Fill in the blank: The last time the Orioles had a winning season, I was...

[CanadianOriole]

20 yr old Senior in University - English Major - very single. Still playing in the provincial Sr Men's Baseball league. Now many years retired as a player, HR/Workforce Development Consultant, happily married with an 18 yr old step son and a 3 week old daughter. Still feel considerable resentment towards Tony Fernandez - but this season is helping me let go of the past a little!

[Fiver]

....drunk a lot more often than I am these days.

(was just out of college then, and just dating my wife of now 13.5 years. In fact we went to game 1 of the ALCS together in 97, still relatively early in our courtship. Good times)

[DrungoHazewood]

In fact we went to game 1 of the ALCS together in 97...

While being married and a dad has huge benefits, when I was hopelessly single I could (and did) have a weekend in '97 where I went to a Tech football game on Saturday. Then drove with some of my buds from Blacksburg to Cleveland on Sunday morning to see ALCS game 4 (without tickets until two minutes before first pitch!), then drove home after the game. We would regularly drive to Boston or Toronto or Miami for sporting events without thinking twice, with or without tickets.

Now I have to plan four different things a week in advance to go to Hangout night in Baltimore!

[Miller192]

I was 22 and just out of college.

I had just launched a male dating site for Orioles fans called OriolesWangout. It never got off the ground despite hiring bikiniarmstrong as the board's moderator.

*sigh* I had such high hopes...

[OsLuvrInKy]

Was 37, Program Director for Md State Gov. Married 18 years at that time to a woman who also loved the O's. 52 YO now, retired and living in Kentucky. Still married to the same woman and both still die-hard O's fans.

[TonySoprano]

I was 36 and living outside of Maryland for the first time in my life. We moved back three years later with a baby, now middle schooler.

[RipkenWay]

I was finishing up my last year of my time being stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. I remember staying up until the early hours of the morning to watch the games.

[sangar]

Making a good living playing cash games (poker) in Vegas.

Don't have the head for poker anymore (20 years was enough) so I am now a working stiff.

[SpringBarb]

I turned 19, going into my sophomore year of college. Regularly bumped into other folks from Gettysburg at Camden Yards. Single then, single now, so not EVERYTHING changes.

[jofalfa]

I was 15 and a sophomore in high school. I played shortstop on the softball team and loved the Orioles despite being surrounded by Yankee fans. I had the Brady Anderson spandex poster on my wall. Growing up our family went to Baltimore every summer and saw 2-3 games. 1997 was probably the last year we all went together as we were at the point of being too old for family vacations. I've gone with my Dad and brother a few times since but we're planning our first family(plus a few additions) Baltimore trip in 15 years next summer. I'm 31 now and play shortstop for a women's summer league team and am considering moving to Baltimore.

Oh we also got a dog in 1997 and named her Cali. "Cal" for short. She's 15 now and hanging in there.

*I may still have the Brady Anderson poster.

[Bohs&O's]

I was 8 years old and my dad was teaching me how horrible the yankees are. I remember my 15 year old sister bringing friends over wearing yankees hats and my father not allowing them in the house without leaving the hat outside. Man he raised me right.

Now i'm 23 and I won't allow anything yankees in my house.ha

[BMann]

Was 31 years old, 2 years into my now-17-year marriage. I assumed that Our Hometown Savior, Mr. Angelos, had righted the Orioles ship and we were looking at another long, 1966-to-1983-like run of success, if not downright dominance. Ah, the naivete of (relative) youth!

[Fiver]

While being married and a dad has huge benefits, when I was hopelessly single I could (and did) have a weekend in '97 where I went to a Tech football game on Saturday. Then drove with some of my buds from Blacksburg to Cleveland on Sunday morning to see ALCS game 4 (without tickets until two minutes before first pitch!), then drove home after the game. We would regularly drive to Boston or Toronto or Miami for sporting events without thinking twice, with or without tickets.

Now I have to plan four different things a week in advance to go to Hangout night in Baltimore!

I hear ya. I drove to Cleveland in either 96 or 97 for a reg season game there, drove through the night, only to have scores of Clevelanders refuse to sell us tickets on the street for face value (we literally offered several people every penny we had on us in cash, and continually got turned down - we had assumed they had SRO, same day tickets at the box office, like OPACY did back in those days, but no dice. Those sellouts back then in CLE were literally sellouts). So we stood on a street corner with a sign (well, a spray painted sheet) that we had made to take into the game, which said 'Eddie Murray & The Browns for Kent Mercker = good trade for Baltimore' . There we were right in rush hour on a busy street corner in Cleveland, just standing there hollering and holding up this giant sheet. I don't know how we didn't get our butts kicked.

Watched the first few innings of the game at a Dave and Busters in downtown Cleveland, then started on the long drive home.

My point being, your are right. It takes much more planning to even get to a game at OPACY now, let alone an overnight road trip to somewhere else!

[TradeAngelos]

......a senior in High School.

[Terpdawg32]

17 years old and starting my Senior year in High School after just moving to Texas the year before. Today, I still live in Texas, and continue to come support the O's every time they're in town...no matter how bad or embarrassing it's been. This is what makes this year so special. You fight through all those terrible years and have a surprising breakthrough.

I'm telling you, I will root for the O's to be a perennial playoff team and win some WS along the way, but there's something special about that first time in a long time. I've been able to experience that living near College Park when Joe Smith and Keith Booth turned around the Terps and just this past year with my Baylor Bears and RG3 turning things around.

Go O's!