My First and Probably Last Thread

[NCRaven]

3 minutes ago, wildcard said:

There is nothing dumb about you.

Unless he disagrees with Sports Guy.  Then he's stupid.  And lazy.  

[MijiT88]

I don't think the OP is off in his comment. Maybe when you post all the time on here you look past all the negativity but it has most certainly become harder for me to read through the threads over the past year or so. I am sure people remember me complaining about people not being excited for the season RMC had last year and that marked the point that I gave up on trying to get people to change that tone. I can say I honestly read a thread until I see a string of negative then I give up and stop reading. I value a lot of peoples opinions and thoughts on here but it becomes harder to withstand the noise as it grows louder to me. 

[UMDTerrapins]

5 minutes ago, wildcard said:

There is nothing dumb about you.

Lol……..but no objection the ass part!  Thanks by the way. I really do think this site/board is special. A good chunk of that is the posters and their personalities. The debates with you and so many of the frequent participants reminds me of the barbershop in Coming to America. I mean that in the nicest way. I can take an OH sabbatical and when I come back you are all just like I last saw you. Hammering away with great stuff. I’m kind of a poser around here. You guys are the best. 

[Sanfran327]

1 hour ago, Aristotelian said:

Interesting perspective. I discovered this board in 2012, so I associate the board with those times rather than all the negativity we are seeing now. 

I still find it worthwhile to engage with the positive/non-negative folks while trying my best to go down the rabbit hole with others and I agree this remains without exaggeration the best sports message board on the internet.  

I found ignoring certain users helped for a while but that function seems to have stopped working. I would like to see the ignore function working and I do think the board could be better at enforcing its policies regarding coarse language, name calling, and thread hijacking, all of which we have seen in recent months. 

I found the board right around the time of the Erik Bedard trade and began participating shortly thereafter. So I have been part of some high highs and some low lows. Through it all, it's always been the best place to get unfiltered O's news and highly-educated opinions. 

But there was a shift after that Encarnacion homer that ended our 2016 bid, and this board has been a distinctively darker place ever since. For many good, tangible reasons. We lost a manager that we all (nearly all) loved. We lost all of our favorite players. We lost a LOT of games since then.

There just hasn't been a lot of positive story lines to discuss since then. Tanking to earn a few 1-1 picks isn't worthy of a celebration. Turn one of those into an MVP or a Cy Young winner, sure. Obviously, build a winning team. But I'm still not seeing much light at the end of the tunnel. 

IMO, the dark cloud hovering over this team has more to do with the ownership situation than it ever has, at least for me. I've never been an Angelos apologist, but I never really had much of an opinion of any of them until now. No doubt in my mind that we are one of the 4 worst run organizations out of all of the 4 major professional sports, and I don't see how that's going to change until ownership changes. How's that for dark and dreary? LOL

[Barnaby Graves]

After following this team going back to the early 2000s I have psychic damage.  Every night in my dreams Jack Cust falls down running towards home plate and I wake up screaming.

[LookinUp]

In all seriousness, a great way to engage in more positive discussion is through the OH minors forum. It's certainly not all unicorns and rainbows, but the objective truth in the minors right now is generally way more positive.

Heck, they even spend almost to the penny what they're allowed on international signings and the draft, so even that criticism is muted somewhat. It's also a great place to learn for those who get intimidated. If you want to know why guys are good/bad prospects, a lot of that data-driven talk is available in those threads.

[PHRESH]

 

 

[Moose Milligan]

Yesterday was nice, but it doesn't erase all the crap that this franchise has been through over the past few years.

Overall, I am somewhat positive (hard to believe, I know) about where this team is headed.  I like the prospects, I like the fact that they're investing in the Dominican and I think it'll pay off.  Eventually.

But that doesn't excuse other things.  That doesn't excuse that they're probably going to lose 95+ games this year and be mostly miserable to watch.  

I admire the unflinching Pollyannas.  But they've been so bad for so long it's hard for me to stay optimistic all the time.

[Too Tall]

Sorry! Not going anywhere unless banned. . For the record, I didn't write an epitaph, I wrote an opinion as a thread for the firast time in over 12 years and nothing that has been said has changed that opinion.

Another opinion - There are folks on this site that need to learn a lesson taught to me a long time ago. It's not what you say but how you say it that gets your ass in a sling. 

[Going Underground]

5 minutes ago, Too Tall said:

Sorry! Not going anywhere unless banned. . For the record, I didn't write an epitaph, I wrote an opinion as a thread for the firast time in over 12 years and nothing that has been said has changed that opinion.

Another opinion - There are folks on this site that need to learn a lesson taught to me a long time ago. It's not what you say but how you say it that gets your ass in a sling. 

Why would you be banned if just voicing an opinion?

[Frobby]

2 hours ago, wildcard said:

So we can expect an uptick in the OH mood when Adley, Grayson and Bradish are promoted next month?

Probably.   If I were to sum up the predominant mood on the board, I wouldn’t say negative, I’d say losing patience.   And it’s understandable.  I’m a really patient person but you can’t help but wonder when we will get a ray of hope at the major league level.   I do believe that Elias is cautious by nature, and in many cases that’s a good trait.   But it can be frustrating.  

[Legend_Of_Joey]

46 minutes ago, Too Tall said:

Sorry! Not going anywhere unless banned. . For the record, I didn't write an epitaph, I wrote an opinion as a thread for the firast time in over 12 years and nothing that has been said has changed that opinion.

Another opinion - There are folks on this site that need to learn a lesson taught to me a long time ago. It's not what you say but how you say it that gets your ass in a sling. 

This post is contradictory to the lesson you learned. Your opinion is noted and was commented on.

As others have said, this board is probably one of the least toxic of any major sporting team. However, when you have a long, long, LONG stream of failure as what the Orioles have been going through, there won’t be a lot of “bright spots.” Some people take it harder than others. This place allows both discussion (like Tony said about needing to produce data to back a claim) and venting.

Some people are just fed up with stuff and set in their ways, but are still fans and come here to complain because it helped them through another losing season. Have you ever seen anything on Twitter or other sites? Fans of other teams vent even more at times, during much MUCH better times. 
 

Since you ended one post with a lesson you learned, I will end this with one I learned. If you want to be involved in discussions but get run off by a little fire from someone’s belly, grow some thicker skin and jump in.

Passion isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. You’re an Orioles fan. Welcome to the suck.

[Can_of_corn]

8 minutes ago, Legend_Of_Joey said:

Passion isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. You’re an Orioles fan. Welcome to the suck.

Once again I lament the lack of signatures. 

[LookinUp]

Somewhat off-topic but also potentially related… I was listening to a podcast today where Thom Loverro said the nationals lost $170 million over the last two years. Covid apparently crushed baseball revenues.

[waroriole]

6 minutes ago, LookinUp said:

Somewhat off-topic but also potentially related… I was listening to a podcast today where Thom Loverro said the nationals lost $170 million over the last two years. Covid apparently crushed baseball revenues.

I’m sure that’s what they claimed but it’s all a secret since MLB doesn’t have to open their books to the union. Color me dubious on this claim.  The only team we know about, Atlanta, made 100M last year.