the Tigers bullpen happened :)

... Next up Phil Coke and we started screaming "YOU'RE NEXT PHIL!". Coke didn't fare any better as he through a wild pitch, walked a batter than gave a 2-run double to De Aza (his 2nd double of the inning) making the game 12-3. At this point all we could do was laugh.

The 2014 playoffs had some fun moments. So did the 2012 playoffs, when the Orioles made their return. atttheyard08 was there, like me, when the playoffs came back to Baltimore, and he enjoyed it even though they lost:

I was born in 1983, a month after the Orioles won the world series. I watched the 1997 series on a 13" screen tv with a single antenna and "snow" going across the screen in our kitchen when I was 13, and will still never forgive he who will not be named ruining our best shot at a world championship since '83. Going to an Orioles playoff game for the first time was an experience I'll never forget, and one I hope to have again at the World Series.

As someone who was ALSO born a month after the Orioles won the World Series in 1983, this game holds a special place in my heart for the very same reason. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait as long as Cubs fans did to finally get to go to that World Series.

The 2012 season provided a chance for Camden Chatter Tarbox - CC’s favorite Iowan - to hit the road to Kansas City to see the first place Orioles and also romance his future wife and got 15 innings for his trouble:

We hit the road back north to Des Moines, and I can remember looking over at Mrs T sleeping in the passenger seat on the drive home thinking, "I’ve never met someone I want to share moments like this with before." My best Orioles game memory isn’t just my best Orioles memory or baseball memory, but one of my favorite memories with her. We should have stuck around for the next day’s game.

For people who are from farther away, any old game is special if you get to go. jprocto5 lived near Bluefield when the Orioles had a rookie league team there and made it to Baltimore for a random turn-back-the-clock game:

Orioles wore uniforms from the 1983 season and since I had not really seen it before, I just remember how weird the cartoon bird logo looked. Anyways, the Orioles won 3-1 and Rodrigo Lopez looked great in an otherwise forgettable game and season, but it was so cool as a kid.

Along with Delmon’s double, there are two more games still to come on the countdown: The Chris Hoiles Ultimate Grand Slam Game, and, of course, 2131 - and those are favorites of CCers who were lucky to be there, too.

HIO’sFan got to see that grand slam and in the process he learned a very valuable lesson from his dad:

I don't remember the details but suddenly with two outs left in the game, Chris Hoiles was up with the bases loaded. A lot of people were still there and we were getting pretty excited. Full count, last pitch of the game incoming, and the Orioles still probably aren't going to win. Until all of the sudden, they did. Chris Hoiles launched that final pitch beyond left center field and with that Ultimate Grand Slam, the Orioles won the game!

Mark Armacost didn’t make it to 2131, but he was there the night before for 2130, without even fully knowing at the time what he was getting to see:

My family members were always football fans primarily and I didn't fully realize until about a week beforehand that she had tickets to 2130. She came through and said it would be fun (later she was extremely grateful for getting me to hold the tickets for what proved to be a memorable and historical event). For one day in high school, I was the envy of everybody.

33rd St goes all the way back to the first game at OPACY in 1992, with some lucky tickets:

Opening Day 1992, my sixth out of seven in a row from 1987-93. In '92 you had to mail in a request for opening day tickets and I "won" the chance to buy them. Sutcliffe pitched a gem and the O's opened what was then and still remains the best stadium in the bigs with a win over the Indians. The "commemorative" tickets are framed in my den.

Do you have a favorite that no one has covered here? It’d be great to hear from somebody whose best Orioles game came back in the Memorial Stadium days. The FanPosts are open!