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Will Baltimore ever again root for the O's the way fans are rooting for the Ravens?
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These fans were excited about the O's -- and Atari.
Canton Square -- a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there -- was alive with Purple Passion yesterday. It was impossible not to get caught up in the enthusiasm, even if part of my excitement was for the free mystery beverage Coburns gave out with each Ravens touchdown. Ed Reed is a magician, and it was fun to see Baltimore caught up in a playoff contest.
But football in general has become rather tedious to me.
Let me explain. Watching football sometimes feels like watching pro wrestling. There is too much time between games for interpersonal male soap operas (Joey Porter would make a great WWE heel, don't you think?), too many commercial breaks, and too many games determined by referee interference. Ravens fans know this last point better than most.
Conversely, one of the best things about football is the “event feel” of a game. Baltimore hosts eight regular season professional football games per year. The city hosts 10 times as many professional baseball games, with 80-something O's home games a season. Watching professional football, whether live or on television, is a rare enough occasion that it is something worth preparing for. Men and women invite all of their friends to their house, favorite bar, or stadium parking space after spending the weekdays stocking up on meats, beer, and snack foods.
Try getting a group of 20 people together to watch the Orioles play the A's on a Sunday in September. All of the smoked meats in the world probably wouldn't keep you from manning the grill alone.
The long season is, of course, not the only cause for this problem. Eleven losing seasons would quell the enthusiasm of even the biggest bratwurst fan. During the past 11 years the Ravens have been to the playoffs five times, while the O's have had to “play out the string” time and time again. Even $1 tickets couldn't get fans to Camden Yards last September.
Under President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail, who took the helm in June 2007, the O's have begun what promises to be a lengthy “rebuilding process.” Simply put, this means the club does not intend to compete for the postseason in the short term as they build their international scouting department, minor league system, and other aspects of team infrastructure that should lead to long-term success.
It is foolish to try to outbid the New York Yankees, and a team philosophy that privileges renewable success (a la the Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays) will probably yield more positive results than the half-hearted efforts of previous management regimes. Only two seasons ago the Orioles publicly announced that when healthy Ramon Hernandez and Jay Payton would allow the O's to compete in the AL East. We all know how silly that sounds now, even if some of us didn't want to admit it then.
Despite the failures of the last decade and the tedium that is promised during the next phase of “rebuilding,” the Orioles still have dedicated fans. Even if the Yard drew an all-time low 1.95 million fans last year, that's still nearly two million fans who bought tickets, drove to the Yard, and decided to spend an afternoon or evening watching the Orioles. Some of them even rooted for the Birds!
My questions aren't for those folks. They're for the casual fans. The dozens of Joe Flaccos I saw in Canton yesterday. The fans who grew up with Cal and Eddie and who used to make their way to Camden Yards (or Memorial Stadium) whenever they had the chance, and who have since found better things to do with their summer nights. As you enjoy the Ravens playoff run, do you think you'll ever be able to root for the O's the way you're rooting for the Ravens right now? Do you see yourself going back to the Yard if they put together a competitive team in two years? Three years? Five years? Do you envision an Orioles playoff run any time in the future? What, if anything, will bring you back to MASN and Camden Yards?
I don't have an answer to any of these questions. Just looking for a consensus.
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