Let me get this out of the way. It wasn’t “the best day in Baltimore sports history.”
Two different teams winning extremely fun games against very tough competition in very trying circumstances is, of course, very special. But it ultimately pales in comparison to days whether either team won, you know, a championship. Those were the best days in Baltimore sports history. Sometimes we lose a grip on reality and default to hyperbole. We are, after all, a society that has perpetuated the belief that a piece of paper could defeat a literal rock in a fight. We’re unserious.
But I know what we’re trying to say. What we’re trying to say is that Sept. 17 was one of the most UNIQUE days in Baltimore sports history. At least in modern Baltimore sports history, anyway. And we don’t need a history lesson to know that’s true. While there were regularly days in the 1960s and ’70s when both the Orioles and Colts were playing meaningful games, there have only been a handful of seasons when this city has had both relevant NFL and MLB teams in the last 40 years.
So without question, Sept. 17 was one of the more “unique” days in recent Baltimore sports history.
The quality of the wins for both teams cannot be understated. The Orioles averted what would have been one of the more uncomfortable images in franchise history in nearly miraculous fashion. Had they not rallied from down 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, they still would have clinched a playoff berth. And they would have been well within their right to celebrate that.
But the vision of a baseball team engaged in a drunken hootenanny just moments after losing a fifth game in their last six (all at home) and three out of four to the team they had a four-game division lead over just a week ago but would now be tied with? That vision would be nearly as uncomfortable as this Iowa cheerleader walking into class Monday morning.
Instead, we got chapter number … what is it now, six billion? … of the 2023 version of “Orioles Magic.” Every night there’s a different star. Adam Frazier and DL Hall took their turns alongside Adley Rutschman, who has played the role on a number of occasions but hadn’t appeared in the role quite as frequently in recent weeks. It was stadium-shaking. It was theater. It was pandemonium-inducing. It was … basically like 40 or so other games we’ve seen in this thrilling campaign.
And it happened just moments after the Baltimore Ravens had put the finishing touches on their own spectacle. It cannot be understated how strong of a victory their win in Cincinnati was. With the Ravens decimated by injuries, there was every reason to believe Joe Burrow and his merry band of star pass-catchers might carve up a leaky Baltimore defense. And with 40 percent of their offensive line sidelined as well, it was hard to fathom the Ravens holding up particularly well against Cincinnati’s defensive front.
And yet, there was Owings Mills’ own Sam Mustipher and Patrick Mekari (perhaps approaching the venerable Patrick Mekari?) anchoring a unit that did not allow a single sack. Mekari somehow managed to hold Trey Hendrickson without a single quarterback pressure. Embattled veteran Nelson Agholor stepped in for an injured Odell Beckham Jr. and authored a memorable moment in purple and black, perhaps one more than he was expected to contribute by many Ravens fans. Rock-Ya Sin added a key touchdown breakup. Once-cast-aside seventh-round pick Geno Stone provided the most dramatic play of the day.
Hmmm … every night there’s a different star, huh? Sounds an awful lot like the magic of Orioles baseball.
Days like this have been rare, indeed. They also remind me that the truest joy of sports fandom is the impact that can provide regionally. I’ll spare the gatekeeping of questioning why someone from Howard County would choose to root for the Yankees or even why someone from South Florida would choose to embrace the Ravens.
But this particular day, this is why the most pure element of being a sports fan comes from rooting for the teams in your own market. There are complications to this, obviously and I wish not to paint in merely black and white. But being a Cowboys and Lakers fan … or even a Ravens and Red Sox fan…or an Orioles and Broncos fan … can never provide this level of communal glee. It doesn’t fix anyone’s very real problems in our city, but it provides the type of pep in our collective step that nothing else can.
It was a beautifully unique day to be a Baltimore sports fan. There haven’t been enough of them for those of us who were born after 1980. We’re well within our rights to revel a bit.