Play Ball. The Eternal Blessing Of Opening Day
It's easy to root for a championship team; Baltimore Oriole fans have learned to settle for far less.
Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles. The team last won a World Series in 1983, led by a rookie, Cal Ripken.
Last year, the Baltimore Orioles had a great spring and summer. Didn’t lose a single game until late July. And then the season started.
Of course it was a Corona-truncated 60-game campaign, and the O’s finished with 25 wins and 35 losses. Their saving grace was that they finished one game ahead of the last-place Red Sox in the American League East.
As a long-suffering Oriole fan, though, I’ve seen worse. Far worse. In fact, the previous year had any number of sportswriters speculating on whether the Orioles were the worst baseball team ever. Their woes were exemplified by Chris Davis, the team’s power hitter with a $161 million salary, who set the Major League record for most consecutive at-bats without a hit: 54. In all, the 2019 team lost 108 games – that’s two out of every three over the 162-game season – and finished 49 games out of first place in their division.
Still, that was an improvement over the 2018 season when the O’s lost 115, a distant 61 games out of first.
With the Orioles and Red Sox scheduled to play their season opener in Boston this afternoon (April 2), both teams have the chance to start with a clean slate. It’s a baseball rite of spring, and what a blessing. Like the Jewish concept of the High Holidays -- an opportunity to let go of the past and focus on the future.
How fitting that Opening Day usually takes place at the time of Passover, with its inspiring story of the enslaved Israelites defeating the all-powerful Egyptians (granted with a little help from the Lord). The foundational themes of faith and redemption lift my spirits on many levels this time of year.
The beauty of every Opening Day is that a baseball fan can dream of one’s team going all the way and winning the World Series seven months from now. They say that “hope springs eternal.” But “they” don’t know my Orioles.
A couple of months ago the Birds made baseball headlines – and much-expected derision – when FanGraphs, an analytics and statistics website, projected postseason odds for the ’21 season. It gave the O’s a zero percent chance to clinch a playoff spot. Not a slim chance or one in a million, but 0.
That hurts.
Especially if you live in New York, as I do, and the heavily favored Yankees were given a 91.6 percent chance of making the playoffs.
But I have a (small) measure of empathy for teams like the Yankees that have all the pressure on them. They’re saddled with embarrassingly bulging salaries and an attitude instilled by former owner George Steinbrenner that if your team doesn’t win the World Series, they’re losers.
But my happy-go-nowhere Orioles figure the only place they can go from the basement is up. They can relish their role as underdogs and play loose, with enthusiasm. And I’ve learned to lower my expectations as a fan, appreciating a great play in the field or a timely hit rather than checking the standings every day.
So I’ll be rooting for the O’s young squad, even though it may seem at times like their longest winning streaks could be measured in innings rather than games.
One thing the Orioles take great pride in this season is a miracle of sorts, one the whole baseball world is in awe of: Trey Mancini, the O’s 29-year-old gifted outfielder and first baseman who led the team in hitting during the 2019 season, will be back in the lineup after missing all of last season.
Diagnosed last March with Stage 3 colon cancer, he underwent surgery and endured six months of chemotherapy. Many thought his baseball career was over, but he vowed he would be back for Opening Day. Now cancer-free, he will take the field with his teammates and be saluted by fans everywhere for his courage and commitment.
Who knows, maybe Trey Mancini won’t be the only Oriole to defy the odds this season.
Go O’s!
I enjoy reading and hearing about your annual Orioles assessments!