Favorite memories from this season

[Number5]

My favorite game was the wild card game with Atlanta. When the Orioles beat Atlanta like that, I was sure they would have little problems with the Yankees after that. I just don't understand what happened to them once they got to the Yankees. I mean they won games, but basically Nate Mclouth was the only one doing anything. Everyone else seemed startled all of the sudden after hitting great against the Yankees during the regular season. The pitching was decent but they could have hit more than they did. It was pathetic. I could'nt even watch the top portion of the last game after seeing them miss so many opportunies in the beginning of the game. I hope they bring back Mclouth.

Atlanta?

[allycat]

I meant Texas Rangers

[StevarinO]

How could I forget the blown call in Detroit that led to Mark Reynolds' ejection (and the awesome .gif that came from that incident!).

[crowmst3k!]

For me, it wasn't Chris Davis pitching; it was the catch, followed by the relay to Wieters to get the out at the plate. THAT was my fondest memory of the season.

It was a beer-soaked Sunday and we watched it at the bar until the 12th, and I caught the rest at home.

[Fiver]

One game that I don't believe has been mentioned - 8/7/12 v. Seattle at OPACY. We fall behind 7-2, cut it to 7-3 in the 6th on Wieters' 2nd homerun of the night. So Wieters has a big night, but it appears to be two relatively meaningless HR's at the time.

I actually went to bed at that point; woke up the next AM and 'followed' the game on the game thread, before looking at the final score.

Hardy hits a tying 3-run bomb in the 7th, bullpen puts up 8 consective goose eggs, and they wind up winning 8-7 in 14 innings when Jones singles in Quintanilla.

This was the exact point when I truly believed we had something special. We were losing to a bad team after a bad starting pitching peformance; it just seemed like a classic Orioles August loss when I went to bed. But it wasn't, instead it was another in what became a long string of magical moments. I can specifically remember reading the game thread, realizing what had happened w/ Hardy, and thinking 'Holy S, I bet they pulled this out too'. And then thinking that we might just have a great end to the season.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BAL/BAL201208070.shtml

[banzoomba]

I wonder if the Orioles will do a season highlight DVD.....I still have my 89 Why Not VHS

[actorgersh]

I thought of another which was mentioned but putting my own personal spin on it:

I remember back around a year ago seeing my friend at a Redskins bar in NYC who is a fellow Oriole diehard talking about Game 162 and joking that maybe one day we'd have an Orioles bar in NY. Amazingly it came to fruition for the WC game against Texas. Probably about 20 or so of us including my girlfriend. When the last out was recorded, I was hugging strangers wearing black and orange all of us knowing how long we had waited for that moment. I teared up a little and my girlfriend who isn't a big sports fan totally understood.

[isestrex]

I wonder if the Orioles will do a season highlight DVD.....I still have my 89 Why Not VHS

They better... Orioles Productions have been annoyingly silent since about.. oh... 1992

[DrungoHazewood]

I wonder if the Orioles will do a season highlight DVD.....I still have my 89 Why Not VHS

Me, too, but I haven't had a VCR in about five years. I'd pay some serious cash for a 2-pack DVD of the '89 and '12 highlight videos.

[BrunoCherrytown]

Chris Davis carrying McClouth all around the field screaming after Nates game winning hit off the right field wall. That emotion and excitement on Davis' face summed up my feelings for the season. I replayed that like 150 times.

[Orioles0615]

Call me crazy, but I was at the Cal Ripken game, and I was at the first playoff game, and I TRULY believe that the atmosphere and the crowd was more insane at the Cal Ripken game then the playoff game. That Cal Ripken game was incredible.

Yea I think if we would of actually hit in the playoffs, the crowd would of been even louder at those home games

[Dipper9]

All of you have mentioned many that I'' remember for a long time, so I'd like to offer up three pictures to represent what 2012 meant to me. We'll call it the past meets the future!!!

[glenn__davis]

I've been having a tough time thinking of one thing to put in this thread. Certainly my first playoff game, which happened to be Game 2, is something I'll always remember. That was simply awesome.

But for an off-the-wall one, I'll remember Game 4 of the ALDS. I had went to sleep around the 7th inning because I was exhausted from the night before and because, I'll be honest, I thought that I had seen how the movie ended and didn't care to watch it again. Around 1 AM I woke up, stumbled out to the computer, and nervously waited while the MLB.com page loaded the final score. I just remember the great joy I felt when I saw that we had pulled the game out.

This was the first season in a while for which I couldn't watch a lot of the games. We got rid of cable shortly before the season started, so most of my memories involve the smooth voices of Joe Angel and Fred Manfra, or the inpersonal touch of seeing "Ball in play - run(s)" on MLB.com. What a great ride it was. Going to be the longest winter ever.

[PeteU]

Living in Florida, I mostly had to enjoy the Orioles from afar this year. But that doesn't mean I don't have some favorite memories. My Top 10:

1. Going to a spring training game in Sarasota with my parents. The Orioles beat the Nationals 12-3. It may have seemed like a meaningless spring training game following 14 straight losing seasons, but there was a certain intangible feeling amongst the crowd that this year would be different. Maybe it was watching a highlight video of great moments in Orioles history and seeing the general lack of highlights after 1997 and thinking it's been way too long to go without great moments.

2. The Chris Davis game. I watched the final two innings on MLB Network. Literally five seconds after the game ended, my best friend from Maryland called and said, "Did you see what just happened?" And without him even mentioning it, I knew it had to be about the game.

3. Watching the Cal Ripken statute game on TV and being amazed at how orange the stands were and how loud the crowd was. That was magnified by the fact that it was a game against the Yankees and yet Orioles fans, for the first time in a long time, totally overwhelmed Yankee fans. And seeing how crazy the ballpark got after they hit those three home runs in the eighth inning.

4. That 18 inning game in Seattle where the Orioles held off so many challenges by the Mariners only to finally beat them at 4:00 am EDT.

5. Following the 14 inning O's-Rays game on Gameday at my office where they were guaranteed their first non-losing season in 14 years.

6. Watching the end of the Rangers-Angels game where the Angels were eliminated, meaning that the Orioles had officially clinched a postseason berth. That notion in and of itself brought a few tears to my eyes.

7. The Wildcard playoff game against the Rangers--watching that last out and seeing the Orioles finally getting to have an on field celebration and champange shower after 14 long years.

8. Watching the first two home games of the ALDS against the Yankees. Seeing the overhead shots of Oriole Park and knowing that Baltimore was hosting postseason baseball once again. Seeing my aunt and uncle in their seats behind the Orioles' dugout on national television in every left hand batter shot. Seeing the place explode when A-Rod struck out to end Game 2.

9. JJ Hardy hitting a double in the gap in the top of the 13th to give the O's their final lead in Game 4 of the ALDS. Almost everyone assumed the Orioles' will was broken after the tough loss in Game 3, and it was great to know they refused to lie down and that they were taking it to a Game 5 after all the experts had predicted an easy 3 game sweep by the Yanks.

10. Seeing the fans greet the Orioles back at the Yard after the end of the ALDS. A bittersweet moment, but it was truly a team that will live in every Orioles' fans heart forever.

[OFFNY]

.

Opening Day, the IronBirds were playing the Hudson Valley Renegades in Fishkill, NY.

Some of the ushers got together to find out who this Oriole fan/IronBird fan outlier is, and how far he came to watch this Advanced-Rookie League Opener.

I tell them, "I came from Brewster." The looks on their faces were ...... strange.

Also, every time that I watch a game up there and I yell "O" during the National Anthem, the IronBird players look around like "What the hell?" and laugh when they see that they have a fan in the stands.