What moment in O's history have you NOT recovered from?

[The Maestro]

Game 6 of the 97 ALCS against Cleveland. I was there, sitting in left field lower reserved with my dad for that afternoon game. Mussina was dealing, like he had during the entire 97 playoffs. I just knew we were gonna pull that game out and eventually go to The Series. Then the Fernandez homer off of Benitez in the 11th. :cussing:

[eb45]

I didn't realize it was a 1-14 stretch. It felt like a long slide that second half of the season. Didn't realize it happened so fast.

Yeah, that was pretty brutal. To think that we had that good a chance to not only have a winning record, but be in the hunt for a playoff spot, and then the wheels came off.

If 2005 had been a successful season I wonder if the organization would have taken a turn for the better. Probably not, but it's interesting to think about what could have been.

Even if it didn't turn the organization around, the last six years would have been so much more bearable with a playoff appearance that season. I moved to Baltimore at age 6 in 1999. I have never rooted for a winning Orioles team. The last time they played a postseason game, I turned five a week earlier. I don't remember what it's like to root for a winning baseball team, because the only time I ever did, I was five years old and my favorite team was the Red Sox.

2005 was amazing for me and to have it slip away like a fistful of sand was heartbreaking.

[canonfaz]

I remember printing off the AL East standings at the All-Star break in 2005 and posting them outside of my cube. Safe to say, 2 weeks later, they were removed.

[Bahama O's Fan]

Can we agree to say that the O's have not recovered from Maier?

[canonfaz]

Can we agree to say that the O's have not recovered from Maier?

Yes. I think you are correct.

[CamdenTerp]

Can we agree to say that the O's have not recovered from Maier?

Yeah, I would venture to say that would be a good 75% or more of the peoples worst recollection from the years past.

[BlackWillow]

79 world series is a pretty deep cut.

[Frobby]

Note Raffy's not-so-fashionable ear wear. One of my favorite Orioles ever until then.

That's my moment. 2005 had been a pretty positive season to that point, and Raffy getting hot and getting his 3000th hit had been a nice, feel-good story. I totally believed him when he testified before Congress. Raffy's disgrace, which led to scrutiny of a series of other Orioles as well as baseball in general, really embarassed the team and totally changed the arc of the team.

(Note: the team began slumping in June and the steroids story broke in late July/early August, but the investigation of Raffygate had been going on for several weeks or months by the time the scandal was revealed).

[TiredofLosing20]

Mussina to the Yankees... That one still stings

[Todd-O]

That JM moment was so hard to swallow because it looked like the O's were going to go toe-to-toe with the Yanks in the series.

Now... In 1997... Tony Fernandez. That was like getting kicked in the head after going down to a knock-out punch. If I'm not mistaken ... Fernandez wasn't supposed to play in that game. Didn't he injure the starting second baseman with a batted ball during BP?

Anyhow, back to JM. That image of TT pointing up in the stands is definitely burned in my head.

[sakata_catching]

Can we agree to say that the O's have not recovered from Maier?

Except that they turned around and went wire-to-wire the very next season.

Sorry, but the Maier incident is overblown.

[beaner]

Except that they turned around and went wire-to-wire the very next season.

Sorry, but the Maier incident is overblown.

YES. Been saying this for years..It was game 1, the "home run" tied the game in the 8th inning, and we had numerous chances to win in later tinnings. They destroyed us in Baltimore three straight games to take the series.

People have always acted as if that play cost us that series, which is simply not true. Obviously it was a TERRIBLE call, but it didn't even cost us that game really..We had baserunners in the 9th, 10th, and 11th If I remember correctly.

There's just no way, at the time anyone called that "the worst moment in O's history' or whatever. It's grown in lore over time..

[carolinaoriole]

I fell in Love with the Orioles in 1965 when I was 6 years old. I have never gotten over it.

[Austin]

The moment the O's were eliminated from the 1997 playoffs. I was 9 years old, two years into my baseball fandom and too young to understand that we weren't going to be perennial contenders. As you can imagine the next 14 years came as quite a shock.

[BaltimoreTerp]

Jon Miller.

Everything else that has happened over the past fifteen years (and even the events mentioned from before) are just bad memories that mean nothing when the team wins. Jon Miller is the single unforgivable sin of Peter Angelos' tenure in my mind, because the only possible penance is bringing him back.