Thank you Baltimore Orioles for a great 2012 season and we hope to see you back in the postseason next year. Although it would have been nice to pay the Yankees back for 1996 it just wasn't our year. I don't think anyone even thought the Orioles would make the postseason much less force a fifth game in the ALDS on the road against the Yankees.
It's great to see the Orioles turning around as an organization and they have made next season something for me and my family to look forward to. I can't wait to take my sons to their first game next summer at Camden Yards!
Who would have thought baseball could be this exciting?
Who is Raul Ibanez? Right now he is my least favorite player. We had our closer in to finish off the game, just as he has done so many times before, and here comes this no-name pinch hitter. I thought this would be great. The Yankees are shaken and now we can finish them off. They took out A-Rod and put in this guy? Please - this is it, we're on to Game 4 and a chance to pay back the Yankees.
The Oriole Bird was rosin up the bow in the 7th inning stretch. As we sang a tune from John Denver raucously we wondered how long the dream could last. I've never understood exactly what being a country boy had to do with Baltimore or baseball - but at that moment none of us cared. We were just hoping our wonderful game two dream would end well and how it did!
Thanks to some great hitting at the right times and a base running error by Mr. Derek Jeter (sorry his name has to be included here - henceforth it will be the dreaded DJ) we were able to prevail. I was particularly pleased when the dreaded DJ failed to tag up on a line drive and was called out at second while he stood at third. Awkward. I don't think the crowd was louder than that point. With one exception.
We've almost clinched the wild card spot (with only a +7 run differential??) but the dreaded Yankees have won the division. Could the Yankees be any more detestable? They disgust me and all Orioles fans for many reasons. I don't have the time or the energy to go into this long and storied rivalry. But lets at least remember one incident that, even as a non-baseball fan, I will never forget. The memory has been seared upon my mind and emotions ever since it happened.
