The Baltimore Orioles have a longstanding and interesting history to their credit. The original team was named the Milwaukee Brewers and was a part of the Western League in 1894. In 1900, when the Western League was renamed to the American League, the Brewers were still around. The first American League season was the next year in 1901 and it was the only season that the team would play under the Brewers name and at the Lloyd Street Grounds located in Milwaukee between 16th Street and 18 Street. The following year, the team relocated to St. Louis and made a name change to the St. Louis Browns. With four winning seasons from 1902 to 1922, the Browns were not rated as one of the top baseball teams but they kept at it.
The Browns built a new park, Sportman’s Park and in 1909, rebuilt the park. It was only the third of its kind in the major leagues to be reconstructed with concrete and steel. The year 1910 was a fantastic pursuit of the American League batting title. In the end, Ty Cobb would walk away with the honor but not without much ado that Nap Lajoie should have received the title instead. When all was said and done, several coaches were permanently informally banned from the league for some of their actions.
The legacy of the Browns was to reach a definite end, at least as far as the name goes and so the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles in the late 1950’s and began to create a distinction for the Orioles by distancing themselves from the former name. Perhaps most notably in December, 1954 when the Orioles traded a whopping 17 players at one time! The last ties to the Browns name and era came in August, 1979 when Edward Bennett Williams bought back 20,000 shares of the franchise’s stock that had been sold by the Browns at per share.
The tendency towards losing would be a bit harder to shake for the Orioles. A joke coined for their losing streaks was “First in shoes, first in booze and last in the American League”. During the late 1950’s, however, newly hired manager Paul Richards coached the Orioles along the way to landing fifth place in the standings in 1957 with a record of 76-76. Richards is also credited with discover Orioles talents like Steve Barber, Jerry Adair and Ron Hansen who became Rookie of the Year in 1960. From around 1966 to the early 1980’s were regarded as the glory years for the Orioles and Cal Ripken Sr.’s “perfect practice makes perfect” was developed as an organization wide ethic. Final seasons at Memorial Stadium were concluded in 1991, making way for the Orioles to take their game to a new level and a new location.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992 and became an overnight success with players, coaches, staff and fans alike. This retro-designed ballpark was the pioneer that many other parks would follow suit with in their designs as well. Although the Orioles only finished in third place in their first two seasons, it was no reflection on Camden Yards. Located on West Camden Street in Baltimore, Maryland, Camden Yards has a seating capacity of 48,876 with Kentucky Blue Grass for the playing surface and has been home to the Baltimore Orioles since 1992.
The 50 millionth fan entered Camden Yards on August 19, 2008, setting a milestone for the Orioles in a mere 17 seasons. Some recent memorable games played in Camden Yards include June 30, 2009 when the team scored 10 runs in a game against the Red Sox.
Ticket America has your best seats in a variety of choices with Baltimore Orioles Tickets. Orioles games at home are a pleasure in the spacious Camden Yards.
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