This is my favorite Oriole team ever

[Beeracuda]

35 minutes ago, SteveA said:

It's such a subjective thing because not only is it about the team, it is about you and when you first became a fan and where you were in your life at the particular time and so many other factors.

1977 was special to me because I was 13 - that perfect age where baseball can still be the most important thing in your life - and this new evil force called free agency had stripped the Orioles of guys like Bobby Grich and Wayne Garland and Reggie Jackson and we weren't supposed to be able to compete with the big evil Yankees and Red Sox but we had a whole bunch of rookies and guys from the big 1976 trade and we DID compete and stayed in it until the last weekend.

In 1979 I got caught up in the fever of Oriole Magic and listened to WFBR every waking hour as that youthful top 40 radio station had taken over from grownup stodgy WBAL talk/news radio and set the Chuck Thompson highlights  as inserts to rock songs like BTO's You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet and played them over and over and we had the best record in baseball and made it to the World Series.

1982 was the first year I and all my friends had drivers licenses and instead of going to a small handful of games a year  with my Dad, I went to 20+ games with my friends and we staged an incredible finish that lasted until the last day of the season.  I remember the friends and the good times and the great games (I somehow managed to see 6 Oriole Grand slams in person, some teams dont but that many in a year).

1989 was my first year as a season ticket holder (13 game plan) and I was fresh out of college and still youbg enough to go out 3 or 4 nights a week and stay out late and still go to work every day and function on my job.  I want to 45 games total that year, never come close to that since.   And it was such an incredible unexpected joy of a season, until it ended that Saturday in Toronto and about 5 minutes after we were eliminated I got a phone call telling me my favorite aunt's long battle with lung cancer had finally ended.

As great as this season is, I don't think it will ever match those years.  For me.   I don't have a circle of friends that want to go to games very much anymore, and my age and arthritic knees also prevent me from going to that many games.  I've been to five this year and will make a couple more.  I still care but I'm too knowledgeable about the game now to have the unbridled enthusiasm that I once did.  I watch most games on the big screen in my living room and the losses still hurt and the wins still are great, but not to the level they once did.   I don't think I will ever be able to live and die with the team like I did when I was younger.  I have too much understanding of how the sausage is made.  I understand too well the random factors in baseball and the business of the game to ever worship the players the way I did when I was young or to believe that there is something special about the guys who don the orange and black.

That said, this year and the surprising early arrival of the Orioles as contenders is a hell of a lot of fun, but I personally will never be able to enjoy it at the level I did when I was in my teens or even early 20s.

But I can certainly understand how for someone at a different point in their life this season would be the greatest ever, just like those other ones were for me.

Sir, I could've written that same thing, verbatim, to describe most of how I feel about the O's.  We are the exact same age, so we've experienced the O's highs and lows at the same points in our lives.  My highlight would've been the end of the 82 season, with the heartbreaking final game loss to Milwaukee, straight through the championship 83 season, ending with greeting the team in the Memorial Stadium parking lot late at night after their return from Philadelphia.  What a drunken party that was!  

[Filmstudy]

3 hours ago, Frobby said:

Why is it not?   

Did you mean to say "Why Not?"

[Baltimorecuse]

This was a helluva night for me.  Baltimore had a laugher and my beloved Orangemen slobber knocked favored Louisville.  

[ChosenOne21]

6 hours ago, Frobby said:

Why is it not?   

I see what you did there

[bluedog]

6 hours ago, RZNJ said:

We get it but why in this thread?   Pretty poor.

We are having a discussion about favorite Oriole teams ever and I post the one reason I'm not sold on this being my favorite team ever and you think that's off topic?

 

[LA2]

6 hours ago, SteveA said:

It's such a subjective thing because not only is it about the team, it is about you and when you first became a fan and where you were in your life at the particular time and so many other factors.

1977 was special to me because I was 13 - that perfect age where baseball can still be the most important thing in your life - and this new evil force called free agency had stripped the Orioles of guys like Bobby Grich and Wayne Garland and Reggie Jackson and we weren't supposed to be able to compete with the big evil Yankees and Red Sox but we had a whole bunch of rookies and guys from the big 1976 trade and we DID compete and stayed in it until the last weekend.

In 1979 I got caught up in the fever of Oriole Magic and listened to WFBR every waking hour as that youthful top 40 radio station had taken over from grownup stodgy WBAL talk/news radio and set the Chuck Thompson highlights  as inserts to rock songs like BTO's You Ain't Seen Nothin Yet and played them over and over and we had the best record in baseball and made it to the World Series.

1982 was the first year I and all my friends had drivers licenses and instead of going to a small handful of games a year  with my Dad, I went to 20+ games with my friends and we staged an incredible finish that lasted until the last day of the season.  I remember the friends and the good times and the great games (I somehow managed to see 6 Oriole Grand slams in person, some teams dont but that many in a year).

1989 was my first year as a season ticket holder (13 game plan) and I was fresh out of college and still youbg enough to go out 3 or 4 nights a week and stay out late and still go to work every day and function on my job.  I want to 45 games total that year, never come close to that since.   And it was such an incredible unexpected joy of a season, until it ended that Saturday in Toronto and about 5 minutes after we were eliminated I got a phone call telling me my favorite aunt's long battle with lung cancer had finally ended.

As great as this season is, I don't think it will ever match those years.  For me.   I don't have a circle of friends that want to go to games very much anymore, and my age and arthritic knees also prevent me from going to that many games.  I've been to five this year and will make a couple more.  I still care but I'm too knowledgeable about the game now to have the unbridled enthusiasm that I once did.  I watch most games on the big screen in my living room and the losses still hurt and the wins still are great, but not to the level they once did.   I don't think I will ever be able to live and die with the team like I did when I was younger.  I have too much understanding of how the sausage is made.  I understand too well the random factors in baseball and the business of the game to ever worship the players the way I did when I was young or to believe that there is something special about the guys who don the orange and black.

That said, this year and the surprising early arrival of the Orioles as contenders is a hell of a lot of fun, but I personally will never be able to enjoy it at the level I did when I was in my teens or even early 20s.

But I can certainly understand how for someone at a different point in their life this season would be the greatest ever, just like those other ones were for me.

Fantastic recollection of an Oriole fan's life. Thank you.

[Just Regular]

Its pretty great.

I've been manipulating the service time of my 2nd grader like Mike Elias the last few seasons with a lot of fireworks nights in Bowie and Norfolk, but today we unveil OPACY!

Growth has its way of being more fun than Proven Excellence.   Its possible in 12 or 24 months we're playing .600 ball, and at this moment in the year the tournament berth is secure and its stuff like can the Top of Rotation guys hold up, or the lineup hit Gerrit Cole like it's supposed to.   

Some of the pure joy of underdog-dom evaporates when 2023 Jordan Lyles "isn't good enough to pitch for" BAL.

[waroriole]

It’s closing in on 2012 for me. There’s definitely the same type of magic. I love seeing how much the guys genuinely like playing together. 

[drjohnnyfeva]

I love the teams that have great chemistry.   They just seem to be having a lot of fun playing and being around each other.  I think Brandon Hyde is doing a fine job and the players just seem to like each other.

[Too Tall]

Like a few here, I've followed them all since 1954. Some more consistently than others. I can't pick one season to top all others. 1966 was the benchmark for me but other years are up there too. So many memories - so many great players and human beings. I will say this however, for the first time in a hand full of years, I can't wait for the next game to start. Whatever happens from here on out, it's been fun. And it's great to see Baltimore excited about the O's again!

[RZNJ]

43 minutes ago, bluedog said:

We are having a discussion about favorite Oriole teams ever and I post the one reason I'm not sold on this being my favorite team ever and you think that's off topic?

 

Yeah.  There is the same Odor stuff in every thread.  To use this thread to take another shot at Odor seems weak to me.   Odor is the lone reason this isn't your favorite Oriole team of all time?  I'm calling BS.

[bluedog]

5 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Yeah.  There is the same Odor stuff in every thread.  To use this thread to take another shot at Odor seems weak to me.   Odor is the lone reason this isn't your favorite Oriole team of all time?  I'm calling BS.

It's crazy to attack someone for being off topic by starting an entire thread of off-topic posts about being off-topic.

If avoiding off-topic posts is so important to you, you should have sent me a Private Message instead with a suggestion about staying on topic.

and back on topic - I've followed the O's since 79 - over 40 years. I have enjoyed this team more than any other team in my lifetime because of how they win.

Every single time that Odor comes to bat, I feel irritated. My enthusiasm for the team gets over written with "WTF is this guy doing getting constant playing time when there are obvious better options on the bench and in the minors".

So yes, Odor is absolutely reducing my enjoyment of this team. Not sure why I would make that up as a pretext to go off-topic about Odor since this is the 1st time I've mentioned on OH how much Odor bothers me.

[RZNJ]

3 minutes ago, bluedog said:

It's crazy to attack someone for being off topic by starting an entire thread of off-topic posts about being off-topic.

If avoiding off-topic posts is so important to you, you should have sent me a Private Message instead with a suggestion about staying on topic.

and back on topic - I've followed the O's since 79 - over 40 years. I have enjoyed this team more than any other team in my lifetime because of how they win.

Every single time that Odor comes to bat, I feel irritated. My enthusiasm for the team gets over written with "WTF is this guy doing getting constant playing time when there are obvious better options on the bench and in the minors".

So yes, Odor is absolutely reducing my enjoyment of this team. Not sure why I would make that up as a pretext to go off-topic about Odor since this is the 1st time I've mentioned on OH how much Odor bothers me.

You lost me with all of the off topic stuff.  Who's on first?

Whatever.  I can't believe Odor is having that much effect on you.  Good luck with that.

[Chelsea_Phil]

To be honest, odor’s situation playing all the time is making this season less great than it could have been imo as well.  I always want to scream  ‘ WTF’ when he is at bat, so it is pertinent to this being the Os best season ever or not.

[ORIOLE33]

This team does seem to have a ton of swag. They’ll be popular for awhile.