When you look at a franchise like the Orioles, a team that plays in a near empty Camden Yards that is in the basement for so long that it seems like there is nothing to get out of it you think that this team has a bad front office. True, but as a native of the city of Baltimore I can tell you this, the main reason the Orioles are usually in the basement is because of something out of their control. Like the rest of the division and most of the American League the problem is this, They have to be able to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. When I think of the Orioles I think of a team that is usually in the wrong place at the wrong time and is always unlucky to the world of baseball.
The Baltimore Orioles: Professional Baseballs Unlucky Servants.
Our story begins in Summer 2010, the Baltimore Orioles have been nothing but being stuck in the basement of the AL East which is the hardest division to win in baseball after being robbed by the Jeffery Maier play in the 1996 ALCS and Armondo Benitez blowing 3 games in the LCS the following year to the Indians. The only good things that were happening to the franchise was a team with a strong start in 2005 but folded in the second half to the aforementioned Red Sox and Yankees, and the swan song of Cal Ripken in 2001. The issue that the O’s faced during the playoff drought in the 2000s was that yes the team had guys like Miguel Tejada, Brian Roberts, Adam Jones, Nick Markakis, Jeremy Guthere, and a top prospect in Matt Wieters. The only problem that GM Dan Duquette faced was that despite having several minor league style managers and having plenty of talent, they still couldn’t compete with Boston and New York atop the division. Duquette and owner Peter Angelos went after an old school manager in Buck Showalter, if you look at the past decade Buck was the guy that drafted the Core 4 of the Yankees only for Joe Torre to win 4 Championships with the team he built, Bob Brenly replacing him in Arizona and winning a World Series with the players he attracted to come to the desert, and building a strong hitting lineup in Texas only to see Ron Washington take them to 2 World Series. If ever there was a place where Showalter would shed his Legacy of Failure it would be with a team that was built before he got there. As for the Orioles themselves, Showalter’s impact was immediate. The O’s excelled in the second half after one of the worst starts in team history to give their fans hope for the future. After another subpar 2011 season in which they added Mark Reynolds, Chris Davis, Tommy Hunter, JJ Hardy, and a top prospect in Chris Tillman in the previous offseason. The main highlight was knocking the BoSox out of the playoffs on the last day of the season with nothing to play for on a two out single by Robert Andino, in many people’s eyes including myself there was hope for this team for the first time in 15 years.
The 2012 season would be unlike any other in Orioles history since the days of Earl Weaver. The team was celebrating its 20th season at Camden Yards by unveiling bronze sculptures of the 6 men whose numbers are retired at Legends Park. The Orioles for the first time since 1997 were instant World Series contenders led by Adam Jones, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, and a generational talent in Manny Machado plus a midseason trade for Jim Thome. Despite losing Brian Roberts, Nolan Reimold, and Nick Markakis to late season injuries, dem O’s bolted through the second half with the best win percentage in 1 run games in an MLB season as well as a talented young pitching staff. Chris Tillman became the ace that Baltimore has missed since Mike Mussina, an overseas addition in Wei-Yin Chen, and another top prospect in Miguel Gonzalez to go along with staff ace Jason Hammel and closer Jim Johnson. Even though the O’s weren’t able to overtake the Yankees in the division, they won their last 5 games including a sweep of the Red Sox in the final weekend to clinch a spot in the Wild Card game against Showalter’s old team in the Rangers. There led by Journeyman pitcher Joe Saunders, the Orioles shocked the Baseball World by beating the 2 time defending AL Champs on the road. Even though the Orioles bullpen would implode against the Damn Yankees in the deciding Game 5 of the ALDS there would be optimism in Baltimore like the one their neighbors across Russell Street in the Ravens had when they won the Super Bowl that winter.
2013 would be a season of unknowns in BirdLand, despite having the wild card lead for most of the season and having generational years from Davis, Jones, and Tillman along with the callup of a potential staff ace in Kevin Gausman the Orioles would be broken in the worst way, Manny Machado tore his ACL running to 1st base in a September game against Tampa Bay. That night would also knock them out of the second AL Wild Card, not only losing a series to the Rays, they got swept by the eventual champion Red Sox at Fenway that weekend, maybe they could beat the Blue Jays as well instead of losing 12 of 19 against them that year.
The offseason was critical for Baltimore in more ways than one, they would need to bolster the pitching staff after Jim Johnson had an off year and was traded to the A’s, Brian Roberts and Jason Hammel would also leave town and there needed to be something to get the Orioles back in the World Series hunt. They got themselves a dangerous power bat in Nelson Cruz on a one year prove it deal as well as adding Delmon Young for some depth in the outfield as well as re-signing Steve Peace, and acquiring Bud Norris. 2014 would be the new norm, the O’s again broke through, Adam Jones becoming the best all around center fielder in the AL, the emergence of rookie Jonathan Schoop, the continued prime of Nelson Cruz, and the best bullpen in baseball led by new closer Zach Britton. Though injuries once again hit the Orioles in the summer and this would prove Buck’s thinking in every way there is. Manny Machado would be out once again, Matt Wieters suffered Tommy John, and Chris Davis was suspended. Enter some of the most shocking success stories in baseball that year. Nick Hundley and Caleb Joseph replacing Wieters and becoming clutch players in almost every form, Ryan Flarhety becoming the utility man that Baltimore hasn’t had since BJ Surhoff, and Steve Peace who was hot right from the start. They had the second best record in all of baseball with a 96 win season and pulled off another huge upset when they swept the Detroit Tigers and knocked off 3 of the leading Cy Young candidates in Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, and David Price without Machado, Davis, and Wieters. Finally it would look like they would be going to the World Series for the first time since 1983, Buck Showalter would finally win the AL Pennant against the Royals ballast those ambitions SWEPT! The offense vanished to the Kansas City pen and Brian Matusz couldn’t stop giving up late inning home runs, they had failed in the LCS yet again.
The offseason would be difficult, Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis would be leaving town, 3 of their best players would be returning from injuries, and there would be more competition in the AL East. The 2015 would be a year of mixed results, Chris Davis would return to lead the league in Home Runs, Manny Machado established himself as the best 3rd basemen in baseball, the return to form of JJ Hardy, and Tillman and Gausman having their best years. But the rest of the rotation collapsed in the second half and they finished with a 500 record and couldn’t keep up with Toronto and (you guessed it) the Yankees. Many people outside of Baltimore were not optimistic of the O’s future and felt like many of their stars were declining or were overachieving.
That offseason Dan Duquette was at it again. Signing 2 more power bats in Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alverez, Wei-Yin Chen gone, Yovani Gallardo and Dylan Bundy in. Many people picked the O’s to finish dead last, how wrong would they be. In the first half of the season season the Orioles were doing their favorite things, smashing homers, striking out batters and winning 1 run ball games, Mark Trumbo and the so called El Toro were living up to the contracts they got that winter, and Gallardo returned to his old form from the 2011 season in Milwaukee. As usual Chris Davis, Adam Jones, Manny Machado and Jonathan Schoop were leading the way despite injuries to JJ Hardy and Matt Wieters. They had the second best record in baseball at the All Star Break with Trumbo and Davis 1-2 in the AL in Home Runs. Despite dropping out of first place in the AL East to the Blue Jays and then the Red Sox the Orioles needed to survive a very difficult AL Wild Card race to return to the playoffs, and they did. They swept the Diamondbacks at home to kickoff the final week of the season, then took 2 of 3 from the Blue Jays at SkyDome and went to Yankee Stadium to knock their hated rivals out of the playoffs and earn a return date to the playoffs. There they would be returning to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays in the Wild Card game to see who would face the Rangers in the ALDS. Both teams would hit home runs and get out of huge situations throughout the game and entering the bottom of the 11th Showalter had a decision to make. 1 he would go with Zach Britton the best closer in baseball who hadn’t been beat in almost a year, 2 he would use Ubaldo Jimenez who was a former Cy Young winner that had been demoted to the bullpen for depth in the playoffs, he chose Jimenez because the Blue Jays had dominated Britton over the years and plus Ubaldo destroyed one of the best hitting lineups in baseball the week before by pitching a 6 hitter in that game. What happens: walk, single, 3 run homer. As soon as the ball was hit by Encarnacion it appeared that the Orioles window of a World Series title was officially ending, they did everything they could to win a championship but never got the chance to taste it. But it wasn’t over just yet, the Orioles got off to another strong start in 2017 and were 2 games up in the Wild Card Hunt entering the final month of the season. They lost 22 of their last 27 games to finish the season in last place, this was a death blow to the teams hopes and dreams. There would be hope for the 2018 season because added depth to the pitching staff with Andrew Cashner, and Alex Cobb, as well as keeping the gang around for one more go at that one title, their opening set of games would be the hardest in baseball playing the Yankees and Red Sox a combined 13 times in their first 24 games as well as the Indians and Astros, a first series sweep of Minnesota would be the start the team needed but then they suffered the official end of their championship window, after the Twins series they lost 24 of their next 26 games and lost more than 100 games for the first time since 1988. By the end of the season many of their key players would be gone, Adam Jones, Jonathan Schoop, Manny Machado, Darren O’Day, Chris Tillman, Kevin Gausman, Zach Britton, Pedro Alverez, Brad Brach, and finally Buck Showalter and Dan Duquette, the only player left from the 2012-16 teams is Chris Davis who in 2018 and 2019 had 2 of the worst seasons in baseball history and Trey Mancini. What was once the return of the Oriole Way has returned to being the Unlucky Servants of Baseball like they were in the 2000s.
This is a pain for me to swallow because the city has been blessed with the riches of the NFLs Ravens and the MASLs Blast, but the Orioles have been unable to achieve those honors. When they were good, the AL East was the most competitive 5 team division in the game and now the O’s are bad again and once again suffer the majority of their loses every year to the Yankees and Red Sox. Do you want to know what my most cherished memory of this team is throughout my life? Being at Game 2 of the 2012 ALDS, when Jim Johnson struck out Alex Rodriguez to end the game, it was the loudest reaction I have ever heard at an Orioles game, and it sent the series to New York tied at 1. When I look at this team I don’t blame Peter Angelos like other Baltimoreans do but to me this team has suffered bad luck for years and years. Which leads me to the Curse of Jeffery Maier, if that play never happens the Orioles would have beaten the Yankees and would become the next great dynasty in the MLB and Cal Ripken would be much more of an icon than he already is for the ironman record. Davey Johnson would never have been fired, and Roberto Alomar would never have left for the Indians in 1999. All I can say is well at least we made that far but in the end it didn’t even matter.
Bragging Rights Sports 