What If the Orioles Never Win Again?
Down deep in the marrow, sports are a promise.
However much our favorite teams and players frustrate us and let us down we continue to watch because we’ve signed up for an implicit guarantee that we will be rewarded for our attention and loyalty. Rarely, if ever, do we stop to consider what might happen if the promise gets broken.
What if there’s nothing around the corner? No renaissance, no rebirth? What if the future is already here?
Sports occupy a unique place in society in that we are allowed — encouraged — to consistently demand excellence. That’s not usually the case. Indeed, the middle of the road wins almost everywhere else. Websites, restaurants, stores, consumer goods, politicians — mediocrity dominates the marketplace and we’ve come to accept and live with this fact. Excellence is a welcome outlier but we know not to expect it.
Not so in sports. Mediocrity there is still unacceptable. When it happens, fans making their displeasure known one way or another is considered a healthy part of the exchange.
This promise of excellence and concurrent right to demand it are, I believe, a large part of why so many people find sports so appealing. Not the only reason, of course, but a significant part of it.
When I watch these Baltimore Orioles as the calendar threatens to enact July I can’t help but admit that the bloom is off the rose a bit. They’re better — I stand by that. But they’re also quite obviously not good enough to contend for a playoff spot. That old, familiar feeling is starting to creep in and I’m beginning to wonder if maybe we’re not looking at this thing all wrong. Maybe this is the new normal. And if it is, what then?
We tend not to think much about boxers who never get a title shot. And yet, most of them never do.
So where am I going here? In earlier drafts of this post I found myself reading my words back and wondering, “Am I saying that we should all just accept losing? Is that an argument I want to make?”
No, and no. What I am suggesting, though, is that following a team like the Orioles is a highly nuanced endeavor. Right now, I’m trying to find my target. Trying to find the answer to a surprisingly difficult question: what do I want from this team? What’s my reward for following them? What do I get out of this?
How do you answer that? Or is it a question you’d rather not ask?
When I left the stadium tonight I found myself asking how the players could handle it, which quickly turned into what you said above… Wait the players can handle it because they are paid. Handily. Yet I had to pay to go watch that game of infutility tonight in person.
My answer I guess is usually just… keep on keepin on.
Wish there was an easier one.
This was a weird post for me to write and in a way I feel like it’s only partially finished. I wanted to get these thoughts out but I don’t feel like I’ve mastered them. That’s why I closed with a question and not a conclusion. I’m wondering if other folks are grappling with the same questions.
The ultimate goal for every team, every season, every sport is a championship. That’s why they play. Yet no sane fan could have entered this season believing the Orioles might win the World Series. Think about that fact for even a few moments and the issues start cascading out of control.
What’s the point? What’s the “win”? Is it .500? Is it progress? What’s progress, anyway? And where’s it going?
My suspicion is that the answer lies in returning to the roots of enjoying the game itself. I’ve danced around that idea quite a bit on the pages of this site over the years but I’m still not sure how to make sense of the big picture.
If the goal is a championship, and you know that goal can’t be met before the games even start, why watch? Logic says, “don’t bother watching.” Yet I still watch and feel no need to stop.
There’s something here that needs figuring out.
while you’re at it figure out how long it will be before sports means nothing. it’s a logical next step if you ask me. good post.
p.s. also find out if i used proper grammar up there because i haven’t no idea.
I think, as an Orioles fan who is well aware there will be no post season this year (and probably next), the reason to watch is for the little victories. The amazing plays that sometimes happen even when we lose. The games that they do win, hell the occasional series that they win. Even if they aren’t going to get better, these players are still much better than not watching at all.
I look at this team and I see absolutely no progress. Just another bad team. Honestly, it’s tough for me to get the motivation to give a shit on a nightly basis. At this point, I feel like the onus is on the Orioles to prove something – anything! – to me that they have a clue as to what they’re doing. I’ve seen enough bad signings and bad decisions (deciding for no reason that Nolan Reimold is a platoon player and must sit in favor of Felix Pie being the latest example) that it would no longer surprise me if the current group of Orioles brass really, honestly, truly have no idea how they’re supposed to be any good.
The team is bad, has been for 13 years and probably will be bad until Peter sells it. I still enjoy watchng baseball and following the team. When I stop enjoying it, I will stop watching. That being said, it makes me somewhat sad the the highlight of the season for me for the last ten years has been the day that the Yankees get eliminated from the playoffs. At least they have only won once since 2000.
@ Andrew:
I basically agree here, but then you still haven’t answered the question. Why the hell are you still watching or following them? I think it’s obvious we all take the same approach of being more and more of a casual follower of the team as the season progresses. It’s an annual thing: start of pretty pumped and as they start to fade, so does our interest. Never completely, and almost always to be renewed again in the offseason, but without the fading interest, we’d all go insane, and our summers would be a waste.
I saw the O’s beat the Reds on fireworks night last Friday and it was awesome. Huge crowd, the extra innings motivational movie quote videos on the big screen, the walk-off home run.. it was just baseball, and a hell of a time despite knowing the team is mediocre. We keep watching because, first and foremost, we like the game of baseball, and secondly, we just can’t not be fans of the Orioles. Even if they suck, it’s a never-ending mission to see them good one day, and that’s the ultimate payoff. In the meantime, we’re forced to, like Gina said, take pleasure in the minute details of the game and individual achievements.
Because sucky and frustrating as the O’s and the organization as a whole may be, you would much rather watch Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters, JJ Hardy, Zach Britton, Jake Arrieta, etc than A-Rod, Pedroia, Beckett, or any of the great players on great teams. I can take some pleasure in watching playoff baseball, but there’s just nothing like watching the O’s – it’s an ingrained, hometown thing.
Great post, and something I think about all the time. What is the point? For me, the main reason is that the Orioles have been a major part of my life since I was about five years old. I really couldn’t get rid of my attachment to them if I tried. On a more rational level though, I just simply love baseball as a sport. I could go into why, but pretty much everyone on here knows what I’m talking about. It’s just unlike anything else.
So that love for baseball combined with a lifelong attachment to the Orioles results in me closely following every season and offseason, often despite my better judgment.
I have to agree with Andrew — I’m at a very high frustration level with this whole franchise at the moment. Without a really lucky season, and I mean a total freak season where everyone develops/plays up to their career standards and no one gets hurt, I really don’t see this getting better in the foreseeable future. Yes, they should sign Fielder, but they won’t, and we all know it. But the days of half-heartedly going after the top guys and then trying to sell the fans on fading stars as a viable fallback option have to end. We will never compete in this division with this strategy without some insane luck. Never. Everyone points to the Rays as a counterargument here, but guess what? The Rays drafted insanely well (with a few exceptions, of course). They used their time in the cellar to stock their farm system at every level. We have not drafted even remotely as well. We are not run well from the top, and it’s time to face up to this. The fact that we’re here, again, with no real hope after 13 losing seasons is just ridiculous.
@ sci:
Yeah, using the Rays as an example of the path the Orioles are trying to take is like saying I watched a lumberjack cut down a tree with a big auto-saw, and now I will mimic his strategy with an abused, starved, poisonous platypus.
@ dan the man:
I’m still here because I love the Orioles, but you know, I haven’t watched a full nine Baltimore innings since…mid-May? It’s just a miserable experience, watching the birds lose and to seemingly do so proudly with their “cleanup hitter” Vlad Guerrero and their “starting pitcher” Chris Jakubauskas. Even when they win, they do so with “proven closer” Kevin Gregg walking the bases loaded and earning his 10 million dollar paycheck and looking like an asshat…and it’s simply as hard as it’s ever been to root for the Orioles.
MacPhail has done alright in some respects, but I think we all know it might be time for some new thinking in the Warehouse. Whether or not that ever happens with Peter Angelos owning the team, who knows. Probably not.
Really, it all comes down to the young pitching. It’s kind of here, but it’s just not Rays-here yet. That, and we can’t sign guys like Prince Fielder. And when we can’t sign guys like Prince Fielder, we’re not making up for it (like the Rays or Jays) with quality drafting, stockpiling picks, signing international talent, or astute trades (save a few). So there you go.
On a positive side note: it’s been fun watching Nick Markakis scratch and claw his way back to .280 from .230. Plus the doubles. Every time you doubt the guy, he just ends up being Nick Markakis again. I’m over the lack of home runs at this point. Nick Markakis = average, doubles, timely hitting, sick defense, good base running. And pretty much destroying Cal Ripken to this point in his career other than the homers.
Also, Adam Jones is legit. And if Wieters is what he is at this point in his career, I’d take that in a heartbeat seeing as he’s a catcher. Small consolations, maybe, but there you go.
Another thing, that’s I imagine it won’t be a popular thing to say around here. You have to understand that the Orioles have been my life forever and I hope they’re my life forever yet. I really love them even if they make me immensely angry.
I went to a Phillies game a few weeks ago (I live about an hour north of Philly nowadays) and HOLY CRAP it was like night and day compared to watching the birds. It was just such a better experience, watching quality baseball in a city that was actually into the game. For all intents and purposes, that’s NEVER happened in Baltimore, and it’s so easy to forget how much fun baseball is supposed to be.
Sigh. This too must pass.
@ Andrew: Never happened in Baltimore? Maybe not while you or I have been alive, but damn dude. A whole generation of Baltimoreans disagrees with you. Wild Bill? The 60′s and 70′s? The Why Not season?
And you need to go to more games, dude. I’m telling you – the fireworks night was ridiculous. Yes, school just let out so there were more kids and whatnot. But I’ve never heard so much unprompted “Let’s go O’s” chants before. People were into it – it was loud for all 12 innings of that game. When the O’s play like shit, though, yeah, the crowd is taken out of it.
Win, and Baltimore is a baseball town once more. Guaranteed.
@ dan the man: I was at that game as well and I completely agree.
No offense, Andrew, but your bitterness is showing. You’re way off base on this one. If the Orioles start playing consistent, winning baseball the stadium will be electric. My past arguments about frontrunners and bandwagoners aside.
@ dan the man:
The 60′s and 70′s? Fine, but I don’t want to keep hanging my hat on stuff that happened before I was born. As far as I’m concerned, if 1958 was followed by 1999, nothing would be any different today than it is in reality.
“Win, and Baltimore is a baseball town once more. Guaranteed.”
Truth. Too bad that first word isn’t in the Orioles’ vocabulary.
@ neal s:
You’re absolutely spot on. I am incredibly bitter. I’m not even sure why – I’ve just, basically overnight, lost all faith in the MacPhail Warehouse. And I guess I’m at the point in the loss-acceptance cycle where I’m just angry. I’ve already been through denial and bargaining and depression, so maybe anger is all that’s left?
@ Andrew:
I’m not saying I disagree with your assessment of the Modern Orioles, and that it sucks that we have to look back to the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s, and that looking back is an extremely poor salve to the open wound that is being an Orioles fan. But to say a sustained Phillies-esque atmosphere has “never” happened in Baltimore just isn’t true.
@ Andrew: I totally understand where you’re coming from. I’m not angry (yet) but I’m just kind of drifting. I really am getting to the point where I’m starting to feel like they’re never going to win again. Thus, this post.
This was my last year for MacPhail. I liked his offseason in a general sense, but it hasn’t worked out, and now it’s pretty obvious to see the flaws.
But where the hopelessness creeps in is in the idea that no GM will really be able to do it. MacPhail used to be the breath of fresh air we thought we needed, and while he improved many areas, it just hasn’t been enough. Whether that’s him or Angelos, we’ll never know, but it sure seems like his anti-international philosophy and inability to stockpile picks is not jiving with what the O’s should be doing to rebuild in the AL East. Can the next guy do it? I’m in full-on believe it when I see it mode, and in the meantime, am just trying to enjoy the game of baseball.
back to the more philosophical discussion of “why we watch losing teams”. being a lifelong browns fan, i think i have had a good amount of experience in this category. so let me do my best.
first and foremost, as Sci said, it’s part of what you are. I recently read a book by Cleveland beat reporter Terry Pluto called “things i’ve learned from watching the browns” and it contained a ton of fan stories he received. and you start to realize just how much sport becomes part of your life. how it reminds you of an era in your life, your connections with your family, etc.
so that to me is part of it, but the other side of it is the love for the sport itself. I LOVE football, i grew up in ohio so it’s kind of ingrained in you, but i had to learn to appreciate baseball. sure i liked watching baseball when i was younger, but when i moved to baltimore 10 years ago (after the indians had seemingly sold off their entire team as if there was a free-agent mayflower truck outside) i decided right then and there i was going to commit to learning every nuance, get more into the flow of a game, attend more games, really invest in a team for an entire season…not that i hadn’t with the indians…but REALLY get into it now that i was out of school and had some cash.
that has been slowly evolving over the last 10 years and i feel like baseball has so many levels of appreciation and it will continue to…it’s never mastered, even from an observer. you can only hope to try and explore every aspect of it. very Dalai Lama i know…so i got that going for me.
anyways, so when it comes to a loser like the browns it’s a love for the game as well as it being part of who you are and your history, and the orioles, while starting off being a yearning to learn to love baseball more…it’s slowly also becoming more of who i am, and helping define my life in baltimore.
so excuse my over-verbose explanation, but maybe that’s the long way of saying when i go to a game like last night and we get smoked and look lifeless…i remember it. and i also remember it when we have a walk-off with a full crowd and everyone going nuts, because it makes me think…FUCK YAH…work sucked today, and yah we got smoked 5 out of the last 6 game…but this 6th game, this mother fucking 6th game where we shut everyone up, if just for a second, makes everything seem ok. if just for a day.
i digress….
So I am prepared to get blasted for saying what I’m about to say. I attempted to turn my back on the Orioles. I love baseball and have become so fed up with Angelos, I swore off the O’s and vowed to find a new team. I based my new team criteria on history, player likeability, stadium, and whether I’d wear their hat in public. I chose the Brewers. I couldn’t do it. For one, I don’t have the MLB package so watching Brewers games are tough. Two, I can’t go to Brewers games on a whim. Three, Milwaukee just isn’t in my heart, Baltimore is. So I came graveling back to my team. I’m an Oriole’s fan because they nabbed me as a fan when they were good. As bad as they are and as much as I curse, cry and throw temper tantrums I love hoping one day a corner will be turned and the effort and heart I put in the team will be reciprocated by the team itself. (Or I hope Angelos gets lost in a corn maze, never to be seen again. Whichever comes first)
@ Vlad to Meet You: angelo cornmaze would be a good album name. just saying
Matusz needs the Phil Hughes treatment. Go on the DL and find that arm strength.
Three Words…Chicago Friggin Cubs. Of course it is very possible the Orioles never win in my lifetime. (Born in 1984) I too have thought about this many a times. Somewhere, theres probably a 102 year old Cubs fan who kicked the bucket this year, still never seeing his team celebrate in October, while the Yankees have won 27. Imagine, it’s the year 2086, and the Orioles still have 3 rings to their credit, and New York has 45-50.
It’s evident that once again this year the O’s are going to finish in the cellar of the East. I don’t think the finger should be pointed at MacPhail. We assume that when he was brought in he would get full reign and Angelos wasn’t going to get involved. So let me ask you this, if someone was about to write a 150 million dollar check in your name, you’re telling me you wouldn’t have any input on the matter? We don’t know what happens behind closed doors. When it comes to trades, MacPhail has been amazing. MacPhail is a hell of a salesman, but he’s handcuffed by Angelos when it comes to the big contract free agents.
I really see no reason why Nolan can’t just be the starting left fielder for this team. His power upside, in my opinion, far outweighs Felix’s defensive upside – especially for left field. Nolan’s still pretty fast, has a good arm, can work the count a little. You could still keep Felix as the 4th outfielder, or trade him and just use a guy like Matt Angle. Luke is a nice bat at times, but he’s not the future.
I think the team basically should shape up like this in the near future.. as you can see, plenty of glaring holes:
LF – Reimold
CF – Jones
RF – Markakis
C – Wieters
1B – ??
2B – ??
3B – ??
SS – Hardy
DH – Reynolds
B – Pie/Angle
B – Tatum/Caleb Joseph
B – Andino
B – ??
Reynolds would be a perfect option for DH, I think. He can work the count, he can drive in runs, he can hit homers, he doesn’t hit into a lot of double plays, and you’d be able to hide his bad defense while still having him be an option to play 3B in interleague if his bat is hot.
Clearly, the O’s just haven’t been able to find guys for that middle infield. They did well with Hardy, but they have to get him signed for that to matter. IMO, you’re still searching for 3B. Obviously, you need something legit at 1B and a replacement at 2B. Bell needs to prove he isn’t just a K-machine and Snyder doesn’t have enough pop for a 1B in the AL East.
But I’m already over Vlad. He’s the new Miggi – overly aggressive, less power than advertised, slow as shit, lots of singles. I guess Andrew could have told me that in March.
Mike R wrote:
Little surprised it took me til the last comment to see what I first think of the O’s season now.
We are no longer the Phils of just 5 years ago, a team not so great, but used to be awesome just a generation ago. We are the befudingly cursed team to never see October, with a “nice” stadium, and a fanbase who’s whiteness is only surpassed by its team’s in a traditionally black city.
Not to mention where our GM came from…the makeover is complete. We are the Cubs now in an even worse division.
Dan, I am right there with you on Reimold. I see he’s not in the lineup tonight, though that has more to do with Luke Scott than Reimold…or does it?
You know, it’s totally possible that Buck Showalter doesn’t really understand platoon splits. He certainly wouldn’t be the first manager in black and orange to struggle with the concept. Almost makes you wonder if it’s some kind of order coming down from the brass…?
My frustration level is somehow even higher today than it was yesterday. All I can think is: are they even trying out there?
@ Tomás:
We aren’t cursed, we’re just inept. Huge difference.
@ Andrew:
To me, it’s a typical manager move: play the veteran over the young guy especially when he matches up against the pitcher. You could also say there’s an order to play Luke as much as possible in order to try and trade him, but who knows. Bottom line, Luke should be the DH on this team and Vlad is kind of useless. Especially now that it’s established we’re not going to contend with him in the lineup.
@ dan the man:
Well, also Luke Scott probably shouldn’t play against lefties. So it’s fine to platoon him with Reimold since there aren’t any other positions for Reimold to play at (which is the predictable Vlad issue at work). But then there are other weird things, like:
Playing Felix Pie against a RHP instead of Reimold after Luke hurt himself on Tuesday.
Sending Andino up to hit against a RHP instead of Luke Scott against a weaker LHP
Using Pie and Blake Davis as pinch-hitters instead of Reimold.
Anyone have any idea what kind of potential guys like Tyler Townsend or Joe Mahoney bring to 1B? I only ask because you’re crazy if you actually think Prince Fielder has a chance at coming here to Baltimore.
@ Mike R:
Mahoney’s been hurt all year, so who knows about him at this point. Townsend…meh. 57 Ks to 8 BBs at Frederick is a really bad sign. Walk rate dropped by half since last year.
Buck pinch hits Felix for Nolan when Nolan actually has a better career line against righties than Felix.
FML. Same old shit over and over and over.
Is there a point where smart, younger, statiscally-aware managers begin to replace the “good old boys”old-school managers? Or are we destined to continue suffering through “DERP.. RIGHTIES AGAINSt LEFTIES IS ALWAYS GOOD”.
Maybe the only time you’ll see me referance a graph when it comes to baseball, but Mark Reynolds homers aren’t those first row barely get over type. He hits bombs for homers. 15 of his 20 are over 400′.
http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2011_204&type=hitter
And last year 25 of 32 were over 400′, even 4, maybe 5 that went over 450′
Dude is a beast. Unlike this douchebag who clearly is a taking advatage of a short porch/wind tunnel/whatever you wanna call it.
http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2011_8&type=hitter