Baltimore Orioles Fans Should Thank THIS Writer!
Jul 10, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles second baseman Jonathan Schoop (6) celebrates after hitting a game winning home run in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Washington Nationals at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Baltimore Orioles defeated Washington Nationals 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
With the Baltimore Orioles coming back from a 2-1 deficit to the Nationals after seven innings, tying the game in the eighth and winning it with a Jonathan Schoop walk-off homer in the ninth, they have illustrated a timeless principle of sports writing.
Over years of sports writing, particularly with the Orioles in the past five years, I have noted over and over that when I criticize a player or the team in an article, pointing out a weakness or irretrievable failure, they go out in the next game and do the very opposite thing … usually making me look like a total jerk (which could well be true).
The 3-2 comeback win was the first time the Orioles have done such a thing this season when trailing after seven innings. This season-long failure to do so was the theme of my article earlier today. You can read it HERE if you missed it.
This is personally a busy weekend for me and my family. One of my sons gets married on Saturday, and tonight was the rehearsal with dinner to follow. By the time this was all done and I was driving home, it was the bottom of the seventh inning. And when the Orioles stranded a Jimmy Paredes on second base, they were set up to do the very thing I decried having not been done this year. And I knew they were going to win – just because I wrote about it!
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So, I’ll be missing Saturday’s game due to the evening wedding, and I will be gone from writing for a few days. Other guys on the site will be covering the O’s. After this series is the All-Star break – something I find personally disinteresting.
But what I’d like to request is for some of you to suggest some critical writing themes. Think about how the Birds are really screwing up, or how players are a total mess right now. I can do up articles on these topics, and then we can be excited when the Orioles make that written piece (that is out there for the whole world to see) look totally silly by doing the opposite thing! So send me your ideas.
Of course, I guess I could look at this phenomenon as the O’s, or the player being criticized, as taking the advice to heart and applying it. Yes … that’s the ticket! That’s what happens.