- November 19, 2009
- Baltimore Orioles
2006 Preview
2005 Overview: Prior to the All Star break the Baltimore Orioles were playing like they were destined for one of those dream seasons. On June 21, Baltimore held a two-game lead over the division rival Boston Red Sox and had assembled an impressive 42-28 record. The Orioles were also just 24 days away from celebrating Rafael Palmeiro's 3,000th career hit and were 4th in the American League with a .278 team batting average. But after June 22nd Baltimore’s dream season quickly faded. The Orioles would lose their next six games and win only 32 of their final 92 games (just under 35%). Rafael Palmeiro would be suspended for steroid use on Aug. 2, and second-year manager Lee Mazzilli would be fired just two days after Palmeiro’s suspension.
2006 Predictions
Despite a red hot 26-14 start to the 2005 season, the Orioles once again couldn’t contend with the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox for the AL East crown as they went just 48-74 the rest of the way out and finished well behind the leaders of the pack. The Orioles gained many backers in the early going as they got off to a fast start. The odd thing was that these initial backers, for the most part, continued to stick with Baltimore for the remainder of the season, despite the breakdown the team experienced and as a result, a lot of people lost a lot of money on the Orange birds. These early bandwagon jumpers, in non bandwagon-like fashion, stuck with the Orioles and it ended up costing them as they finished their last 122 games at -31 units. This further emphasizes our point of handicapping individual games and not teams over the course of the season.
The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since 1992, the Orioles have played their home games at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The "Orioles" name refers to the official state bird of Maryland. Nicknames for the team include the O's and the Birds.
One of the American League's eight charter franchises, it was established as a major league club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1901. The Milwaukee Brewers, as they were originally known, moved to St. Louis in 1902 and became the St. Louis Browns. After spending 52 years in St. Louis, the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and adopted the Orioles name, which had been used by previous Baltimore baseball clubs.