Loverro takes one last shot at Angelos and Baltimore

[wildcard]

On 7/17/2019 at 1:37 PM, theocean said:

I've posted this a lot - and I usually get someone who flippantly responds with a picture of a full Minute Maid Park during the playoffs. But, I'll do it again anyway:

I'm a millennial. Grew up during the fourteen losing seasons. I learned to read, graduated high school, learned to drive, moved out on my own, had a few jobs, graduated college all before the Orioles had a winning season. They were awful. But for some reason Jeff Conine and Luis Matos and Daniel Cabrera turned me into a diehard Orioles fan. I'll never forgive them for cursing this evil upon me.

I truly know like five dudes my age who actually know, understand, and follow Orioles baseball on a daily basis. That's it. Five dudes who are diehard baseball fans. Sure, I know a ton of people who "like" baseball - but they couldn't tell you the difference between a four seam and a two seam fastball. Couldn't name you another player on another team outside the obvious ones. They don't know basic rules. Believe me, I unfortunately know they don't because I've played on the same softball team with them.

A big reason is that everyone my age grew up when the Orioles played like absolutely butt every year and the Ravens had Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, and company bashing people's skulls in and winning the Super Bowl. 

Those same people who don't know basic baseball rules could tell you all about why the Ravens should attack the A-gap with their running game against a certain team. They grew up watching a lot of football and are lifelong, diehard football fans for life.

A lot of people my age all went to games a lot from 2012-2016 because the O's were good, Adam Jones was cool, and they wanted a place outside to drink. But, now? They don't care. It's just me and the five dudes I know who care about Hanser Alberto breaking up a perfect game. That's it.

My point is - when you tank or unintentionally tank for long period of time, you lose a generation of young fans. Yeah, winning brings in new fans - but having a butt product on the field kills that core foundation of fans that is needed to fill a stadium. 

Those same people who grew up during fourteen losing seasons are all having kids now. How are those kids ever going to care about baseball if their parents don't care and the Orioles of their youth are also butt.

We can try and explain low attendance as much as we want - but the O's have pretty much been butt for a long time. I really caution against scorched-earth, tanking rebuilds because they really do permanent damage to the health of the fanbase.

 

What is the alternative?

So the O's had a great run from 2012-2016.   But players get older.  Injuries that hurt performance occur.  They were drafting low so the minor league replacements were not as high quality as when they were when losing for 14 years.   

The question is how do they get back to winning and a possible WS type team?

If you remember the 14 losing years your probably also remember the FAs that they spend money on to try to compete even though they didn't have enough good players to win.   That is what the O's did for a long time.

So the advent of the Astros, Phillies, Braves showed that tearing it to the ground and losing for a while allowed teams to accumulate enough high quality draft choices to get a core of good to great players.   Done right its a path to winning for many years.

So lamenting the losing for years is understandable,  but what is the alternative?      Trying to win 84 games a year and sneak into he playoff is not the goal.   Its winning the WS and that is what the Astros model has produced.  That is why the O's have the former Astros VP of Scouting as  GM.  And why the O's have the Astros former head of Analytics.  And the O's minor league pitching coordinator is a former Astro.  

Yes, there will be some fans that have to be brought back to the O's from other sports and other teams or from apathy.  But nothing does that better than winning the WS.   And continuous winning.

As you said people became Ravens fans because they won and won the Super Bowl.   We  are hoping that kind of winning happens to the O's in a few years.