Orioles Lay Down and Lose 2

Well, I attended my last major league baseball games of the season last night. I was accompanied by Jeremy and while we had a great father-son outing, the baseball being played by the O's at Camden Yards left something to be desired.

Now everyone knows that I am a relatively rabid O's fan. I admit, I love baseball more than football--which is good because there are about 146 more games per season for each team.

I did get to shake the hand of the Orioles Bird and, from the extremely low attendance, I bet the Bird could have shaken everyone's hand in the stadium during one inning. BTW--the official attendance at the first game was 0. (check it out if you don't believe me)

It was a doubleheader--now I've had a really bad experience with doubleheaders--having the fortune of witnessing last year's Texas Rangers MLB record setting 30-3 killing of Baltimore's beloved Birds. That to be followed by another ugly loss.

Last night--I witnessed another twin loss in both games. The team looked flat. They looked as if they are playing out the string of the season and tickets to warmer beach locations are waiting on their desks for the last pitch. The highlight was a great performance by a new pitcher: Alfredo Simon who pitched 8.2 innings of really great baseball and departed with a 5-3 lead and the bases empty. He was immediately replaced by Jamie Walker who promptly pursued changing the 2 run lead into a deficit. When the ugly 8th inning was finally over, the Rays had scored 6 runs and had a 7-5 lead--which was the final score. Another great starting pitching performance squandered by a bullpen which has not had any spark since Matt Albers went down earlier in the season.

I could question why Manager Dave Trembly went with Walker (I knew had the lead doomed as soon as he stepped onto the field) instead of the closer George Sherrill (who actually did pitch a solid ninth inning). But--another loss was the ultimate outcome and with the time approaching 11PM, after the top of the 8th inning--we departed. All this after watching the O's self-destruct during the first game of the doubleheader.

I love Camden Yards--and it makes me sad when the season comes to an end. It makes me even sadder to see a very exciting baseball team (the O's) have to listen to about 50 Tampa Bay Ray's fans cheer and outshout the Orioles faithful at the yard. I remember earlier in the season when I looked forward to singing Orioles Magic after another comeback win with the most exciting team in baseball--but

there's always next year!

And all we need is a shortstop, a third baseman, a catcher, a first baseman, a starting pitching rotation and a complete new bullpen (except for Sherrill who should be the set-up man for Chris Ray).

This is Birdland