Loyal fans still hoping to see some serious improvement

The Baltimore Orioles have started their series of 24 Spring Training games. The purpose of these games is to prepare the team for the long season ahead and to choose their starting players for the regular season.

The Orioles have already played 12 spring training games as of March 16th. In that span of time the Orioles have gone 4 wins and 6 losses (and two ties against the Rays). The Oriole pitchers have thrown 2 shut out games against the Phillies and the Twins. This is a promising stat for the Orioles as their pitching core has been one of the worst in the league for 15 years.

Although the games do not count towards the teams’ regular season record, a positive spring season may get fans more excited of things to come for the team.

     Loyal Oriole fans have been waiting for nearly 15 years to see their team go above .500 (more wins than losses). The last time the Orioles were in the playoffs was in 1997 when they lost to the Cleveland Indians.  Since then, the Orioles have finished every one of their seasons at the bottom half of the AL East Division.

    It can be hard for a Centennial student to root passionately for a team that hasn’t reached the playoffs since he or she was a toddler.  When you walk through the halls of CHS during football season you see many Ravens shirts and replica jerseys, but in baseball season you rarely see many Orioles shirts.

    Is this because there are less baseball fans in our school or are students just disappointed in the Orioles?

Sophomore Derek Nadeau says, “I don’t think it’s that they hate the Orioles, I think a lot of people just don’t like baseball. Baseball is very slow compared to football or basketball, and that’s probably why some people don’t like it.

Calvin Hannagan, another sophomore at CHS, says, “There are usually going to be less baseball fans than football fans wherever you go. But I have a feeling if the Orioles start winning a lot of games, you are going to see a lot more fans in the halls.”

There are many “bandwagon” or “fair-weather fans” in sports; who only root for a team when they are doing well. Every franchise has fans like this and I’m sure the Orioles are no different.  When the Orioles start winning games, there will probably be a lot more people cheering for the team.

It may not be this year, or the next, but hopefully in the next 10 years we will be rooting for the Orioles in a playoff race.  When the day comes when the Orioles make the playoffs, I’ll be one of the few fans to be able to truly say, “I liked them before they were good.”