From the time I began following the Orioles in 1964 when I was 7, to 1985, my sixth year of marriage, the Orioles suffered through only 1 losing season. I lived 30 minutes from Memorial Stadium; Brooks Robinson came to our Little League opener one year. Reliever Dick Hall used to bring his copies of World Series films to our junior high for us to watch when it was too wet and rainy to go outside for gym class. It was a wonderful, glorious time to be a child, learning to be an Orioles fan.
Being a fan of a team touches a deep archetype within us, a primal instinct to belong to a tribe. We paint ourselves in the tribe's colors and repeat the legends and myths of our heroes. We celebrate the important anniversaries of our tribe's history. When we travel into foreign territory, say on vacation, we take comfort at the site of a fellow tribesman whom we identify by his orange and black. We nod, smile and then celebrate or commiserate as the case may be. This is especially true of people who were born into the tribe as I was.
The Orioles, of course, have begun the season 1-11. They have lost 3 times when leading after 8 innings, a sickening occurrence that happened only 4 times all of last year. While some fans have become angry because the team has let them down, those of us in whom the primal instinct runs deep, wonder what we have done to let the team down. Maybe we sat in the wrong chair, turned the game on too late or too soon or wore the wrong shirt. No amount of logic or education can get us over this notion that we share in the failure. With every loss, we have fewer and fewer tribesmen on whom we can count to help us carry the embarrassment.
Dealing with such losing actually gets harder as you get older. I lived through the 0-21 start of 1988 and believed that the next game was the game that would turn the team around; that we were about to see the game that would begin a winning streak, that would be a good sign for next year. Experience tends to dampen that kind of optimism.
As I write this, the Orioles are leading 8-3 against Oakland late on Sunday afternoon, but with one out in the bottom of the 9th, the A's got a base runner. Immediately, Becky said, "If they lose this game, I don't think I can watch the Orioles for the rest of the season."*
The fun is out of this season already. I can't watch Baseball Tonight because my tribe's embarrassment is there for all the other tribes to see. That's my embarrassment. If you're not a fan, you probably think that I'm crazy. If you're a regular fan, you vaguely understand what I'm talking about. If you're a real fan, a primitive fan, then you know exactly how I feel.
*The Orioles won 8-3, running their record to 2-11. I think this is the beginning of a roll . . . It's early in the season . . . The percentages are in our favor . . . By next Sunday, we'll all be anxiously awaiting Baseball Tonight.
Austin, In comparison to the O's, my Indians are flying high at 6-6! With both teams having great stadiums (should that be stadia)and great, loyal fans, you think the management could come up with winning teams every once in a while.
Posted by: Nick | April 20, 2010 at 09:27 AM
You know, I was talking to people at work today and I decided that what is happening to the Orioles is what happened in "Major League." Angelos is building the worst team possible so they can sell the team off to another city.
Posted by: Becky | April 21, 2010 at 07:49 PM