In Retrospect
"I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them." (Link)
I’m writing this on September 18th at two in the morning, and today the Baltimore Orioles clinched a spot in the postseason by beating the Tampa Bay Rays in a massive game for the AL East. I don’t know when I’ll put this out but it’ll be in my notes until the moment is right. Whenever that moment is in the coming days or weeks.
It has been the joy of a lifetime to experience this Orioles season. And before I go down that road, let me step back for a second. It all starts with belief.
When we get older, we tend to think we’ve seen it all. And we’ve seen a lot! Between work, families, day-to-day life, it does get a little harder to find joy in the simple things. We have to remind ourselves a bit to smell the roses, tell someone you love them, or recognize what it is that you have in front of you while it’s happening. No one is without regrets and missing something or someone that was right there.
The other thing that happens is that time starts flying when we’re kind of stuck in our cocoons with the people we’ve chosen to spend our lives around. There just are more mundane and routine moments.
It takes something out of the ordinary or remarkable to happen that stands out to us. It takes your heart beating a little faster, it takes your mind trying to wrap itself around what it’s confused by, it takes positive and negative reinforcements.
And if there’s anything the Orioles of 2023 gave us, it was an inexplicable amount of joy from watching a team do it with only one guy batting over .300 (Ryan O’Hearn AKA the 🐐 or 🐐’Hearn or Bro’Hearn). The winning was certainly out of the ordinary because it was the fastest turnaround after being a horrible team two years prior in 2021 with a 52-110 record. If you want to understand how this happened in 2023, Brian Kenny does his best to try to explain here.
But it wasn’t just the winning. That was always secondary.
The actual joy. That’s what came first.
For me, it was stuff throughout the year like buying my nephew a black Adley Rutschman shirt, him wearing it to his first ever baseball game, and seeing how locked in he was watching us come back to beat the Minnesota Twins to avoid a sweep**. It was going to ballgames with my friends and family and feeling that excitement of, “We’re going to the Yard.” It was meeting the Oriole Bird at an event, meeting former Oriole Dave Johnson and him rooting for me to win the two 3rd base tickets I eventually won to a game at home against the Reds. It was going to see Phish all summer and people starting positive conversations with me, or meeting other O’s fans and taking pictures with them because we instantly became best friends. It was fans of other teams or just casual baseball watchers rooting for the O’s.
** As of today, the O’s have not been swept in 87 straight series’! The two teams ahead of the O’s all time are the 1903-05 Giants at 106 and the 1942-44 Cardinals at 125.
And that’s what all of this is about anyways, right? Like, all of this.
It started with the hope and faith we had/have in franchise cornerstone Adley Rutschman, to the growth of Gunnar Henderson (Alabama represent!!!), to the bonafide major league ace Grayson Rodriguez worked so hard to earn and become (AGA, Nick!), to (I hope) everyday-capable-overall-stud Jordan Westburg, to DL Hall finally making it in a bullpen capacity and having meaningful innings, to the excitement of other prospects like Colton Cowser and Heston Kjerstad getting their moments in The Show, to the older guys getting their moment after experiencing the low beginnings, and to the midseason acquisitions like Jacob Webb and Jack Flaherty and Shintaro Fujinami getting a second chance with a clubhouse that welcomed them with open arms…
Winning is a consequence. It doesn’t happen without everything going right, and things are more likely to go right in a supportive environment where people are given the tools to succeed while being surrounded by a strong feeling of belief. “I have faith in you.” “I trust in you.”
From March to the end of the season, we believed in these guys. They made us feel good to support them.
Seeing GM Mike Elias hit the Dong Bong when we came back to beat the Rays after clinching a playoff berth gave us all the chance to celebrate the work and vision his team has brought forth (I wish someone passed Assistant GM Eve Rosenbaum the Dong Bong 😂😂). For so long, the Orioles were a lovable team to root for but never really taken seriously as a threat. In 2018 when Elias came in, the fans patiently waited because we knew in 5-6 years, we would be in a good place as an organization.
And now we’re here. This is arguably the best Orioles team in 40 years, and certainly of my 32-year old lifetime.
Next year is never a given. Anything can happen, and the AL East could be insanely competitive again like it is every year.
But for now, this O’s team is going to win 100 games and I’m here to celebrate every moment of this season regardless of how it ends. My friends and me talk almost every day (mostly me sending the GIF of the bird flying the flag) and the love and excitement amongst everyone over virtual reality, in person at Camden Yards, Pickles or whatever bar or TV at home showing the game is palpable.
This is what Orioles Magic is.