It’s been a year since Baltimore sports fans suffered the first in the latest series of humiliations from their teams who raise their hopes with stellar regular season performances, only to crash and burn in the postseason.
In the space of four months in late 2023 and early 2024, Charm City athletic supporters took shots in their collective guts from the Ravens and Orioles, who each won their respective divisions, then whimpered out of the playoffs.
The Ravens have stumbled a bit out of the gate so far in 2024, placing their Super Bowl aspirations in a bit of jeopardy.
It falls, then, on the Orioles to sing a redemption song for the area faithful who have waited ever so patiently in the short and long term.
Yes, it’s been a year since the Orioles won the American League East with 101 victories, the first playoff berth in seven years.
But the World Series drought for this once proud franchise is at 41 years, and possibly counting.
In a certain sense, Bird backers have been like Ralphie, the kid from “A Christmas Story,” who yearned to find a Red Ryder BB gun under the tree, but, more often than not, got a bunny suit.
The BB gun seemed oh-so-close last October, when the Birds entered the playoffs with the top seed in the American League and home field advantage throughout, a straight shot to the Fall Classic.
Or so we thought. The callow Orioles, with hardly a lick of playoff experience among them, were summarily swept out of the playoffs by the Texas Rangers.
That the Rangers went on to win the world championship was of little consolation to the players and their fans, who had to wait a year to prove that last season wasn’t a mirage, an anomaly.
The first two-thirds of the 2024 campaign led many to believe that the Orioles were the real thing.
With newcomers Corbin Burnes and Craig Kimbrel brought in to bring maturity and playoff experience to the young lineup, the Orioles looked poised to repeat as AL East champions, with three players, Burnes, catcher Adley Rutschman and shortstop Gunnar Henderson named to the All-Star starting lineup.
However, the club sputtered after the All-Star break, with injuries and poor performances, and landed a wild card slot, finishing second in the division behind the dreaded Yankees.
Though the equipment changes from sport to sport, the one thing that all our games have in common is that the postseason of any game is the place where reputations are made and where disappointments can be overcome.
And that’s how it will be for the Orioles in October. A deep run through these next few weeks will erase the heartache of last fall, A quick exit will trigger questions about who will be here going forward and what happens next.
So, for the Birds and their fans, this next month essentially comes down to this question: Will there be a BB gun or a bunny suit under the Christmas tree. The good news is we’ll know the answer long before Thanksgiving.
And that’s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on Threads and X at Sports at Large.
Until next week, for all of us here and for producer Spencer Bryant, I’m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening and enjoy the games.