Thank you to the 2012 Orioles!

Wow, what a ride this season was; it was truly the most amazing baseball experience of my adult life! Of course I wish that it had ended with a World Series Championship, but, especially considering the expectations entering the year, the results have to be considered a massive success. Outside of the Orioles organization, everyone around the game of baseball was predicting another last place finish for the perennially disappointing Birds of Baltimore. But the Orioles would finish the regular season with a 93-69 record, precisely flipped from their 69-93 mark in 2011. Buck Showalter continued to show his ability to turn around a franchise, as he pretty much has done everywhere else he has managed in his career, and General Manager Dan Duquette proved that he still has "it" after being out of professional baseball for a decade.

I haven't been posting much throughout the O's playoff run, initially because I was completely immersed in each and every inning of every single game, day-in and day-out, but then I almost made it into some superstitial nonsense. I'm not typically a superstitious type of person but I developed a few odd habits over the past month, including growing a rather unruly beard and wearing the same shirt and hat combo for every game that I watched and attended. I probably also drank enough beer and ate enough ballpark food to last me through Christmas, so I suppose that the playoff run being over isn't all bad.

I don't entirely expect the 2013 Orioles to duplicate this team's success, in part due to the 2012 Orioles' all-time record breaking .763 winning percentage (29-9 record) in one run games, an insane 76-0 record when leading after the 7th inning, and the resulting lack of a walk-off victory by an opposing team all season. Those are some silly stats that just won't be equaled. However, with the addition of a major free agent arm or bat, the team could be in the neighborhood of this year's record.

Even though the team wasn't able to bring home the World Series title, they sure did remind a number of Baltimoreans and Marylanders about how much fun it can be to watch a game at Camden Yards. I particularly relished how the Orioles' fans vastly outnumbered the Yankees fans at a few of their Baltimore match-ups towards the end of the season. (And it's not like it's hard to get tickets at Yankee Stadium these days, they didn't even sellout the first two games of the freakin' ALCS!) I hope that many of the fans that returned to Camden Yards this season will come back next year too, as the team really seemed to enjoy the support. 

An encouraging fact about the 2013 Orioles is that very few of the key 2012 players are set to become free agents. As far as I know, Mark Reynolds, Randy Wolf, and Luis Ayala all have contract options, and Joe Saunders, Nate McLouth, Endy Chavez, Jim Thome, Nick Johnson, Bill Hall, Lew Ford, Omar Quintanilla, Steve Pearce are all set to become free agents. In my opinion, the team will pick up Ayala's option, try to renegotiate something with Reynolds, and attempt to bring back Saunders, McLouth, and possibly Thome. So ultimately, the core of the team will remain the same into 2013 & beyond.

I obtained the autographs in this post over the last few weeks of the season, and especially Gonzalez and Saunders are excellent representatives of the Orioles' improbable 2012 playoff run. I was able to get a few more of my dad's card creations signed, and they are perfect for filling some non-Orioles holes in my collection. Thanks again for all of your work on the cards this year, dad!

Congrats again to the team, the fans, and the city of Baltimore on an amazing 2012 campaign. Let's Go O's!

Rolling Along in the ALDS

The Orioles' magical 2012 run continues tonight in New York and I realize that I have been relatively quiet throughout the past week or so. Part of it has to do with my attendance at the Orioles first two postseason games in 15(!) years, and part of it has to do with the fact that I just don't know what to say. I might be able to better reflect after the season ends (in November hopefully) but for now, I'm just sitting back and taking it all in. As a long-suffering Orioles fan, it's an amazing feeling to be following my team into the middle of October, and, fingers-crossed, beyond! Let's Go O's! I promise to write some semi-coherent Orioles autograph posts in the near future, whether it be next week or three weeks from now.

The Orioles Are In the Playoffs!!!

Is this a dream? If so, please don't wake me up.

I don't have the words to express how I feel today, so these images will have to do.

LET'S GO O'S!

Wild Card

I think that it's pretty timely that I happened to come across this playing card showing the Orioles as the Wild Card, which currently would be their spot in the A.L. playoffs if the season ended today. I didn't go looking for this card, but rather just came across it while organizing some other Orioles cards, which somehow makes me like it even more. It's from one of those MLB playing card decks, and was apparently made in 2001, so it has taken a few years for it's designation to be accurate.

Now if I can just find one that shows the O's as the A.L. East Champ, or even possibly 2012 World Series Champions...

Orioles Magic

Wow, how has it been a week since I've written a post? Where does the time go? Well, I know at least some of mine has gone to watching some, largely satisfying, Orioles baseball. The O's have now locked up their first winning record since 1997 and can hopefully make the playoffs for the first time since that season.

I'm hoping that tonight's starter, Wei-Yin Chen, can keep the Orioles' winning ways rolling along. He has been the only starter to last the duration of the season for the O's. Nice rookie campaign, Wei-Yin!

The team has also been helped by the emergence of one of their top prospects, Manny Machado, whose play at third base has been nothing short of stellar, which is particularly remarkable since he had played shortstop for most of his life.

And don't forget the contributing players, like the currently hot Endy Chavez, who have kept the Orioles moving in the right direction. Endy wasn't even going to be recalled to the team in September until Nick Markakis's injury forced the O's to bring him back.

I just hope that the Orioles can keep it together for the next two weeks, and then hopefully the proceeding month! Let's go O's!

Thank You Orioles!

Warning: Red Sox fans probably want to avoid this post

I haven't covered the end of the Orioles season nearly as well as I should have, but I honestly was/am at a loss for words. Wednesday's win over the Red Sox made me as proud to be an Orioles fan as I have felt in a decade. In case you haven't noticed, the O's are a somewhat perennially downtrodden franchise, the almost yearly A.L. East doormat. But not this year...well not exactly at least.

In case you missed how the Orioles wrapped up their 2011 season...

While the Orioles win alone didn't eliminate the Red Sox from the playoffs, moments after the O's won, the Rays held up their end of the bargain and walked off against the Yankees to steal the Wild Card from the Sawx. If not for a long rain delay in Baltimore and extra innings in Tampa, the games would have not ended at almost exactly the same time, but they did and it was outstanding. It was probably my favorite five minutes of baseball from the past 10-12 years. MAGIC! All those Red Sox fans who always show up at Camden Yards to harass the small Orioles fan-base were going home with their collective tails between their legs. Adios fools! Baltimore won't miss ya!

Thank you to Robert Andino and the rest of the team for playing hard through the end of game 162 when it would have been so easy to lay down and be the punching bag that everyone else expected you to be. I have no idea if that passion and excitement will carry over to next season, but I love it and will count down the days to the start of the 2012 season with renewed passion for the Orioles. Let's Go O's!