Win some, lose some
Indignity Vol. 4, No. 171
LATE SPORTS DEP'T.
The Orioles Ran Out of Chances
ONE ADVANTAGE OF working for yourself, on your own schedule, is that you can usually watch the ballgame if there's a ballgame to watch. This evening was the last ballgame for the 2024 Orioles, a grim 2–1 defeat to the Kansas City Royals, ending a two-game sweep in their wild card playoff series. A home run by center fielder Cedric Mullins was the Orioles' lone run in the entire series; young Kansas City superstar shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. decisively outplayed young Baltimore superstar shortstop Gunnar Henderson; with the bases loaded, one out, and the score tied in the fifth inning, Royals pitcher Angel Zerpa threw a pitch that rode up and in on Rookie of the Year candidate Colton Cowser, hitting him on the hand as he twisted in self-defense so that his bat came around to turn a go-ahead hit-by-pitch into strike three. The Orioles left the bases loaded and Cowser, after trying to hang on for another inning, left the game with an injury.
Baseball is a game of dumb chances. Five years ago, when the Orioles slashed their payroll to the bone and started losing on purpose, the claim was that they were investing in the future. Those of us who hated it at the time argued, futilely, that there was no need to make the team deliberately terrible on the way to someday making it better—rather than simply making a good-faith effort to improve the team from one year to the next—and that the whole scheme depended on treating present-day games, with a present-day chance to win, as worthless. To the extent that sports resembles life, the point is that you never know how much of it you have left.
The cult of losing on purpose in sports is based on the premise that it's not good enough to put together a team that has a decent shot at competing every day and could make the playoffs if things go well. The goal, allegedly, is to build a team optimized for success, a team packed with high-quality young players acquired cheaply through the draft, a level of talent that would be prohibitively expensive to buy on the free-agent market. The NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, the first major sports franchise to have convinced its fanbase to be genuinely excited about how wretched the team was and how cleverly it was stockpiling players for a championship future, has never even reached the conference finals in the seven seasons since that championship era was supposed to have begun.
The Orioles, for their part, won 101 games and the American League East title last year, once they finally let their young prospects play. Then they went to the playoffs and got swept, cruelly and dismissively, by a wild-card Texas Rangers team that had just gone out and paid for good players.
This year's Orioles looked as strong as last year's for half a season. Then they spent the second half of the summer playing listless, mediocre baseball. It felt like something metaphysical, but really all that happened was that half of their hitters and most of their starting pitchers got hurt—hit in the head by a pitch, mangled in a fielding collision, done in by elbow wear and tear. Freak accidents met the normal accrual of bad luck, until the team they'd planned to have bore only a passing resemblance to the team they were putting on the field.
And now another season is over. Through five playoff games in these two competitive years, the Orioles have held a lead for all of one half-inning. This is a sport where no matter how good you are, the odds are usually against you. Maybe in one of those three lost seasons, the ball might have bounced some other way.
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, October 1, 2024
★★★ The clouds were supposed to hold off and not rain, but even so they hung low enough to catch the top of a supertall. The jacket carried unworn to a 9 o'clock appointment had to be put on for the trip home at 10. Some of the smaller trees on the rocks at the edge of the Park were on their way to being bare. Thin spots in the clouds let some blue through and even a moment of sun. Long acorns lay on the uphill sidewalk, their main axes pointing this way or that. A chilly breeze and the screams of blue jays came in the window. Surprising golden afternoon light shone out beyond the deep shadows of the balcony.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
HERE IS TODAY'S Indignity Morning Podcast.
Tom Scocca
Click on this box to find the Indignity Morning Podcast archive.
TOM SCOCCA
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP'T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich selected from 250 Meatless Menus And Recipes To Meet The Requirements Of People Under The Varying Conditions Of Age, Climate And Work, by Eugene Christian and Mollie Griswold Christian, published in 1910, and now in the Public Domain and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
NUT AND RIPE OLIVE SANDWICHES
Stone and chop fine a few ripe olives. Add equal parts of cream cheese and grated nuts. Spread between unfired wafers or any whole-wheat crackers.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
MARKETING DEP'T.
Supplies are really and truly running low of the second printing of 19 FOLK TALES, still available for gift-giving and personal perusal! Sit in the crushing heat with a breezy collection of stories, each of which is concise enough to read before the thunderstorms start.
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SPECIAL BONUS KICKSTARTER EXCLUSIVE: THE AWL BOOK
This collection of top-shelf pieces from The Awl, edited by Carrie Frye and published and produced by Flaming Hydra in consultation with The Awl’s original editors and contributors, will also include ALL NEW commentary and original essays from contributors and readers.
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