Buck-le Up!

To paraphrase the brilliant Steve Martin in The Jerk, "The new baseball season is here! The new baseball season is here!"  After a long winter's nap, Orioles baseball is back.  On Opening Day, with an entire season to come,  hope springs eternal.  Of course, the flip side of that hope is uncertainty. 

A sub-par Spring leaves many questions.  Can Crush Davis possibly live up to his new contract?  Will Adam Jones stop swinging at sliders in the dirt and finally become the superstar whose success matches his charisma?  Can a team with lackluster starting pitching contend for a pennant? (Tillman, Gallardo, and pray every batter goes yard-o!)  What will be the implications of parking the South Korean import on the bench?  How will this squad become more than just the best beer league softball team in the American League?  Will there actually be Natty Boh served at Camden Yards this season?  Indeed, uncertainty abounds.

Even amidst the questions, I know a few things, though.  I know I was raised on pitching, defense, and the three-run homer.  I know it didn't matter whether it was Eddie Murray or Lenn Sakata, I collected every baseball card I could find, as long as it had a cartoon bird on it.  I've been in the building for Delmon's bases-clearing, Tiger-sinking double and for the first loss in a string of twenty-one to open a season.  I've been rocked to sleep by the lyric evening songs of Chuck Thompson and Jon Miller.  I've cursed Jeffrey Maier and I've mourned Flanny's passing.  I remember '83 and how this team made me feel in 2012 and 2014.  I know I'm ready to root, root, root for the Orange and Black.  I've read the predictions, but I know today, Opening Day, is a day for 'O'ptimism. 

By my logic, the Birds are due to piece together another improbable "even year" run.  Wild card in '12, ALCS in '14, World Series in '16?  Of course, by that same "even year" logic, San Francisco would dash my hopes of a World Series victory.  But never mind that, today is a day of hope.  Today, I choose optimism.  Baseball is great theater; let's open the curtain on 2016. Let's Go O's!