The Baltimore Blues

Griffin Tunison 
June 17, 2020

Even though Orioles fans are accustomed to failure based off poor performance in the
past couple years, getting a yearly reminder of failure hurts . All I can remember is the 2014
postseason run; people showed up to the games and showed support for our baseball team. I
would always beg my parents to go to the games, and everyone would have fun watching the
Orioles win at Camden Yards; now our attendance is the third lowest in all of Major League
Baseball. Manny Machado, Adam Jones, Nelson Cruz, Zach Britton: all of these players made
Baltimore baseball great, and now none of them are left. These players brought life to the city
and gave them something to rally behind, now most people couldn’t name three players on the
entire roster. It’s amazing how you can have a team that everyone loves and supports, and just
throw it away into the team we have now. That’s the struggle of trades and having a limited
amount of money to spend on players, and for the Orioles it hasn’t worked out in their favor.

The recent misery of the Orioles has completely sucked the love for baseball out of the
city of Baltimore. This year, the Orioles are limiting the number of seats that will be sold to
make it look like there are more people at the game. Ticket prices are also increasing by 33% this
season, averaging about $52. For a team that is already struggling to get fans in the stands,
raising ticket prices doesn’t seem like a good idea if you’re trying to maintain the little popularity
left.

The Orioles minor league system has improved, I’ll give them that. However, the issue
with the MLB is that players take a very long time to move up through the minor leagues to get
to the majors. High ranked prospect and 1st overall pick Adley Rutschman will still probably
need a couple years to develop in the minors, so Baltimore fans won’t be seeing much of him for
at least a few years. It’s going to be a long time before all these younger players develop into
hopefully successful players at the major league level. Even if all the years go by and the
prospects develop, the Orioles will always have a tough time competing with the high payrolls of
teams like the Yankees and the Red Sox.

The most recognized thing that has surrounded the Orioles in years past has been Chris
Davis being historically terrible. Hopefully the Ravens can stay good, so the sports fans of
Baltimore don’t lose their minds.