The hope and optimism of an approaching baseball season might be the most resilient force in sports. After a tumultuous year on a few fronts, the Orioles should feel fortunate their fan base has plenty to spare.

Janette Moser nearly dropped out of her Birdland membership for this Orioles season after being relocated from her seats last fall and getting a less-than-satisfactory customer service experience. After I spoke to her last year in the midst of the franchise’s season ticket upheaval, she sent me an exasperated message that renewing her Birdland membership for 2026 “seems like an exercise in masochism at this point.”

Then the offseason swung around. The Orioles hired Craig Albernaz, a manager she thought she might like. Then they signed slugger Pete Alonso. Suddenly, Moser was rethinking her decision to abandon ship.

With the season opening Thursday, Moser is bought back in for another season of Orioles baseball. She’s a few rows back from where she used to be, and she’s locked in for 20 games instead of 29. But she’ll be at Camden Yards — even though she’s not exactly doing cartwheels for all the angst she went through.

“I mean there’s some things I don’t agree with — that’s gonna be the nature of the business,” she said this week. “On balance, I think the offseason was more positive than negative.”

It might be the optimism of spring bleeding into the Orioles flock, but that was the general sentiment I got from a handful of fans I reached out to in the last week — following up on our stories in August about Birdland Membership changes that had ticket holders questioning what their loyalty was worth. With more rigid ticket packages, fewer perks, increasing prices and a number of fans displaced from their seats, there was a mutinous air rising at Camden Yards in the midst of a losing season.

But months later most of the fans I wrangled to follow up had renewed — perhaps not at the same commitment level or in the same seats, but back in the fold for what Baltimore hopes is a bounce-back campaign. Even cynicism over more expensive, less perk-y ticket plans hasn’t chased off the majority of folks who just want to see the hometown team do well.

“Honestly, if we could get back to the World Series,” said Tony Levero, a flex-plan buyer, “I’d watch them from a parking lot.”

Those who are back are not fully satisfied with the rollout of the changes, which were criticized last year as a bit of an ambush for longtime ticket holders who saw their packages (and sometimes seats) change. But several fans who spoke to me this week said they had followed up with their ticket reps and gotten some measure of mea culpa.

Orioles president of business operations Catie Griggs spent Tuesday touting new features of the renovated park — which came thanks to a taxpayer-funded state bond — as aspects for fans to anticipate. But she acknowledged the franchise had tried to lean into some of the negative feedback it got for restructuring Birdland Memberships.

“Change is hard, we understand that, and so oftentimes it’s just explaining the why,” Griggs said. “It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re gonna like it. We understand that, but it’s not just a, ‘Hey, we’re trying to take this away.’”

The most notable changes are cosmetic: a huge, new scoreboard and video ribbon boards throughout the park that accompany a new sound system. There are wider walking lanes in the bottom level of seating around the park, and team officials said the available Americans With Disabilities Act seating has doubled.

The club has also touted guaranteed giveaways — including Hawaiian shirts and Tupac bobbleheads — for Birdland Members who have tickets to those games in their packages (giveaways won’t be guaranteed, however, for ticket exchanges). While the ultra-elite Truist Club — with a 40-game package starting at roughly $15,000 per person — is the most notable seating section overhaul, Griggs said, the team is offering value menu food items and $19 seats in the lower bowl to give affordable options to budget-conscious fans.

“We are being very intentional about making sure that we’re creating opportunities for people regardless of your financial spending ability or interest to come in and have a great day here,” Griggs said. “So that’s something that’s been a top priority.”

But none of these offerings winds up being a bigger draw than the team itself. Jake Gardner, who was displaced by the newly constructed press box in the section where his old seats were located, said he thinks the offseason moves, including the signing of Alonso, stoked his enthusiasm for the coming year.

“I’m pretty encouraged — I’m not as doom and gloom as most people are. Maybe they could have added an ace, but they did a lot to improve the team.”

Not all wounds have healed, however. Some fans couldn’t bring themselves to buy back in after the Orioles shuffled the Birdland program around.

Miles Needer never renewed a plan after the Orioles ended 29-game packages, citing a desire to more closely adhere to packages offered by other teams in Major League Baseball. His last email to his ticketing rep in December didn’t incur a response.

Needer never got over being displaced from his seats, which was hard to explain to his 7-year-old son, who is an avid baseball player and fan. Although he was happy to see moves such as a long-term contract for Samuel Basallo and a big-time signing in Alonso, he’s not reveling in the team’s success as before.

“I still pay attention. I still love baseball,” he said. “No amount of front office silliness is gonna make me a Yankees fan or anything like that. But it just feels like there’s a distance now between me and the Orioles — there’s a distance that wasn’t there before.”

Needer said he and his son will travel to other ballparks and go to the All-Star Game in Philadelphia this summer. He got a package from the Orioles in the last week trying to entice him back. It contained an oversize bird lapel pin. He tossed it in the trash.

“I was like, ‘Why didn’t you send that to me in September when you made me give my seats away?’” he said. “They made the effort that I thought they would make, which was almost none. If I make it to some games this year, great. But if not I’m excited to see an All-Star Game with my kid.”

Even those who are back in Birdland retain cautious skepticism. June Haviland was relieved to keep her club-level seats in a 20-game package that is mostly games on weekends, which allows her to travel from her home in Virginia to Camden Yards. But she considers herself lucky the changes didn’t affect her too much. Her attitude for future seasons is to see how this one goes.

“When you look at the park, it feels like they’ve invested a lot in making it pretty for rich people,” she said. “I’m always hopeful and I think they care, but I think we lucked out a bit.”

Several fans spoke about their hopes the Orioles will reinstate a few of the older benefits. They’d like to see food and merchandise discounts restored to their previous levels. They lament the disappearance of the membership clubhouse, which offered shelter from especially hot days and inclement weather.

Levero — who downgraded from a 13-game package last season to flex membership — said it has been “lousy” to see some of the Birdland Membership tiers watered down. But, between the more aggressive offseason moves of the club and the Orioles’ push to explain some of their changes and try to extend an olive branch to fans, there might be positive developments afoot.

“I think they made a genuine effort,” he said. “They sort of backed down, and I saw they’re offering a bigger flex plan. Maybe the glass-half-full take is that they heard fan feedback and they’re responding to it.

Added Levero: “I’m glad they’re learning.”