There is something redemptive about Baseball. The great game, the National Pastime, the ethereal game, has equations that are not always predictable. From 1966 to 1983 the Baltimore Orioles appeared in six World Series. In quite a few of the years that they were not in the Series they played in the Major League Playoffs, and even in the years when they didn't actually make the Playoffs they chased the teams that did make it to the season's last weekend, and even the last game.
In 1982, for instance, they overcame a three game deficit in the last week of the season to tie the Brewers for first place in the AL East with one game to go. That was the only day the entire season that the Orioles had even a share of first place. And even though they did lose that last game, most fans remember the dramatic late charge in Earl Weaver's last penant race, and the fans at a jam-packed Memorial Stadium refusing to leave until the Earl of Baltimore came out to acknowledge the multitudes cheering in tribute.
In 1983 with Weaver retired the Orioles beat back the Yankees in September, then the White Sox in the AL Championship Series and the Phillies in the World Series. Nobody knew then that it was Cal Ripken's only Series and the only one he and Eddie Murray would play in together. Jim Palmer carried the Orioles in 1982 in his last great season. In 83 he was beset by arm problems, although he emerged from the bullpen, of all places, to win the decisive third game in Philadelphia (even though the Orioles beat the Phillies, 4-1, the teams had come back to Philadelphia for game three after splitting the first two in Baltimore. Everything was on the line when Palmer came in to a sloppily played game on the rug. All he did was restore order long enough for the Oriole bats to secure the win. The great man was on the Oriole roster to start 1984, but was put on waivers after several spotty outings.
The Orioles were in a tailspin that would hit rock bottom when they started the 1987 season with 26 straight losses. In 1989 the team was populated with a load of rookies and Cal Ripken. Eddie Murray had been traded and Frank Robinson was back in charge of the team. Right from the start of the season they played way over their heads, riding the only good season that No. 1 starter Jeff Ballard would ever have: 15 clutch wins. Their competition in that heady season was eventual World Series Champ Toronto, who sported Joe Carter, Roberto Alomar and other notable sluggers. Nonetheless, as September turned into October, the Orioles were but one game behind the Blue Jays, and the two teams were set to finish the season in a three game set in Sky Dome. Friday night's game was a classic and the two teams battled into extra innings. The Jays finally won on a wild pitch. This made Saturday's game do or die for the Orioles. Making matters worse, scheduled starter Pete Harnish somehow stepped on a nail at a Toronto construction site and had to be scratched. Into the breach stepped the kind of man baseball is famous for. Dave Johnson, not the one who played second base for many of the Orioles greatest seasons (then managed the Mets, the Orioles and currently the Cindarella Washington Nationals), but the lad from a small "other side of the tracks" suburb of Baltimore called Middle River. Unheralded for many years as he knocked around the minor leagues, Johnson was picked up by the Orioles as an extra arm for their AAA minor league team in Rochester. There, he pitched extremely well and was called up by the Birds in mid-season. He made a mess of great starts while regular members of the starting staff spent time on the disabled list. In September, however, he had been hit hard several times and sent to the Oriole bullpen. When Harnish went down, Frank Robinson called for Johnson and all he did was hold the Blue Jays scoreless until late in the game. The Orioles jumped out in front and looked like they might make it a final day of the season affair, until the bullpen faded late and Toronto rallied to win.
There hasn't been a whole lot of excitement on the field for the Orioles since 1989. Oh, they did make the playoffs in 1996 and 1997, and actually won the AL East in 1997, but more than a few Oriole fans feel the price of that success was way too high. In 1996 the Birds had a new local owner, Peter Angelos, a trial attorney who made millions in asbestos litigations. He promptly convinced legendary GM Pat Gillick to come to the shores of the Chesapeake. Gillick had tremendous success with Toronto, winning several World Series. He apparently thought he would have an unfettered hand in Baltimore and he quickly made a series of deft moves that made the Orioles into a near-contender. At mid-season, however, the Orioles were about five games out of first and looked sloppy at times. Worse yet in Gillick's eyes, the Orioles were not young. He wanted to parlay some of the aging vets into a new crop of young talent that other more serious contenders would part with to get their hands on some of the Orioles older talent. When words spread through the team of Gillick's intentions, one of the vets on the block, Bobby Bonilla, met with Angelos and somehow convinced him that the team the Orioles had on the field at that moment could make the playoffs. Angelos ordered Gillick not to make the trades he wanted to make. True to his word, Bonilla and his mates rallied in the second half and won the brand-new Wild Card berth in the Playoffs. They then pulled a tremendous upset in the first round of the playoffs, beating the Indians 3-1 in a best of five series. Thanks to a critical homerun by Brady Anderson, the Orioles won both opening games in Baltimore. The Indians rallied to win game three in raucous Cleveland, and looked poised to even the series when they nicked Mike Mussina just enough to take a lead into the ninth. But with two outs in the ninth, Roberto Alomar, who had followed Gillick to Baltimore, stroked a clutch single to tie the game and the Orioles won in extra innings. That moved the Birds into the AL Championship series against the hated Yankees. In game one the Orioles were victimized by one of the worst calls in Baseball History. A young fan, Jeffrey Maier, 13, leaned over the left field wall and, with a large baseball glove, managed to deflect a ball over the wall that sure-handed Tony Tarasco looked poised to catch. But instead of calling the obvious fan interference, Rich Garcia somehow ruled the ball a home run, turning a certain Orioles win into an extra-inning loss. Garcia was the so-called left field umpire and only had a few feet to move before making the call. Incredibly, after the game a group of reporters showed him the replay and he said, well, I guess I should've called interference and awarded him a double. Huh? Even when he sees a replay he still couldn't get it right. Sure it would've been a gutsy call and it would've changed New York's image of the smirking Maiers for all of time, but isn't the idea to do the right thing? The Orioles won game two in New York and had it not been for the terrible call, would've come home for game three up 2-0. Instead, the Yankees righted their ship on Friday in Baltimore, rallying late against Oriole ace Mussina, and went on to win the series 4-1. In 1997 the Birds were in first place from Opening Day to the finish line, and easily beat Seattle in the first round of the playoffs. But Cleveland gained revenge on the Orioles in the AL Championship Series, coming from behind to win game one in Baltimore and going on to win the series, 4-2. Since that season the once proud franchise has endured 13 straight losing seasons. Crowds that once filled beautiful Camden Yards for every home game are now staying away in droves. Baltimore fans tend to blame owner Angelos, whose famous meddling on the baseball side pushed Gillick out and has kept many great baseball people from coming to Baltimore. Is this the season that turns it all around? It's far too early to tell, but just being competitive at this time of the season is a switch for a team that has seen its pennant and playoff homes dashed by Mothers Day in recent years.
In Baltimore on Saturday, the Orioles, with a hardly-safe-feeling hold on the new second wild card spot, and with their offense locked in first gear, played the host for the hard-hitting Tigers, who came to town after the All-Star break and quickly started knocking the Oriole pitching staff all over Camden Yards. The Bengals had already crushed the Birds on Friday. On Saturday, the Orioles manufactured a 4-1 lead going to the ninth. All-star closer Jim Johnson came on and promptly blew the save. In the eleventh the Tigers forged ahead, 5-4, only to see the Birds battle back to tie. None of this prepared anyone for the fateful 13th. Detroit pushed a runner to third with two outs and Quinton Berry, who had already knocked in several critical runs, promptly drilled a single to his best friend, Adam Jones', zip code in center field. The Tigers again led, 6-5, and Detroit now had scored five clutch runs from the ninth on. Jim Leyland, this late in a game where he'd used every position player, still had his proverbial gun loaded in the bullpen. On came flame-throwing Al Benoit and it looked like the Tigers had won their second straight game since the All Star break. Wrong. First, J. J. Hardee, sporting an 0 for 28 streak at the plate, hit a long home run to tie the score with one out. An upset Benoit proceeded to let a change-up get away from him against All-Star Oriole outfielder Adam Jones, who didn't try all that hard to avoid the floater and took a glancing blow to the forearm. He gladly reported to first base and was still aboard when Taylor Teagarden came to bat. The Orioles had traded for Teagarden in the offseason, hoping he could give All Star Catcher Matt Wieters some off days. But injuries had kept him on the disabled list all season until Saturday morning, when he was activated. He entered the game in extra innings, but struck out in his first at bat in the 11th inning. In the 13th, however, he drilled a long line drive to right center that carried over the wall a few inches to the left of a place where the wall's height gains nearly five feet. The final score was 8-6 Orioles.
Going into Sunday in the new two-teams-are-in Wild Card race, the Angels and Orioles have the top spots. Los Angeles is 48-40, Baltimore is 46-41, Tampa Bay is 46-42, Cleveland is 45-42, Detroit and Oakland are 45-43 and Boston and Toronto are 44-44. Unless something changes, baseball has done itself proud in coming up with this idea.
At the finish of his NAACP talk this week the audience gave Mitt Romney a standing ovation. It was a classy ending to a presentation that received loud boos when Romney candidly admitted that he would quickly move to repeal obamamess, i.e., obamacare once he becomes President. Polls of the general public indicate about two-thirds of all Americans support Romney on that position, and one can bet the house the percentage will rise dramatically as soon as people come to realize how much more in taxes or penalties the average middle class taxpayer will pay when obamamess is up and running. More than one supposed expert has called obamamess the largest tax increase in world history. Obama has tried to suppress that news about the costs of the program for no other than political reasons. The law is front-loaded with benefits and back-loaded with taxes and penalties. This is for certain: by mid-2014 Obama's promise that obamamess would pay for itself will seem like one really bad joke, or one huge lie, depending, I suppose, on whether you like or dislike people who do this sort of thing to get their way.
Just think about it one more time. Obama himself was very popular and the subject of some of the most fawning press coverage the free world has ever seen. Left wing sycophants were talking about warm feelings running down their legs and swarthy handsome lads roaming the beaches, and dropping Nobel prizes on a man who had done exactly nothing. Actually, he had done less than nothing because we really knew nothing about him. Just ask Tom Brokaw and Charlie Rose, who had one of the most amazing and appalling on-air conversations a week before the election. They both admitted that they knew nothing about who the man was. All they really knew was that he was further to the left than any other candidate that ever walked the face of the earth. Even today they carry on about what Mitt Romney did with his money while asking little about what obama has done with the public's money. Kudos on that comparison to Mr. Limbaugh.
Against such a backdrop obama introduces a 2,700 page piece of legislation that to this day has been read by virtually no one from cover to cover. Yet obama told Congress that the nation's only hope was for the Congress to act quickly. During what passed for a national debate, obama, in a moment of candor, admitted to a woman during a White House Town Meeting that obamamess would ask her mother to take a pain pill for a cardiac condition, rather than undergo life-saving surgery, because she was too old. This, even though it was a given that the woman was in otherwise good health, had a great upbeat spirit and strong will to live. When the bill, on its face, calls for a committee of experts, that includes accountants, to make life and death health decisions, he accuses people critical of the so-called death panels of playing politics. So immature and so arrogant is the title for that chapter.
In 2008 obama grabbed 90% of the black vote. No one expected otherwise inasmuch as obama was the first person of African heritage to be a major-party candidate for the nation's highest office. Now, in 2012 things are dicey for the regime. Black unemployment is ridiculously high and black teen unemployment is off the charts. You want to see someone in the regime get red-faced? Say to him or her, matter-of-factly, that blacks fared far better under President Bush. Red faced or not, the statement is true. At the NAACP get-together last week, the mainstream media; i.e., obamapress, played over and over again the clip of Romney being booed when he said, candidly, that the first order of business in a Romney presidency would be the total repeal of obamamess. What the press didn't show was the standing ovation at the end of the speech, the many black leaders huddling with Romney after the speech, splashed against the bulletin board for obama's speech at the convention. You didn't see that bulletin board? That's because obama ducked the convention rather than confront his dismal performance for black citizens. No one expects Romney to win the black vote, but if black turnout drops by, say 12% and Romney's share of those who do vote swells to, say, 15%, obama will not be re-elected.
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