"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."
- Bart Giamatti
The Orioles dream season ended with a quick snap back into reality last night as the Orioles lost 7-1 to the Rangers to get swept out of the American League Division Series.
Like the 2014 team playing against the Royals, the Orioles ran into a buzzsaw that ended their season.
After a season for the ages, the Rangers were better for three games. Because anything can happen in a short series.
But I take solace in a single image I saw as the Rangers celebrated their win.
All of those Orioles, on the rail, watching the Rangers have the moment they believed was destined for themselves.
It made me think about the heartbreak of 1982.
In 1982, the Orioles entered the final weekend of the season trailing the Milwaukee Brewers by three games in the American League East. The Brewers were coming to town for four games in three days, including a doubleheader on October 1st. Despite trailing by 8 games in mid-August, the Orioles could win the Division if they swept the Brewers four straight.
The O’s proceeded to blitz through Milwaukee in those first three games. They swept Milwaukee on Friday 8-3 and 7-1. On Saturday, they won 11-3. And it set up a one-game, winner-take-all matchup for the division with future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer on the mound against future Hall of Famer Don Sutton.
It was also scheduled to be Earl Weaver’s last regular season game.
Instead of a triumphant Orioles victory, the team fell behind 5-2 before giving up five runs in the ninth to lose 10-2. The impossible just did not happen.
The next year, the Orioles won the World Series.
While the season-ending with a dud is painful now, the future remains bright. And I will go on record, right now, and say that the Baltimore Orioles will be the 2024 World Champions.