I'm new to paying attention to baseball, just entering my second year of watching games. My family is from New York City (the Bronx, no less), but I was raised in Maryland.

I rooted for the Yankees last year, influenced by my father who grew up watching Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra . . . but my affiliation started shifting the more I learned about the Orioles. I like the Orioles' history, with their legendary firebrand of a manager, their string of home-grown Hall-of-Famers, their beautiful stadium. I like the current group's youth and potential, MacPhail's patient steps forward, the ups and downs of their bargain-bin free agents. The fanbase that will never give up on this team, despite years of truly dramatic meltdowns. The Halloween colors. The seemingly impossible task of ever rising to the top of the AL East.

The Yankees have had more success than any fanbase could reasonably expect, and of course they're famous for their abhorrent desire for total dominance. Orioles fans are just asking to move out of the basement, and they deserve it, dammit.