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It is time.

It is time for fans around this nation, who support the black and orange, to go all in with this Baltimore Orioles team.

Whether fans are sold on the Orioles or not, the bottom line is this: Baltimore is in the thick of a knockdown, drag out Mobtown style street fight we will not back down from.

Frankly, I am sick of baseball’s pontificators.

“It’s been a nice run,” they say about the Orioles, before passing views that this team will fade from the playoff picture any day now. It seems like we have heard this nearly every day since June.

Yes, this team is flawed. Yes, this team plays like Jekyll and Hyde at times. Yes this team’s starting rotation epitomizes the word "patchwork."

Yes, the Orioles are baseball’s ultimate death-defying magic trick. We get it.

Yet for all the Orioles’ faults, here we are in August, and this team is 60-51.

Now the winners of five games in a row and eight of the past 10, Baltimore is in a three-way tie with the Detroit Tigers and Oakland A's for a wild-card berth.

More importantly, with each passing ballgame, collective confidence inside this team’s clubhouse grows.

Led by Nick Markakis and Adam Jones, the Orioles have hit the ball with authority lately. The same have also cleaned up their starting pitching and defense, en route to looking like a team growing up in the midst of a pennant race.

With Buck Showalter brilliantly pulling the strings, the Orioles have 51 games remaining in the regular season. Just 4.5 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL East, Baltimore—at the minimum—is 22 games from its first winning season since 1997.

And now, Orioles Brass has decided to bring up top prospect Manny Machado from Double-A Bowie, per the Baltimore Sun. Machado will debut at third base on Thursday against the Kansas City Royals

All of this is grounds for optimism.

However, it seems like confidence in the Orioles by its fanbase has not followed suit—not yet at least.

Do Orioles fans have the right to be suspicious of this team’s success?

Heck yes, for it is no secret that this team has been flat out awful the past decade-plus. Many fans are still traumatized by prior years, and they find it hard to invest in what might turn out to be fool’s gold.

That said, not to pee in your sandbox, but the past should be exactly that—the past.

As Orioles fans, let’s unite, and start looking on the Orioles with excitement. Let’s slap that collective chip on our shoulders and begin drowning Camden Yards in orange and black.

This is Birdland, damn it.

The Orioles deserve our full support. And long-starving fans of this team deserve to enjoy winning baseball again.

Related Orioles Articles:

What O’s Can Do in ’12 That May Lead to Success in ‘13

Why Buck Showalter Deserves AL Manager of the Year

O's Bronze Legends Incomplete Without Boog Powell

Miguel Gonzalez Fast Becoming a Road Warrior



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