A season for the Birds: Inside the Orioles' historically awful year

BALTIMORE -- For Caleb Joseph, the lowest point of the Orioles' season -- and there have been oodles of low points -- came in mid-August, after the dust had finally settled.

It came nearly a month after the team traded Manny Machado to the Dodgers in a move that officially signaled the waving of the white flag. It came well after the O's shipped Zach Britton to the Yankees. After they sent Brad Brach, Darren O'Day and Kevin Gausman to the Braves. After they dealt Jonathan Schoop to the Brewers.

Joseph's bottom had nothing to do with how many losses the Orioles had or how many games out of first place they were or how sparse the crowds at Camden Yards were becoming. Instead, his bottom had to do with bottoms -- as in the kind that get wiped and changed after a dirty diaper.

Joseph's 3-year-old son, Walker, is a regular in the Camden Yards child care room. Situated in the bowels of the stadium, right next to the tunnel that leads out to the field, it's a charming and colorful space that, for 81 dates a year, plays host to a bunch of toddlers who have more important things to do than spend three hours watching their fathers work. It features a bouncy seat and shelves filled with kids books and a small mural of a shuttered window opening onto a tropical beach with palm trees. And, of course, a diaper genie.

But ever since mid-August, when the Orioles returned to Baltimore for their first homestand after the trade deadline, the diaper genie doesn't get as much action. Gone are Zander and Zilah Britton. Gone are Claire O'Day and Brilee Brach. Gone is Schoop's daughter, Jae'Lynae.

"My kid was the only one in child care," Joseph says. "He lost his friends."

Included among the missing was Machado's wife, Yainee. Although the Machados don't have any kids of their own yet, Yainee was just as much of a regular in the child care room as any of the rugrats.

"She was like a godmother to Walker," Joseph says. "Then, out of nowhere, she's gone. Walker's asking, 'Where's Yainee? Where's Yainee?'"