Ouch.
Know somebody who appears depressing proper now? We imply actually, actually sad, and so they confirmed no indicators of ache earlier than, let’s say, Saturday and Sunday and particularly Tuesday night? Is it doable they’ve lately broken a tv display? Have they stopped sporting sure orange and black apparel round the home? Do they mutter phrases like “sweep” or “stupid Rangers” or “wild card teams have an unfair advantage” with out additional rationalization?
Do not panic. This is regular. Well, it’s regular for individuals who have adopted the Baltimore Orioles this season and had their hopes raised by what can finest be described as a breakout 12 months solely to have them abruptly dashed in current days.
How a lot enjoyable had been the O’s in 2023? They had been younger. They had been playful. They had been gifted. And they had been selfless. It has been an absolute pleasure to observe Adley and Gunnar, Jorge, Ryan (and Ryan), Austin, Anthony, Cedric and the remaining play baseball with a youthful exuberance one hardly ever sees outdoors rec league sports activities. They gained 101 common season video games, the second finest common season end in all of Major League Baseball. They gained the American League East. And then got here the Texas Rangers who — and let’s put this as delicately and sensitively as doable — simply leveled them like a bulldozer, culminating with a 7-1 drubbing in Texas on Tuesday evening, a recreation that was primarily over by the second inning.
But we aren’t right here to choose at that wound. We go away that to the skilled baseball writers and their merciless fact-filled analyses. Rather, we’re right here to remind Orioles loyalists and their households that the solar will come out tomorrow, as a sure optimistic orphan sang repeatedly in a 1977 hit Broadway musical that has nothing to do with baseball in any way. Here are our high 5 phrases of comfort for Orioles followers who’re within the dumps.
- We have the remainder of MLB precisely the place we wish them. No, severely. Listen up, children, and ask the old-timers about 1969, when the Birds gained 109 common season video games, their finest ever, however misplaced the World Series in 5 video games to a group barely out of enlargement (Hint: It’s a New York group not known as the Yankees). Tough 12 months, however what a decade that adopted: The O’s gained the World Series the next 12 months and proceeded to dominate baseball for greater than a decade with 5 season-capping appearances in both the Series or American League Championships via 1983.
- The “no ego” development can proceed. The Orioles are nicely conscious they fell quick. They will come again hungry. Nothing helps group spirit and drive fairly like understanding you aren’t excellent. They are scrappy. It’s one of many traits that made them so loveable. And you may wager they gained’t come again with prima donnas.
- Orioles’ possession has a bit much less leverage within the ongoing dispute over signing a long-term lease at Camden Yards. Let’s face it, the conduct by Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos has been a bit unseemly at occasions. A World Series look may need made him much more unbearable.
- There’s nonetheless the Baltimore Ravens. Set apart that horrible loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers final Sunday, the soccer portion of Charm City’s weekend from hell, and the group’s continued damage downside. Baltimore’s NFL group continues to be within the hunt. We nonetheless have a “bird” within the recreation, only a completely different species.
- Less display time; extra household time. World occasions have taken a fairly darkish flip of late. We should deal with the stuff that actually issues. Sorry, does that sound like “Annie” once more? Here’s one other approach to have a look at it: Take comfort in rooting in opposition to the Rangers. You suppose Baltimoreans can’t maintain a grudge? Ask the parents who personal Mayflower transferring vans.
Finally, let’s simply keep in mind that baseball is designed to interrupt your coronary heart. We didn’t give you that, A. Bartlett Giamatti, the late MLB commissioner, did. “The game begins in the spring,” he wrote, “when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”
Exactly so.
Baltimore Sun editorial writers supply opinions and evaluation on information and points related to readers. They function individually from the newsroom.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com