Matthew Taylor: Getting ready for a division race as an Orioles fan

What kind of Orioles fan are you? Optimistic or pessimistic? Do you enjoy the ride throughout the season or constantly fret about the end result? Do you live game-by-game or operate with the big picture in mind? Your answers may vary by season, or even within the same season. My approach has varied greatly since the O's starting winning again, and the 2016 season is unlike any one before.

Fourteen seasons of losing inevitably affected my outlook on the Orioles. It made me a pessimist who couldn't enjoy the ride and lived game-by-game. As a result, I was a happy-but-hesitant fan for much of the 2012 season. I constantly waited for the other shoe to drop.

When it was all said and done, I enjoyed the resurgence of the local nine; however, I wish I could have enjoyed the 2012 season more as it was happening. I blame the 2005 Orioles in particular. They peaked at 14 games above .500 in late June, went 8-18 in July and ultimately finished 17 games below .500. The other shoe dropped loudly that season.

In 2014, as the Orioles chased their first division title since 1997, I found myself more optimistic but constantly fretting the end result. Could the Orioles hold on? Could they take the next step and move from wild card team to division winner?

I realized around the time of the 2014 All-Star break that I wasn't enjoying the Orioles' success like I should be. For so long I had idealized winning baseball, or more accurately, non-losing baseball, as a .500 record would do just fine. Now the Orioles were in a legitimate pennant race, and I was somehow less than satisfied.

I deliberately changed my tune following the Midsummer Classic, an adjustment that was made easier by a 6-4 West Coast swing against the likes of three winning ballclubs to start the season's second half. Between the travel and the opposition, the trip was to be a moment of reckoning for the 2014 team. They rose to the occasion.

I eventually decided to assume the best, that the O's would indeed win the division, and to enjoy it in the moment rather than afterward. The O's obviously continued their winning ways and claimed the division by a robust 12 games. And it was fun.

Now, for this season ... I find myself having an attitude similar to Buck Showalter's after the Orioles brawled with the Royals earlier this week: "Bring it on." This year it's about competition. I'm ready for a tried-and-true division race, and I believe the Orioles will find themselves in a good one the rest of the way.

As the Orioles started to surge in early May, I tracked the Red Sox closely and hoped the O's would establish some distance from them in the standings. Instead, the Red Sox gained momentum of their own. Yes, I was scoreboard watching before the bulbs in the darn thing were even warm.

With Boston's visit to Baltimore looming, I found myself welcoming the matchup. I almost never do that, but I figured it would be a good test for the O's, an early measuring stick of sorts. The four-game set ended in a split decision, but I was satisfied given how that series had started.

The Orioles are rolling again, having won eight of their last nine games. They're now facing another division opponent that has been on the upswing, the Toronto Blue Jays. Toronto was three games under .500 on May 24, and now, a little more than two weeks later, started their series with the O's at three games over .500. So far, so good.

The O's are in the midst of a 10-game stretch that includes seven games with Toronto and three games with Boston. Seven of those 10 games are on the road. Is it too soon for this to be the 2016 season's moment of reckoning?

In 2012, I didn't want to see a winning season fall short of what I considered a much-deserved playoff berth. In 2014, I became greedier and wanted the division title that had eluded the O's two seasons prior. Now in 2016, I find myself ready for a true division race.

We're only getting started.

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.