Time to give up the dream

With 31 games left in the season, the Orioles are 7 games under .500. That means to break the string of 10 straight losing seasons they'd have to go a whopping 19-12 to finish the year.

With 17 of those 31 games coming against teams playing for a playoff spot (2 vs. the White Sox, 3 vs. Boston, 6 vs. Tampa, 3 vs. the Yankees and 3 vs. Minnesota), it's not looking promising.

Meanwhile, the Nationals also have 31 games left and they'd have to go 17-14 to keep from reaching the century mark in losses. That makes me feel kind of bad because I've said for a while (and may have even posted it here) that our local baseball teams couldn't possibly be bad enough to lose 100 games, because that requires a rare kind of awful.

The Rays (101 losses) and Royals (100) both did it in '06, but no National League team has dropped 100 games in a season since the D-Backs lost an impressive 111 in 2004 (the Nats can still match that monumental feat by sputtering to the finish line with a 5-26 mark ... and don't rule it out ... that's well above the pace they've been playing at for the last 16 games), and no NL East team has lost 100+ since the Marlins went 54-108 a decade ago.

Yep. Another baseball season winds up, and our local teams continue to put on quite the depressing show.

In the immortal words of Rob Schneider: "Oh no! We suck again!"


Countdowns to make you feel better:
4 Days until Maryland Football Season Opener (vs. Delaware)
9 Days until Redskins Season Opener (@ NY Giants)
12 Days until Ravens Season Opener (vs. Cincinnati)
45 Days until Capitals Season Opener (@ Atlanta)
64 Days until Wizards Season Opener (vs. New Jersey)