Which was your favorite year (baseball-wise) of the last decade?

[scOtt]

The thing I remember about 2012, it reminded me how stressful it is to really be down to the wire competitive. And tiring! Over all those years I had forgotten how stressful.

[OsFanSinceThe80s]

10 minutes ago, scOtt said:

The thing I remember about 2012, it reminded me how stressful it is to really be down to the wire competitive. And tiring! Over all those years I had forgotten how stressful.

And playoff baseball is 100x more stressful. First time back to the playoffs in 2012 and I forgot how excruciating it is watching every single pitch. Felt like I was going to get an ulcer just from watching a game. 

[scOtt]

2 minutes ago, OsFanSinceThe80s said:

And playoff baseball is 100x more stressful. First time back to the playoffs in 2012 and I forgot how excruciating it is watching every single pitch. Felt like I was going to get an ulcer just from watching a game. 

I thought I'd have a heart attack but I take drugs for that.

[Frobby]

I voted 2012, but when I created the poll I hadn’t expected the results to be so lopsided.     

It’s kind of like asking who’s the favorite between your two children: they’re both pretty damned great.     But there’s nothing like the day your first child is born, even if the second one grows up to be President (or even better, does something productive with his life!).

Here’s another analogy: 2012 was like your first day out of jail in 15 years.     Maybe that day you just went to McDonald’s for dinner.    But even if you go to the finest restaurant in town the next Saturday, the day will never be quite as good as that first day out.

[sevastras]

Brian Matusz striking out Josh Hamilton will be a permanent memory for me. I can only imagine what his trajectory would have been that in a more competent system. I think, but can’t say for sure, that Greinke and Matusz had very similar skills and mental obstacles. Greinke just got better support for those obstacles.  I’m sure this isn’t the first time I have made the comparison or argument 

*may not have been social anxiety but there was something there between the ears*

[SteveA]

I can really remember details of Orioles seasons dating back to 1975; my memories of 72-73-74 are too vague for me to really categorize them.   These are my top 10 favorite all time seasons, in order:

1979

1989

1982

2012

1977

1997

1996

1983

2014

1980

 

 

 

 

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, SteveA said:

I can really remember details of Orioles seasons dating back to 1975; my memories of 72-73-74 are too vague for me to really categorize them.   These are my top 10 favorite all time seasons, in order:

1979

1989

1982

2012

1977

1997

1996

1983

2014

1980

I’m surprised 1983 ranks so low, given that you hadn’t previously experienced a WS win.    Call me old school, but I’ll go 1970, 1983 and 1966 as my top 3.    I rank ‘66 last of the three mainly because I really only got interested in baseball at the end of the year, so I wasn’t as invested emotionally as I was by 1970.

[SteveA]

I was 

36 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m surprised 1983 ranks so low, given that you hadn’t previously experienced a WS win.    Call me old school, but I’ll go 1970, 1983 and 1966 as my top 3.    I rank ‘66 last of the three mainly because I really only got interested in baseball at the end of the year, so I wasn’t as invested emotionally as I was by 1970.

 

36 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I’m surprised 1983 ranks so low, given that you hadn’t previously experienced a WS win.    Call me old school, but I’ll go 1970, 1983 and 1966 as my top 3.    I rank ‘66 last of the three mainly because I really only got interested in baseball at the end of the year, so I wasn’t as invested emotionally as I was by 1970.

I was away at college for April, May, September, and October of 1983, following from a distance.   Could barely get the games on the radio.   And for the 3 months that I was in Baltimore, I don't have a ton of memories of great games like I do the other seasons of that era.   Obviously the ending was great but I'm talking about the season as a whole.

[TommyPickles]

2012 was awesome, but I voted 2014. It was such a new and thrilling experience to root for a dominant O’s team in my adult lifetime.

Plus I was there when Delmon Young hit that bases clearing double and it was absolutely wild.

That feels like the only season of the decade where we, realistically, could have won a WS.

[JR Oriole]

2012 was my favorite.  Ended 15 years of almost total irrelevance.  Suffered zero walkoff losses until Voldemort's two homers in Game 3 of the ALCS.  So many close wins.  Was just a great year all around and we got as far in October as we should have. 

2014, like 1997, ended so painfully that I can't count that as a great memory.  We should have won the WS in both of those years and to come up short to an inferior opponent just puts a damper on my memories of those seasons. 

[Frobby]

I’d love to hear from @Spl51, the sole person who voted for 2016.   Obviously, we didn’t have as good a record or get as far in the postseason as in 2012 or 2014, and the wild card game left a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of people.      But the regular season was pretty damned thrilling.     Trumbo hit 47 bombs, Zach went 47/47 in saves and was virtually untouchable all year, ably fronted by Givens, Brach and to a lesser extent O’Day.    Tillman was excellent most of the season, Gausman was nails in the second half, and Ubaldo came up huge down the stretch while Tillman was nursing his shoulder (little did we know what that foreshadowed).     We had some huge late inning homers during the  final week or so by Kim, Wieters and Trumbo.    The wild card race went to the very final day of the season and we nailed down our spot by beating the Yankees.    It was definitely a very fun ride, just not as fun as 2012/14 in my opinion.    But I’d love for Spl51 to tell us why he liked that one best.  

[TonySoprano]

What?  No love for 2018?  That season got us Adley Rutschman.  

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, TonySoprano said:

What?  No love for 2018?  That season got us Adley Rutschman.  

I hope he proves to have been worth it!

[SteveA]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I hope he proves to have been worth it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YadFEDZPLWU

[Spl51]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

I’d love to hear from @Spl51, the sole person who voted for 2016.   Obviously, we didn’t have as good a record or get as far in the postseason as in 2012 or 2014, and the wild card game left a sour taste in the mouths of a lot of people.      But the regular season was pretty damned thrilling.     Trumbo hit 47 bombs, Zach went 47/47 in saves and was virtually untouchable all year, ably fronted by Givens, Brach and to a lesser extent O’Day.    Tillman was excellent most of the season, Gausman was nails in the second half, and Ubaldo came up huge down the stretch while Tillman was nursing his shoulder (little did we know what that foreshadowed).     We had some huge late inning homers during the  final week or so by Kim, Wieters and Trumbo.    The wild card race went to the very final day of the season and we nailed down our spot by beating the Yankees.    It was definitely a very fun ride, just not as fun as 2012/14 in my opinion.    But I’d love for Spl51 to tell us why he liked that one best.  

In all honesty I never watched baseball until 2016. I didn't really watch any sports until my 20's, then became obsessed and watch 95% of Oriole and Caps games. I explained more in the thread about the future of this site. I'm pretty jealous other's have fonder memories of 2014 or 2012, and I haven't really gone back to watch any of those games. But obviously you mentioned most of it, it felt like real team effort to squeeze the most they could get out of the remaining talent before the team became stale. Manny in his prime, especially defensively, with that rock solid infield that seemingly made no mistakes. The bullpen just gave you full confidence that they were never out of a game, even if the rotation made out of duck tape gave up 5 runs in the first. They were always a few bombs away from coming back, and they certainly did that when it counted the most at the end of the season.