Andrew Stetka: Orioles on the verge of something magic

As long as you haven't been living under a rock over the past week or so, you'd know that it was a pretty awful week in sports. Stories of off-the-field issues and injuries polluted the news landscape and made us all feel pretty down. Most of this horrible news was confined to the NFL, but some leaked its way into baseball, including Marlins star Giancarlo Stanton getting hit in the face with a pitch and being hospitalized and Phillies closer Jonathan Papelbon making a rude gesture at his own fans while exiting the field. The harsh news that hits a little closer to Birdland is that of Chris Davis' 25-game suspension. Davis is done for the regular season and at least the first eight games of any potential postseason contests the Orioles will play for testing positive for amphetamines.

Despite all of the bad that has come about over the last week, the O's are on the verge of something that will make us all forget about it. The American League East will be clinched at some point this week (yes, I'm banking on that happening) and the Orioles will be division champions for the first time since 1997. It's hard to even put that in perspective. We all know the Birds went to the postseason two years ago and had a winning campaign last season, but prior to that were some dark years. More like 14 of them. I was 8 the last time the Orioles won the division. The last time the O's won the division, funerals were being held for Princess Diana and Mother Theresa. The No. 1 song in the U.S. was "Honey" by Mariah Carey. The average price for a gallon of gas was right around $1.23. We're talking about a long time ago.

There are only a handful of active major league players that were even around back then. I counted less than 15 in my quick bit of research. One of those played his final game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards last night in what can only be described as a typical O's game. Derek Jeter was sent out of Baltimore with a loss because of Orioles Magic. You know that type where "every game has a different star" and they never look out of a game until the final out. Kelly Johnson, of all people, came through with the big hit to score Quintin Berry, who was pinch-running for Steve Pearce. That's just like everyone drew it up in April, right?

Those are the types of players that will do their best to make you forget about the bad stories like Davis. They will attempt to fill in along with the likes of Alejandro De Aza and Jimmy Paredes. Not all of these guys may be playing in October, but you can bet they will provide good memories over the final two weeks of the season. Ones like you saw in a nationally televised game on Sunday night.

Seeing the orange-clad crowd fill up Camden Yards reminded me of two years ago during the playoffs. It got me excited to see this year's postseason, where there are dreams of more than just a wild card game and a happy-to-be-here mentality. It even reminded me of 1997. There was that kind of high hope then too. It was especially nice to see ESPN give some love to Baltimore and its fans. At this point, does the national media really have a choice but to shower the team with praise? It's the magic, and there's sure to be more of it in October.

Andrew Stetka blogs about the Orioles for Eutaw Street Report. Follow him on Twitter: @AStetka. His thoughts on the O's appear here as part of MASNsports.com's continuing commitment to welcome guest bloggers to our little corner of cyberspace. 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.