Dear Nationals Fan,
Well, hello.
Would you look at us … me, the eternal optimist Orioles fan, holding the door open for you (again) as you step into the train of Off-Season Losers.
Embed from Getty ImagesWelcome aboard. We’ve been expecting you.
But, look at the bright side. Twenty-seven other teams will be bunking here with us this winter. (There’s only one team that won’t get on the Loser Train. And, I hope it’s the Braves … they’re jam-packed with former Orioles, you know.)
When your team goes bad … and not run-of-the-mill bad, but wholesale “we are the worst of the worst, nearly the worst that ever was, and there is no clear indication that we will ever not be the worst” bad … you start digging around to assure yourself that someone out there, long ago, was worse than you.
Bad news, Orioles fans.
The 2018 Baltimore Orioles are among baseball’s stinkiest ever. And, there’s still a week to go.
While the 1910 baseball season won’t change that, it might help assure you that your grandfather or great-grandmother or great-great-someone also once felt the sting of horrible, horrible failure.
Well, if they lived in St. Louis, anyway.
1910 St. Louis Browns
In 1910, the St. Louis Browns (who would, in 1954, become the Baltimore Orioles) won 47 games and lost 107.
No need to rehash the Browns’ rotten year. Let’s just talk about the double-header on October 9, 1910, the last day of the season.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10/9/1910
Pop Quiz, Baseball Fans!
Which is more unbelievable …
a) The Orioles won last night!
It’s a win!
b) I found these snow booties in my size. On sale!
Adorable and On Sale!
c) I’m on the front page of today’s Baltimore Sun sports page.
Trick Question … Continue reading
Final, September 16, 2018
Dear Baltimore Orioles,
You know what you did.
Adam Jones. Home Run.
Thank you.
Friends Again, The Baseball Bloggess
“I know how bad it is.” ~ Baltimore Orioles Manager Buck Showalter, via The New York Daily News
In case you don’t know how bad it is, the Baltimore Orioles are 42-106 and 59.5 games back in the AL East.
Bad.
Primordially bad. (Maybe I’m not using that term correctly? Who cares?)
Suckity, suck, suck bad.
(I’m definitely using those terms correctly.)
Stop Smiling.
“A week ago, Buck Showalter was sitting at his desk in the visiting team manager’s office at Tropicana Field when his bench coach, John Russell, dropped the lineup card in front of him for the day’s game between the Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays. As he picked up the card, Showalter winced, then placed it on the desk face down.” ~ The New York Daily News, Sept 15, 2018 Continue reading
“Hey, I know the rules. Someone has to have the worst record in baseball. I just wish it wasn’t the O’s.” ~ A thoughtful Orioles fan in this morning’s Baltimore Sun. (Oh wait … hey, it’s me!)
I am in a bad mood this morning.
Fun Fact 1: The Baltimore Orioles lost their 100th game last night and the Kansas City Royals will likely lose 100 before the season is through. The Boston Red Sox would have to stink mightily to not win 100+.
Fun Fact 2: In 2017, three teams – the Dodgers, Indians, and Astros – each won more than 100 games. No one lost 100.
Fun Fact 3: In 2016, one team – the Cubs – won 100+. And, one – the Twins – lost 100+.
Fun Fact 4: In 2015, one team – the Cardinals – won 100. No one lost 100.
Fun Fact 5: In 2014, the Orioles, with 96 wins, won the AL East. No team won or lost 100 games.
Fun Fact Analysis 1: Losing 100 is rarer – and, ergo, much more interesting – than winning 100.
Fun Fact Analysis 2: The Baltimore Orioles winning the AL East in 2014 is the best part of this analysis.
(Am I helping?)
There are other teams that have had worse seasons than the 2018 Orioles. I don’t care. The Orioles are the worst of now.
When you go from trying to win games, to trying to win “to salvage the season,” to “we’re rebuilding, so we’re not really trying to win at all,” it requires a new mindset.
I still don’t know what that mindset should be.
Why are you still smiling?
The Baltimore Orioles entered the All-Star break — baseball’s halfway point — on Sunday with two things:
1) A 28-69 record which is almost, but not quite, the worst record in baseball. (Ummm, thanks, 27-68 Royals?), and
2) Shortstop Manny Machado, a starting All-Star and one of the best players in the game.
The Orioles leave the All-Star break with just one thing. Almost, but not quite, the worst record in baseball.
Some things that might be helpful for you to know, should your team ever end up being as awfuliciously bad as the Orioles are this season.
I’m embarrassingly non-controversial.
Well, when it comes to baseball anyway. There are no dust-ups here, my opinions are welcoming of all other baseball opinions. I don’t like to argue.
Sure, I have controversial opinions about other stuff. And, I’m sure you’ll agree I’m right about all of them.
Hash Browns vs. Home Fries.
By Marshall Astor, via Creative Commons 2.0
Home Fries.
Sylvester vs. Tweety.
Sylvester. Please, Tweety sucks.
Serial Comma vs. the Dangerous Anarchy of Punctuation Without The Sanity of the Serial Comma.
Serial Comma, Serial Comma, and Serial Comma.
Baltimore Sun, June 28, 1892
“The Oft-Told Tale.”
Dear Baltimore Orioles,
Me, again.
You’ve lost three straight to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays … whose motto this season is “We stink, too, but nowhere near as bad as the O’s.”
I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how awful you are. Do you?
(Not you, Adam Jones. You’re still trying. You can stop reading now. This is for everybody else …)
This may seem like uncharted territory to some of you, but really it’s not.
Look at the 1892 Orioles.
They stunk, too.
Baltimore Sun, June 29, 1892
Baltimore Sun, July 14, 1892
At 17-40, the Baltimore Orioles have the worst record in baseball. They have won just two of their last 10 games. I don’t even remember the wins. All I remember are the losses … every single day a loss … an endless parade of gloomy, lifeless, uncaring losses, like the endless days of rain that have dumped some 20 inches in our pitiful mushy yard since this pitiful baseball season began.
This mud pond used to be the road to our house. Better bring your swim fins!
Hey, I know the rules. Someone has to have the worst record in baseball. I just wish it wasn’t the O’s.
Public Domain, 1901
Grantland Rice In His Ball Playing Days. Vanderbilt Captain and Shortstop. 1901
Dear Grantland Rice, Legendary sportswriter, poet, and understander of loss, futility, and baseball’s broken dreams, what say you?
