Our franchise has never really had a dramatic pennant or playoff series win

[Frobby]

I was thinking today about the fact that the Orioles have had a lot of dramatic losing scenarios, but they really haven't won in dramatic fashion.

1966: won the pennant by 8 games, won the Series 4-0
1969: won the division by 19 games, won the ALCS 3-0, lost the Series 4-1
1970: won the division by 15 games, won the ALCS 3-0, won the Series 4-1
1971: won the division by 10 games, won the ALCS 3-0, lost the Series 4-3
1973: won the division by 8 games, lost the ALCS 3-2
1974: won the division by 2 games, lost the ALCS 3-1
1977: lost the AL East by 2.5 games
1979: won the division by 7 games, won the ALCS 3-1, lost the Series 4-3
1980: lost the AL East by 3 games
1982: lost the AL East by 1 game, losing to Milwaukee on the last day of the season
1983: won the division by 6 games, won the ALCS 3-1, won the Series 4-1
1989: lost the AL East by 2 games, losing to Toronto on the last day of the season
1996: won the wild card by 3 games, won the ALDS 3-1, lost the ALCS 4-1
1997: won the division by 2 games, won the ALDS 3-1, lost the ALCS 4-2

We've lost the 5th game of a 5-game playoff or the 7th game of a 7-game series three times, and lost a division title on the final day of the season twice. But when we've won, we've almost always won going away. The most notable exception was the 1974 season, when the O's won their final 9 games of the season and won the AL East by two games over the Yankees.

I'd take any kind of division title, pennant or World Series victory, of course. But it seems that when we've been in situations involving real "loser goes home" drama, we've come out on the losing end.

[SteveA]

Both the 1979 and 1983 ALCS Game 4 wins were critical games. In 1979, if we didn't win Game 4, we were going to have to face Nolan Ryan in Game 5 with everything on the line. In 1983, we were going to have to face the best pitcher inbaseball that year, Lamarr Hoyt. And certainly we won game 4 in 1983 in dramatic fashion. In both cases, we were on the road and looking at a situation where if we didn't win, we would be facing the best pitcher in baseball in a pennant deciding game.

And of course the three games preceding the last game of the year in 1982 were all must-win games and we won each one of them.

[DrungoHazewood]

The 1894 Orioles went on an 18-game winning streak in late August and September, and that saw their lead go from 2.5 games to 3.0 games. They actually lost ground at one point during the streak as the Giants were in the midst of a 13-game lossless streak that included several doubleheaders. In September the O's were 20-3, while the Giants were 20-6, and the O's won the pennant by three games. That had to be pretty dramatic.

The '95 Champions were only a half game up on September 20th, but went 7-1-1 the rest of the way to beat out the Cleveland Spiders by three games.

The '96 O's won the league by 9.0 games.

Forshadowing Frobby's observations, the 1897 team went into their 27 September game versus first-place Boston, down half a game with five to play. The O's were destroyed 19-10 in front of an unheard-of-in-Baltimore crowd of 25,000 (Union Park probably seated around 10k). They finished up splitting a series against Washington and ended up two games back.

The IL O's didn't seem to have much drama, despite being the best minor league team of all time. In 1920 they won their last 25 games, routing the opposition and ending up with 110 wins. In '21 they had a 27-game winning streak, and ended up winning the pennant by 20 games. That '21 team lost the Junior World Series to Louisville 4-0, with the clinching game ending up a forfeit after a riot broke out in the stands at old Oriole Park.

[mikezpen]

I don't remember that.:D