Even players good enough to reach the big leagues have been through this before.
Across the Orioles’ young-and-getting-younger clubhouse, where 19 of their 35 active players are rookies, some cope with the team-record 108-loss season by drawing back on their amateur days and teams they played on that similarly lost far more than they won.
Each got to this point despite that, and whether they experienced the growth from that season themselves or saw how it went from afar, they carry the ignominious years that shaped them with the knowledge the same can happen now that they’re professionals as the Orioles are turning in one of the worst seasons in baseball history.