Play Ball!

As a lifelong baseball fan, I eagerly await each coming season. This past weekend, pitchers and catchers reported for spring training at various team sites across Florida and Arizona. Not only is this an early sign of spring, but it brings out the optimist in (almost) all fans. I am no exception. Though the prospects of the local club seem dim, I cannot help to believe that there is a chance. If only Roberts returns to his former self . . . if only Markakis and Jones continue to provide stability in the order . . . if only Wieters finally reaches his potential as the next Johnny Bench . . . if only the pitching staff lives up to its promise . . . .

I am a transplanted Minnesota Twins fan after growing up in St. Paul, MN, with heroes such as Harmon Killebrew, Tony Oliva, and Rod Carew. That is not to say that I didn't know the Baltimore Orioles! Not only did they sweep my beloved Twins in the 1969 and 1970 American League playoffs, but they went on to win the World Series over the Cincinnati Reds' Big Red Machine in 1970. Back then, there was much more allegiance to the league, so I cheered on the Orioles in 1970 and suffered with the Baltimore fans as they lost the World Series in 1971 to the hated Pittsburgh Pirates.

So, I was intimately familiar with the likes of Mike Cueller, Dave McNally, Jim Palmer, Boog Powell, Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson. Interestingly, due to my military assignment in Virginia, my son's first professional baseball game was at none other than Memorial Stadium in Baltimore! Little did I know then that twenty years later I'd be calling this area home.

Unfortunately, both the Orioles and the Twins have seen more than their share of hard times. Though fate shined on the Orioles once again in 1983 and the Twins won it all in 1987 and 1991, both clubs have struggled, though the Orioles even more so than the Twins of late. Part of that has to do with the awful alignment in a division with the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox; part has to do with poor spending on overrated free agents; and part has to do with incompetent management and an erratic owner. Most baseball preseason publications pick the Orioles to finish last in the American League East.  The same goes for the Twins, picked for the cellar of the American League Central. 

That isn't to say that there isn't hope! This article began with the proposition that hope springs eternal — and particularly so when pitchers and catchers first report to spring training!  My example is the Twins, first in 1987 and then in 1991. The latter went from a league worst in 1990 to first in 1991. Their World Series rival that year, the Atlanta Braves, was a club that finished last with only 65 wins the prior season (and as a footnote, the dreaded Yankees finished last in the American league East in 1990!).

So, the moral of the story is that dreams really can come true. The Orioles have a nucleus of young pitchers with potential.  They have a better-than-decent lineup, assuming all can stay healthy. I am certainly not saying that Britton-Hammel-Chen-Arrieta can equal Cueller-McNally-Palmer, but outside of CC Sabathia, I honestly don't think that the upside of the Oriole's pitching staff is any worse than that of the Yankees or the Red Sox.

Happy Spring Training and Go O's!