As the Baltimore sports season ended with the final whistle in New Orleans, the guys at Baltimore Sports Report introduced the first annual Baltimore Sports Moment of the Year which pitted the top moments of the magical seasons of the Orioles and Ravens against each other (with a few other random moments thrown in) in a March Madness format.
In a third round match-up, third-seeded Justin Tucker’s game winning field goal in the second overtime in Denver to send the Ravens to the AFC Championship faced second-seeded Adam Jones’ go-ahead, eighth inning home run off David Robertson of the Yankees in front of a sold-out Camden Yards.
Garnering 60.87% of the votes, Jones smashed his opponent, moving on to the Elite Eight. En route to the victory, Jones said in a tweet that the home run was the “biggest hit … for the [Orioles] in [the] last 15 years:”
@BalSportsReport biggest hit of my career and for the @Orioles in last 15 years. But I was at the game wit Tucker. That was AWESOME
— 10 (@SimplyAJ10) March 4, 2013
Well, was it?
In the fourteen seasons from 1998 to 2011, the Orioles were one of the worst franchises in all sports. If not the doormat in fifth of the American League East, they were the toilet seat in fourth. During the span, the O’s walked away with a 912-1188 record, an average per season record of 65-85.
Jones’ home run faces slim competition; the fourteen years of losing equates to fourteen years of near-meaningless hits in games with little-to-no implications for the O’s beyond playing the role of spoiler.
However, connected to the near-1200 losses over the course of 14 seasons were the aging careers of Baltimore heroes as well as the acquisitions of over-the-hill stars who provided milestone hits for the Orioles that were “big” in their own right.
On April 15, 2000, Cal Ripken collected three hits in Minnesota against the Twins, the third of which marked the 3,000th in his Hall-of-Fame career. The milestone was a single to center field off of future-Oriole Hector Carrasco in the seventh inning. While the hit signified the entrance to an exclusive club by Baltimore’s baseball son, it ultimately was an RBI-less single in the seventh inning of a mid-April game, carrying little weight as the “biggest hit” for the Orioles in the last fifteen years.
Five years later on July 15, 2005, Rafael Palmeiro doubled down the left field line off Joel Pineiro in the fifth inning at Safeco Field, driving-in Melvin Mora, extending the Orioles’ lead to 3-1 and collecting his 3,000th hit in the process. At the time, the hit looked to become a top highlight for an Orioles season that was primed to break (what at the time was) seven years of losing. The hit helped the Orioles towards a 6-3 victory against the Mariners, placing their record at 49-40, one game behind the New York Yankees for first in the East. Previously in the season, behind the bats of Palmeiro and teammates including Mora, Miguel Tejada, and Javy Lopez, the O’s spent 55 consecutive games in first place. Baltimore was selling playoff tickets, hoping to either conquer the division or slide in as a wild card. In a sense, the hit by Palmeiro became a highlight for the ’05 Orioles, but not in the way Baltimore hoped. Two weeks after the double, Palmeiro was suspended for a positive steroid test, sending both his career and the Orioles’ season into a downward spiral.
From 2006 to 2011, the Orioles began parting ways with aging talent, cutting ties with Palmeiro, Tejada, Lopez, Mora, Sammy Sosa, and others, lowering the average age of the team’s hitters from 31.3 years old in 2005 to 28.3 in 2011. With the age-trimming and a true focus on rebuilding, there were less milestones to be hit and even less to deem as something close to the “biggest.”
Sure, there was Nick Markakis’ double in 2009 to take the lead after trailing 10-1 against the Red Sox, Felix Pie’s triple in 2010 to complete the cycle, and numerous walk-offs, but nothing that impacted the team or the city beyond those games.
http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20241879&topic_id=26338934&c_id=bal
Only one hit stands in the way of Jones’ statement ringing true, and it is a hit that holds a strong argument as the biggest Orioles hit in the last fifteen years.
And we all know the story.
With the Red Sox mired in a historic free-fall from playoff contention, only the Orioles stood between them and October as the 2011 season reached the final series of the year. After splitting the first two games, the Sox were facing a “win-and-in” scenario. With a loss, they must depend on the Yankees to beat the Rays to force a one-game playoff.
http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20400591&topic_id=26338934&c_id=bal
After a lengthy rain delay and a miracle home run by the Rays’ Dan Johnson on potentially the final strike of the game and Tampa Bay’s season, the Sox were suppressing their feelings of panic as they entered the ninth in Baltimore with a 3-2 lead. Two consecutive doubles by Chris Davis and Nolan Reimold followed two consecutive strikeouts by closer Jonathan Papelbon to tie the game.
In a play that set off the “Curse of the Andino,” Orioles’ utility infielder Robert Andino flared a base hit to left field just in front of Carl Crawford, allowing Reimold to score, the Orioles to win and causing the Red Sox to hope for a Yankees win. Moments later, Evan Longoria walked the Rays off with a playoff berth and landed the 2011 Red Sox in a clubhouse full of embarrassment, infamy and scandal.
Many credit Andino and his single for not only destroying the Red Sox roster — finding new homes for Papelbon, manager Terry Francona, and ultimately Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, and others — but also igniting the 2012 Orioles campaign that shattered expectations and the losing streak.
Thus, some would argue that without Andino’s hit, Jones’ home run is nonexistent. Behind the same logic, Andino’s hit is non-existent without Reimold’s ground-rule double which itself is non-existent without Davis’ double to right field. Further, Davis’ double does not happen without J.J. Hardy’s two run home run earlier in that game. And all the hits in that game are pointless without the hits in the series opener, which included an inside-the-park home run from Andino.
See where this is going?
The home run by Jones on September 6th of last season not only momentarily regained the lead for the Orioles, but also was ultimately the winning run that landed the Orioles in a late-season tie with the Yankees atop the division.
Even better, the home run came in front of a crowd of 46,298 of predominantly Orioles fans as the club unveiled the statue of Cal Ripken prior to the game.
The swat blew the roof off the stadium that grew silent after Randy Wolf and Pedro Strop combined to allow the Yankees to tie the game in the top of the inning after leading 6-1.
It created an atmosphere not previously experienced in Camden Yards, even during the winning seasons of the mid 90’s. The chain reaction created by the home run maintained the noise — the atmosphere — as Matt Wieters singled, Mark Reynolds homered, and Chris Davis followed with a blast of his own.
As many in attendance will attest to: there has never been a better game at Camden Yards. The Jones home run is what made the game.
Beyond the home run, the Orioles played their way into the playoffs without a hit that was as momentous as the Jones blast. The bats slumped in the playoffs, leaving the Birds to manufacture runs through walks and singles; the hits in the Wild Card Game were overshadowed by dominant pitching performances while the hits in the ALDS were squashed by the power of the Yankees and their opportune sluggers.
So, yes; it appears that Jones’ declaration is true: his go-ahead home run on Cal Ripken statue night is the biggest hit by an Oriole in the last fifteen years.
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