Love that handle. ‘The bouncing buckeye’.

The obnoxious and arrogant fans (I am a Patriots fan, don’t care about the sox) – we have a few choices – 1) congratulate the team – and their fans – that beat yours, or 2) stfu, or 3) both.

More power to the Birds.

Congratulations, Orioles.

The Orioles played like a contender. The Sox didn’t.

The Red Sox committed the unpardonable sin of making me not give a damn about them. Been a fan for 40+ years, and this is the first time. Good teams make good plays when they need them. Bad teams don’t. The Red Sox were baseball’s worst team in September.

Let the Orioles celebrate. I hope like hell that it stung to watch it from the visitors’ dugout.

Personally I thought it was awesome – if you can’t win a place yourselves at least take pride in doing your best to keep the other guy out.

After the rain delay Boston’s bullpen was doing quite well. One guy in the LF corner screamed “COME ON RED SOX NATION, LET’S WAKE UP!” Then Pap comes out of the bullpen and everyone in the section was in hysteria… there were two girls bowing to him, saying “WE’RE NOT WORTHY!” It was disgusting to watch, especially when Pap got the first two outs of the inning on strike outs. Then Davis doubled. I was still depressed. Then Nolan doubled him home, tying the game and I yelled “COME ON RED SOX NATION, I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” Got some angry looks… then Andino singled him home and the rest is history.

On the way out of the concourse, I heard a girl next to me grab her phone and said “THE RAYS WON?” All the Red Sox fans in the area were shocked… and the O’s showed the Longoria walkoff on the jumbo tron.

It was sweet to be there and be part of this. In regards to the O’s celebrating, who cares? All the Red Sox fans would have been doing the same in our home park if they got the win. Heck most of the fans who came to the game aren’t even real Red Sox fans and know their team’s history. I sat next to a fan in his 20s from MA and he was well-knowledged about the team and knew the history. The fans that saw the movie Fever Pitch are the ones that brought forth this Red Sox Nation entitlement notion that’s out there today.

But as the the Orioles Wednesday, well, they have been beaten down by the Red Sox and Yankees and now Rays since Jeffery Maier gave Jeter the HR. All the guys in the system and on the team come up knowing that, as long as they are on the Orioles, they are not going to be in the playoffs or world series like they have been dreaming of their entire lives. And here they are preventing one of the teams that keep them from winning from going to the post season. Let them have their fun.

Now a good point that should continue to be raised is this: those walkoff celebrations are dangerous. That kid who broke his leg during one in Anaheim last season didn’t make it back this year, and the Halos probably could have used his bat during their own failed stretch run. So yes, professionalism — acting like you’ve been there and done it before — is both saner and safer than group hoopla at home plate.

The only possible criticism of this specific event is of that “NOT IN OUR HOUSE” mentality, which is typical of the NFL crowd. But it’s a factor: one thing I noted about that other disaster, the one in Atlanta, was the Phillies’ rather muted congratulations around the mound after the last out. They were visitors who had just wrought desolation to the home dugout, and they were aware of it; so they behaved like pros in refraining from a silly celebration that would only have made it worse for their collapsed opponent.

But again, those points made, the O’s should not be subject to any specific criticism for what they did Wed. night. It was their playoff game won, and maybe a springboard for next season. I think the Sawx have bigger issues than to carry a grudge about how the O’s behaved Wed. night.