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A Season to Forget: The Story of the 1988 Baltimore Orioles
Between 1966 and 1983, the Baltimore Orioles were considered the best team in baseball. During that span, the team won three World Series, advanced to three others, and competed for a playoff spot just about every season.
The Orioles were a model franchise thanks to its “Orioles Way” approach to building a franchise through a strong farm system. Future Hall of Famers like Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Cal Ripken Jr., and Eddie Murray made their ways through the ranks and helped put consistent winners on the field.
But five years after Ripken caught the final out to clinch the Orioles World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, the franchise was in disarray. From not understanding how to utilize free agency to having their once famed farm system dry up of talent, the once-proud franchise was spiraling downward.
Heading into the 1988 season, the Orioles expected to struggle after a 95-loss season the year before. Not even the return of famed manager Earl Weaver in 1985 and 1986 was enough to turn the team around. The Orioles attempted to revamp their roster in 1988 with 14 new players on the roster compared to the year before.
The team opened that season 0–21, shattering the record for futility to start a season by eight games. They consistently found different ways to lose each night to the point that President Ronald Regan sent a message of support to the lovable losers from Charm City. Religious leaders and mental health professionals even offered to help the team find that elusive first win.
In the same vein as Jimmy Breslin’s Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game? on the 1962 New York Mets, author Ron Snyder discusses just how did a once model franchise devolved into a team with the distinction of having the worst start of any team in MLB history. A Season to Forget takes an in-depth look at the lead up to that season, a game-by-game breakdown of the streak, and the toll it took on those who lived through it.
The Orioles were a model franchise thanks to its “Orioles Way” approach to building a franchise through a strong farm system. Future Hall of Famers like Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Cal Ripken Jr., and Eddie Murray made their ways through the ranks and helped put consistent winners on the field.
But five years after Ripken caught the final out to clinch the Orioles World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, the franchise was in disarray. From not understanding how to utilize free agency to having their once famed farm system dry up of talent, the once-proud franchise was spiraling downward.
Heading into the 1988 season, the Orioles expected to struggle after a 95-loss season the year before. Not even the return of famed manager Earl Weaver in 1985 and 1986 was enough to turn the team around. The Orioles attempted to revamp their roster in 1988 with 14 new players on the roster compared to the year before.
The team opened that season 0–21, shattering the record for futility to start a season by eight games. They consistently found different ways to lose each night to the point that President Ronald Regan sent a message of support to the lovable losers from Charm City. Religious leaders and mental health professionals even offered to help the team find that elusive first win.
In the same vein as Jimmy Breslin’s Can’t Anyone Here Play This Game? on the 1962 New York Mets, author Ron Snyder discusses just how did a once model franchise devolved into a team with the distinction of having the worst start of any team in MLB history. A Season to Forget takes an in-depth look at the lead up to that season, a game-by-game breakdown of the streak, and the toll it took on those who lived through it.
216 pages, Hardcover
Published April 23, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 4, 2020
In 1988, the Baltimore Orioles set a baseball record that a team would never want to claim – they lost 21 consecutive games to start the season. While the Orioles had been declining since winning the World Series in 1983, no one expected a team led by Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray to perform so terribly. The streak and the state of the Orioles before and after the streak is told in this book by Ron Snyder.
There is writing about the Orioles both before and after the chapters on the streak itself. The beginning chapters tell a brief history of the team and the success it had for nearly 20 years between 1966 and 1984 when the team won three World Series titles and appeared in two others. Then, after the awful season of 1988, there is a nice write up about their nearly complete turnaround in 1989 when they fell one game short from winning the American League East Division. That was called the “Why Not?” season and certainly a terrific feel-good story.
However, the book’s main topic, the 21 game losing streak in 1988, was described in what is best described as haphazard fashion. The games were not recapped in chronological order, at least not regularly as one will read about say game 9 in the streak, then a player interviewed will talk about game 15. At least it starts with the 12-0 opening day loss to the Milwaukee Brewers and the chapters on the streak does end when the Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox. None of the games during the streak are analyzed in depth and there isn’t a lot of information on any player or manager written. Not even Cal Ripken Sr., the shortstop’s father and manager of the team who was fired six games into the streak.
While the book certainly has its flaws, it was one that was a quick read and something this reader wanted to finish to the end and see what happens, much like how the media and fans all over the world were following the Orioles streak. It gained international attention and when the streak was over, it was a relief for everyone, not just the Orioles players and staff. One other noteworthy occurrence that should be mentioned as it gained its own chapter. The Orioles ended the streak in Chicago. After losing two more games to the White Sox, they came back home to a sold-out Memorial Stadium on a Monday night where it was announced that the team would be getting a new ball park. It was quite a sight to see a packed stadium come out to watch a team with a 1-23 record.
While this book was at best only a cursory description of the historic streak, the author does mention in the foreword of the book that this was written from the viewpoint of both a journalist and a fan. Reading that and finishing the book was enough to give this book a passing grade, but for more information on the streak, players or Orioles of that 1988 season, it is best to seek that elsewhere.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
There is writing about the Orioles both before and after the chapters on the streak itself. The beginning chapters tell a brief history of the team and the success it had for nearly 20 years between 1966 and 1984 when the team won three World Series titles and appeared in two others. Then, after the awful season of 1988, there is a nice write up about their nearly complete turnaround in 1989 when they fell one game short from winning the American League East Division. That was called the “Why Not?” season and certainly a terrific feel-good story.
However, the book’s main topic, the 21 game losing streak in 1988, was described in what is best described as haphazard fashion. The games were not recapped in chronological order, at least not regularly as one will read about say game 9 in the streak, then a player interviewed will talk about game 15. At least it starts with the 12-0 opening day loss to the Milwaukee Brewers and the chapters on the streak does end when the Orioles defeated the Chicago White Sox. None of the games during the streak are analyzed in depth and there isn’t a lot of information on any player or manager written. Not even Cal Ripken Sr., the shortstop’s father and manager of the team who was fired six games into the streak.
While the book certainly has its flaws, it was one that was a quick read and something this reader wanted to finish to the end and see what happens, much like how the media and fans all over the world were following the Orioles streak. It gained international attention and when the streak was over, it was a relief for everyone, not just the Orioles players and staff. One other noteworthy occurrence that should be mentioned as it gained its own chapter. The Orioles ended the streak in Chicago. After losing two more games to the White Sox, they came back home to a sold-out Memorial Stadium on a Monday night where it was announced that the team would be getting a new ball park. It was quite a sight to see a packed stadium come out to watch a team with a 1-23 record.
While this book was at best only a cursory description of the historic streak, the author does mention in the foreword of the book that this was written from the viewpoint of both a journalist and a fan. Reading that and finishing the book was enough to give this book a passing grade, but for more information on the streak, players or Orioles of that 1988 season, it is best to seek that elsewhere.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
September 13, 2021
In one of the most ignominious and improbable stretches of play in the history of Major League Baseball, the 1988 Baltimore Orioles started their season 0-21. While certainly an interesting topic that deserves examination, "A Season to Forget" just didn't pull me into the overall narrative like it perhaps should have.
The biggest issue I had with this work was how oddly paced it was. Hardly 60-70 pages in, the bulk of the material devoted to the streak had been completed. A long stretch then detailed the rest of the season, which I found to be rather boring. Then, a brief section is given to the O's remarkable comeback to almost capture a division title in '89--the part of the book I actually enjoyed the most! Finally, there is an appendix, of sorts, that goes game-by-game of the losing streak--odd that such information was not incorporated into the up-front material. As such, I felt that "Season to Forget" was a rather disjointed experience.
I also believe that being a die-hard fan of the Orioles (I am not--just a big baseball fan in general) would help one's enjoyment here substantially. Author Ron Snyder goes into very specific detail about individual players, including where they came from and where they ended up. Not great in the casual-fan narrative sense, but probably hits much closer to home and heart for Baltimore denizens.
All of that being said, "Season to Forget" did provide me with some interesting information about an event I really didn't have much knowledge of (besides its general existence as an odd/bizarre streak). It was far from useless in that sense. However, any information gleaned came at the price of not being all that sucked into the overall narrative (whether due to fandom or organizational issues).
The biggest issue I had with this work was how oddly paced it was. Hardly 60-70 pages in, the bulk of the material devoted to the streak had been completed. A long stretch then detailed the rest of the season, which I found to be rather boring. Then, a brief section is given to the O's remarkable comeback to almost capture a division title in '89--the part of the book I actually enjoyed the most! Finally, there is an appendix, of sorts, that goes game-by-game of the losing streak--odd that such information was not incorporated into the up-front material. As such, I felt that "Season to Forget" was a rather disjointed experience.
I also believe that being a die-hard fan of the Orioles (I am not--just a big baseball fan in general) would help one's enjoyment here substantially. Author Ron Snyder goes into very specific detail about individual players, including where they came from and where they ended up. Not great in the casual-fan narrative sense, but probably hits much closer to home and heart for Baltimore denizens.
All of that being said, "Season to Forget" did provide me with some interesting information about an event I really didn't have much knowledge of (besides its general existence as an odd/bizarre streak). It was far from useless in that sense. However, any information gleaned came at the price of not being all that sucked into the overall narrative (whether due to fandom or organizational issues).
April 26, 2019
Redundant
This book deserves a yellow flag for piling on! How many times do you need to read, "We stunk!" How about using 1/3 of the space to discuss the streak, and the other 2/3 to tell the "Why Not?" season of 1989!?!
Don't waste your money on what should have been a couple of chapters in a larger book!
Shame on the publisher!!
This book deserves a yellow flag for piling on! How many times do you need to read, "We stunk!" How about using 1/3 of the space to discuss the streak, and the other 2/3 to tell the "Why Not?" season of 1989!?!
Don't waste your money on what should have been a couple of chapters in a larger book!
Shame on the publisher!!
December 8, 2019
Man, I really wanted to like this book more. I love baseball book's on season's and when I saw this I thought I would love. But this isn't really a book on one season with the Baltimore Orioles, it's about one month. One bad, terrible month when they lost 21 straight games. Oh yes, the author does talk abut 1983 a little and how the team got to how bad it would be in 1988 by mentioning the years 1984-1987, and the author does talk about the almost miracle 1989 season for a chapter. But this was a book on basically, one month. And although some of the information is great, it's just repeated and repeated and repeated over and over and over again. Like 21 times over again. And I started to think, you know, this just isn't a good book. What I mean is, it can't be a good book. It CAN be a great long magazine article. I think the author tried to stretch this out to make it a book at 180 pages, but the story really could have been told in less than 100, but then who buys the book? If this was edited a little better, Ron Snyder could have had an excellent Sports Illustrated-type 12 page article that would have been a great read. But it's a book and I'm sorry it just drags. Maybe the topic is just not book worthy? Be willing to give the author another shot though. Only Die Hard Baltimore Orioles fans will enjoy this, and they might not, I mean, they did lose 21 straight.
October 19, 2022
Meh ... Although the title seems to offer a rather thin subject matter, the author could have done so much more. The book lists at 175 pages, but that includes two chapters that go into depth about the 21-game losing streak and a where-are-they-now piece. Another significant chunk of the book, is devoted to the 1989 season. Instead of this padding, I wish the author had done a deeper dive into the lives of the players, coaches, management, broadcasters, etc. involved in that terrible season. He mentions Larry Lucchino, who helped develop the 2004 Red Sox, just in passing. Couldn't we learn more about the Ripkin family? And he recounts the Orioles' acquisition of Glenn Davis without explaining his relation to Storm Davis. In sum could have been much better.
September 19, 2019
I think this one could have been way better. The writer should have gone deeper into some of the subplots; attempted to track down some former players and gotten more from them other than bulletin board quotes. A lot of the chapters seemed like retreads of the previous chapters and didnt provide much additional insight. This made the book seem long in the read when it should have been a flash summertime pool read for avid baseball fans waiting for their next game to start.
July 14, 2020
This was an incredibly enjoyable look at the disastrous 1988 Baltimore Orioles season. Full of interviews from players and those around the team, the book shed some light on this very memorable point in Orioles history.
October 6, 2020
It may have been a season to forget, but today it's a warm and interesting memory of a city that embraced a team that seemed to be able to do nothing right. This book tells the story in all its infamy with all the characters involved.
November 25, 2021
A book about the 1988 Baltimore Orioles - a team that lost their first 21 games of the season. Game-by-game look at the losses and interviews with players, coaches and sportswriters & broadcasters looking back at that horrendous season.
May 1, 2020
I was actually disappointed by this book. It read like an over-long newspaper column when if it had been longer, it could've given a better narrative that the season deserved.
August 29, 2022
A trip down memory lane for me - the 88-89 Orioles are one of the sporting touchstones of my life, so reacquainting myself with a lot of these names was pretty fun.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews