The merciful end of the 2018 season has finally arrived for an Orioles team that might never live down what happened this year.
No one needs to be reminded the final number in the loss column is larger than anything previously pondered during the 65 seasons that this franchise has been in Baltimore. The 1988 team is finally off the hook, though its 21-game season-opening losing streak will remain prominent in the organization’s hall of shame.
Yes, we all know what happened over the past six months, but do we really know why?
The case can be made that the team that took the field on Opening Day was a better one — on paper — than the Orioles team that remained in contention for a wild-card playoff berth for the first five months of the 2017 season.