Sure, it's easy to complain about life in Charm City these days — the heat, the humidity, the violence and crime, the poverty, the endless droning of presidential candidates — but there's also a robust counter-argument. Baltimore is home to one of the world's greatest medical centers, it boasts the headquarters of one of the nation's fastest growing apparel retailers along with some top wealth managers, and its arts and cultural attractions are world class.
And then there's this: the Baltimore Orioles sit on top of the American League East with a two game lead over both the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays. Johns Hopkins is certainly great and everything, but unless you have a serious medical condition, you probably aren't anxious to buy a ticket, sit in the stands at Orleans Street with a beer and a hotdog (if such a thing was even possible) or watch your 12-year-old spend the morning poring over medical patient box scores (patent pending) in the morning newspaper.
A winning Orioles season can't cure all our social ills but at least there's something to be said for the pride and enthusiasm it promotes. Baseball may not be the nation's most popular sport, but it's well suited for the our challenging times — putting a premium on discipline, focus, team work and patience instead of hitting somebody hard enough to make them fall down. It's a thoughtful, contemplative and multi-cultural game that is staged in impossibly green parks, has no time limit and is played at a leisurely pace. In other words, it's everything a Donald Trump rally is not.
For those who may not have followed the first half of the season closely, here's a brief recap: They hit a lot of homeruns, they played great defense and their bullpen has been excellent. Oh, and one other thing, the starting pitching has been, with one or two exceptions, abysmal. Don't take our word for it, just look at the mid-term grades Sun columnist Peter Schmuck recently gave the squad: Clearly, the position players did their homework and studied because they earned A's while the starting pitchers must have ditched to play Pokemon Go or the equivalent because they are clearly headed for the principal's office.
The team may yet trade for a top-drawer starting pitcher but the cost (particularly in terms of the talent they might have to surrender to a non-contending team willing to make a deal) may prove too great. The alternative? A pitching-by-committee approach that expects certain starters to face the full line-up of batters only once or twice rather than lasting six or more innings. It takes pressure off those hurlers and the more frequent change in pitchers (with their different speeds and movements) can give even veteran batters fits.
Orioles fans like to dream big but they also know their sport. That lack of pitching is a big Achilles heel. Fifty years ago this season, the Orioles brought home their first World Series title with a pitching staff that included Jim Palmer and Dave McNally and produced a 3.32 team earned run average — which is about one run per game lower than their 2016 counterparts. That's not horrible for a Major League Baseball team but it doesn't bode well for a contender.
Still, there are a lot of big cities that would love to be where Baltimore is now — watching a winning team with October ambitions perform amazing, come-from-behind feats in a ballpark that is still ranked among the country's best. There's nothing wrong with taking pride in an organization that, like Baltimore itself, faces much adversity but lacks neither pride nor ambition nor talent. Baseball may be only a game, but it's nice to have a team to cheer, to celebrate and to talk about each day when so much else around us can seem so dreary.