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Baltimore Orioles L.P.

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Baltimore Orioles L.P.
333 W. Camden St.
Baltimore, MD 21201
MD Tel. 410-685-9800
Toll Free 888-848-2473
Fax 410-547-6277

Type: Private
On the web: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com
Employees: 135

These birds are partial to Louisville timber. The Baltimore Orioles baseball team is a storied franchise of Major League Baseball, boasting seven American League pennants and three World Series titles (its last in 1983). Organized as the Milwaukee Brewers in 1901, the team became the St. Louis Browns the next year and moved to Baltimore in 1954. Poor performance on the field has made it a struggle for the Orioles to draw crowds at retro-looking Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the team's home since 1992. Peter Angelos has controlled the team since 1993.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending June, 2007:
Sales: $150.0M

Officers:
Chairman and CEO: Peter G. Angelos
VP and CFO: Robert A. Ames
Executive Director of Communications: Spiro Alafassos

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Company History: Baltimore Orioles L.P.

Company Perspectives:
Oriole Park is state-of-the-art yet unique, traditional and intimate in design. It blends with the urban context of downtown Baltimore while taking its image from baseball parks built in the early 20th century.
Key Dates:
1902: American League Milwaukee Brewers move to St. Louis, becoming St. Louis Browns.
1944: Browns win only American League pennant.
1953: Browns move to Baltimore, becoming Baltimore Orioles.
1966: Orioles win first World Series Championship.
1992: Oriole Park and Camden Yards opens.

Founded: 1953
NAIC: 711211 Sports Teams and Clubs

The Baltimore Orioles L.P. is the operating company for the professional baseball team of the same name. As a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League, the Orioles play at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, situated in the heart of Baltimore. The opening of Oriole Park in 1992 ushered in a new era of baseball-only stadiums that paid architectural homage to the ballparks of an earlier era. While the popularity of its home field led to high attendance, success has not transferred onto the diamond in recent years. A team that was a consistent contender for decades has fallen into an extended period of mediocrity. The club is owned by a group of investors headed by attorney Peter Angelos, a gadfly among baseball's generally conservative group of owners. Minority owners of the Orioles include such celebrities as novelist Tom Clancy, political commentator and columnist George Will, filmmaker Barry Levinson, former tennis player Pam Shriver, and legendary sportscaster Jim McKay.

The Orioles were originally the St. Louis Browns before the franchise was transferred to Baltimore in 1954. Both St. Louis and Baltimore boasted rich traditions in major league baseball during the final decades of the 1800s. The Baltimore Orioles of the 1890s was one of the era's most notorious and celebrated teams, both for its roughhouse ways and adherence to "scientific baseball," which emphasized the use of guile in playing the game. St. Louis originally fielded a team called the Brown Stockings, initially in the National Association, which folded after a single season, then for two seasons in the National League, which was established in 1876. The St. Louis club then joined a rival major league, the American Association, where it won several championships before returning to the National League, along with the Baltimore Orioles, as part of a merger in 1891. The Browns were owned by controversial beer baron Chris Von Der Ahe, who fell out of favor with his fellow owners; St. Louis was stripped of its franchise in 1899. After three years without major league baseball, the city would land an American League franchise three years later. The American League was originally a minor league, the Western League, that changed its name and declared it was the equal to the National League, launching its first major league season in 1901. Baltimore was awarded an American League franchise and the new incarnation of the Orioles played two seasons before the franchise moved to New York City, where the club was renamed the Highlanders and eventually became known as the New York Yankees and emerged as one of the most successful sports franchises in the world. As a result of the Oriole's defection, Baltimore would be without major league baseball for the next half century. St. Louis, on the other hand, would land a National League club, via the 1999 transfer of the Cleveland Spiders, as well as one from the new American League.

Following the 1901 season, the Milwaukee Brewers franchise of the fledgling American League was bought for $35,000 by 33-year-old Robert Lee Hedges, who moved the club to St. Louis, renaming it the Browns. He cleaned up Sportsman's Park where the club played and the Browns over the next dozen years drew well and were profitable. Another rival major league, the Federal League, was formed in 1913, and after completing two seasons it agreed to disband. As part of the settlement with Major League Baseball, Hedges sold the Browns to one of the owners of the St. Louis Terriers, Philip Ball, for $525,000. Hedges made a tidy profit on his investment in the team, becoming the last owner of the Browns to make money on the club. He also held the distinction of giving Branch Rickey his start as a baseball executive, naming him the Browns' manager. Rickey would one day revolutionize baseball by refining the minor league farm system of developing big league talent while with the St. Louis Cardinals, and by breaking down baseball's racial barriers when with the Brooklyn Dodgers by signing Jackie Robinson, the first African-America to play major league baseball in the modern era.

The Brown's new owner was a hard-drinking, gruff ex-ballplayer, as well as erstwhile cowhand and construction worker, who made a fortune manufacturing ice machines. Rickey, a teetotaler, campaigned for a national prohibition of alcohol and was promptly shown the door by Ball. It was only the first of many mistakes Ball would make while running the Browns. In 1920 he allowed the National League's Cardinals to share Sportsmen Park, which permitted his local competitor to sell its own park and invest the money in Branch Rickey's farm system. As a result, the Cardinals went on to win several World Series while the Browns became a perennial loser; St. Louis went from being a "Brown's town," to a city that adored the Cardinals. Ball even paid to increase the seating capacity of Sportsman Park, a move that did little to help the Browns, whose attendance declined steadily, but proved a windfall for the immensely popular Cardinals. When Ball died in 1933 the club drew just 88,113 fans for the entire year. One game that season attracted just 34 paying customers. It was no wonder that nobody wanted to buy the team.

The executor of Ball's estate finally turned to Rickey, who recruited Bill DeWitt, Sr., the Cardinals team treasurer, and Donald Barnes, president of American Investment Company, to buy the Browns for $325,000. Barnes put up $50,000, DeWitt $25,000, and the club raised another $200,000 by selling stock at $5 a share. Under new ownership the Browns fared no better on the field or the box office, so that by 1941 Barnes sought permission from the American League to relocate the franchise to Los Angeles. The meeting was held on December 8, 1941, one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor that precipitated the United States' entry into World War II. Because of the sudden uncertainty in the world, Barnes was turned down, but the war did lead to the greatest moment in the Brown's history. In 1944, when the level of major league talent was severely diluted because so many players were serving in the military or alternative service, the Browns were able to win its only American League pennant. Even this moment of glory, however, failed to help the club improve its image in St. Louis. The Browns had the misfortune of meeting the Cardinals in the World Series, losing to their tenants in six games.

Control of the Browns changed hands once again in 1945 when board member Richard Muckerman, along with Bill and Charlie DeWitt, took over the running of the club. The team continued to draw poorly, prompting Muckerman in 1945 to sign and play Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder, as a gate attraction. The move only succeeded in solidifying the Browns' reputation as baseball's pathetic country cousin. Because the team drew poorly during the postwar years, it had to sell off what little talent it possessed to stay afloat, resulting in teams that even fewer fans wanted to pay to watch. In 1951, Bill Veeck, the former owner of the Cleveland Indians and renowned maverick, bought the Browns with the ambitious goal of driving the Cardinals out of town. The Cardinal's owner was enduring some income tax difficulties, but Veeck's hopes were dashed when millionaire brewer August Busch bought the rival club. Veeck's best known moment while running the Browns came just one month into his tenure, when he had a midget named Eddie Gaedel brought into a game to pinch hit--after jumping out of a cake. With such a compact strike zone, less than two inches after assuming a crouch, Gaedel walked. The next day, the American League banned Gaedel and announced that all future player contracts had to be approved by the league office. Veeck tried others stunts, such as Grandstand Manager's Night, when the fans were able to vote on the starting pitcher and strategic decisions by using placards that said "Yes" on one side and "No" on the other.

With his genius for marketing Veeck was able to improve annual attendance from 293,790 in 1951 when he took over in mid-season, to 518,796 a year later. Still, the Browns remained last in the league in attendance, and Veeck lacked the money to make the team a true contender. With Busch now in charge of the Cardinals, he looked to move the club, but some of the conservative owners despised his iconoclastic ways and prevented him from returning the Browns to Milwaukee. He was forced to keep the team one more season in St. Louis, and with the fans knowing that the team was slated to leave, attendance collapsed. During a meeting held in September 1953, American League owners voted against Veeck's request to relocate the Browns to Baltimore, which was building a new ballpark and had first made known its interests in procuring the Browns in 1947. The owners knew Veeck was in desperate financial condition: the Browns brought in no money from television or radio; to stay in business during the 1953 season Veeck had been forced to sell his better players; and Veeck could not keep up the mortgage payments on Sportsman Park, so he sold the facility to Busch for $1.1 million. According to some sources, the owners who disapproved of Veeck were determined to keep the Browns in St. Louis until he went bankrupt, at which point the league could dispose of the franchise. Realizing he had no choice, Veeck sold his 70 percent interest in the Browns to a group of some 100 Baltimore investors led by Charles W. Miles for $2,475,000. Once Veeck was out, the American League unanimously approved the transfer of the Browns to Baltimore.

The owners of the new Baltimore Orioles set about the task of building a competitive ball club by hiring a brilliant executive named Paul Richards to serve as general manager. He wrote down in an unpublished manuscript the philosophy and tenets that would guide the club, from operating a farm system to making a relay throw. It would become known as the Oriole Way, and it would serve as a roadmap for excellence that the Orioles would enjoy for a generation. The farm system developed into the premiere breeding ground for baseball talent for some 20 years, resulting in the Orioles contending for its first pennant in 1960, its first World Series championship in 1966, and having many successful seasons throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

In 1956 James Keelty, Jr., succeeded Miles as president, followed by Leland S. MacPhail in 1960. Ownership changed hands in 1966 when Jerold C. Hoffberger, who headed the National Brewing Company, bought the club. Despite their winning ways, the Orioles failed to draw as well as might be expected, forever placing second in the hearts of Baltimore sports fans, who had developed a passionate following for the Baltimore Colts football team. During Hoffberger's 15-year tenure as Orioles owner, the franchise was essentially a break-even investment, but the Orioles proved to be an excellent promotional vehicle for National Brewing to sell its beer in a very crowded marketplace. When the Hoffberger family sold the company to Carling Brewery in 1976, however, there was little incentive to continue ownership of the Orioles.

In 1979, the Hoffberger family sold the Orioles for $12 million to Edward Bennett Williams, a Washington, D.C., lawyer, prompting some fear that the club might be relocated to a city that would provide better fan support. A former press secretary for Baltimore Mayor William Donald Schaefer, along with two area bankers, at the behest of the mayor, organized a group of volunteers to help sell season tickets. The group became known as the Designated Hitters Club. Following the Orioles' 1983 World Championship, the Club sold 8,200 additional season tickets. The team appeared secure, but in order to take attendance to the next level, to achieve consistent sellouts, it was clear that the Orioles needed to replace antiquated Memorial Stadium with a new ballpark. Both Bennett and Mayor Schaefer were eager to build a new facility, which became especially important to the latter after the beloved Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984 and the Bullets National Basketball Team move south to Washington D.C. before that. The loss of the Orioles would be a crushing blow to the pride of Baltimore, which would no longer be view as a "big league" city and likely suffer economically. To keep up the pressure, Williams insisted on short-term leases for the use of city-owned Memorial Stadium. Moreover, the team negotiated a no-rent contract. Rather, the Orioles' rent was a percentage of profits, after taxes and expenses were deducted.

While public funding for a new ballpark gained approval, Williams died of cancer in August 1988. In June 1989 New York investor Eli Jacobs and two partners--Orioles president Larry Lucchino and former politician R. Sargent Shriver--bought the franchise for a reported $70 million. Schaefer had become Maryland's governor and was in a much better position to deliver a new ballpark to the Orioles. After much maneuvering in the state legislature, Schaefer was finally able to push through a bill to provide funding for the facility, to begin construction in 1990. The site chosen would be an old railroad depot and warehouse district in Baltimore, an area in desperate need of revitalization.

In 1992 the Orioles played it first game in its new 47,000-seat facility, Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It was considered an success even months before the first pitch. The architects chose to ignore the previous generation of American stadiums, multipurpose facilities that were neither well-suited to baseball or football, opting instead to draw inspiration from the baseball-only parks that were built in the early decades of the 20th century, such as Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, perennial fan favorites. They wanted a retro look but with all the modern conveniences. A massive warehouse visible beyond right field provided charm as well as space for executive offices, ticket sale booths, concession kitchens, and a souvenir shop. The critics were first to weigh in with their approval of the new ballpark, and the baseball fans of Baltimore--and the world--concurred, as Oriole Park became a tourist attraction in itself and the club now enjoyed consistent sellouts and attendance topped the 3.5 million mark.

Jacobs began to experience financial difficulties and as early as 1991 began to talk about the possibility of selling the Orioles. In 1993 Jacobs filed for bankruptcy, and the franchise was put on the block. During the course of a spirited, 15-round auction, former Baltimore city councilman and wealthy attorney Peter Angelos, and Cincinnati oil executive William DeWitt, Jr., whose father once owned the Browns, joined forces to bid $173 million and outdistance rival buyers for the club.

Angelos became managing partner of the Orioles, but other than making the playoffs in 1997, the team found it increasingly difficult to compete in the American League's Eastern Division, where the New York Yankees appeared to have an unlimited budget on acquiring players and the Boston Red Sox were desperate in their need to keep up with their fiercest rival. The one bright spot during this period was Orioles player Cal Ripkin's pursuit of Lou Gerhig's seemingly unbreakable record for consecutive games played, which captured the interest of the entire country. The Orioles got away from building the team from within, choosing instead to make costly investments in free agent players, most of whom failed to pan out. Moreover, for several seasons the team had only inexpensive and marginal talent, offering no threat to the division leaders. Some of the charm of Oriole Park also wore off, as many retro-looking ballparks opened up around the country and eclipsed some of its glory. As a result, attendance dipped somewhat, but the franchise was still quite valuable, and in 2004 management again invested in high-priced free-agent players. Should Baltimore Orioles L.P. be able to once again assemble contending clubs, the team would likely return to the days of regular sellouts.

Principal Competitors

New York Yankees Partnership; The Boston Red Sox; Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club.

Milwaukee Brewers

Main article: History of the Baltimore Orioles

The modern Orioles franchise can trace its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, beginning in 1894 when the league reorganized. The Brewers were there when the WL renamed itself the American League in 1900.

At the end of the 1900 season, the American League removed itself from baseball's National Agreement (the formal understanding between the NL and the minor leagues). Two months later, the AL declared itself a competing major league. As a result of several franchise shifts, the Brewers were one of only two Western League teams that didn't either fold or move (the other being the Detroit Tigers). During the first American League season in 1901, they finished last (8th place) with a record of 48-89. During its lone Major League season, the team played at Lloyd Street Grounds, between 16th and 18th Streets in Milwaukee.

St. Louis Browns

St. Louis Browns Logo, circa 1936-1951

In 1902, however, the team did move to St. Louis, where it became the "Browns", in reference to the original name of the legendary 1880s club that by 1900 was known as the Cardinals. They even built a new park on the site of the old Browns' former home, Sportsman's Park. In their first St. Louis season, the Browns finished second. Although the Browns usually fielded terrible or mediocre teams (they had only four winning seasons from 1902 to 1922), they were very popular at the gate during their first two decades in St. Louis, and trounced the Cardinals in attendance. In 1909, the Browns rebuilt Sportsman's Park as the third concrete-and-steel park in the majors.

During this time, the Browns were best-known for their role in the race for the 1910 American League batting title. Ty Cobb took the last game of the season off, believing that his slight lead over Nap Lajoie would hold up unless Lajoie had a near-perfect day at the plate. However, Cobb was one of the most despised players in baseball, and Browns catcher-manager Jack O'Connor ordered third baseman Red Corriden to station himself in shallow left field. Lajoie bunted five straight times down the third base line and made it to first easily. On his last at-bat, Lajoie reached base on an error--officially giving him a hitless at-bat. O'Connor and coach Harry Howell tried to bribe the official scorer, a woman, to change the call to a hit--even offering to buy her a new wardrobe. Cobb won the batting title by just a few thousandths of a point over Lajoie (though it later emerged that one game may have been counted twice in the statistics). The resulting outcry triggered an investigation by American League president Ban Johnson. At his insistence, Browns owner Robert Lee Hedges[1] fired O'Connor and Howell; both men were informally banned from baseball for life.

In 1916, Hedges sold the Browns to Philip DeCatesby Ball, who owned the St. Louis Terriers in the by-then-defunct Federal League. Four years later, Ball allowed the Cardinals to move out of dilapidated Robison Field and share Sportsman's Park with the Browns. This move was one of many that eventually doomed the Browns; Cardinals owner Sam Breadon and general manager Branch Rickey (a former Browns manager) used the proceeds from the Robison Field sale to build baseball's first modern farm system--which eventually produced several star players that brought the Cardinals more drawing power than the Browns.

The 1922 Browns excited their owner by almost beating the Yankees to a pennant. The club was boasting the best players in franchise history, including future Hall of Famer George Sisler, and an outfield trio - Ken Williams, Baby Doll Jacobson, and Jack Tobin - that batted .300 or better in 1919-23 and in 1925. In 1922, Williams became the first player in Major League history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season, something that would not be done again in the Majors until 1956.

Ball confidently predicted that there would be a World Series in Sportsman's Park by 1926. In anticipation, he increased the capacity of his ballpark from 18,000 to 30,000. There was a World Series in Sportsman's Park in 1926 - the Cardinals upset the Yankees. St. Louis had been considered a "Browns' town" until then; after 1926 the Cardinals dominated St. Louis baseball, while still technically tenants of the Browns. Meanwhile, the Browns rapidly fell into the cellar. As well as winning the World Series, St. Louis evolved to a "Cardinals'" town.

War Era

In 1941, the Browns asked AL owners for permission to move to Los Angeles for the 1942 season, and got tentative approval from the league. A schedule was even drawn up including Los Angeles, and the move was expected to win final approval at a league meeting on December 8. However, the bombing of Pearl Harbor a day earlier resulted in it never coming to a vote.

During the war, the Browns won their only St. Louis-based American League pennant in 1944. Some critics called it a fluke; most major league stars voluntarily joined or were drafted into the military; however, many of the Browns' best players were classified 4-F: unfit for military service. They faced their local rivals, the more successful Cardinals, in the 1944 World Series, the last World Series to date played entirely in one stadium, and lost 4 games to 2.

In 1945, the Browns posted an 81-75 record and fell to third place, 6 games out, again with less than top-ranked talent. The 1945 season may be best remembered for the Browns' signing of utility outfielder Pete Gray, the only one-armed major league position player in history. 1945 proved to be the Browns' last hurrah; they would never have another winning season in St. Louis. In fact, 1944 and 1945 were two of only eight winning seasons they enjoyed in the 31 years after nearly winning the pennant in 1922.

Bill Veeck's St. Louis Browns

In 1951, Bill Veeck, the former owner of the Cleveland Indians purchased the Browns. In St. Louis he extended the promotions and wild antics that had made him famous and loved by many and loathed by many others. His most notorious stunt in St. Louis was to send Eddie Gaedel, a 3 foot 7 inch, 65-pound midget, to bat as a pinch hitter. When Gaedel stepped to the plate he was wearing a Browns uniform with the number 1/8, and little slippers turned up at the end like elf's shoes. With no strike zone to speak of, Gaedel walked on four straight pitches. The stunt infuriated American League President Will Harridge, who voided Gaedel's contract the next day.

After the 1951 season, Veeck make Ned Garver the highest paid member of the Browns.^[1] Garver remains the last pitcher to win 20 games for a team that lost 100 games in a season. He was the second pitcher in history to accomplish that feat.

Veeck also brought the legendary, and seemingly ageless, Satchel Paige back to major league baseball to pitch for the Browns. Veeck had previously signed the former Negro League great to a contract in Cleveland in 1948 at age 42, amid much criticism. At 45, Paige's re-appearance in a Brown's uniform did nothing to win Veeck friends among baseball's owners. Nonetheless, Paige ended the season with a respectable 3-4 record and a 4.79 ERA.

Veeck believed that St. Louis was too small for two franchises and planned to drive the Cardinals out of town. He signed many of the Cardinals' most locally loved ex-players and, as a result, brought many of the Cards fans in to see the Browns. Veeck signed former Cardinals great Dizzy Dean to a broadcasting contract and tapped Rogers Hornsby as manager. He also re-acquired former Browns fan favorite Vern Stephens and signed former Cardinals pitcher Harry Brecheen, both of whom had starred in the all-St. Louis World Series in 1944. He stripped Sportsman's Park of any Cardinals material and dressed it exclusively in Browns memorabilia. He even moved his family to an apartment under the stands. Although the Browns fielded hideous teams during this time, Veeck's showmanship and colorful promotions made attendance at Browns games more fun and unpredictable than the conservative Cardinals were willing to offer.

Veeck's all-out assault on the Cardinals came during a downturn in the Cardinals' fortunes after Rickey left in 1942. Indeed, when Cardinals' owner Fred Saigh was convicted of massive tax evasion late in 1952, it looked almost certain that the Cardinals were leaving town, as most of the top bids came from non-St. Louis interests. However, Saigh accepted a much lower bid from Anheuser-Busch, whose president, August Busch, Jr. immediately announced that he had no intention of moving the Cardinals. Veeck quickly realized the Cardinals now had more resources that he could ever hope to match and decided to move the Browns.

Veeck attempted to move the Browns back to Milwaukee (where he had owned the Brewers of the American Association in the 1940s), but the move was blocked by the other American League owners, seemingly for reasons that were more personal than business related. Veeck then tried to move the Browns to Baltimore himself. However, he was rebuffed by the owners, still seething by the publicity stunts he pulled at the Browns home games. Meanwhile, Sportsman's Park had slipped into disrepair. Veeck was forced to sell it to the Cardinals since he couldn't afford to make the necessary improvements to bring it up to code. With his only leverage gone and facing threats of liquidating his franchise, Veeck was all but forced to sell the Browns to a Baltimore-based group led by attorney Clarence Miles and brewer Jerry Hofberger. With Veeck "out of the way", the American League owners quickly approved the relocation of the team to Baltimore for the 1954 season.

Legacy

Unlike other clubs that transferred in the 1950s, retaining their nickname and a sense of continuity with their past (such as the Brooklyn-Los Angeles Dodgers and New York-San Francisco Giants), the St. Louis Browns were renamed upon their transfer, implicitly distancing themselves at least somewhat from their history. In December 1954, the Orioles further distanced themselves from their Browns past by making a 17-player trade with the New York Yankees that included most former Browns of note still on the Baltimore roster. Indeed, to this day the Orioles make almost no mention of their past as the Browns. Though the deal did little to improve the short-term competitiveness of the club, it helped establish a fresh identity for the Oriole franchise.

The Browns, along with the Washington Senators, were mostly associated with losing. The Senators became the butt of a well-known Vaudeville joke, "First in war, first in peace, and last in the American League," a twist on the famous "Light Horse Harry" Lee eulogy of George Washington: "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen". A spinoff phrasing was invented for the Browns: "First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League.")

Many older fans in St. Louis remember the Browns fondly, and some have formed societies to keep the memory of the team alive. The club was in St. Louis for 52 years. As of the 2006 season, the club had been in Baltimore longer than they were in St. Louis.

Believed to be the oldest former major leaguer, the Browns' Rollie Stiles, 100, died July 22, 2007 in St. Louis County.^[2]

Baltimore Orioles

Soon after taking over, the Miles-Hofberger group renamed their new team the Baltimore Orioles. The name has a rich history in Baltimore, having been used by Baltimore baseball teams since the late 19th century.

In the 1890s, a powerful and innovative National League Orioles squad included several future Hall of Famers, such as "Wee" Willie Keeler, Wilbert Robinson, Hughie Jennings and John McGraw. They won three straight pennants, and participated in all four of the Temple Cup Championship Series, winning the last two of them. That team had started as a charter member of the American Association in 1882. Despite its on-field success, it was one of the four teams contracted out of existence by the National League after the 1899 season. Its best players (and its manager, Ned Hanlon) regrouped with the Brooklyn Dodgers, turning that team into a contender.

In 1901, Baltimore and McGraw were awarded an expansion franchise in the growing American League, but again the team was sacrificed in favor of a New York City franchise, as the team was transferred to the city in 1903. After some early struggles, that team eventually became baseball's most successful franchise - the New York Yankees.

As a member of the high-minor league level International League, the Orioles competed at what is now known as the AAA level from 1903-1953. Baltimore's own Babe Ruth pitched for the Orioles before being sold to the AL Boston Red Sox in 1914. The Orioles of the IL won nine league championships, first in 1908, followed by a lengthy run from 1919 to 1925, and then dramatically in 1944, after they had lost their home field Oriole Park in a disastrous mid-season fire. The huge post-season crowds at their temporary home, Municipal Stadium, caught the attention of the big league brass and helped open the door to the return of major league baseball to Baltimore. Thanks to the big stadium, that "Junior World Series" easily outdrew the major league World Series which, coincidentally, included the team that would move to Baltimore 10 years later and take up occupancy in the rebuilt version of that big stadium.

Modern Orioles

On April 15, 1954, thousands of Baltimoreans jammed city streets as the new Orioles paraded from downtown to their new home at Memorial Stadium. During the 90-minute parade, the new birds signed autographs, handed out pictures and threw styrofoam balls to crowd as the throng marched down 33rd Street West. Inside, more than 46,000 watched the Orioles beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-1, to win their home opener and move into first place in the American League.[2] Ironically, the Orioles lost their last home game of the season, 11-0, to the same White Sox, finishing with 100 losses and 57½ games out of first place. [3]

The new AL Orioles took about six years to become competitive. By the early 1960s, stars such as Brooks Robinson, John "Boog" Powell, and Dave McNally were being developed by a strong farm system.

Milt Pappas for Frank Robinson

In 1966, the Orioles traded pitcher Milt Pappas (and several others) to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for slugging outfielder Frank Robinson. That same year, Robinson won the American League Most Valuable Player award, thus becoming the first (and so far only) man to win the MVP in each league (Robinson won the NL MVP in 1961, leading the Reds to the pennant). In addition to winning the 1966 MVP, Robinson also won the Triple Crown (leading the American League in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.) The Orioles won their first ever American League championship in 1966, and in a major upset, swept the World Series by out-dueling the Los Angeles Dodgers aces Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Pappas went 30-29 in a little over two years with the Reds, before being traded. Although he would go on to have back-to-back 17-win seasons for the Chicago Cubs in 1971 and 1972, including a no-hitter in the latter season, this did not help the Reds, who ended up losing the 1970 World Series to Robinson and the Orioles. This trade has become renowned as one of the most lopsided in baseball history, including a mention by Susan Sarandon in her opening soliloquy in the 1988 film Bull Durham: "Bad trades are a part of baseball. I mean, who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas?"

Glory Years (1966-1983)

The Orioles farm system had begun to produce a number of high quality players and coaches who formed the core of winning teams; from 1966 to 1983, the Orioles won three World Series titles (1966, 1970, and 1983), six American League pennants (1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979, 1983), and five of the first six American League Eastern Division titles. They played baseball the Oriole Way, an organizational ethic best described by longtime farm hand and coach Cal Ripken, Sr.'s phrase "perfect practice makes perfect!" The Oriole Way was a belief that hard work, professionalism, and a strong understanding of fundamentals were the keys to success at the major league level. It was based on the belief that if every coach, at every level, taught the game the same way, the organization could produce "replacement parts" that could be substituted seamlessly into the big league club with little or no adjustment. This led to an unprecedented run of success from 1966 to 1983 which saw the Orioles become the envy of the league, and the winningest team in baseball.

During this stretch, three different Orioles were named Most Valuable Player (Frank Robinson-1966, Boog Powell-1970, Cal Ripken, Jr.-1983). The pitching staff was phenomenal with four pitchers winning six Cy Young Awards (Mike Cuellar-1969, Jim Palmer-1973, 1975, 1976, Mike Flanagan-1979, Steve Stone-1980), and in 1971 the Orioles produced four 20-game winners. Pat Dobson joined McNally, Cuellar, and Palmer as the Birds went on to post a 101-61 record for their 3rd straight AL East title.[4] Also during this stretch three players were named rookies of the year (Al Bumbry-1973, Eddie Murray-1977, Cal Ripken Jr.-1982).

Weaver Ball

During this rise to prominence, Weaver Ball came into vogue. Named for fiery manager Earl Weaver, Weaver Ball is defined by the Oriole trifecta of "Pitching, Defense, and the Three-Run Home Run."

When an Oriole GM was told by a reporter that Earl Weaver, as the skipper of a very talented team, was a "push-button manager" he replied "Earl built the machine and installed all the buttons!"

As the Robinson boys grew older, newer stars emerged including multiple Cy Young Award winner Jim Palmer and switch-hitting first baseman Eddie Murray. With the decline and eventual departure of two local teams - the NFL's Baltimore Colts and baseball's Washington Senators, the Orioles' excellence paid off at the gate, as the team cultivated a large and rabid fan base at old Memorial Stadium.

After winning the 1983 World Series, however, the Orioles suffered a gradual downturn in their on-field fortunes, culminating in the 1988 season, when the Orioles lost their first 21 games in a row to set a Major League record for most consecutive losses at the beginning of a season. The losing streak also cost then-manager Cal Ripken, Sr., his position, as he was fired after six games and replaced by Frank Robinson. After a 54-107 season in 1988, the "Why Not Orioles" then shocked the baseball world by finishing two games out of first place in 1989, a season in which they were not eliminated from the pennant race until the final weekend of the season.

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

In 1992, with grand ceremony, the Orioles began their season in a brand new ballpark, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and thus retiring Memorial Stadium in the major league baseball world. The ballpark was an instant success; however, the name of the new park had controversy. Many felt that since the Orioles' new home was so close to Babe Ruth's birthplace that the new park should have been named after Ruth instead of being indirectly named after the Earl of Camden, Charles Pratt, who was a Britisher who never set foot on American soil. There was also the superficial connection to the fact that Ruth played for the Orioles early in his career, but the Orioles team that Ruth played for was in no way related to the Orioles team that moved to Baltimore from St. Louis. Camden Yards was built at the location of the old Camden Railway

In 1993, Peter Angelos bought the Baltimore Orioles, which returned the team to local ownership. The Orioles also hosted the All Star Game.

1995: Ripken Breaks the Record

In the season when baseball returned from the devastating players' strike, Cal Ripken, Jr. finally broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games streak of 2,130 games. This was later voted the all-time baseball moment of the 20th Century by fans from around the country in 1999. Ripken would finish with 2,632 straight games, finally sitting on September 20, 1998 against the New York Yankees at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

1996/1997: Playoffs

Angelos hired Pat Gillick as GM for the Orioles in 1996. Gillick went on to bring in several premium players like B.J. Surhoff, Randy Myers, and Roberto Alomar. Under Gillick and manager Davey Johnson, the Orioles finally returned to postseason play by winning the American League's wild card spot in the 1996 season. The team set a major league record for home runs in a single season, with 257, and upset the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series before falling to the New York Yankees in a controversial American League Championship Series (famous for the fan, Jeffrey Maier, interfering with a ball and allowing the Yankees to win game 1). The Orioles followed up by winning the AL East Division title in 1997, going "wire-to-wire" (being in first place from the first day of the season to the last). After eliminating the Mariners in four games in the opening round, the team lost again in the ALCS, this time a heartbreaker to the underdog Indians, in which each Oriole loss was by 1 run. After the Orioles failed to advance to the World Series in either playoff, Johnson resigned as manager, with pitching coach Ray Miller taking his place.

1998/1999: Beginning of a downturn

With Miller at the helm, the Orioles found themselves not only out of the playoffs, but also with a losing season. When Gillick's contract expired in 1998, it was not renewed. Angelos brought in Frank Wren to take over as GM. The Orioles added volatile slugger Albert Belle, but the team's woes continued in the 1999 season, with stars like Rafael Palmeiro, Roberto Alomar, and Eric Davis leaving in free agency. After a second straight losing season, Angelos fired both Miller and Wren. He named Syd Thrift the new GM and brought in former Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove. In 1998, the Orioles updated the Bird in their logo, and then once again in 1999 to bring it to its present form.

Orioles Visit Cuba

In a rare event on March 28, 1999, the Orioles staged an exhibition game against the Cuban national team in Havana. The Orioles won the game 3-2 in 11 innings. They were the first Major League team to play in Cuba since 1959, when the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Orioles in an exhibition. The game was part of a two-game series, where the Cuban team visited Baltimore in May of 1999. Cuba won the second game 10-6.

2000-present

Going into the 2007 season, the Orioles have had nine consecutive sub-.500 seasons, due to the combination of lackluster play on the team’s part and the ascent of the Yankees and Red Sox to the top of the game – each rival having a clear advantage in financial flexibility due to their larger media market size. Further complicating the situation for the Orioles is the relocation of the Montreal Expos franchise to nearby Washington, D.C.. The new Washington Nationals threaten to carve into the Orioles fan base and television dollars. There is some hope that having competition in the larger Baltimore-Washington metro market will spur the Orioles to field a better product to compete for fans with the Nationals.

Beginning with the 2003 season, big changes began to sweep through the organization to try to snap the losing ways. General manager Syd Thrift was fired and to replace him, the Orioles hired Jim Beattie as the Executive Vice President and Mike Flanagan as the Vice President of Baseball Operations. After another losing season, manager Mike Hargrove was not retained and Yankees coach Lee Mazzilli was brought in as the new manager. The team signed powerful hitters in SS Miguel Tejada, C Javy Lopez, and former Oriole 1B Rafael Palmeiro. The following season, the Orioles traded for OF Sammy Sosa.

The 2005 season may go down as one of the most controversial and strangest in the Orioles' history. The team got hot early and jumped out in front of the AL East division, holding onto first place for 62 straight days. However, turmoil on and off the field began to take its toll as the O's started struggling around the All-Star break, dropping them close to the surging Yankees and Red Sox. Injuries to Lopez, Sosa, Luis Matos, Brian Roberts, and Larry Bigbie came within weeks of each other, and the team grew increasingly dissatisfied with the "band-aid" moves of the front office and manager Mazzilli to help them through this period of struggle. Various minor league players such as Single-A Frederick OF Jeff Fiorentino were brought up in place of more experienced players such as OF David Newhan (son of a hall-of-fame baseball writer), who batted .311 the previous season and who started playing for the New York Mets in 2007.

Palmeiro downfall

In March of 2005, Rafael Palmeiro testified in front of the United States Congress and clearly denied any allegations that he used steroids. On July 15 2005, he collected his 3,000th hit in Seattle and became only the 4th person in Major League Basebell to amass 500 HR's and 3,000 hits (the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Eddie Murray). But 15 days later (July 30) he was suspended for a violation of MLB's drug policy, after testing positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol. The Orioles continued tumbling, falling out of first place and further down the AL East standings. This downfall cost Mazzilli his managerial job in early August, allowing bench coach and 2003 managerial candidate Sam Perlozzo to take over as interim manager and lead the team to a 23-32 finish. The Orioles called up Dave Cash from the Ottawa Lynx to serve as the team's first base coach. the orioles almost had a winning season in 2004

Collapse of the season

After starting the season 42-28 (.600), the Orioles finished just 32-60 (.348). Only the Kansas City Royals (.346) had a worse winning percentage for the season than did the once first place Orioles for those final 92 games. The club's major offseason acquisition, Sammy Sosa, posted his worst performance in a decade, with 14 home runs and a paltry .221 batting average. The Orioles did not attempt to re-sign him, considering his exorbitant salary and his miserable performance. The Orioles also allowed Palmeiro to file for free agency and publicly stated they would not resign him. On August 25, pitcher Sidney Ponson was arrested for DUI and on September 1 the Orioles moved to void his contract (on a morals clause) and released him. The Major League Baseball Players Association filed a grievance on Ponson's behalf and the case was sent to arbitration and has yet to be resolved.

2006 season

Main article: 2006 Baltimore Orioles season

For the 2006 season, the Orioles finished the up and down 2006 season with a record of 70 wins and 92 losses, 27 games behind the AL East leading Yankees.

2007 season

Main article: 2007 Baltimore Orioles season

On June 18, the Orioles fired Sam Perlozzo after losing 8 straight games. He has since been replaced on interim basis by Dave Trembley. On June 22, Miguel Tejada's consecutive-games streak came to an end due to an injury. This is the 5th longest such streak in major league history. A minor highlight came on June 29th against the Angels. Aubrey Huff recorded his 1000th hit, 200th double, and became the first Oriole to hit for the cycle at home. He joins Brooks Robinson (1960) and Cal Ripken (1984) as the third Oriole to hit for the cycle in team history. On July 7, Erik Bedard struck out 15 batters in a game against the Texas Rangers tying a franchise record held by Mike Mussina. On July 31, 2007, Andy McPhail, President of Baseball Operations named Dave Trembley as the Orioles Manager through the remainder of the 2007 season, and advised him to "Keep up the good work."^[3] Facing the Texas Rangers at Camden Yards on August 22, a team which had suffered 19 strikeouts at the hands of Minnesota Twins pitching three days earlier, the Orioles surrendered 30 runs--a modern era record for a single game--in a 30-3 defeat. The Orioles led in that game 3-0 after three innings of play. Sixteen of Texas' 30 runs were scored in the final two innings.

"O!"

Since its introduction at games by the "Roar from 34" led by Wild Bill Hagy et al in the late 1970s, it has been a tradition at Orioles games for fans to accent the line of "Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave" in the "The Star-Spangled Banner" by yelling "O!" "O" is not only short for "Oriole," but the vowel is also a stand-out aspect of the Baltimorean accent. This tradition is even carried out during the Orioles' spring training home games in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. This tradition carries on to this day, although not with the zest of years gone by. Sentiment for this tradition has dwindled partly due to supposed patriotic concerns, and also because the Orioles' results are less a source of hometown pride than they were when the tradition was started in the 1970s.

The tradition is often carried out at other sporting events, both professional or not, and sometimes at non-sporting events where the anthem is played, throughout the Baltimore/Washington area and all over Maryland, notably at Baltimore Ravens, Aberdeen Ironbirds, and Maryland Terrapins games. Even fans in Norfolk, VA chant "O!" even before the Tides became an Orioles affiliate. "The Star-Spangled Banner" has also been shouted over during Washington Redskins and Washington Capitals home games. It caught some attention in the spring of 2005, when some fans performed the "O!" cry at Washington Nationals games at RFK Stadium. Many Washingtonians are Orioles fans, as the Orioles were the closest team to Washington between the Texas Rangers' departure and before the Montreal Expos' relocation. At Cal Ripken, Jr.'s induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, the crowd of over 70,000 fans, most of them from Baltimore, carried out the "O!" tradition during Tony Gwynn's daughter's rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" has special meaning to Baltimore historically, as it was written during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. As a patriotic song, it signifies American freedoms; including, presumably, the freedom to shout "O!"

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy"

It has been an Orioles tradition since 1975 to play John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the seventh inning stretch.

In the July 5, 2007 edition of Baltimore's weekly sports publication Press Box, an article by Mike Gibbons covered the details of how this tradition came to be. [5]

The following text in italics is an excerpt from the article cited above:

In the summer of ’74, Denver performed the song live at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles as part of a set that was recorded and released in 1975 as the two-record album, "An Evening With John Denver." Fans liked the live version of “Country Boy” enough that the song was released as a single that February. By June it reached No. 1 on the charts where it stayed for the next 22 weeks.

Coincidently, 1975 was the year the Orioles, at the suggestion of general manager Frank Cashen, began playing pop music to reach out to younger fans. Throughout the ’50s, ’60s and early ’70s the Orioles played “old folks” and organ music, and Cashen felt it was time for a change. So that season, public relations director Bob Brown began playing pop tunes during the seventh-inning stretch to see if anything would “take.”

Late that season, shortstop Mark Belanger and his wife, Dee, went to Brown and suggested he try “Country Boy.” The Belangers were fans and friends of Denver; they felt the song might catch on.

And catch on it did. Fans seemed to like its peppy, toe-tapping attitude, and so did the players. Orioles’ current general manager Mike Flanagan, a Cy Young Award winner for Baltimore in 1979, said his teammates liked the song because it served as a daily wakeup call. It reminded them that if they were down, they still had nine outs and plenty of time to come back.

Flanagan remembered the song as inspirational. “The guys felt like, ‘We can do this,’ and a lot of times we did,” he said.

The fans seemed to sense their team was responding to “Country Boy” as well, and that added to its allure, enough to make it a resident seventh-inning stretch fixture at Orioles games from then on. On several occasions, the Orioles felt their fans might be growing tired of their popular foot-stomper, and suggested changing it. On Opening Day in 1980, they played “Oriole Magic," a popular jingle the team had produced during the ’79 campaign.

“We got booed; I mean we really got booed,” Brown said. “People had been waiting all winter to hear their ‘Country Boy.’ It was very humbling.”

During one of the games of the 1983 World Series John Denver stood atop the Orioles dougout and sang "Country Boy" during the 7th inning stretch. The Baltimore crowd went wild. Unfortunately, there has not been any "Oriole Magic" since 1983.

In 1994, the team offered baseball’s anthem, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” only to generate a similarly negative response. Today, the team plays “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as a warmup to “Country Boy,” and the fans seem accepting.

Other music

Other musical traditions include taking the field to the song "Oriole Magic," playing a sample from The Wizard of Oz of soldiers chanting "Oh-wee-oh! We-oh-oh," playing Yello's "O Yeah" after a good play by the Orioles, playing "Get Back" from The Beatles when an opposing batter has to return to the batter's box after he headed to first base on a ball that went foul, and playing "Hit the Road Jack" after when an opposing pitcher leaves. In addition after clutch hits or plays, Zombie Nations Kernkraft 400 (Oh Oh Oh Remix) will play with its refrain as a series of "Oh"'s, fans will mix "O's" into this refrain as well.

Some songs from special events include "One Moment in Time" for Cal Ripken's record-breaking game. For his last game, the theme from Pearl Harbor, "There You'll Be" by Faith Hill, was featured. The theme from