I’ve got a confession to make.  When I first thought about the state of the Orioles for this piece, I was a little worried that it would be difficult to find many good things to say about them.  I’m always a glass-half -full person and want to focus on the positives (lord knows there are enough people around ready to spend their lives moaning about the negatives), but a glance at the AL East standings left me cold.

Where’s the hope? Why would Brits choose to throw their support behind Baltimore?

Yet the more I thought about them, the more I realised that the O’s are well-placed to appeal to Brits.  Expecting instant returns on your emotional investment would be unwise, but if you’re in for the long haul (and you should be) then Baltimore could be the team for you.

Ever since I first watched the Orioles on TV, they’ve always struck me as being a traditional sort of team.  They are not the oldest franchise around, nor are they one of the most successful, but everything about them exudes some indefinable but unmistakable quality.  It stretches from their name to the design of their uniforms and their ballpark.  When I think of a good old-fashioned ballclub, the Orioles are the sort of team that come to mind.
 
That could be seen as a back-handed compliment though.  ‘Old fashioned’ is fine when it relates to respecting the game’s history and playing with class; it’s far from fine when it’s another way of saying that a team is stuck in the past.  The Orioles’ lack of success in recent years suggests that they have been guilty of this unappealing trait.
 
Many O’s fans point the finger of blame at owner Peter Angelos: derided as a guy who has meddled too much in the day-to-day decision making process.  While he’s still not exactly hailed for his benevolence in Maryland, there have been signs recently that GM Andy MacPhail has encouraged Angelos to take a back seat.

A steady hand at the top is sorely needed.  The Orioles play in the Major League’s toughest division and they haven’t been a true playoff contender since the last time they won the AL East in 1997. Competing against the Red Sox and Yankees is bad enough, but Toronto keep putting together very solid teams and now the Orioles have the Rays to deal with.  Previously Tampa Bay have been the O’s buffer from the bottom of the division.  Not any longer.

So where is this much-touted hope I mentioned earlier?  Well, the Orioles’ finally decided to accept that they were no longer a team to be feared and began a rebuilding process a couple of years ago.  The Erik Bedard trade prior to the 2008 season was a good example of this.  Although he was their best starting pitcher, the O’s recognised that they weren’t going to win with him in the near future (i.e. while he was still under contract) so they shipped him to the Mariners for five players.  This horde included a very promising centrefielder in Adam Jones and an exciting pitching prospect in Chris Tillman.
 
Jones is already in the Majors, playing in an outfield that also includes Nick Markakis, while Tillman was listed as the 16th best prospect in the Minors by MLB.com earlier this year.  Their number two prospect is another Oriole: Matt Wieters.  The young catcher should reach ‘The Show’ sometime this season in what is one of the most eagerly anticipated Major League debuts of a prospect that we’ve seen for quite a while.
 
Add in some of their other youngsters (Felix Pie, Jake Arrieta, Brian Matusz – the latter being the Orioles’ 2008 first round draft pick) and they are amassing quite a collection of talent.  With some good veterans alongside (Brian Roberts recently signed a four-year contract extension), their future looks much brighter than their recent past.

All of which means that now is a good time to get behind them.  They are a great selection for someone who doesn’t want to pick an obvious team (like the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Mets, Dodgers etc) and you will have the bonus of a wonderful home ballpark to go and visit one day.