Palmoripken

It's the whole abandoning the O's once the Nats get good. If we ever enter a period where the fortunes are reversed like we saw in the 60's where the O's were contenders and the Senators awful, I wonder what we'll see from people like that. The Walter Johnson Grandfather bit amuses me though since I despite '71 and '79 have a soft spot for the Pirates since my Great Grandfather apparently knew Wagner as a personal friend up in Pittsburgh but I didn't fall in love with baseball at Three Rivers Stadium. I did at OPACY.

My family are Western Pa transplants. By the time my Dad was born in early 50's, his older brothers and sisters had lived in three major cities. Two had big league clubs- St. Louis and Detroit. From what my Dad tells me, my grandfather never really took them to too many games. He went to a couple games at Griffith Stadium but Dad was more of a basketball fan specifically Bob Cousy but not necessarily the Celtics and in baseball of Willie Mays but not necessarily the Giants and he definitely always disliked the Yankees. So here I am born in the mid to late 80's, there has not been a baseball team in DC in 16 years and no sign of it coming back because it to me seemed anyhow that DC and Virginia had adopted the Orioles and baseball wouldn't be returning to DC since teams had left twice. You have a guy like Ripken who during my early years became an American icon and you have my Dad telling me about how he always hated the Yankees. The Orioles were a natural choice to too for since OPACY was the place to see a game. I dunno. I just think the former O's fans who embrace the Nats and now crap on the O's forget that the O's did provide memories and while I understand they dislike what Angelos did to prevent baseball in DC, it really IMO wasn't different from Clark Griffith fighting the O's moving from St. Louis.

I actually don't hate NL ball. It's just not what I grew up on. But yeah you watch a team over the years. You fall in with its traditions i.e. Thank God I'm a Country Boy or O! during the National Anthem but you also fall in love with a stadium. Camden Yards is a ballpark and while I don't think Nats stadium is a bad stadium, it doesn't give me the sense of wonder I got when I first started regularly attending games as an early grade school kid. Perhaps it would have been different if Nats Stadium opened when I was six but my MLB wanderlust more than anyplace happened at Camden Yards. It's not just about laundry. It's about the community of fandom and I had no desire to just switch. I don't begrudge those who did but I do have a problem with those who think it's absurd that "I don't root for my home team." I'm a Virginian not a Washingtonian. I chose my teams as a kid based off my sense of wonder and what the people I trusted to takl to on sports had to say so I liked that tall shortstop who had that cool streak going and revolutionized the SS positoin and I've been here ever since.

It really briefly looked like Brian Matsuz could be a key piece. I was genuinely excited for the trio of him, Arrietta, and Britton. But there were flops before. Daniel Cabrera never did put it together. If we see another powerful Orioles team again that lasts a long time, they will have strong starting pitching. That's what has carried so many teams to long term success rather than being flashes in the pan.

My Uncle and older cousin rib me for staying with the O's. I told them to look at it from my perspective. The O's were all I ever have known. And I'm expected to adopt the Expos just because they moved ot RFK. In 2005, we had just signed Miguel Tejada after Miggy won the MVP, Palmeiro a then fan favorite was back in town, etc. I don't honestly resent the Nats at all. I resent the idea that it was wrong of me to stick with the team I grew up with simply because there was a new kid in town. The Nats have legitimately formed their own identity in the years since but in those early years, they still were the old Expos and for that reason I can definitely understand a native Marylander who was a Senators fan until the Senators left down because they would have seen the '54 Orioles as the old Browns and the old Browns while they had some color to them- Eddie Gaedel, Satchel Paige, and of course Bill Veeck weren't who they had been listening to on the radio. I did recently read a biography of Veeck. Apparently he wanted to buy the O's at one point and lived on the Eastern Shore which is how he figured out who Harold Baines was.

I wonder how different baseball would be Drungo if the O's had stayed in Baltimore and Babe Ruth ended up being a hometown hero in the bigs for his hometown team. That era fascinates me since I recently discovered my Dad's grandfather was an amateur player in those days and he lived not too far from what became Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. I think the Pirates' stadium prior to Forbes Field was near him too as opposed to Forbes which was more uptown from where he and his family lived.

That's awesome and it is a lovely photo. It's crazy to think how up and down sports can be. In '66, the O's were the surprise underdog and shocked the world beating Koufax and Drysdale. Then a few years later the heavy favorite and lost against the Mets.

If we have a memorable moment, it's what was done against us. The late 90's Yankee dynasty IMO began the night of the Maier-Tarasco moment.. We won the first game IIRC and would have been up 2-0 going back ot Baltimore. Would we have won the series from there? I don't know but being up 2-0 going home is almost always a plus. What made 2014 kind of sting is how the nation adopted the Royals as their lovable underdog and totally ignored that we actually had a bigger drought than KC. And then gettign swept by a team who honestly was not the better team overall but got hot at the right moment. I'm not knocking their legitimacy. We lost fair and square but I'll always believe that we were the better team over KC in 2014 and they got hot at the perfect time.

The way they turned it around after the terrible start they had which had many of their fans calling for Davey Martinez's head. I'm jealous of that since ti was the reverse of our Cinderella Pumpkin 2005 season where I believe we were in first place on the first day of summer and then began to implode and then went another seven years sub 500.

2012 just came out of nowhere. New GM and we won a lot of exciting games. Plus it was fun to watch a lot of guys like Miguel Gonzalez and Nate McLouth surprise. And then you had Manny come up at the end of the season. 25 year old me felt like a kid again when I went to Game 1 of the ALDS. We lost but I loved every minute of it.

I was honestly shocked that Buck and Smoltz never mentioned that. Yeah the Soto catch was a key moment in this game of inches but Scherzer his first go around in the line up wasn't locating his pitches well and the Astros were hitting him hard. Hinch got too cute there IMO and I felt it could later turn against them and it did.

My favorite O's season was probably 1997. I think it's because I was a kid and you had so three future Hall of Famers in Cal, Moose, and Alomar and you have two more who have HoF resumes in Davey and Palmeiro. I forget if Baines was on that team or not since Baines went back and forth with us and the White Sox alot in the latter half of the 90's but I digress. It was wire to wire. It was Mussina nearly getting a perfecto. It was the first fall that I really pitched myself in LL and I felt comfortable. The ending stank but what really hurt look back at it was knowing it would be the beginning of a drought but you don't know that at the time. That's why I really do appreciate the Buck years even if the final years weren't so good and unfortunately have us in teh rebuild mode we find ourselves in now.

Oh yeah for sure. I just did not like the move. Scherzer looked shaky. I would have gotten that decision much more if it was later in the game. Even great managers who win WS make mistakes. I don't think Hitch is a bad manager but I did question those two moves last night and thought the first one could have implications later.

Oh sorry about that assumption. My bad. Anyhow. It just gets to what I'm thinking about you never know how long those moments will last in sports. Even the Yankees had a brief spell when they were absolutely awful. Right now they're having their biggest WS appearance drought since before they had Ruth. Not that I feel bad for them or their fans since they haven't had a losing season since 1992.

I called it when they bunted in the 2nd. I thought that was an awful move. Playing small ball in the 2nd inning? And he was way too quick to lift Greinke for a guy who had been pitching a lot.

You older fans had 3 WS wins and 5 pennants in 17 years at that point. You just don't know when the good times will end and the bad times will begin. I think that's why 2012 was so special for me. I was 10 in 1997. 15 years of not only missing the playoffs but sub 500 baseball sucked but I still made it out to OPACY every year for the most part and followed the team. I mean I know that a bunch of O's fans will come out of the woodworks if we start competing and make the WS again but it is a little peeving for me to see people who never cared much for baseball suddenly talking about how much they love the Nats. I admit though I'm a little bitter since I've taken grief for still being an O's fan in Nats territory.

I think you get at what I'm feeling. I totally get people who did what you talk about the beginning but there are definitely people who have this animosity towards the O's and our fans. I told my Uncle when he was ribbing me one day that I felt like he was treating me like I was a Yankees fan. I pointed out to him that for me unlike him that baseball in DC was long gone by the time I was born. Plus I really got tired of the Washington Post sports section always needing to make digs at the O's. Tom Boswell is a great sportswriter and I won't insult him by saying he's not good at that but he always had to make digs at the O's when our two teams' fortunes were rising at the same time. It didn't help that I never liked Bryce Harper and Nats fans wanted to act like he was the greatest ever and now they're acting like they never liked him. You are right though. It's a completely different atmosphere even when there are more people at Nats Park than Camden Yards.

The magic of the baseball post season remains that anything can happen. One of my favorite non Orioles WS winners of all time is the 1960 Pirates. They were going up against the team of the 1950's in the Yankees and they got wiped out in 3 of those 7 games but they hung in and won four games and thus the WS when Maz hit that home run. Plus the 2012 Orioles which started a short renaissance of competitive Orioles baseball was a WC team that gave the division winning Yankees all they had for five games. I don't know what would have happened in the 2012 ALCS had we advanced there but anything can happen in short series. Good as O's fans know from '66, bad as in '69, and ugly in '14 against the Royals.

I feel happy for them because I do know there are people who are legitimate Nats fans who never felt the Orioles were their team in DC or Northern Va. A lot of them are my extended family members who also give me a lot of grief for staying with the O's. But I know a lot of them like my older cousins and uncles also had no team in DC from 71-05 so they sort of were forced to adopt the O's out of necessity. But at the same time, I felt they never got why someone like me couldn't just switch to the Nats in 2005. But at the same time i do feel a little bitter and jealous because I've never seen an Orioles WS winner before or even a pennant. I'm 32 and have seen only three LCS's featuring our guys. I'm happy what Elias is doing with the franchise and I think we can be a top franchise again but it hurts a little because I've also seen first hand how fickle Nats fans can be. I don't begrudge them that. All fanbases are fickle but I'm sure there were many of them that were ready to throw in the towel after Game 5 and as someone who has stuck with the O's after more losing seasons than winning ones, that kind of ticks me.

After the Cubs did it a few years ago, anything's possible but also seeing how long the Cubs went without one, the opposite is true too. I could be a very old or dead man the next time the O's win one. I definitely feel jealous and honestly bemused since some of the Nats fans in my friends and family are smack talking Harper who previously they would have told me was better than Manny and that thinking he was a tool was just being a hater. I mean that's sports fandom so I don't begrudge it but man I want this for us more than ever after tonight.

Yep born in '87 here. I've seen only three LCS's featuring our Birds in my life.

I've kind of softened my opinion on the Nats since we regressed and Harper left (never liked him, found him obnoxious though I acknowledged the talent). But I fel kind of bittersweet in a way. Like I'm happy for the Nats fans I know. A lot of them are in my family and friends here in Northern Va but I've also gotten so many people including family members who act like sticking with the Orioles was some form of treason. I couldn't just switch to the Nats just because DC got a team. Those Expos and they were definitely teh Expos in all but name in 2005 weren't people who I had followed. Plus my fondest baseball memories have been at OPACY. Congrats to the Nats though. That was an exciting series. IT should be interesting to see what happens next. They are as you guys have said an old team but Soto and Robles are young. If they keep on developing young talent like that, they should be good.

I can’t really fault too much since I know if the O’s win the pennant the same will happen. I’m feeling a mix of happiness for them, envy, & a little petty.

Okay this is fun: Position Players C: Chris Hoiles: Long live the 1996 Ultimate Grand Slam. 1B: Rafael Palmeiro: Eddie was traded when I was one so I didn't really get to experience him and my username is a reference to how excited I was when we had Ripken-Alomar-Palmeiro as what I thought would be our Tinker-Evers-Chance in the 1995 offseason. 2B) Roberto Alomar: As I said, I was thrilled when we signed him from the Blue Jays in the 1995 offseason. 3B) Manny Machado: So fun to watch on defense. If only he had been healthy for the 2014 playoffs. SS) Cal Ripken: He was my first favorite player as a kid. LF: Brady Anderson: Named my childhood dog after him the year he hit 50! CF: Adam Jones: The trade for him started the nice run we had from 2012-2016. RF: Nick Markakis: Just a steady guy and easy guy to root for. DH: Harold Baines: Doesn't belong in the HoF IMO but he was always a consistent hitter and I liked that he was from St. Michaels, Maryland near where we would cross the Bay Bridge. Bench Melvin Mora: Stood out on many otherwise forgettable teams. Crazy to think his quins are all grown up now and graduating high school like my youngest brother is. Jonathan Schoop: Just loved his infectious smile and joy. Glad he's rebounding nicely with Minnesota this year and hopefully into a nice contract. B.J Surhoff: Just did a little bit of everything and he too was part of the 1995 Offseason. Matt Wieters: Saw his first home run at OPACY with my brothers and Dad. Pitchers SP1: Mike Mussina: I was heartbroken and angry when he left for NYY but there was no Orioles pitcher I liked watching more. SP2: Erik Bedard: Like Mora, he stood out on some bad teams and he was the piece that help start the 2012-16 revival. SP3: Chris Tillman: I always had a soft spot for Tillman since he was the first Oriole to be younger than me and I was glad that he overcame some initial hiccups to be a servicable starter for a few years. SP4: Scott Erickson: He wasn't as good as I remembered him but he was a big part of my childhood. SP5: Wei Yin Chen: Our first major international signing: CL: Zach Britton: That sinker and no Orioles closer was better in his prime. SU: Jim Johnson: I always liked Jim since I got to see his debut when he was a starter. He got rocked hard but it was a fun game to watch. RP: Arthur Rhodes: Not a star but always a good arm out of the pen RP: Alan Mills: I'll always remember the Strawberry punch and it's nice that he is still with the organization. RP: Darren O'Day: I was a submarine pitcher in LL and I loved chanting O'Day, O'Day, O'Day at games. RP: Andrew Miller: Brach-Miller-Britton were almost a game over bullpen in the late summer and early fall of 2014. A pity that team didn't win the Pennant. Probably my favorite Orioles team ever. Manager: Buck Showalter: I give the edge to Buck over Davey since he was here longer and he gave me winning Orioles baseball as an adult. The Davey two years were great but they were short and the team was filled with guys closer to my parents age than my age. Plus since I watched the pressers with Buck, I got to know Buck more than I did Davey I felt. GM: Pat Gillick: Helped build the mid 90's teams that I breathed and died with. It was only a couple years but what a couple years those were for a 9 and 10 year old.

That is a great sign. Bodes well for the future.