OK, maybe it’s not to 1979 or 1983 levels yet. But amid all the euphoria about the fact that the Baltimore Orioles’ days of irrelevance appear to be over was the almost overlooked fact that just about 80,000 fans came to Camden Yards this past weekend.
And there were an awful lot of those that had a rip roaring good-time. None of those fans felt that the Orioles were suddenly go toe-to-toe with the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox. But that didn’t stop those fans from making some real noise for the first time since August 2017, as far as I can remember.
The games were throwbacks to the days of Orioles Magic, as the O’s walked off Friday night’s Miller Lite Floppy Hat night crowd of 27,814 with a miraculous three-run comeback that featured a huge two-out game-tying double by Adley Rutschman and a game-winning single by Baltimore’s favorite son, Trey Mancini.
If that wasn’t enough, the Orioles played before a crowd of 32,286 Hawaiian-shirt-loving O’s fans on Saturday. (By the way, why don’t the Orioles do another one of those giveaways, with a different model?) The O’s got five more goose eggs from Dean Kremer, and the bullpen (including Jorge Lopez) held the fort in an exciting 1-0 game.
And on Sunday, the only thing 19,521 fans got was a really entertaining O’s 9-5 victory against Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. The Orioles swept the now hapless and feckless Los Angeles Angels four games to none. Inject Trout and Ohtani with truth serum and ask who they’d rather play for — the Angels or Orioles.
So, while it’s not back to Wild Bill Hagy levels yet, or the first couple of seasons at Camden Yards, or the ’96 and ’97 runs, or the Adam Jones, Manny Machado and Chris Davis O’s, a roar was back. I have to tell you that as much as I believed in the direction Mike Elias took the Birds, I honestly wasn’t sure we’d see a roar this soon.
There are a fairly significant number of fans in Birdland who never believed in what Elias was selling. Tearing it all down to build back better wasn’t an idea that sounded good, even if what we had for much of this century wasn’t so great.
Where are the Elias and Brandon Hyde bashers now? On social media, on the talk shows? Cat got your tongue?
Elias has done an absolutely brilliant job. And remember, this probably would have been expedited had it not been for a full season being taken away from the development team that, well, helps develop prospects to get them ready for playing big league ball.
All the Buck Showalter lovers couldn’t understand that he wasn’t built at this time in life for a four- to five-year rebuild. Hyde has been the perfect guy for this, and he is the one I am most happy for. The Baltimore Sun reported earlier this season that Hyde is under contract beyond 2022.
At the end of this season, why not make a real commitment to Hyde with a three-year extension — along with pitching coach Chris Holt, another Elias hire?
All right, enough ranting. To read my latest MLB power rankings, click here.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox