The Baltimore Orioles are in the midst of a historically bad season, made even worse by the fact that just a few years ago, they had the chance to climb the World Series mountain – and failed. Is this just a normal symptom the regular rise and fall of mid market teams in the Major Leagues, or is there a villain to the story? The Baseball Rabbi argues that there is both a culprit and a moment in time – or even two moments in time – when bad decisions directly created today’s Orioles disaster. Even worse: these were mistakes that should have been obvious even when they were happening.