Buoyed by a combination of lemon-like infused punch and a willingness to embarrass myself, I approached the attractive homecoming queen Claire as I hoped to at the very worst mouth out words that added up to a request to dance. I never made it within a whiff of her overpriced perfume. All-school athlete Dan already wiggled up to my fair maiden and swept her off her feet. “Really,” I asked aloud to no one in particular. The rest of the evening became a bit of a blur, especially 25 years later, with amateur criminals smoking in the bathroom and an overconfident garage band butchering Third Eye Blind.
I tried. In the final analysis, I never had a shot with Claire. I couldn’t compete with the varsity jacket wearing king of the school. In parlance not yet created, I should’ve just stayed in my lane.
(You can discuss this on the BSL Board here.)
That brings us to the two residents of the stadiums within walking distance in downtown Baltimore in present day. One of the occupants expects to host a at least one giant contest a season in primetime that attracts viewers from around the world. They expect to not only make the postseason – but with the most electric player in the game and a defense that christened the preseason with six takeaways – there’s an expectation from spoiled fans to go as far as making the “Super Bowl or bust” declaration. It’s an expectation of greatness from a team achieving it twice in a relatively short period of time.
The other hopes to become relevant again at some point in the future.
The Baltimore Orioles aren’t a joke. They’ve gone past that moniker. They will do better than the New York Mets inaugural campaign that netted forty wins. As of the deadline for this article, the O’s have 38 wins on the season with a month and change to go. Baltimore has one win on the tote board for August. One. It’s August 20. They’ve lost 15 games in a row and the highlight of this season will become the guessing game if Adley comes up to the big boy club before the end of the year. At this point, I might become the 4th starter. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with bringing up the supposed future of the franchise to get his feet wet.
This town needs that. Many people will disagree with the following statement, but Baltimore’s a baseball team at heart. The really neat thing is that the Ravens act like Baltimore’s college and pro football team because – let’s face it – who can challenge the amount of interest in them. Back to the O’s and the nightly malaise – or worse – on Twitter. There’s a cacophony of fans who follow this team because they can’t quit them and genuinely love the Orioles. Journalists don’t count. First off, they should remain without a horse in the race. Secondly, they get paid. At this point in the season, there’s open bemoaning about the day-in and day-out nonsense of writing about a club without any direction except down.
In the late 00’s, when they were miserable, a turnover of managers became the order of the day. They’ve really let Brandon Hyde – and his 34% win percentage – hang around for the better part of three seasons. Unless they break the 21-game losing streak, I’m fairly certain Hyde survives to see 2022 in a dugout. Just how quickly can the Orioles turn around to become those teams in the early 10’s when postseason seemed possible every year. They even won the A.L. East. By a lot! Like everything in post-pandemic life, it seems so far away. It’s an extremely complicated goal for the Orioles to achieve in the short term. And I know the division is tough. If you want to be good, beat the tough teams.
Heaven knows the Ravens do that on a yearly basis. Tossing in one clunker of a season during John Harbaugh’s tenure with the Ravens, Baltimore almost always makes the playoffs and won a Super Bowl in New Orleans.
It’s kind of funny that in Harbaugh’s only down seasons (not making the postseason), he endures a public dressing down from own Steve Bisciotti in the end of the season press conference. That’s the standard of Baltimore Ravens football.
Led by the most electric player in football in Lamar Jackson, the Ravens again start the season on the short list to make the title game. They open on Monday Night Football in Las Vegas. Baltimore welcomes rival Kansas City the next week on Sunday Night Football to commence the home slate. These are prime stages for the best of the NFL to display its best talent. Baltimore will have five prime time games this season, among the most in football. They should win the AFC North.
If you had a chance to see how many people on social media absolutely lived and died with every play in preseason on Saturday night, you got a good idea that this baseball town flips its calendar to football season in the first preseason game of the year. Some folks will always root in the Orioles while the Ravens game acts as church for others. It’s the fans who drift toward the winning team that becomes fair game for fair weather fans. Right now, they occupy M&T Bank Stadium with no end in sight.
A veteran in television production here in Baltimore, Chris Dachille brings his 15 year experience of watching sports for a living to BSL. Dachille voted in the Associated Press Top 25 for six seasons. He enjoys all sports and hopes that pitchers continue to hit in the National League.