Over the past decade of watching the Orioles I have felt many times that, “this must be the bottom” just to watch our team sink even lower. I feel like Peter from Office Space who thinks that every single day is the worse than the one before so every single day is the worst day of his life. His occupational hypnotherapist is right, it is messed up. I thought that Manny Ramirez making a running catch, high-fiving a Red Sox fan in the stands and then doubling up a base runner would be rock bottom. I was wrong. I knew that 30-3 was rock bottom. I was wrong again. Every single week that passes it seems that the Orioles seem to find new ravines inside the valley inside the canyon they are already in.
It's hard to imagine that I once though this would be the bottom...
Sure there have been times when things were looking up. For example starting this season 6-1, but as always the O’s found an either bigger valley on the other side of the hill by losing their next nine. Last season when we were 32-73 on August 1 we were in a valley that few teams had dared to venture. Then Buck came and for two months we actually stated to climb. We all dared to dream that the mountain (or at least sea level) was right around the next bend, but that just made this year’s midseason collapse even more painful and officially the new record depth for the O’s.
Perhaps there is hope that the bottom is not too far away. If the Pirates (50-44) finish the season with a winning record the Orioles will become the team with the most consecutive losing seasons. That has to be the bottom, right? I would hate to imagine what lies below that. The bottom of this canyon may stretch on for eternity, but at least we might have some comfort of knowing we are there.
Today, once again, I have realized that this is the worst day in my Orioles fanhood. Last night we were embarrassed by a team we despise. As I walk through the Inner Harbor surrounded by The Great Bandwagon of Boston I realize the worst part is that Red Sox fans don’t care about us or even worse they feel sorry for us. I hate to think what could awaits us tonight or for the rest of the season, because I have learned that even when it can’t get any worse, it still does.
