The 2012 Orioles: The team that ended 14 years of futility

I think all Orioles fans that have suffered through 14 losing seasons should take a minute or two at least to savor today's win. It seemed almost as if it took 14 years, but the Orioles now officially will not have a losing record in 2012. They'll have one much better than last year, the year before that and that and so on. The sweep of Tampa was big for so many reasons, but for a key one, the O's have distanced themselves now by four games from the Rays, and it would have been just two games had they lost today. The O's want to talk about winning the division, not the wild card, but it's nice to have the wild card to fall back on if they can't get their primary goal. In that regard, the Orioles now hold the second wild card by 3 1/2 games over Los Angeles, four over Tampa and 5 1/2 over Detroit. They have opened some ground in that race, and that is impressive. The Orioles are now 27-7 in one-run games. If you predicted in March that the 2012 O's would have the best one-run win percentage in the history of the game, take a bow. This club has a chance to do that. The Orioles just are so resilient. They are 3-1 since Nick Markakis got injured. Of course they miss him big time, but they just swept Tampa without him. Again, very, very impressive. Many said that injury would be the one this team could not overcome. It still could derail them, but as I said Sunday, I've seen too much from this team this year to doubt them at this point. The 2012 Orioles will always have a special place in the hearts of the fans. They are the team that ended 14 years of futility. Now they have bigger fish to fry.