@BrianHWaters

2016 will mark the first time I will be covering my favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles. I have cheered for this team since I began playing baseball in 1995. That year was special. While they missed the playoffs, Cal Ripken Jr. broke the MLB record for most consecutive games with 2,131. The next season they made the playoff. But most importantly, I had the opportunity to attend my first game. I knew I was going for a few weeks, but the night before the game began, I watched the news and saw that the Cleveland Indians struck a deal with the Orioles to send Eddie Murray back to Baltimore.To make things better, he would be playing his 1st game the next night. My first game was the return of Eddie Murray, how cool is that. On top of that he hit a home run.

In 2014 the Orioles were so close to reaching the World Series. At the time, I was working at ESPN on Mike and Mike in the morning and I was responsible for cutting all of the Orioles footage during the playoffs. It was great cutting footage of them defeating the Tigers, but it was very painful watching the footage of the birds losing to the Kansas City Royals by close margins. There was a row of championship flags that were in the windows of one of the building at ESPN and every day I would walk past and vision Adam Jones or Nelson Cruz holding the World Series Trophy. Unfortunately it was a picture of Madison Bumgarner. My dream had to wait.

Now I will be getting the opportunity to deliver news to fans about the team that we share so much passion about. Be sure to follow Fox Sports 1340 AM on Twitter for all your Orioles coverage and like our Fan Page on Facebook.

Click here to read all of my post game articles on Fox Sports 1340.