Glory Days T he history of baseball in Baltimore stretches back into the 1800s A team called the Orioles has played in Baltimore for almost all of that time The New York Yankees were called the Baltimore Orioles once Today’s Orioles actually got their start in Milwaukee Wisconsin The year was 1901 and the American League AL was playing its first season One of the eight teams in the AL was the Milwaukee Brewers After one year the Brewers moved to St Louis and were renamed the Browns They signed some of the best players from the crosstown Cardinals including Jack Powell Bobby Wallace and Jesse Burkett The Browns played in St Louis for more than 50 years During that time they had several good players including George Sisler Ken Williams Del Pratt Harlond Clift and Jack Tobin In 1922 the Browns nearly won the pennant 6
LEFT George Sisler was the Browns greatest player RIGHT Mike Cuellar and Brooks Robinson celebrate a World Series victory In 1944 they finally captured their first league championship Unfortunately the World Series was a disappointment The Browns were beaten by their St Louis neighbors the Cardinals By the early 1950s there simply was not enough room in St Louis for two teams The Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and took the name Orioles They have been there ever since The Orioles lost 100 games in their first season in Baltimore but the losing would not last long The team spent a lot of money and time developing new players Baltimore’s first big star was Brooks Robinson He was the best defensive third baseman anyone had ever seen Robinson could hit too In 1964 Robinson led the AL in runs batted in RBIs and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player MVP 7
Robinson was joined by other talented players in the 1960s including Boog Powell Paul Blair Milt Pappas Steve Barber Wally Bunker Jim Palmer Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally By 1966 the team had added superstars Frank Robinson and Luis Aparicio to the lineup The Orioles won the pennant and defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series that season In 1968 Baltimore hired Earl Weaver to manage the team He won four more pennants over the next 12 years By the 1980s the names and faces had changed in Baltimore but the winning tradition continued The club was now led by Cal Ripken Jr and Eddie Murray Ripken would become one of the greatest and most popular players in history From 1982 to 1998 he played in 2,632 games in a row Ripken would one day go into the Hall of Fame Murray also had a great career and joined his teammate there In 1992 the Orioles moved into beautiful new Oriole Park at Camden Yards More than two million fans came to watch the team play every year They rooted for Ripken and his talented teammates including Mike Mussina Roberto Alomar Rafael Palmeiro Brady Anderson Scott Erickson and Randy Myers LEFT Cal Ripken Jr set a record by playing in 2,632 games in a row ABOVE Eddie Murray hit more than 300 home runs as an Oriole 9
