*Disclaimer: This article was written on the day of the trade deadline.
Imagine paying over $250 to sit in the nosebleeds for a sporting event. The most important event you have ever seen live as the fan of any of your teams. Imagine your team fighting tooth and nail to claw their way back into a game, as an underdog, surrounded by people wearing different color gear than you and one other friend, only for your player to drop the go ahead winning touchdown with less than a minute left to send you to the Super Bowl. That should be the worst moment of your sports fan lifetime, right?
Imagine now, that less than 5 real time minutes later, your All-Pro kicker comes out to kick a 30 and change yard field goal to tie the game and give your team momentum going into overtime to send you to the Super Bowl. You’re confident, you’re not even worried about it. You’re already discussing overtime strategy with your friend. You’re sitting parallel with the uprights, so unless he shanks it wide right, you won’t even really know what happens. The kick goes up and you think nothing of it. But then the crowd erupts. He shanked it wide left. And now you have to drive 8 hours through the night to catch an 8 am class the next day. THAT has to be the worst moment of your sports fan lifetime, RIGHT?
Maybe that is the worst moment. That singular, gut-punch of a devastating loss. But today, the Orioles traded Manny Machado for 5 prospects. And this is the lowest moment I’ve had as a sports fan.
Less than four years ago, I had the highest moment I’ve had as a sports fan. It wasn’t the two super bowls the Ravens have won, but a first round Orioles playoff win. The famous Delmon Young double. This tells you a few things about me. The obvious is that I care more about my O’s than my Ravens (which is saying a lot, because I’ve spent a significant portion of my life defending Ray Lewis and Joe Flacco). But the real takeaway is that I SUFFERED for that Orioles moment. Through 15 years of dog-shit baseball, only for a glimmer of hope to emerge in 2012, and to actually taste what championship baseball might feel like in 2014, only to get my hopes swept away in the ALCS. But we were CLOSE. 95 wins, dominating the AL East close.
In 2012 the O’s made a magical run behind some of those long-suffering players like Nick Markakis and Adam Jones, who were always pretty good in-spite of horrendous rosters around them. But guys like Chris Davis and Matt Wieters and this young guy Manny Machado made enough noise to take a young team that didn’t know any better to the playoffs. Finally…. Finally… FINALLY it was good to be an O’s fan.
Everyone credited new GM Dann Duquette for the team finally making the playoffs. I was a HARSH critic of Duquette at the time, saying he was the beneficiary of Andy MacPhail’s hard work. But the 2014 success led to many people saying Duquette knew what he was doing. I couldn’t believe we finally had some talent, and couldn’t for the life of me understand why we didn’t pursue some better players. They did make a few moves- willing to sacrifice draft picks for some free agents, Duquette rolled the dice with a four year contract, and a one year contract. Four years for Ubaldo Jimenez, and one year for Nelson Cruz. He guessed wrong. At the end of 2014, Duquette was named GM of the year, much to my dismay. People lauded his findings of Steve Pearce and Delmon Young and Alejandro De Aza. When I pointed out that it was more than likely these guys were aberrations, people told me to trust Duquette. I did not. I stood by the fact that an ALCS run was the time to INVEST and SPEND to try and support with roster that likely was over-achieving. I argued the O’s should extend Nelson Cruz, re-up Nick Markakis even though “the analytics” said Nori Aoki was just as good as a replacement for Markakis. The O’s did none of these things. Cruz – gone. Markakis – a long time fan favorite, gone. Aoki – not signed. Starting pitchers added? None. We’ll bank on the development of Wieters and Machado, Duquette stated. I took a lot of crap for hating on the direction of the franchise. And people pointed to the O’s sneaking into the playoffs in 2016 as a sign that I was wrong and Duquette was right. And believe me, I wanted nothing more than to be wrong.
But today, we have reached the worst day I’ve had as a sports fan. The All Star Break was a heart-breaking reminder of what could have been. Markakis, Cruz and Manny were pictured smiling and laughing together, and all had nothing but amazing things to say about their time in Baltimore. Everyone around the league had nothing but incredible things to say about this Machado kid, the one talent the Orioles managed to not screw up over the past 10 years, who has truly reached super star status. I grew up BEGGING for a player as good as him to play for my team, and he finally did. Until today, when the Baltimore Orioles traded Manny Machado for five prospects. The best player the Orioles have had in my lifetime (no disrespect to the ironman, but Cal Ripken wasn’t good anymore when I can remember starting to love baseball) reached free agency without a single rumor of an extension the Orioles ever offered him. BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T. This amazing GM I was told about, supposedly never as much as wrote down a BS offer in the past 3 years. With a potential hall of fame talent. In Duquette’s defense, I 100% believe he was hamstrung by the terrible owner of the team. But how he couldn’t as much as sit down for a meeting with Machado’s agent at some point in the past five years is a fucking joke.
The worst part? I was right. I was a damn play by play analyst for the past four years, assuring my friends that we were doomed. And now, there isn’t one sliver of hope. This kid Diaz the O’s got for Machado could be incredible- an MVP even. But Machado was that caliber of a player, and the O’s are the worst team in baseball anyway. Diaz is supposedly now the O’s top prospect- that’s not a good thing. We’re still stuck with Davis. And Trumbo. And the worst defense in the history of Major League Baseball. And our terrible owner. And our terrible GM. All the while, our two most hated rivals, are LOADED with not only young talent, but more room to spend than we have.
For some reason as a kid, the Baltimore Orioles got me into professional sports. Guys named Ripken, Alomar, Palmeiro, Bordick, and Surhoff convinced me that rooting for the black and orange was worthwhile. I tried to believe for so many years that maybe, JUST MAYBE, my team would get there some day. But today, all hope is lost. In its place is utter despair. There is no “maybe next year.” There is no “maybe in 5 years.” There is only one certainty: baseball won’t be fun again in Baltimore for a long time.
The Writer of this Article Chose to Remain Anonymous
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