Opening Day is this week. I know that because I follow my baseball loving friends on Facebook, not because I've been tracking the Orioles' spring training schedule.
I argued with my father-in-law over the Easter holiday about the significance of baseball and the spring training schedule. He lives and dies with every spring training pitch, hit, and victory or loss. I didn't even know whether the Orioles played in the Grapefruit League or the Cactus League.
I was raised by my maternal grandfather to bleed black and orange in the spring and summer and blue and white in the fall and winter. When the Colts left town for greener pastures (excuse the pun), I was able to switch my allegiances to the old Colts coach Don Shula and his Miami Dolphins. Coincidentally, the year he "retired" was the year we got the Ravens so it was easy to make the switch back to my new hometown team.
I still loved the Orioles even when we didn't have a football team. I shared season tickets with three friends from work so we would be guaranteed Opening Day tickets and then split the others throughout the rest of the season. I would head down with friends to "three buck night" or on a whim when we felt we needed to help with some "Orioles Magic."
I got married during the 1989 "Why Not?" season and my boys still love to watch the VCR tape of that magical Orioles season even though they were just twinkles in our eyes at that point.
I raised my two older boys to love baseball and love the Orioles. After they learned the Notre Dame fight song, they were introduced to the Orioles and the Magic that followed them, especially in Memorial Stadium. We would watch games on TV together and I would take them to the ball park to see games in person.
I coached them in T-ball and then baseball until my oldest son went to lacrosse, but my middle son stayed with baseball until middle school, when he didn't like the intensity of the club level teams where his skillset landed him. So instead of staying at the lower levels, he gave up baseball altogether.
But years before they lost interest on their own, they had a little help from the Orioles players themselves. We took our boys to Florida for a little spring training fun and potential access to the players they would root for during the upcoming season. We dressed our boys in complete black and orange Orioles outfits, donned their baseball gloves and O's hats, and headed to the park to get an up close look at our favorite team.
That's where the fun stopped for our boys and thus for me.
With the exception of first baseman Will Clark, who talked to our boys and tossed them a ball from batting practice, the rest of the players were about as rude as I've ever seen. I've been around professional sports and professional athletes and I understand their lives are inundated with people seeking autographs or favors or just a piece of their time that can be a bit overbearing. That day I saw guys my age begging for autographs from any player that would give them the time with a case of balls waiting behind them.
Obviously those guys were out for making money on the autographs. But my kids were only 4 and 7 years old and a quick stop to give them a high five or sign their hats would have made them lifelong fans.
Instead, they were treated poorly, even mocked by one MLB wannabe first baseman who we were thrilled to find later never made a major league roster. He faked coming over to talk to our boys and made a gesture like he was signing something only to turn his back and walk away. Not once, but several times.
From that point on, baseball has received minimal interest in our house, despite the Orioles making a serious run a couple years ago.
I'm thinking it's time to change all that. I have always admired Buck Showalter's managing abilities and before he leaves under a cloud of turmoil like my last favorite manager, Davey Johnson, it might be time to jump on the Orioles' bandwagon before the season starts.
So I'll recommit my allegiances to the Orioles this spring and do my best to watch their games and follow their box scores. I may even spend some money and go to a few games this year and bring my boys with me.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates once wrote, "Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved." So it's time I recommit myself to this great organization.
Let's just hope they do the same.
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