Opinion: The Orioles Are Not a Hate Worthy Team
I am nothing more than a casual when it comes to baseball fandom; I pay attention to my team (Baltimore) and can’t really convince myself to get into anyone else. Nobody would ever mistake me for a seam head, or anything like that; in fact, I hate most things associated with the people who romanticize baseball. Let’s get that part out of the way. Here’s what I hate:
- Old timey phrases and other baseball terminology: Can of corn, shoving, ducks on a pond. I’m good without ever hearing any of these terms again in my life.
- Baseball elitists: We get it, hitting a baseball is really hard. Some of us stopped playing the game for different reasons than that though. This isn’t a sport reserved for the a special class of people.
- Fans doing the wave: self-explanatory
- The Yankees and their fans: also self-explanatory
- The length of the season: we don’t need 182 games. It’s way too many
- The price of concessions: this applies to every sport.
There’s probably some more that I hate, but I can’t think of them right now. On the other side, here are things that I feel like can’t be hated:
- The Baltimore Orioles
Seriously, how could you hate on this team? They’re young, fun and a pretty humble crew from everything I can tell. This season was one of the best in franchise history when it comes to regular season performance; not so much in the postseason but that’s what happens with a ton of youth. With that in mind, I’m going to make a claim that might upset some of my colleagues and other people if they choose to read this far.
The National Media Doesn’t Hate the Baltimore Orioles!
I’ve listened to broadcasts all season long; I stream games on MASN and catch the nationally televised games that I can. There hasn’t been a single announcer that I listened to that I felt was anti-Baltimore. Even though I’ve given people like Buster Olney crap online in the past, it’s clear that he doesn’t hate Baltimore either. If there’s anyone to media hates, it’s the Angelos family. People like Olney, who is baseball’s version of Darren Rovell, has made it clear that his biggest issue with the franchise is that they don’t pay their players what they’re worth. That’s a fair statement. Hard stop.
Other pundits don’t hate the Orioles when they talk about the team either. The Birds’ bats started to go cold down the stretch of the season, and it showed during some of their games that were broadcast on networks like Fox. What are they supposed to do, force the conversation towards Baltimore when the other team is producing more action? Also, who cares if they talk about other teams more, Baltimore doesn’t have a whole lot of recent history worth talking about anyway. This is (hopefully) the start of a long run for the franchise, but it hasn’t reached the length of time necessary to call it true consistency. It’s ok for broadcasters to talk about other teams. It doesn’t mean they’re anti-Baltimore or anything like that. The only “media” person worth hating is this guy:
Marty Mush of Barstool Sports. Now, I should preface this by saying that all accounts I’ve heard say that Marty is a great guy when he’s not in front of a camera. However, I’ve been listening to this guy long enough to know the last time he made a salient sports point was back when he actually had a full head of hair. Mush, who is a well known rod-guzzler for teams like Duke basketball and the New York Yankees, has been so sensitive that the latter team was so putrid this year that he’s had to take it out on Baltimore fans. Keep in mind, this is the guy we’re talking about here:
Mush is the kind of guy you describe as a bad winner and an even worse loser. If he wins something, he shoves it down your throat and makes sure you remember how annoying he is. If he loses, or supports a losing team/player, he’ll find any excuse in the book to explain how he’s not in the wrong or that whatever happened is bullshit. He’s spent all baseball season shitting on the Orioles because fans are out and about being loud and proud about the team. Apparently, enjoy a chance to get off the floor of the AL East, have some fun and talk some shit to other teams for once is unacceptable to Mr. Mush.
Baltimore fans can’t help that the Yankees are stuck in purgatory with Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone. Taking your anger out on us for having fun and enjoying our team just shows how mentally weak a guy like Mush is. It makes sense that this guy tries to buddy up to as many celebrities as he can. He desperately wants to be one, but doesn’t have the ability, or hairline, to become one. The Orioles were a fun team, take your elitist Yankees garbage and do what Baltimore fans did when the Os were in the basement of their division: be quiet.
P.S. This is the same dude who talked shit about teachers and the jobs they do, which is even more asinine than his takes about the Orioles. Call me biased all you want since I am a teacher, but take a look at this clip and keep digging to find out what I’m talking about:
