Orioles Magic

My sister and her family took me to a ball game for my 52nd birthday.  Orioles won with a walk-off single in the ninth, which was great.

That's right, I'm 52!

Eternal Recurrence

I've said it before -- Orioles ain't got no pitching.

The Agony and The Agony

For two straight years the Orioles have made the playoffs and then totally disappeared, offensively.  (They are a hitting team, not pitching wonders.)

And I'm really not feeling football this year, maybe because I miss watching it with my Dad.

So, thank you for reading this pity-party of a post.  I'll root for the Dodgers and Shohei I guess.

Summer In Baltimore

Of course the Orioles having an amazing season coincides with the Yankees having an even better one.

The Birds Have Been Bought

 

The Orioles have new owners.

They're coming off a pretty miraculous regular season, then couldn't win a single game in the playoffs.

Change is good.  But they're still the Orioles until they make some substantial progress in the playoffs.

Interesting to watch at least.

The Agony and The Agony

It's like Baltimore didn't even try.

Fandom

I guess I should be complaining about how the Orioles didn't acquire anything more than two not so great pitchers.

But with so many teams over .500 there just isn't much talent available.

They've got as good a shot as anybody to at least win the American League.  The Braves are probably the best team in baseball though.

Alas

Orioles seem to have used up all their rocket-sauce.

41-24

I keep meaning to write a medium-ish piece on how the Orioles are for real this year (hitting good, pitching better) but I know once I do they'll collapse.

Hell, even this kind of bullshit non-post is tempting fate.

Meanwhile, I start my summer counseling job in a week, then the "real" job in September.

Wonders Will Most Likely Cease

This post probably jinxes it all buy my God the Orioles are playing good and exciting baseball.

Victory

Orioles at 54-51 in August is pretty much a World Series victory as far as I'm concerned.

15-16!

Let's see if I can get this straight -- Orioles pitcher Jon Means pitched a complete game no-hitter, but in striking someone out on a wild pitch he just missed a perfect game.  The base runner got thrown out at second, but having a single base runner on first invalidates a perfect game.  He only faced 27 hitters (the minimum possible) but the (IMO catch-able) WP ruined it.

Still pretty cool though.

/Kirk Gibson gimpy fist pump

Whelp, the Dodgers deserved to win.

I'm just thankful that a COVID-era World Series proved to be as entertaining as this one, despite my skepticism.

And once again, the Orioles have rushed out to a solid 0-0, .500 season for 2021.

Now Some Good News

It's close to May and the Orioles are .500.

Congrats

I think it's clear by now I'm a conflicted Orioles fan, but goddammit if the Nationals didn't fight the fuck back every step of the way.

Congrats DC!#WorldSeries

— (I Ain't Afraid of No) James (@wetcasements) October 31, 2019

"the cadence of games"

Emma Baccellieri on the unexpected joys of late season "meaningless baseball":

"The Tigers won, 5-2. It mattered as much as a game between baseball’s two worst teams can matter in September—which is to say, not at all, in any technical sense, unless you’re particularly concerned about the potential draft order for next year. But this technical sense is the objective, macro, big-picture sense. This technical sense may be why professional baseball exists as an enormously profitable business, but it is not why baseball exists. And, of course, there is no one clear answer to that second question—but whatever there is, it’s probably closer to the texture of a game between two terrible teams on September 16 than it is to anything else.

When I miss baseball in the winter, I do not miss the postseason. I do not miss the highlights, I do not miss the debates over who will deserve the Cy Young, I do not miss anything that seems as if it is meant to be remembered. I miss the cadence of games. I miss MLB’s copyright disclaimer on broadcasts. I miss background noise. I miss the Orioles versus the Tigers on September 16."

The Orioles have been terrible for about two decades now, but I still follow them somewhat closely.  If it was possible to listen to them on a Korean radio, as dreadful as they are, I would.

So when I moved to Daegu ten years ago (!) I was excited to have a local team, the Samsung Lions, who were actually quite good.   (They won four consecutive championships between 2011 and 2014).

Of course, they've fallen into mediocrity right on cue.  (Currently in eighth place out of ten squads.)

Still, I love that expression "cadence of games."  Walking home at night through the streets and alleys of Daegu, the fried chicken joints will be playing the Samsung game if it's on.  I check the scores in the morning.  I go to about three or four games a season, but it's those late season "meaningless" ones that somehow charm me much more than they should.  Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with weather -- fall has always been my favorite season, and there is something about days growing shorter rather than longer that makes me want to check out at least one more home game before the season ends.

Godspeed, Ichiro

Ichiro Suzuki has retired.

As somebody who grew up loving baseball, then falling out of it, then coming back to it (even as a god forsaken Orioles fan!) this was one of those great moments -- in Tokyo, no less.

I'm a nostalgic jerk, basically.

R.I.P. Frank

Frank Robinson was a bit before my time as an Orioles fan but one of the greats regardless.  I'd forgotten that he was the first black MLB coach.

Sad news.

Blues For Manny

Machado is now a Dodger.

I was back into following Major League Baseball for a few years with the Orioles putting together B-level squads that could regularly contend for playoff spots, then predictably fall apart.

But it was still fun to follow them.  And Manny was just viscerally enjoyable to watch, either on offense or defense.

Now I guess I'll just ignore them for another decade or so and stick to Korean baseball.

Loyalty

nice to see the @Orioles are off to a healthy 1-3 start...

— Stormy Jamesiels (@wetcasements) April 3, 2018