The Baltimore Orioles were a 19th-century

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

team that competed from to , first in the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

and later in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

. This early Orioles franchise, which featured numerous future inductees to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, finished in first place for three consecutive seasons (1894–1896) and won the

Temple Cup The Temple Cup was a cup awarded to the winner of an annual best-of-seven postseason championship series for American professional baseball from 1894 to 1897. Competing teams were exclusively from the National League, which had been founded in 1 ...

national championship series in 1896 and 1897. Despite their success, the dominant Orioles were contracted out of the National League after the 1899 season, when the league reduced in size from 12 members to eight. Upon the foundation of the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

in 1901, a reorganized

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

franchise competed as a charter member, before relocating to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

after two seasons, where they were replaced by the team that is better known as the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

History

The team (formally the "Baltimore Base Ball and Exhibition Company") was founded in

1882 Events January–March * January 2 ** The Standard Oil Trust is secretly created in the United States to control multiple corporations set up by John D. Rockefeller and his associates. ** Irish-born author Oscar Wilde arrives in t ...

as a charter member of the

, which was then a major league. After several years of mediocrity, the team dropped out of the league after the 1889 season, but re-joined in 1890 to replace the Brooklyn Gladiators when that last-place team dropped out during the season. The Orioles were one of four AA clubs merged into the National League in

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies fo ...

(formally as a 12-member "League Association"). The beginnings of what was to become a legendary team can be traced to June 1892, when Harry Von der Horst hired Ned Hanlon to manage the Orioles giving him stock in the team and full authority over baseball operations. Ned moved his growing family to a house that stood a block away from Union Park. After two years finishing near the bottom of the league, the Orioles won three consecutive pennants with several future Hall of Famers under player/manager Ned Hanlon from

1894 Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...

1896 Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that ...

. They followed up the title run with two consecutive second-place finishes. Accordingly, they participated in all four editions of the post-season

series, winning the final two in 1896 and 1897. After the team's 1898 second-place finish, Hanlon and most of the team's stars were moved to the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League by the joint ownership of the clubs. Third baseman

John McGraw John Joseph McGraw (April 7, 1873 – February 25, 1934) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player and manager who was for almost thirty years manager of the New York Giants. He was also the third baseman of the pennant-winning 1890 ...

and catcher

Wilbert Robinson Wilbert Robinson (June 29, 1864 – August 8, 1934), nicknamed "Uncle Robbie", was an American catcher, coach and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played in MLB for the Philadelphia Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and St. Louis Cardinals ...

remained in Baltimore, with McGraw remaining as first-year player/manager. Following a fourth-place finish in 1899, the Orioles were one of four clubs eliminated by the National League. In the 8-team National League of 1900, McGraw and Robinson joined the

St. Louis Cardinals The St. Louis Cardinals are an American professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Cardinals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Since the 2006 season, the Cardinals ha ...

. One year later McGraw followed through on his threats to abandon the NL and form a club in the rival

(being formed by new president

Ban Johnson Byron Bancroft Johnson (January 5, 1864 – March 28, 1931) was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League (AL). Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the mino ...

out of the former minor Western League), doing so beginning in . (Those newly formed A.L. Orioles only stayed in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

for two seasons before being moved to New York as "the price of peace" as agreement was established in 1903 between the older circuit and its new upstart rival allowing the "Americans" to have a representative also in the "Big Apple" as a sign of respectability. The old Oriole franchise under McGraw became known as the "New York Highlanders" or occasionally the "New York Americans", later becoming renamed in 1913 as the New York Yankees.) A high-minor league franchise in the old Eastern League filled the void left by the Orioles in 1903, including local product and future baseball icon

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

and

Lefty Grove Robert Moses "Lefty" Grove (March 6, 1900 – May 22, 1975) was an American professional baseball pitcher. After having success in the minor leagues during the early 1920s, Grove became a star in Major League Baseball with the American League's P ...

, even winning an unbroken string of seven straight titles, 1919–1925 in the "Triple A" (AAA) level of minor league baseball in the reorganized International League (after 1911); but top-level professional baseball would not return to

until the

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...

relocated to the City in .

Ballpark

The Orioles played briefly at the old

Oriole Park Oriole Park, often referred to as Terrapin Park, opened in 1914 and closed after a fire on July 3–4, 1944. "Oriole Park" was the name of multiple baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, all built within a few blocks of each other. Oriole Par ...

, in Harwood, south of the Waverly neighborhood at 29th and Barclay Streets, (just a block west from Greenmount Avenue) from 1890 to 1891. (The 1901 AL Orioles-turned-Highlanders would play at the site a decade later.) During the 1891 season, the Orioles moved a few blocks away to Union Park on Huntington Avenue (later renamed 25th Street) and Greenmount Avenue, where they would play and win their famous three straight championships for the old "

" in 1894–1895-1896. Unfortunately they were removed from the N.L. roster after the 1899 season when the League was controversially reduced from 12 team franchises to 8, which endured for the next half-century. For further info see List of baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland.

Stars

The original Orioles were one of the most storied teams in the history of the game. Managed by Ned Hanlon, they won NL pennants in

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

and

, and sported some of the most colorful players in history including

, Wee Willie Keeler,

Hughie Jennings Hugh Ambrose Jennings (April 2, 1869 – February 1, 1928) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won N ...

Joe Kelley Joseph James Kelley (December 9, 1871 – August 14, 1943) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB) who starred in the outfield of the Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1890s. Making up the nucleus of the Orioles along with J ...

, and

Dan Brouthers Dennis Joseph "Dan" Brouthers (; May 8, 1858 – August 2, 1932) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball whose career spanned the period from to , with a brief return in . Nicknamed "Big Dan" for his size, he was and weighed , wh ...

. They were rough characters who practically invented "scientific" baseball, the form of baseball played before the

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

became the norm in the 1920s. Like the style known today as " small ball", the " inside baseball" strategy of Orioles featured tight pitching,

hit and run In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions. Additional obligation In many jurisdictions, there may be a ...

tactics, stolen bases, and precise bunting. One such play, where the batter deliberately strikes the pitched ball downward onto the infield surface with sufficient force such that the ball rebounds skyward, allowing the batter to reach first base safely before the opposing team can field the ball, remains known as a

Baltimore Chop B backdoor breaking ball :A breaking pitch, usually a Slider (baseball), slider, curveball, or cut fastball that, due to its lateral motion, passes through a small part of the Glossary of baseball (S)#strike zone, strike zone on the outside edg ...

Matt Kilroy Matthew Aloysius "Matches" Kilroy (June 21, 1866 – March 2, 1940) was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. In 1886, he had 513 strikeouts, which remains the MLB single-season record. Early life Kilroy was born in Philadel ...

pitched a no-hitter for the Orioles on October 6, 1886.

Bill Hawke William Victor Hawke (April 28, 1870 – December 11, 1902) was an American Major League Baseball player who pitched for three seasons, all in the National League, with a career record of 32 wins and 31 losses. Career Born in Elsmere, Del ...

threw one on August 16, 1893, the first from the modern pitching distance of 60 feet, 6 inches.

Jay Hughes James H. "Jay" Hughes (January 22, 1874 – June 2, 1924) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher who played four seasons from to . Career Hughes was born in Sacramento, California, in 1874. He attracted attention in 1897 when he thre ...

threw a no-hitter for the Orioles on April 22, 1898. Instead of "flying spikes," it was really "flying mouths" that most made the 1890s Orioles stand out., p. 206.

Baseball Hall of Famers

References

External links

Team index
at Baseball Reference * Excerpt from ''Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life And Untimely Death Of The Original Baltimore Orioles'' by Burt Solomon a
BaseballLibrary.com

Sources

* Solomon, Burt (1999), Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life And Untimely Death Of The Original Baltimore Orioles. New York: Free Press. *Rosenberg, Howard W. (2005); Cap Anson 3: Muggsy John McGraw and the Tricksters: Baseball's Fun Age of Rule Bending. Arlington, Virginia: Tile Books.