Adam Lee had Tuesday night circled for months.
In March, the 41-year-old scooped up a row of Orioles tickets in the coveted Bird Bath section of Camden Yards for his wife’s birthday Sept. 17. But, when Baltimore’s series opener with the Giants arrived, members of Lee’s party found themselves sitting in a half-empty ballpark for a 10-0 blowout — a real downer for an Orioles team that had already been down.
They were still enjoying themselves, getting soaked from regular sprays from Mr. Splash and the dreary, misty weather front sweeping across the region. But the Orioles sure didn’t shower them in hits, getting just five while being shut out.
And what’s more: It was the second time this week that Lee had a seat for a Baltimore sports letdown. On Sunday, he was at M&T Bank Stadium for the stunning 26-23 Ravens loss that started their season at 0-2.
“The weather was good. The vibes were high,” Lee said with a pained smile, recalling his Sunday. “Until we, uh … just blew it again.”
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Whether you’re wearing purple or orange — or both — Baltimore sports are probably making you blue lately.
After euphoric highs in the last year for the city’s pro teams, the Orioles and Ravens are sputtering in their own respective ruts.
Steve Crowley was one of the fans representing both on Tuesday evening, wearing a black Ravens ballcap and an Orioles hooded sweatshirt while sharing a pregame beer with his friend Mark Jolly at Pickles Pub. Jolly was wearing a white, Orioles-themed Hawaiian shirt, another reminder of the happier times in warmer days when the team was out to a hotter start.
“I would say it’s definitely not as positive as it was earlier in the summer,” Crowley said. “Obviously the O’s are crapping the bed right now. And what are the Ravens doing? The vibe in the Ravens’ stadium Sunday was definitely low.”
After both teams lost Sunday, fans throughout the region were processing their disappointment Monday morning.
Brie McFadden, a teacher at Havre de Grace’s Roye-Williams Elementary, often brings sports-themed lessons to her classroom, from measuring the length of Justin Tucker’s field goals to learning vowel sounds from players’ names. Her Monday lesson to her second grade class was about subtraction: “The Orioles lost 4 to 2 yesterday to the Tigers. The Ravens also lost 26 to 23 yesterday to the Raiders. Who lost by the most points?”
To McFadden — a die-hard fan of both teams who was at Sunday’s Ravens game — Baltimore sports lovers have been losing the most lately.
“I was kind of in my feelings over it,” McFadden said. “The kids had a lot of questions. They wanted to know why the Ravens and the Orioles lost. I did, too.”
On one hand, neither team is wallowing in the depths of previous years. The Orioles are still third in the American League standings and all but playoff-bound. Though they have a tough schedule ahead, the Ravens are seen as a potential contender a year after hosting the AFC championship game (“I’ll never forget walking back to the car in silence after that loss,” McFadden said).
And yet perhaps because the Orioles won 101 games last year, and because the Ravens were so close to a Super Bowl trip, the defeats seem to pack extra punch lately.
“You can only be disappointed when you have good teams,” Lee said. “You gotta look at the bright side. We’ve had two good [teams] for too long, and your expectations are high. When you lose, it’s gonna be bad.”
As McFadden put it in teacher terms: “I’m not mad. I’m just disappointed.”
While the Orioles’ attendance has been underwhelming lately, coming to the games is an admission of hope. Even though the silver linings have been in short supply for the Orioles, the fans who talked to The Banner clung to the hope that the club can get hot going into the postseason in whatever seed it might wind up.
“They’re gonna get in the playoffs,” Crowley said. “Can they turn around what they’ve been doing the past month and a half or two months? That might be iffy. But just gotta turn it on. They were doing it at one point. Just gotta do it again.”
As for the Ravens — well, sometimes the youngest among us have the best perspective. McFadden’s second graders were heartened to learn that there are 15 games left in the regular season.
“To a child, it makes so much sense,” she said. “There’s more games left. It’s not over yet.”
