A Season To Remember

The Baltimore Orioles just had what I consider the most amazing season I have witnessed in baseball. I say that as an Orioles fan that was born and raised to love this team. This team that I love was the first sports team I ever liked. These guys have let me down more times than I can remember, but recently they have been great. The 2014 Orioles have advanced as far as any Oriole team has advanced in my lifetime. It is important though to think about what really happened this year in Baltimore to truly let it sink in.

During the off-season, everybody was trashing the Orioles lack of "big" moves from the fans to the media. Nobody had nice things to say about little pickups like Delmon Young. Fitting that it was Young who had the biggest hit in the ALDS that helped send Baltimore to the ALCS. Everybody was trashing the birds and not backing them though it seemed at the time. After that, almost every national media outlet picked Baltimore to finish 4th or 5th. Then the actual season came....
The season was filled with injury after injury, starting with Manny Machado beginning the season on the DL. Later in the year after the long road back, Machado would be lost again to season ending surgery. More injuries would occur including the big blow of Matt Wieters. This guy was having his best season as a pro (it was so good he was voted an all-star starter despite playing less than 2 months). Wieters (the team's most irreplaceable player according to pretty much everybody) would be lost for the season. Everyone expected the O's to fold, but they did not. This team kept pushing through. They pushed through despite Chris Davis having a major drop in production. Davis would end up serving a 25 game suspension for testing positive for adderol (he still has one game on the suspension) at the end of the season. This would cause him to miss the entire postseason. While he was having an off year, there is no doubt that the big bat would have been nice to have for the postseason power outage.

No matter what kind of obstacles were thrown at them though, the Orioles pushed through each and every one. If you had told me that Manny Machado would be hurt twice, Wieters would be lost early, and Davis would have that season, I would have thought the season would be a disaster. It was not anything close to a disaster though. These Orioles won the AL East by a landslide while recording 96 wins. That win total with this kind of attrition is incredible. They made it as far as I have ever seen the O's advance, by advancing to the ALCS. They made their fans proud. They preservered. It was an incredible thing to watch.

Thanks and congratulations are in order for this kind of season. It must start with Buck Showalter. He absolutely should be manager of the year and I am glad he is on our side. Twice he has gotten teams close to a World Series only to see them win after he is gone. In Baltimore, we will see him through and he will win it with us. This team and these fans appreciate what he has done for the Oriole faithful. Buck has restored the Oriole Way and given us hope. Dan Duquette for managing late additions so well also deserves some praise. The guy picked up Andrew Miller and Alejandro De Aza very late in the year and each was a fantastic move. Picking up Hundley when he did also helped bridge the gap left by Wieters' absence. We missed Matt Wieters, but not as much as you would think because of Duquette and Showalter. This is a duo that is much appreciated in Baltimore.

Finally, there is the players that deserve the credit. Here I go mostly with 2110, although everyone contributed to the Oriole Magic.

Those two outfielders though are incredible. I will start with Nick Markakis. I am glad this guy got to experience the postseason as an Oriole as I fear his time with the team could well have reached its end. He was on some bad Orioles teams and deserved to be on a good one healthy. This guy was just what he always was, he was consistent. Markakis was the consistent force on the team that you could ALWAYS count on. He was the rock. This guy is one the team and fans looked too and knew they could count on. He has done so much for the Orioles and for Baltimore and this season was no different. Much appreciation to Nicky!

Then comes Adam Jones. He is not officially the captain of the Orioles, but he may as well be. This guy is the vocal leader and the best player on the team. He is consistently good and just awesome at what he does. Jones throws well, hits well, hits for power, and has a terrific glove in centerfield. The torch has been passed from Markakis to Jones. Adam Jones is the heart and soul of the Baltimore Orioles and he proved it this year. With all due respect to Nelson Cruz and the season he had, the Baltimore Media was flat wrong about Most Valuable Oriole. There is absolutely no doubt that the honor belongs to Adam Jones. Everybody should know that he is the best player Baltimore has after this season, and they should notice that he is one of the most likable in all of baseball. What I like the most is that he will be an Oriole at least through 2018 and it seems that Buck will be too.
#IBackTheBirds
#StayHungry

-Noland