The Game That Broke the Baltimore Orioles

July 31, 2019 8:53 PM

For the first 123 games of the 2007 season, the Baltimore Orioles' pitching staff was doing fine. Really! They weren't bad! Everything was OK. Then came August 22, 2007, which Alex Rubenstein and Jon Bois chronicle in Dorktown #2: The night that destroyed the 2007 Baltimore Orioles forever

Jon Bois (from Chart Party, The Bob Emergency, 17776, and BEEFTANK, to name a few) and Alex Rebenstein follow up their first issue of Dorktown with a harrowing tale of the complete and utter annihilation of the Baltimore Orioles during one fateful day.

posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit (7 comments total)

I remember that game. It was on TV, and I walked past it. I did a double take, looked at the screen again, decided it must be a typo, and moved on.
posted by Melismata at 5:40 AM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Oh dear.

At some point the score stops mattering. While allowing your opponent to put up a 30 spot (and then having to play another game!) has got to be demoralizing, their win probability peaked at 80%.

Meanwhile, earlier in the season (during the period when they were "doing fine") the Orioles suffered a loss that might have been even more agonizing: The Mother's Day Miracle.

The Orioles were up 5-0. Jeremy Guthrie had pitched 8.1 scoreless innings. Coco Crisp came up to bat and the Orioles had a 100% win probability. Crisp reached first on a dropped pop fly in front of home. Guthrie was pulled. And then, well... read the article.
posted by SpiffyRob at 5:50 AM on August 1, 2019 [3 favorites]

I still fondly remember the sportcenter highlights that day, which included an extended collage of announcers from other games that day being like "uh, looks like we have a glitch on the scoreboard?" or just sort of laughing, like you do when something awful and also surreal has happened and your brain can't process it
posted by Kybard at 8:13 AM on August 1, 2019

I love hometown hero Jon Bois and I love baseball, but I don't love making everything a pie chart. The beauty of sports (with humans) is that it's ugly and chaotic. No cheat codes.
posted by hairless ape at 8:33 AM on August 1, 2019

Imagine that being your first day as coach. I mean, it has to feel like the universe is telling you something, right?
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:03 AM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

" but I don't love making everything a pie chart"

I'm confused, there was only one pie chart, bottom of slide 21.
posted by Baphomet's Prime at 2:37 PM on August 1, 2019 [1 favorite]

Trembley lasted almost exactly three years as manager - he was fired June 4, 2010.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:32 PM on August 4, 2019