Stacey Long: Keep O's hot start in perspective

By Josh Land

Orioles

April 08, 2011, 5:16am

Comments

Did you know that the Orioles, not counting this year, have started the season 5-1 10 times (11 if you count the 1889 Orioles; I don't)? It seems like it's been forever since they started off a season this well, right? Wrong. The 2008 Orioles also started the season 5-1. They ended the season 68-93. They also started 5-1 in 2000 and ended with 74 wins, and in 1998 when they ended with 79 wins. In 1987 they started 5-1 and ended up with just 67 wins. Ouch. They also started 5-1 in 1966, 1970, 1971 and 1996. Very good things happened in all of those years. Of course, none of that means anything in the context of the 2011 Orioles. There's nothing to predict based on it and no correlations to be made. There is a lesson to be learned, though: Enjoy the ride as long as the Orioles are on it, but don't start going crazy and taunting Red Sox fans and and putting all of your hopes into this team. The baseball season is a marathon, after all, and the Orioles have completed less than 5 percent of it so far. I'll tell you this, though: If they sweep the Rangers, I'm all in. Stacey Long blogs about the Orioles at Camden Chat. Long's Orioles observations have appeared here this week, as MASNsports.com begins a season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. Next week, check out the ruminations of Matthew Taylor, who blogs at Roar from 34. 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.