The red-hot Orioles are a .500 baseball team
Mediocrity is not often celebrated in professional sports, but we can give the Baltimore Orioles a pass, at least for tonight.
With a 4-2 win over the Chicago Cubs, the O's have found themselves at the peak of mediocrity, with a 44-44 record.
Again, it's not often we celebrate being average in professional sports, so let's take a moment to appreciate the context of this achievement for the Orioles.
The 2021 season was a bad one for Baltimore, which is saying something for an organization that has not had a winning record since 2016.
The O's finished 2021 with a 52-110 record. This season, though, they're just a few games away from that win mark and we're not even at the All-Star break yet. Baltimore is also riding a nine-game win streak.
It's historic.
Perhaps they'll sputter out and this will all be a memory. Perhaps, though, the Orioles will keep themselves in the hunt. Sure, they're still in last place in the American League East. That said, they're only two games outside of the Wild Card.
Whatever happens, .500 is worth celebrating right now.
More must-reads: