The Curse of Heartbreak and Anguish Cured by the Hair of the Dog that Bit You

This post is going to be a little hard to write without getting all upset and emotional. When I was in college something really hard happened to me one night. My favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, were playing in Yankee stadium, October 9, 1996 in the first game of the ALCS. It was the bottom of the ninth and the O's were up by a run on the hated Yanks. Derek Jeter hits a fly ball to right field and Tony Torrasco the defensive replacement in right goes to the wall to catch a ball that is hit well, but won't quite make it out of the stadium. Just when he is about to catch the ball a 12 year old boy named Jeffrey Maier leans over and catches the ball. In baseball this is obviously against the rules so the play was a clear out. Instead, in one of the worst moments in a long litany of bad umpiring, the ump rules it a home run and history is literally changed forever. It cost the O's the game, the series and since that game we have had exactly one winning season. The name of Jeffrey Maier is not a name any O's fan can say without getting emotional. However, in the Washington Post there is an article talking about Maier, who is now a 22 year old outfielder with a good glove and decent bat. He is a low round prospect in the upcoming baseball draft and the O's are thinking about drafting him. Draftiing the enemy? I love it. Please do it. Break the Maier curse. Maybe the irony and self flagulating humore of the move will allows the forces of baseball to be reversed and the O's will begin the climb back to respectability. Draft him before the Yankees, out of sadistic joy draft him and play him against the O's. I guarantee if the Yanks get their hands on him we will live to regret it. You know the old saying, try a little hair of the dog that bit you to get over that hangover. I have had an O's hangover for 10 years. I can hardly get excited about anything they do anymore. So mix me up a Maier tonic and lets get on with it.