What motivated you to write this book?
I felt the conversation about “new school” metrics and numbers in baseball over the last few years got to the point where people were just assuming “old school” guys threw the bats and balls out on the field with no plan. But old school guys have always used numbers and information to come up with a plan to play. I think over these past few years that kind of has either been lost in translation or just assumed it was never the case because there’s so much talk about the new school and all their metrics, information, and numbers.

How much of the inspiration for this book came from how you and Cal grew up learning baseball from your “old-school” dad? Is part of this personal to you, that maybe some of the “old” concepts are being almost forgotten?
Forgotten, overlooked…yeah. First of all, most things that I got in the baseball world kind of went through my father. I’ve been able to take what I did in my career and go up to the MLB Network, where I’ve been for 11 seasons now. I see and do things, but to me it still reverts back to dad. Dad used to say, “You hit it, pitch it, catch it better than the other team and you win.”

When we watch a game today, I don’t think the game has necessarily changed that much. But a lot of the banter surrounding it has changed a lot. I have friends who ask me what a lot the terms they hear on TV mean [like launch angle and spin rate], so that’s why I’ve made a guide. But when you hit it, pitch it, catch it better than the other team, you still win. And that’s held true ever since the game started.

What was your writing process like?
I got an iPad Pro and I just started typing notes. Then I contacted one of my guys up at the network, Moses Messina, who was a researcher and is now a producer, and I started bouncing things off him. I sent notes in an email to him, he sent them back in a chapter format. I’d print the pages and marked in red pen where I needed to make improvements. It was quite the process, but it gave me an awful lot of time to go through things multiple times.

I have to say, to have all the “new school” terms explained in plain English in this book is great. I think a lot of fans hear all these terms like “launch angle” on TV and radio and wonder what they mean.
Babe Ruth had a launch angle. It’s not like this was invented. What was invented was the way to measure it. But when we say launch angle, right away people assume it’s an uppercut swing, which is not the case. Everybody wants to use launch angle as a phrase because it sounds cool, but it’s nothing more than the ball coming off the bat. Anybody who’s ever hit a baseball has a launch angle. It’s contact and what the ball does when it comes off the bat.

The other terminologies that just drive me crazy are when someone on the TV will say, “He worked on his launch angle in the offseason.” Well did he? Because the launch angle is a result. He may have worked on his swing in the offseason, top hand, bottom hand, but you can’t work on a result. You work on your swing, not the launch angle.

Who is the audience for this book? Baseball fans? Youth coaches?
I didn’t really go that far, but I called it the “Old School Guide to New School Baseball” because it is more of a guide. It was my initial thought for anybody watching the game, listening to the game, or anybody who hears a term that might not register. Hopefully I’ve addressed it in the book, and if I can educate a few people along the way as far as what some of these things actually mean and what they do, then I did what I set out to do.

You used the Houston Astros in a few examples in the book, which was obviously written before the sign-stealing scandal broke out. Video sign-stealing is not part of what anybody wants in the new school, right?
I don’t think that belongs anywhere in the old or the new. That was a situation where clearly some people went overboard and crossed the line of what you can and cannot do in sports. The way the conversation has swirled over the past few months, everybody’s on the same page with that. That one doesn’t belong to either school. That was in a situation where somebody or some group decided that they didn’t want to adhere by any rules that were set out there, and they decided to go a little bit rogue.

How do you think the situation ends up? What would you like to see? Baseball seemed like they thought it would kind of pass over, but it seems to not be the case now [in late February].
Over time things go away. I think that’s a realization, but also, we’re still sitting on the back end of the Boston Red Sox investigation going on for what they may or may not have done in 2018. Everything will end up ultimately in a better place for baseball because once these two investigations have concluded and everything’s been talked about, that will give the MLB the area to then rewrite some rules or write some new rules moving forward. And I’m pretty sure they’re going to put things in place that are going to be very detrimental to anybody that wants to overstep the bounds in some of these ways moving forward. Ultimately, I think baseball’s going to be better for this.

About halfway through the book, you write something like, “I’ve been screaming at kids to get off my lawn for the first 14 chapters,” a funny line. I’m bringing it up because you’re an old school person, but are you saying that you’re open-minded to new school ideas?
Here’s what I’m open to: I’m open for information and knowledge. I’m not open for the idea of absolutes and numbers to try to quantify things in certain ways that are being done. If you want to give me all the information you possibly have, I’ll be glad to take that in as a baseball person and a member of the old school and I will use what will make me better. And if I was a manager of a team, I would use what would make my team better. But I would hope on the other side of it, if I was a manager of a team, you would respect the fact that I said, “OK, I don’t want this. I don’t need this because it doesn’t fit in.” I would hope you would respect the fact that I know through my experiences, this is just not going to work.

If you’re outside-of-the-box thinking will make me better with my inside-of-the-box thinking, the inside of my box will grow. I guarantee it. But you have to respect the fact that if I don’t want to use it, I’m not being rigid, I’m not being unable or unwilling to conform to the new thought process. I’m just kind of understanding what these numbers are that you just gave me and they don’t work in my world of baseball so I’m not going to use them.

What percentage of teams would you say have a manager who’s really functioning through the front office during games. In your opinion, is that something that happens too much?
I think, to a degree, all managers should operate through the front office within reason. That should go on. There should be a 50-50 thing going on between manager and front office. Now, where it changes is, I think at 7:05 [the start of a game] the 50 percent that the front office is involved in should go away and the manager takes all 100 percent through the game because he has all the information.

What are your thoughts on the Orioles’ rebuild so far?
I think they’re all smart guys. I think they were a part of a Houston Astros that did some things a little bit different. But I also say throughout the book that the 2017 Astros team, which is a little bit in question as far as what we’ve learned now, they weren’t built anything different than the ‘96 Yankees. Or the Atlanta Braves that made it multiple World Series, or the San Francisco Giants that won a few, or the Boston Red Sox, who went to a couple World Series with their core players.

They were built through the draft and through development of players and I think you could argue that the core of the Astro team was probably better that some of the cores that I just talked about from other teams. And all this is laid out in the book as far as you know, who the players are and what they did.

So when you come here to Baltimore and you’re inheriting a team that’s lost a bunch of games, the first step was last June with the 1-1 [first overall draft pick], Adley Rutschman. You have a pillar there for a possible foundation moving forward. Your other draft picks may set you up to be in that situation to have a core that you can then build around.

A guy like Orioles general manager Mike Elias comes from a scouting background. That’s how he started, and he was a college pitcher. While assistant GM Sig Mejdal is more of the numbers guy. Is that a good way to go about things, blending somebody providing this “new school” information and somebody else from a more traditional scouting background?
Whether it’s the GM and field manager, or GM and the assistant GM and everybody else through the front office, the collaboration has to ring true. I believe Mike Elias was one who was responsible for taking Carlos Correa the draft for the Astros’ if I’m not mistaken. So like I was talking about with Adley Rutschman, that’s your basis to build around. If you can find the dude in the middle of the diamond and you can bring him into an organization, and he’s going to be with you for a while and he’s going to be a pillar. That’s your head start on everything else.

An updated version of your bestseller The Power of Nice is out February 2. Why did you feel like the time was right to update it? I’ve been blessed with an array of experiences with people from all walks of life whether it be professors at major universities, a woman web designer from Milwaukee who was trying to break the glass ceiling, firefighters, people on the police force, and I came to realize that the applicability of The Power of Nice, the system and the philosophy that underlies the book, had great reach, and I wanted to make it clear in a new edition how people from all walks of life could improve themselves by embracing the system and the philosophy.

And, in a nutshell, what is that philosophy?
Simply put, niceness helps build relationships. When you do deals, you don’t want to look at the deal as being over when you come to an agreement. You look at the deal as a continuing experience, where you need each other in order to fulfill the terms of the agreement, and the opportunity to do future deals. So niceness is an essential piece in connecting you and the other party in a negotiation to a relationship, and you build niceness by, obviously, not being aggressive and being systematic. And that’s the key, that’s the secret sauce of the book: providing people with a system that allows them to take steps that don’t have them reverting to aggressiveness because they’re reacting rather than pro-acting. Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky wrote the forward to the book and she’s the person who negotiated all the trade agreements that we have with China for the Clinton administration and she underscores how important that was to her in dealing with what could have been an adversary but instead became a partner and allowed those agreements to go into effect.

You stress that it’s not niceness for the sake of manipulation; it’s genuine niceness.
Genuine niceness. There’s nothing better in life than having relationships, so when you have the opportunity to be on this earth as long as I have, and you can look to all those relationships that you build, it’s something that is so meaningful. It nourishes your existence. So the book is not called Be Nice. The book is called The Power of Nice, and maybe I should have called it Empower Yourself with a System So You Can Be Nice, because that’s really what the book is all about. It’s a book of empowerment.

The other central tenet to your ethos is the idea of “WIN-win.” What does that mean?
In the broadest sense it means that in order to get what you want in life, think about what the other side wants and help them get some of that. It also means that you don’t always get the biggest piece, but it means that if you put the power of nice to work for you, you maximize, and you get the best possible result you can without destroying the other side. And that’s where the myth of Hollywood is ultimately dissolved because beating up people is not what negotiation is all about. Embracing them and their ideas and achieving what you want in the final analysis is the power of nice.

You used to represent Cal Ripken Jr. and Brooks Robinson. Are you still involved in the Orioles organization? I am not. There was a time, when the Orioles won the World Series in 1983, when I represented over 20 of the members of the team. Edward Bennett Williams was the owner of the team, and I’ll never forget, one day, he looked at me and said, ‘You own my damn team!’ And the bottom line is I didn’t own it, but I negotiated for a lot of them. I am not deeply involved, but two of the leaders of that organization—Dan Duquette and Buck Showalter—are old friends in the game of baseball and you know, I am just so thrilled that they are there leading the baseball effort for the organization because it has taken us where a great organization should be. I’m now a cheerleader and, occasionally, I have a player that I call them about, but the bottom line is I’m nowhere nearly as involved as I was in the ’80s and ’90s.

As an objective bystander, were the departures of Nick Markakis, Andrew Miller, and Nelson Cruz negotiation failures?
No. You know, the game is structured, professional sports is structured in a way today where players move. And they move because of budgets and limitations and collective bargaining agreements. I’m sad to see Andrew Miller go. Pitching is so important, but the price that is paid, the mortgage that has to be given in order to keep some players is something that most franchises can’t sustain. And again, with Dan and Buck at the helm, I’ve got a feeling they’ll find a way to keep the franchise moving forward with the tremendous core of young players they have and a few well-placed trades again. Remember, Miller came over in a trade in the middle of last season. We need another trade like that this season. I’m confident that we can do that.

In your book you say that you “just like to help people.” Is that a liability or an asset in your line of work?
Well, to me, it’s a great asset because it allows me to listen more, which is an essential piece of negotiation, to understand what challenges the other side has, so I can help them solve those challenges while I achieve my goals. But more than that, they key to me in life is a quote that appears on the wall of my office attributed to Churchill and it’s: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.” And having the tools of negotiation has allowed me to go into arenas well beyond the sports and corporate worlds, into the nonprofit world with kids who are challenged and organizations that are challenged, and to use those tools to make a difference, because everybody negotiates. I don’t care whether you’re raising money, doing an interview like this, or dealing with a family crisis, there’s a negotiation. And people can call on me for my skills and I can get the tremendous satisfaction of helping them solve problems, and frankly that’s what helping people is all about.

What are you focusing on these days?
Taking the power of nice and trying to change the paradigm of how people relate to each other. Right now, I’m working on an article addressing the challenges of the Middle East and whether we can find a way to achieve peace in the Middle East, which looks like the great intractable problem in the world. I’m a glass-half-full believer. That’s a philosophy I got from my father, so I’m trying to piece together ideas to find hope where right now there is hopelessness.

Are you on retainer at the State Department or something?
No, my clients are mostly corporate, some sports teams, some organizations. I do lecture, and I’m asked to speak to government types and academic types, but I’m not on retainer to the State Department. Frankly, if given the opportunity, they wouldn’t have to pay me, if I could get involved in a situation like that because again, you get to a point in life where it’s not what you earn, it is the impact you have. And to me there’s nothing more important than peaceful coexistence in the world, as well as in the boardroom and on the ball field.

That’s a very nice philosophy. How do you apply it in your own life?
You know, when you have a family as big as mine—and that’s seven children, six in-law children, and 11 grandchildren, and a wonderful wife—you know that there’s going to be a negotiation everyday. There are issues that come up and in order to solve those using this approach is certainly beneficial. This summer I had my two oldest granddaughters each spend a week with me in the office. They wanted to shadow me. One is 15 and the other is 13 but they’re mature for their years. And that was an unbelievable experience unto itself, but the most important thing was the feedback that I got from their mom after their summer was over. The collective response was, ‘Wow, we didn’t know Pops could help people they way he does with his negotiation.’ They all know I negotiate, but I don’t think they were quite sure what we did. They sat in the office and saw a variety of people come through from major sports organizations to nonprofits and they felt the power of nice and nothing could be more satisfying than that. And by the way, I’ve had another grandson say, ‘Pops, when can I come?’ Hopefully, it will be a continuum.

You can just start a grandchild internship program.
You got it. And that’s another thing, if I can just share that with you. Mentorship. If you come to our office, it’s not a big office, the Shapiro Negotiations Institute. They’re 10 of us here, but at any given time we’ll have three maybe four interns here—and they’re paid interns, I might add—but they could be from high-school kids to college kids to graduate school kids to people who’ve been out in the world. And I believe we all, particularly those of us who have been blessed with opportunities like I have, are charged with the responsibility to mentor and guide and open vistas for young people. That’s extremely satisfying. But I like your idea. We’ll add another bracket and that will be the grandchild program.

Well, it seems like your unpretentiousness has helped you. In The Power of Nice, Cal Ripken Jr. writes about being impressed at your un-flashy office.
Well, it helps to find who you are. For some people, the trappings are important and they have an impact, and I don’t deny them that, but when I said to Cal, ‘Hey, write a forward to the first edition of the book,’ and he wrote about how he decided on me that was feedback I never expected to get. He had been limousined, wined, dined, supper-clubbed all over the country when agents were after him. He came to my office and had a tuna fish sandwich on a paper plate and that seemed to clinch the deal in his mind. So I guess it says hold to your values and who knows what you’ll discover. In my case, it was Cal, and that has led to amazing things because, certainly, my involvement in sports gave me the bully pulpit that took me into the business and nonprofit and academic worlds in ways that I never expected.

It seems like it was natural fit.
It was just as today the natural fit is with a young man named Joe Mauer who is a modern day Cal Ripken in terms of his values and his achievements in the game. He’s a great baseball player for the Minnesota Twins. And was one of the most pursued in the country 10 years ago and I had a Coca-Cola with him in a corner drugstore in downtown Minneapolis, with him and his folks—and I had to get them to pay for it because of the rules. He does tell a cute story. To this day he says, ‘I just didn’t believe anybody could be that nice.’ But since, he’s discovered that we practice what we preach, just as a lot of people can’t believe that he or Cal are as nice as they are when in actuality they are.

Has there ever been a deal where you just felt like you didn’t get what you needed or wanted from it?
There has to have been. And let me explain. I write books not because I’m the smartest guy on the earth. I write books because I have had an array of experiences and some of them have involved mistakes. And what do we learn from more in life than our mistakes? So, have I made mistakes? I’ve made mistakes, particularly in the earlier years when I was impetuous and less systematic and more reactive and I left things on the table or maybe even damaged relationships. But just think of what I was able to learn from that and how I was able to take that learning and impart it to others so hopefully they wouldn’t make mistakes.

It sounds like the fact that you didn’t dwell too much on your mistakes is helpful. You learned from them and kept moving forward.
You are so right. One of the secrets in life to satisfaction and growth is don’t dwell. Learn and move forward.

This is your 30th year as the Orioles athletic
trainer? What career events stand out for you?

Yeah, when people say
it, it doesn’t really ring as 30 years, if you know what I mean. It seems like
it has gone by so quickly and so many things have taken place. So when I hear
the number I kind of step back and think, ‘Gosh, it really doesn’t feel like
that.’

I mean, first, I think I’ve just
been blessed to be doing something I love. I think there’s nothing better than
that. I’ve been blessed to be two things: in a professional that I love as an
athletic trainer and around the game I love, baseball, because I played it
growing up as a kid and later.

As far as
events go, I mean, gosh, it’s really hard. I mean, obviously, whenever we’re in
the post-season those are really things that stick out in your mind because you
had a successful season, and a lot of times that translates into you had a
successful season in terms of not too many injuries to get there, so that’s
kind of good.

Um, other
events . . . actually, this is not really an on-the-field event, but when I was
able to go to Cooperstown for Cal Ripken Jr.’s induction ceremony and to hear
him mention me in his acceptance speech was kind of really pretty special. It
was kind of emotionally overwhelming for me. So, I mean, there’s a lot of
events, and it’s hard to pick one, but certainly those would rank near the top.

I understand that you
and Cal are very close. 

Yeah, in many ways, and it’s probably because in
1978 in Bluefield, West Virginia, which was our rookie ball team at the time,
his first day was my first day.

Aw, really? Do you
remember how you met? 

Not really. He was just another one of the guys on
the team. I’m sure we just met when they reported, you know, in the clubhouse.
I’d love to say I remember 1978 clearly, but I’d be lying if I did. We became
friends both professionally and personally, really. I mean, our families sort
of grew up together and when you’re families are growing up, you talk about
things other than baseball. We used to spend a lot of time talking about
parenting and the kids and all those kinds of things. So, yeah, we did become
very close friends that way, and our friendship has remained. Sometimes we just
spend a lot of time on the phone talking to each other.

In some ways, there
must have been a lot of pressure on you to help him maintain the streak. Obviously,
if he ever got injured, he was going to miss a game. Did he have any close
calls? 

I mean there were. I mean, you know one in
particular was a sprained ankle way early on but the streak wasn’t really an
issue then. One was a knee injury later—gosh, I’m bad on years—when we had a
little incident on the field with the Seattle Mariners that didn’t go well, but
he played through it. But, you know what? Well, first let me answer the
question in this way: No, there wasn’t really any pressure that way. The streak
wasn’t really any pressure, at least for me it wasn’t, because, when you’re
inside this arena and an injury happens, I don’t think about how much a player
makes, I don’t think about streaks, none of those things, I’m just
concentrating on what I can do to best get that player back on the field and
healthy.

Now, as far as Cal was concerned,
he was probably one of the easiest to work with just because he was one of the
first players—and this goes back to minor league days—to ever quiz me and ask
me about the body and how it functioned and how he could keep it in condition.
And he did a great job of that. We used to talk about that stuff all the time.
So, that, along with what I would say is his high skill level, kind of kept him
away injuries that a lot of guys get, you know, so . . . that was kind of
long-winded, I’m sorry.

No! It’s okay! 

Am
I explaining this right? When you’re inside, you don’t feel the external
pressure that people think you do because you’re so focused and concentrating
on doing the job at hand. And during that time, I would never think about it
unless someone else brought it up.

And part of my philosophy has
always been, there are 25 players on the team. So, however you want to rank
them, I treat number 25 the same way as I treat whoever someone would consider
are the number-one and number-two players, you know? Because, in our world, I
see them all as someone with an injury or an illness and you need to take care
of it. Everyone deserves the same kind of health care—oh, I shouldn’t say that
word in this day and age! So that’s kind of how I’ve approached it. So maybe
that’s why I don’t feel that external stuff.

What was the most
serious injury you’ve ever come across?

Well, I know you’re probably not
going to like this answer, but I usually answer that question this way: The
most serious injury for me is the one that’s right in front of me at that time.Because that’s where my focus is at
the time. Obviously, I’ve had things like pitchers get hit in the head. You
know, Mike Mussina way back, he took a line drive in the head. It ended up
looking worse than what it really ended up being. Those kinds of things when
you have collisions and guys are down and they’re not getting up. Those are not
good. And obviously, the one that everyone’s thinking about is Manny Machado.
So, in my mind, it’s hard to sift back through the files and say, ‘What was the
worst or least’ because I really, truly mean this in the heart: The most
serious for me is the one I’m dealing with at that point.

Speaking of Manny
Machado, how’s he doing? 

Well, you know, right after surgery, he underwent
rehab, and it was a program the doctor and we had all put together and he
followed it very well. He’s been a very, very diligent hard worker, very
Cal-like in many ways, you could say.And his rehab really went well, and he got here [to spring training] and
he’s really on what we call a functional level now. He’s doing a lot of
baseball activities. And we’re doing some things running-drill wise to help
correct his gait a little bit and prevent anything like that from happening
again. But he’s progressing very well. He works very hard, but he’s an absolute
joy to work with. So, it’s coming along very, very well.

Can we expect to see
him in the starting lineup on Opening Day? 

Ha, you know what, I don’t
commit that way. I’ve never thought it’s fair to the player, fair to the
organization, actually maybe even fair to the fans and to me, to say, ‘This is
when you’re going to be ready,’ because people in rehab progress at different
levels and different speeds. And with a guy like Manny, or any rehab, every day
is a new day for me to evaluate how we’re doing and what we’re going to do that
day and how we’re going to progress. Some people progress quickly and others
are slower. I can just tell you that Manny is doing very well, and I don’t
think there’s going to be any extreme delay in his getting back, but the most
important thing is to get him back on the field safely.

I read that you got
injured playing baseball as a kid and that’s when you decided you wanted to be
a trainer. True? 

Wow, you really did some digging! Actually, it was in high
school. It was later than that a little bit. I was a pitcher. When I think
about it back then, the other thing is that I always had a fascination for
anatomy. I probably drove my mom nuts because I was always bringing animals and
fish home and cutting them up and looking at them.

She was probably
wondering if you were a serial killer.

Yeah, right?! So when I did get hurt
. . . I started playing in college but the elbow kind of preventing me from
getting any further, and I sort of had an interest in what was going on—I
really didn’t think about it at the time—but I had this other interest in
anatomy and the two things kind of combined themselves in a way. And, at the
same time, the profession of athletic training was kind of exploding. So I had
some mentors who kind of blew me in that direction and said, ‘Hey, this might
be something you’re really interested in.’ So, yeah, at a very early, young age
I just kind of kept pursuing it, and kept pursuing it, and finding a place to
go to school to pursue it, and just on from there. I’m not going to lie to you,
it was absolutely sheer luck that I ended up working in the game that I really
love. It worked out great.

I read that you treat
the training room as a sanctuary for the players. 

I’ve always said,
‘There’s something magical when you put a Band-Aid on a person.’ And that’s
obviously a metaphor of sorts. There becomes a bond between you. These players
have a lot of pressures on them all the time. They’re under a lot of scrutiny
all the time. And I’ve always enjoyed the fact that they can feel like the
training room is a place where they can come not only to get treated for an
injury, but a place to come and relax, if they need to and talk. Sometimes you
find out a lot about them and they gain a lot of trust in you. So yeah, there
can be a lot of times when that training room is full of players and no one
really needs anything in terms of treatment, but we’re just there kind of
talking and shooting the breeze, and you can see them relax a little bit. And I
know there are other places where that is not allowed. I know there are other
places where, the only time you can be in the training room is if you’re being
treated for an injury. I’m not like that. I like to feel like I’m treating the
whole person, in a way, not just physically but spiritually, mentally, and
emotionally. It’s a place where they can come and relax, and it feels relaxed
that way.

So you’re a little
bit of a father figure to some of the players? 

[Laughs] Uh, you know, I’m
probably of that age. A lot of these players are closer to my younger kids’ age
than to me, so. . . and we don’t
exactly listen to or agree on to the same music that’s played in the training
room all the time. It’s funny you say that because a player not long ago—I mean
just days ago or something, and I don’t even know how this conversation came
up—he said to me, ‘Well you’re like a dad to us,’ and I thought, ‘Whoa.’ And
then I also heard, ‘And you’re like a grandfather to us,’ and I said, ‘Okay,
that’s enough.’ But I guess, in many ways, that’s true. I’m proud of the fact
that they feel they can come to me with even off-the-field issues that I can
help them with in any way possible. I kind of take pride in the fact that
they’ve always had that trust in me that they can basically talk about
anything, and if I can help them, I’m going to help them.

I’m sure they’re
happy to have somebody there to talk to who has some experience. 

I hope so.
It’s not a whole lot different than parenting, really, in many ways.

1. Oct. 8, Camden Yards, ALDS Game 2
Orioles 3, Yankees 2

Before the season, not even the most O-ptimistic fan could have envisioned 48,187 euphoric fans screaming at the top of their lungs from the first playoff pitch to the last.

“It was so loud the place was actually shaking,” catcher Matt Wieters said.

2. Oct. 11, Yankee Stadium, ALDS Game 4
Orioles 2, Yankees 1

Fittingly, Baltimore’s last victory of the season came in extra innings. The team’s remarkable 16 straight extra-innings wins epitomized its never-say-die attitude. 

In the 13th, J.J. Hardy’s RBI double sent the sulking New York faithful quietly to the exits.

3. Oct. 5, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, AL Wild Card
Orioles 5, Rangers 1

Fifteen years after its last playoff victory, four different Orioles recorded RBIs to propel the team to a wild-card win. Joe Saunders started, and three relievers finished off the win. “These guys genuinely like each other and respect each other,” manager Buck Showalter said. “They don’t have that disease of ‘me.’”

4. May 6, Fenway Park
Orioles 9, Red Sox 6

More than five hours into an epic game, Showalter, having used his entire roster, sent designated hitter Chris Davis to the mound to pitch. After Adam Jones homered in the 17th, Davis induced a double-play ball to become the first AL position player to earn a win since 1968.

5. Sept. 6, Camden Yards
Orioles 10, Yankees 6 

The Orioles unveiled a statue of Cal Ripken Jr. on the anniversary of the shortstop’s Iron Man record-setting game. The atmosphere inside Camden Yards harkened back to that historical night as well. A sold-out crowd brought postseason energy, and the team responded by blasting six homers to beat the hated Yanks.

6. Sept. 18, Safeco Field
Orioles 4, Mariners 2

After a doubleheader’s worth of baseball—in one game—reserve catcher Taylor Teagarden blooped a single in the 18th inning to give the O’s a key
pennant-race win. “It was a crazy deal,” Teagarden said. “Sometimes you just get thrown into these situations and you don’t have time to think. You just have to react.”

7. Apr. 6, Camden Yards
Orioles 4, Twins 2

Opening Day in Baltimore is always a citywide celebration of baseball and the coming of spring. The sellout crowd that watched Jake Arrieta pitch a gem under sunny skies had no idea what magic the ensuing 161 games would bring, but on this warm spring Friday, a 4-2 start was satisfying enough.

8. Aug. 10, Camden Yards
Orioles 7, Royals 1

The Chosen One picked his second game to announce his presence with authority. One night after making the most anticipated Orioles debut since Matt Wieters in 2009, Manny Machado hit his first two career home runs. “I was fortunate, and I took it in as much as possible,” he said.

9. Sept. 13, Camden Yards
Orioles 3, Rays 2

Those who played hookie from work to catch this Thursday afternoon businessman’s special made very good use of a sick day. Manny Machado’s hit in the 14th inning gave Baltimore a walk-off win over division rival Tampa Bay and snapped the O’s streak of 14-straight losing seasons.

10. Sept. 26, Camden Yards
Orioles 12, Blue Jays 2

The O’s blasted a team-record tying seven home runs, and when 20-year-old Machado and 42-year-old Jim Thome both went deep in the 5th inning, they became the first teammates in AL history with an age difference of more than
20 years to homer in the same inning.