Baltimore Orioles 2008 Season Preview

What can you say about the Baltimore Orioles?

Consider the fact that the last time the team had a winning season- ten years ago- there were no such things ipods or mp3s, Bill Clinton was still in the White House, LeAnn Rimes won the Grammy Award for best new artist (and sold at least 17 million records since then), and Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio created an epic love story on board the "Titanic", spawning a number of box office records while doing so, not to mention an incredibly annoying Celine Dion song as well.

Yes, it's been a long while since they've seen a winning ballclub in Baltimore.

That 1997 club had a still-productive Cal Ripken Jr., a fiery Roberto Alomar leading the clubhouse (and spitting in umpire's faces), and a pitching staff with three 15-game winners. Since then, the once proud franchise of Earl Weaver, Frank and Brooks Robinson, and Jim Palmer, has suffered multiple ignominies: Rafael Palmeiro's positive steroid result and subsequent acrimonious finger-pointing; Sammy Sosa dragging his broken body to a .221 average; Albert Belle; Sidney Ponson; Mike Hargrove.

It's been a tough decade. Orioles fans in Baltimore deserve better. And so Andy MacPhail- who had successfully turned the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs into competitive winners on his watch- was brought on board to provide Baltimore fans with a winning, competitive team, following in the footsteps of his father, Hall of Fame executive Lee MacPhail, who ran the Orioles during the 1950s.