Neal Shaffer: Is it easier to talk O's baseball now than when team was losing?

There's only one item on the agenda today and it's a pretty simple one. It takes the form of a question: Is it harder to talk about the Orioles now than it was when they were losing? It is, a little bit, for me. When they were losing, I loved digging in on what ifs and maybes because the rest of the world treated Birdland as an afterthought or a joke. I loved uncovering new angles. I loved placing long bets and playing the long game. I didn't love the baseball a lot of the time, but I excelled at finding hope and joy in places where both were badly needed and in short supply. Over at my own site, The Loss Column, I addressed this issue yesterday. That post is site-specific, but the idea carries over. There's a different dynamic at play now that the O's are winning and I'm not ashamed to admit that it's a little weird. Good, but weird. Maybe it's a personal thing, but I find that when things are good, it's strange to bother saying, "Look how good things are." After all, Chris Davis speaks for himself. Ditto for Manny Machado. When I watch these guys (and others) do what they do, my instinct is to simply sit back and smile. This is not to suggest that there aren't still issues with the Orioles. They're a team with places to go, and I want to see them get there. But watching them finally sit consistently on the plus side of medium has me in a (somewhat disturbingly) contented state. I almost feel like a proud parent. It's nice to see them finally do so many of the things I always knew they could. But maybe I'm crazy. This wouldn't be the first time that notion was advanced. So I want to ask you all, how are you handling this turn to success, and how has it affected how you talk about the team? Neal Shaffer regularly blogs about the Orioles at The Loss Column, and his work appears here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. 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.