Six Decades of Fickle and Celebration

Logo Orioles will wear for upcoming season.
Photo Credit: gammonsdaily.com 

By: Mat McGowan

Sixty years is a long time.

Enough to see a son or daughter grow up.

Enough time to hopefully have enough money to retire. Key word being hopefully.

Enough time to watch a baseball team go through the ever so lovely/painful ebbs and flows that Major League Baseball puts them through.

This year the Baltimore Orioles will celebrate their 60th anniversary of existence.

Fans old enough to remember the inaugural season in 1954 know how much this baseball organization has meant to the city of Baltimore and to Orioles fans across the nation.

"It's been a ride, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world," said 77 year-old Stewart Reed, who has been a season ticket holder for over thirty years and an Oriole fan his whole life.

Before coming to Baltimore, the Orioles were the St. Louis Browns up until 1954.

In their inaugural season they were, well, bad. But that is to be expected of new teams. However it only took them six years to register their first winning season (89-65) in 1960. This is a microcosm of what was yet to come and can pretty much epitomize sports in general, which is an epic roller coaster ride that makes you want to hurl yourself off it at time and make you never want to get off of it.

Baltimore was greeted with a warm welcome to Major League Baseball, as the 1958 All-Star game was held in the infamous Memorial Stadium, which served as the Orioles stadium until 1991.

Talk to anyone who was around to see Memorial Stadium and they'll sing its praises until their last breath. The stadium had nicknames such as "Babe Ruth Stadium", named after of course Babe Ruth who was born in Baltimore.

Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles
on the cover of Sports Illustrated
Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated

The Orioles' most successful run as a team came from 1964-1973, which saw the Orioles average 95 wins,  appear in four World Series and claim their first championship with a good ol fashion sweep of the Dodgers in 1966. That year Frank Robinson won the triple crown, something that has only happened sixteen times since 1878.

One could certainly argue that the 1966 season was the best season to date for the Baltimore Orioles.

The mid 70's to the early 80's represented the winding down and end of some great careers in Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson and Brooks Robinson, all of whom were later elected to the Hall of Fame.

Things took a pretty big dive in the mid 80's and lasted until the mid 90's which saw the Orioles start a season 0-21 which wasn't something that fans wanted to see or were expecting.

Up and down up and down goes the win-loss column for the Orioles year by year and fans weren't pleased with the product on the field.

Then came Cal Ripken, God of Zeus and everything known to man. Not really but if you ask a Baltimore native, they wouldn't give you an answer too far from that.

Cal Ripken broke the infamous streak of games played in a row, held by Lou Gehrig.

Ripken played 2632 games in a row. Just let that sink in.

"I wouldn't have rather done this in any other city, the fans have been so great and perfuming here has meant so much to me," Cal Ripken told ESPN.

Ironman would have withered to dust and dirt before Cal Ripken came off a baseball diamond.

The record and Cal himself polarized the town and baseball for that matter, which was absolutely great for the city of Baltimore.

Some enthusiastic Orioles fans take in a game
Photo Credit: http://baseballs28thout.files.wordpress.com

With the retirement of Cal Ripken came a dark cloud over Baltimore baseball for about 14 straight seasons. It was pitiful.

A city used to such great baseball and winning ways was decimated with losing and losing and some more losing.

The few fans that actually paid to get in the stadium, who many thought had some screws lose, had bags on their heads in embarrassment.

"I'll never give this organization another dime of my hard earned money," said one fan to the Baltimore Sun.

Camden Yards, which is one of the best stadiums in sports since 1992, was a ghost town to Oriole fans and became a second home stadium to whoever the Orioles opponent was.

That dark and stormy cloud seemed to last over Oriole Park at Camden Yards for what seemed like centuries but a beam of light and hope was bestowed upon the city in 2012 when the Orioles beat all expectations and made the playoffs for the first time in 14 seasons.

"It's amazing to see the transformation this years team has had on the city. It's great," said one fan to MASN sports.

The stadium was buzzing again, people who you thought didn't exist came out of the woodwork to root for a team that reminded them how things used to be and that trend has been continuing to this day with the turn around of the Baltimore Orioles.

And so goes on the crazy orange and black roller coaster, and hopefully for another 60 years.

Stumbling at the Wrong Time

By: Mat McGowan

After leading the Eastern Conference for the majority of the season, the Indiana Pacers have relinquished their top spot to the two-time defending champion Miami Heat.

The Pacers were booted from the playoffs last year in the Eastern Conference Finals by none other than the Miami Heat.

Photo Credit: i2.wp.com

During the offseason players and coaches from the Pacers uttered a consistent message, which was to win the number one seed and have home field advantage throughout the playoffs, something they did not have last time out against Miami.

All of that looked fine and dandy for them up until their recent struggles.

And struggles are a nice way of putting it.

The Pacers are 20-18 over their last 38 games which is very mediocre compared to the 33-7 record they posted in the 40 previous games.

Last week, starting small forward Lance Stephenson and starting point guard George Hill had to be separated on the bench while their team was being absolutely anialated by the San Antonio Spurs.

Pacers head coach, Frank Vogel, had to bench his entire starting five this past week after seeing his offense post a mere 23 points in one half. To put that into perspective, the average offense scores 25 points per quarter.

There is a glimmer of hope Pacer fans.

Amidst their mediocre play, the Pacers were able to beat the Heat 84-83 at home and looked pretty good while doing it.

The Pacers and Heat do not like each other one bit and the last meeting between the two proved that the Pacers can still play their best ball when the see the team that has knocked them out of the playoffs two years in a row sitting on the other bench.

With that being said, basketball has a different playoff system then some other sports, like football. It is most comparable to baseball.

Photo Credit: sbnation.com

The major difference between football and basketball is that in basketball, it take four losses to be kicked out of the playoffs. In football it just takes one game bad game and just like that, you're gone.

This puts an emphasis on well, just having a better team than the one you're facing, and having home field advantage could be the advantage that tips the scales in a tough matchup.

This is will ultimately be the downfall of the Pacers, a team that seems to be in disarray right now, a team that said their goal was the number one seed.

However for a third year in a row, it will probably come down to these two heavyweights to battle it out for the Eastern Conference Championship.

A Site Worth Listening to

By: Mat McGowan

The NFL is the most popular sport in the United States today. There are many factors that go into creating such a fantastic product for fans to enjoy all around the world.

There are constantly new changes to the game. Rule changes, the draft and players constantly switching teams. This can make the NFL difficult to filter considering there are so many moving parts. 

In order to stay educated on the current news in the NFL, you need to know what people to listen to and which people to ignore. 

Pete Prisco, a writer for CBS Sports Network, always has an interesting take on the current events inside the NFL. He also happens to be right most of the time. 

I have found that both Prisco and CBS Sports Network are very reliable sources of information and do a great job at sifting through the nonsense that sometimes seems to consume the national media. 

A great example of their work is an article written by Prisco, detailing and grading the offseason of each and every team in the NFL. 

You can give it a read right here. 

Superstars Flop in Tourney

By: Mat McGowan

The NCAA Tournament is crazy and unpredictable every year without fail.

Could this be the craziest?

Stick with me here.

As of this Sunday, players like Tyler Ennis, Doug McDermot, Joel Embiid, Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker are all sitting at home contemplating whether or not they should enter the NBA draft. The reason for this is because they and their respective teams have been booted from the tournament.

These players make up five of the top ten players in the country.

This isn't a good look for the NCAA, losing this star power this early in the tournament.

However there could be a greater impact to these early departures.

College players are required to attend one year of college in order to be eligible for the NBA draft, a subject that has been highly debated.

Given the fact that these college stars exited early, most of which had bad games, they may be inclined to stick around for another year in fear of their draft stock dropping.


It remains to be seen what path these young men will choose, but there is certainly a new aspect to be looked at here when it comes to the age requirement. On one hand you have NBA teams that don't want to draft players that aren't ready to player and on the other you don't want to deny college players the opportunity to play and get paid at a higher level.

LeBron, Still King

By: Mat McGowan

All throughout the all-star break LeBron James had to hear about the fantastic season Kevin Durant was having and how there was a new leader in the clubhouse for the MVP race.

Photo Credit: nydailynews.com 

The main knock on LeBron, for whatever reason, is his lack of killer instinct, and his non Jordan like demeanor which everyone seems to so crave. Even though he has two MVP's and two NBA Finals MVP's over the last two years.

Over this all-star break, LeBron has put on display why he is the greatest player in the NBA right now and possibly of all-time. The difference here is that James didn't put his reasons up in lights for everybody to see. He did it subtly.

It started with LeBron coming out and saying that when it is all said and done that he would be on the Mount Rushmore of basketball, which is also known as being one of the greatest of all-time.

This news made headlines but nothing along the lines of making the Twitter servers crash.

The first game back from the all-star break for the Heat was against the Dallas Mavericks, a team that had beaten them in the NBA finals three years ago.

LeBron looked like a man possessed, and registered a fantastic stat line. He finished the game with 42 points, on an incredibly efficient 16-23 from the field, and also chipped in 9 rebounds to go along with 6 assists.

The game after was against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who happened to have a one Kevin Durant on it. The Heat trounced the best team in the West, at the time, by 22 points. LeBron finished the game with 33 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals. The kicker here is that he did not even get to finish the game, as he was knocked out after sustaining a broken nose.

Fast forward a week and a half to March 1, the Heat are playing the Charlotte Bobcats in Miami. LeBron just proceeded to drop 61 points on 8-10 from three point land.

This isn't a coincidence.

It's LeBron putting on display for all to see why he has a serious case to be made for greatest player of all-time.

Does LeBron take it easy in other games?

No. The NBA season is a grind and for teams like the Miami Heat, staying healthy is imperative. Just ask Chicago Bulls fans and Derrick Rose.

What this string of legendary play really indicated is that LeBron is still the sherif in town and that isn't changing anytime soon.

The comparisons to MJ need to stop because their playing styles are completely different. It is very easy to want to compare these two but the fact of the matter is that they are different.

The Heat aim to win their third championship in a row this season and look for similar play from LeBron in the playoffs especially against rival Indiana Pacers.

Patriots Make Splash, Sign Revis

By: Mat McGowan

After seeing their best cornerback and best defender, Aqib Talib, join their AFC rival Denver Broncos, the Patriots signed not only the best cornerback on the market but the best cornerback in the game in Darrelle Revis.

Revis had been cut by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a day ago after signing a six-year, $96 million dollar deal the previous offseason.

The deal with the Patriots is a one-year deal worth $12 million dollars. It was essential the Patriots make a move to keep pace with the Denver Broncos who seem to be signing every top free agent available.

On top of stealing Talib from the Pats, the Broncos signed eight time pro bowler in DeMarcus Ware and top free agent safety T. J. Ward.

The signing of Revis instantly makes the Patriots defense better, especially allowing the Patriots to put Revis out on "Revis Island" and either rush the quarterback or slide coverage else ware.

Talib made a significant impact while in New England but make no mistakes about it, Revis is head and shoulders above Talib and is still the best cornerback in the league despite the fact he's coming off a shoulder injury.

Free Agent Frenzy

Since free agency opened at 4:00 pm on Tuesday, there has been a surplus of shocking signings, surprise cuts, and a fair share of overpaying.

In a span of 24 hours we saw the likes of DeMarcus Ware, Julius Peppers, and soon to be Darrelle Revis, get their walking papers. That trio has combined for 20 Pro Bowls and have accounted for 10 first-team All-Pro selections. 

Granted these three are making quite a hefty sum. Ware signed a 6 year $79 million dollar deal in 2009, Peppers had signed a 6 year deal worth $84 million, and Revis inked a 6 year deal worth a decent $96 million. 

Every single year there is a team that thinks they can do the ol' Steinbrenner treatment and throw money in hopes a lombardi trophy appears. The two biggest examples of that are Vontae Davis and Aqib Talib. Davis was signed to a four year deal worth $39 million, which includes $20 million guaranteed. 

The same Vontae Davis that was lazy and out of shape during Miami Dolphins training camp which led to him getting traded for a second and conditional round pick. Davis played well with the Colts however was exposed at times.

Talib on the other hand, signed what was probably the most surprising deal in free agency thus far by following in Wes Welker's footsteps by going to Denver from New England. This deal is fascinating in two ways. One, it's a massive deal, 6 years for $57 million with $26 mil. guaranteed.

It wasn't too long ago when Talib was traded from Tampa Bay to New England for a fourth round pick. Talib had trouble with, well not getting in trouble and management had enough of him. Upon arrival in New England, Talib played very well and was a cornerstone of the Patriots defense. 

The Broncos plucked the Patriots best defender right from their grasp, while improving on a position of need after releasing 10-time Pro Bowler Champ Bailey. The only knock on this deal is that Talib has been known to get into trouble and he has also had issues staying healthy. 

New England can still improve this offseason believe it or not, if they acquire Darrelle Revis who is actually better than Talib, however the issue there is that the Patriots are going to have to wait and see if Revis' current team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, release him. His salary for the upcoming year is just too much for a team like the Patriots to take on. 

If released, look for the Patriots to pounce all over Revis, adding him to a long list of players that played for the Jets and Patriots, two teams that don't like each other to say the least.