Another Winter of My Discontent.

So with a little less then a week left in the baseball season the Orioles are contenders. Unfortunately not for a spot in the playoffs, a division Crown, or the best record in baseball. They are in contention for what will be the cherry on top of one of the worst seasons in the last ten of shear futility. They may get the elusive 1st pick in the 2008 draft. To give some insight the O's have not picked first since they took Ben McDonald in teh 1989 draft.

The O's stand on the threshold of having the worst record in baseball. This was a mark in the past destined for teams like the Royals, Pirates and Devil Rays. After a season that earned a series of footnotes for the history books, its hard to think of how things can get worse.
There were times this season that screamed, " how bad can it get". Two hold great note.

First was the loss that will be forever etched in my mind and every Sportcenter until some one is more futile. Holding a 3-0 lead in the third and then giving up 30 straight. This moment put downward spiral that I had not seen since two or three years ago when the O's lost 32 out of 36. There is nothing worse than being a fan of a team that sets a futility record. It reminds me of when I was a kid and the O's set another record. Going 0-21 to start the season. That was the epitome of losing. You almost felt like they would never win another game.

Second was the no-hitter to a rookie. It just another exclamation point to the, "we are terrible." The last time a team got a no hit by a rookie it was the Orioles once again that got no hit. I sat in the seats in the upper deck at Memorial Stadium and saw then rookie Wilson Alvarez pitch a no-no.

Upper Management says not to focus on the losses, but at this point how can't you. The O's are not the Royals, D-Rays or Pirates, that have a prescription to lose. The Orioles have consistently tried over the last decade to put a winner on the field. They crashed and burned each an every year.

In 1998 we went for a stud hitter in Albert "Joey" Belle. It was supposed to be the final piece to the puzzle. In the end we got a Trojan horse instead. Once inside the green gates of the warehouse at Camden Yards a cancer of losing spread over the bricks of the warehouse like locust. It has never been the same.

This past year of 2007 we went out and overhauled a bullpen that cost us more money to lose even more games than the previous. Every move that is supposed to one step forward always takes us back two.

I try to be a glass half full kind of person. I would see the Natty Boh always at the top. This season it seems I have started tipping my glass to find it in the bottom.

Before the typical august/September swoon. There were golden rays of hope. Andy McPhail was hired and has seemingly been given the autonomy that O's fans have wished for on every heads up penny they have ever found. Dave Trembley was a guy that got better results, teh players responded to him. It was like the weights were lifting of the downtrodden fans. Alas the same day that Dave had the interim tag removed the team gave up 30 and the Submarine to the cellar set sail.

So in a few days I will enter another winter of discontent. It will be a time of near misses,pleases and thank yous.

So here is hoping for champagne wishes and Confederate money dreams.