The Bird Is Once Again The Word

The year was 1997.  I know this because I am a lifelong Orioles fan, but also because I was a high school sophomore and it’s nearly impossible to forget those formative years.  I was scrawny, awkward, and completely incompetent when it came to interacting with the opposite sex.  But I was a baseball fan and my O’s were playoff bound for a second straight year.

After rolling through the ALDS, beating the Seattle Mariners three games to one, the Birds found themselves down three games to two to the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series.  In front of a sellout crowd at Camden Yards, Mike Mussina pitched a masterful eight innings, giving up just one hit; but despite the dominant performance and the nine hits given up by Indians’ pitchers, the game remained a scoreless tie.  Three innings later, Armando Benitez gave up a solo shot to Tony Fernandez and the Indians moved on the World Series with a 1-0 victory in 11 innings.  The year was 1997; the last time the Orioles finished a season with a winning record.

Fast forward to 2012.  A lot has happened since the last time the O’s played a meaningful game in the muggy evenings of early autumn in Baltimore.  We dodged a bullet when Y2K turned out to be a Y2Joke, the world was changed by the events of September 11, 2001, and the iPod, iPhone, and iPad have turned the planet into iEarth.  But from a sports perspective, a slow and subtle change began 14 years ago, and today the once proud baseball city of Baltimore is known around the country as a football town.

Courtesy: The Bleacher Report.com

But something strange is happening this year; the Birds are winning.  Not just a series here and there.  Not just five out of seven, sandwiched between a couple of six game losing streaks.  No, the O’s are winning consistently.  They finished the first three months of the season having won more games than they lost, something Baltimore fans aren’t used to seeing.  They’ve hit some rough patches, like every team in baseball does now and again, but they’ve bounced back to right the ship every time.

Now, as the mid-summer classic rolls through and Baltimore feels the heat of triple-digit July afternoons, the Birds sit in 2^nd place behind the NY Yankees in the AL East and right in the middle of a playoff race.  For only the second time in the last 15 years, the O’s made it to the All Star break with a winning record and with a mix of strong pitching and young, exciting hitters, this team gives off a surprising air of confidence that Baltimore fans haven’t seen in quite a while.

So the Orioles are winning.  Baseball in B-More is relevant once again.  All is right with the world…right?  Wrong.  If you were to stop a person on the street in Baltimore today and ask them what they thought about the O’s, you’d likely get the following response, “Don’t get your hopes up, they’ll screw it up in the end” or “They always start hot and fade down the stretch, just wait and see.”  That’s right; the entire city of Baltimore is collectively waiting for the other shoe to drop.

While apprehension is certainly understandable after more than a decade of losing baseball, the cynicism oozing out of the city is putting a damper on an otherwise exciting Orioles resurgence.  Instead of enjoying the ride, O’s fans are wondering when the train will jump the tracks.  Instead of trading away their best talent to contending teams, the O’s are looking to trade for talent.  It’s an exciting time to be an Orioles fan again, but the city remains skittish.  I get it.  I’m an O’s fan myself.  But here’s the thing; how many fans out there truly believed that the team would be in contention at this point in the season?  My guess is not many.  So why are we collectively fearful of the excitement we’re holding inside?  The Birds have already exceeded our expectations, the rest is just gravy.

Courtesy: The Baltimore Sun

Instead of doing our best Charlie Brown impression, standing on the sidelines assuming Lucy is just going to pull that football away from us again; we should embrace the thrill of it all and run as hard as we can towards that pigskin!  I can’t tell you that the O’s will be contending in September.  I can’t tell you we’ll be buying up playoff tickets come October.  Will the Birds underachieve once again?  It’s possible.  But maybe, just maybe, that other shoe won’t drop at all and I’ll be celebrating a winning season for the first time since puberty.

So Orioles fans, stop worrying and start enjoying this ride; you’ll be sorry if you don’t.