“There are myriad other issues too numerous to mention in this rant” wrote a recent, impatient letter writer regarding the Orioles current struggles (“Remember when it was fun to be an O’s fan?” May 25).

There is only one issue to mention, I think, and that is the Orioles are our hometown baseball team. Baseball is as unpredictable as life. If you love and respect life, do so with our team’s problems.

I write not as just a windy old codger in a wheelchair but as someone who, as an 11-year-old kid, was there at Memorial Stadium on April 15, 1954, when the new big-league Orioles unexpectedly beat the Chicago White Sox 3-1 to record their first victory. Ever since then it has ranged from “wretched” to “wondrous.” But has life ever gotten better than a warm nighttime in the stands during a pitchers’ duel with a beer and a hot dog?

Relax and let your hometown heroes start getting through their challenges. Everyone has some. It will end up okay and along the way there’s beer and hot dogs.

— Stan Heuisler, Baltimore

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