Matthew Taylor: Where O's record is concerned, no apologies necessary

Baseball's intermission is over. The second act of the 2014 season is about to get under way. Before we dim the house lights and take in the rest of the show, let's be clear about one thing: Orioles fans don't need to apologize for the team's success.

The Orioles have their share of critics despite leading the American League East at the All-Star break for the first time since 1997. I was reminded of that reality by a fellow baseball fan this week when he commented of the O's first-place standing, "They play in the worst division in baseball." Even if that statement were true, which I don't believe it is, I would argue, "Live by the unbalanced schedule, die by the unbalanced schedule."

For years, the Orioles have died by the unbalanced schedule. You need only look back to last September to see the unenviable position in which the O's found themselves. Consider this excerpt from a Jonah Keri piece on Grantland titled, "It's Time to Fix the MLB Schedule Problem":

"No point in baseball's schedule underscores its unfairness more starkly than September. No team is getting screwed worse than the Baltimore Orioles as a result ... With Baltimore playing 76 games against AL East opponents every year, September was bound to include many matchups against some of the best and richest teams in baseball. Turns out the Orioles play 20 games in the final 21 days of the season, all of them against the beasts of the East."

The O's finished 9-11 in those final 20 games of the 2013 season. Overall, Boston played 99 games against winning teams on its way to winning the division in 2013. Tampa Bay, the AL East runner-up, played 100 games against winning teams. Meanwhile, over in the National League, the Atlanta Braves played winning teams in only 64 games.

Major League Baseball introduced an unbalanced schedule in 2001. Since then, an AL East team has played in the World Series six times; an AL East team has finished with one of the top two records in baseball nine different times; and AL East teams have squared off in the American League Championship Series on three different occasions. For years, the O's suffocated under the weight of the division; it's about time they got some breathing room.

I understand the temptation to disparage other divisions. I wrote a piece in 2009 titled, "Go Central, Young Birds," in which I lamented the fact that the Orioles couldn't win in their division but enjoyed some success against teams from the AL Central. At the time of that writing, the Orioles had gone 791-989 against division opponents since 1997 while posting a winning record of 215-210 against the Central. Things would be different if we played in a different division, I thought.

The Orioles now enter stretch where they play 16 games against the top teams in the AL West, perhaps baseball's best division. The O's are 11-6 thus far against the West, which currently resembles the AL East of the past. It will be fun to see how the O's fare over this stretch, but I still won't offer any apologies if they don't impress their critics. As long as the O's are at the top of the division, I'll simply say, "Bravo!"

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. Follow him on Twitter: @RoarFrom34. His ruminations about the Birds appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.