TT: Is this really the worst season of your fandom?

[Gman!!]

I totally blame tight wad owners... & the fact that winning baseball  always has been about good pitching 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, Gman!! said:

I totally blame tight wad owners... & the fact that winning baseball  always has been about good pitching 

The owners may be stupid, but it's hard to call them tightwads right now.   The O's have the eighth highest payroll in MLB this year.    A lot of it going to underperforming players.   

[Frobby]

Bump from last year....now THIS is definitely in my top 5 for worst years of my fandom.     Not just because of the lousy record, but because of the incredible speed at which we fell hopelessly out of the race.  And, there just has been a negative vibe around the team all year.    And yes, it’s good the organization recognized the disastrous state of things and started a rebuild, but that doesn’t make this team any less painful to watch.   

[Moose Milligan]

Honestly, not for me.  This season hasn't been too bad.  After the first month and a half, the writing was on the wall and accepting that we'd be watching a terrible team all summer wasn't so bad for me.

For me, the worst seasons are the roughly .500 ones.  Win 3 straight, lose 4 in a row.  Win the next three, lose two.  A nice 8-2 stretch followed by a 3-7 skid.  Great one night, terrible the next.  No consistency.  

Hopes up for a week only to be dashed the next.  FO starts going after guys like Gerardo Parra or Joe Saunders to put us over the top in a desperate attempt to clinch the 2nd wildcard spot when we all know that the team just doesn't have the horses.  

At least this year with the misery of losing, the FO did what they should have done last year which is to blow it up.  Even with all the losing this year they did the best they could to stock the system and look to the future.  

I might not be excited to watch this team each night but I know better things are ahead.  At least they are doing the right things now.  Overhauled the system, started investing in the international market.  I'm more focused on that instead of what they're doing each night.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

1998 is still the worst for me.  A total letdown coming off the run to the ALCS in 97.  

The Yankees establishing their dynasty and seemingly winning every game.  The brawl with the Yankees that Benitez started.

Ray Miller losing control of the clubhouse and the team melting down the last third of the season. 

And knowing that it would likely take a few years to get back into the playoffs.  Which ended up being 15 years.  

[eddie83]

In order of when they happened. 

1986. As a kid I just assumed every year they would have a winning team. Fell apart in August. 

1995. Very frustrating season. 

1998. Probably the season I hate the worst. Team played like it had and on/off switch. 

2005. Total collapse, Palmeiro getting busted. Just ugly.  

I would put all four of those seasons ahead of this one. I think what has happened the last month or so has eased my negativity. I know on the field is still bad but we were done in mid April.  

2010 and 2011 had their moments but both seasons finished well. Buck showed up in 2010 and it felt like we had a new beginning. New hope. 

It got real ugly again in 2011. We were awful from mid June until mid August. Some of the hope from Buck was wearing off. I thought that team was poised to show real improvement and it wasn’t happening. Then the club once again finished strong and we all remember that last game. 

[eddie83]

On 9/12/2017 at 11:56 AM, eddie83 said:

1995 and 1998 were seasons that I hated. We underachieved both years. I found those seasons far less enjoyable than this one. 98 it was like the team had an on/off switch.  

I see I like to repeat myself.  

That 1998 season..... man I can’t put into words how bad it was.  

[foxfield]

Oddly, this year is definitely been a see saw year.  But if this is the year that ownership supports a GM and gives the GM the reins to run a program, well it will be one of my favorite non playoff years in a generation.  

You know you gotta go through hell, before get to heaven.

 

[Ohfan67]

I’ve been a fan since 1991. Maybe fourth or fifth worse season. 2005, as mentioned above, was really bad as well as most of the late 200’s. The repeated investment in over the hill and mediocre free agents and terrible minor leagues were horrible. 

[25 Nuggets]

2005 is probably where I would put the worst, though the stretch from then until 2011 kind of blends together for me.  Culminating with the death of Mike Flanagan.  At the end of '04 through the beginning of '05 it looked like the Orioles were going to turn the corner... and then, pfffbbbt.

This season was down there, until the trade deadline happened.  I want to see the team continue to execute their plan of course, but now the losses don't hurt as much.

[theocean]

21 minutes ago, 25 Nuggets said:

2005 is probably where I would put the worst, though the stretch from then until 2011 kind of blends together for me.  Culminating with the death of Mike Flanagan.  At the end of '04 through the beginning of '05 it looked like the Orioles were going to turn the corner... and then, pfffbbbt.

This season was down there, until the trade deadline happened.  I want to see the team continue to execute their plan of course, but now the losses don't hurt as much.

2005 is definitely the worst, in my opinion. This year sucks, but we all knew at some point Machado was going to leave, the window of contention would close, and the O's would need to rebuild. It just happened a year earlier than expected.

The Front Office seems to be going about a rebuild in a competent manner too. That helps things.