How Bout Dem O's

My favorite part about blogging (and the part that I feel bad about when I don’t blog) is taking and posting pictures of the kiddos for our family to see. So sorry family and friends I PROMISE I will get back into the swing of blogging regularly. Plus we have actually been really busy and I have a ton of pictures and stories to tell for the blog. So for today I’m gonna share with you all the pictures from the Orioles’ playoff game we went to, but first, let’s back track a bit.

From the time I was 4 until I was in 8^th grade, there was one thing I wanted to be when I grew up. Anyone remember?

I wanted to be the first woman to play Major League Baseball.  That’s right. I can’t imagine what my poor teachers thought as I wrote that in every journal entry and all my paperwork over the years. To their credit, I don’t remember any of them ever shutting me down. My mom never had the heart to shut down my dream either. In fact, when I was in 6^th grade she argued with the local Lion’s Club League leadership to allow me to play baseball in the all boys league. Maybe I’m biased, but I’m pretty sure after they decided to let me play, I held my own.

Of course the Orioles were my favorite team growing up. My favorite players were Eddie Murray (and so I always wore the #33), Brady Anderson (all little girl’s favorite), Rafael Palmeiro (I was a first basemen), and of course, the great Cal Ripken. Because I was young and the games often ended well after my bedtime, I remember racing up the hill to our mailbox each morning to grab the morning newspaper and check the standings and stats. I would memorize them so I’d be ready to share with my best buddy, Justin, when I got to school. Again I can only imagine what our teachers thought.

My parents tried their best to take us to as many games as possible and 2 that really stand out for me were when Eddie Murray hit his 500^th homerun (that we stayed through a 4 hour rain delay to witness) and the playoff game against the Indians that my Mom took me out of school to go to in 1997.

So fast forward to the 2012 season (if you didn’t catch the 15 seasons in between, really, you didn’t miss much). In July, I started to get excited that the Orioles were playing really well. I was cautious to be excited before that point, because we have had a few seasons in the last decade where we played really well in the early months only to fall to the bottom of standings by the All-Star break.

But by August we were still playing well and I was really excited. We even brought up Manny Machado, who, after making the best (smartest) defensive play of the season, became my favorite player on the team. At one point Tim and I had decided that if the Orioles made it to the playoffs we would have to go.

 

 

I was 11 the last time they were in the playoffs and if I had to wait another 15 years I would be 41!

The entire month of September felt like the playoffs but we had to wait until the end of the month to secure our spot in a single game elimination wild card game! Tim and I couldn’t have been more excited and so when tickets went on sale we snagged some up online. After we beat Texas in the WildCard game, it was time to play our division foes, the Yankees.

Some of the 2012 Orioles warming up.

Unfortunately it was late, cold, wet, windy and we lost. And because of the weather and time of night, the kids stayed with Gram and Pop to watch from the warmth of their home. Although the game didn’t turn out how we wanted it to, it was an experience we will never forget. I still get goose-bumps thinking about being in a sold-out Camden yards again.

Those dots are FANS!!!

FANS I tell you!!!

 

Better yet I got to share the experience not just with Tim, but with my Aunt Sheryl and Mom, who always have and always will be a die-hard Orioles fans and my brother who has to be the most relentless Oriole fan I’ve ever met.

 

 

It’s easy to be a fan when they are good, but to be as excited about a team that hadn’t had a winning season in a decade, that takes real dedication.

Much to our dismay, the Orioles lost the series to the Yankees ( ugh, how it pains me to write that), and while the details of the season will soon be forgotten, the memory of driving up and down 95 twice in 3 days to watch our beloved Orioles in a cold, rainy, exciting playoff game will last forever.