Most knowledgeable Orioles fans know the team used to play as the St. Louis Browns.  Fewer know the Browns themselves began as the Milwaukee Brewers, and still fewer know that those Milwaukee Brewers played for a decade and a half as a minor, occasionally major, league team in the 1880s and '90s.  

 

Today's Orioles began as an 1884 entrant into the minor Northwestern League, known as the Milwaukee Greys.  For a a period of several weeks that summer, the team was recruited to play in the allegedly "Major" Union Association, but the the troubles which beset that circuit pushed the team back into the NW League by season's end.  Over the next 8 years, the team played mostly as the Brewers, but occasionally as the Creams or Cream Cities, in the Western Association and the Western League, two minor leagues.  In 1891, they were again recruited by a major league, this time the legitimate American Association, to finish out the season in place of another team which had folded.  At year's end, when the A.A. failed,  the Brewers again returned to minor league play.  The Western League's financial troubles forced it to cancel the 1893 season, but the league and the Brewers resumed play in 1894 in a new, stronger league which had been purchased by Ban Johnson, a sports reporter from Cincinnati.    

 

After the 1899 season, Johnson announced the league was contracting from 12 to 8 clubs, and would be renamed the American League.  It played in 1900 as a minor league, subject to baseball's governing National Agreement.  However, for 1901 Johnson declared the American League a major league, abandoned its adherence to the Agreement, and set about raiding national league rosters and placing teams in established National League cities.  In 1902, he felt the time was right to compete against the National League's St. Louis club, and so relocated his Milwaukee club there, where it became known as the Browns.   

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The Browns played in St. Louis for the next 50 or so years, never really amounting to much, winning only one pennant in 1944 when the majors' talent pool was depleted by World War II.  They lost that World Series to the cross-town rival Cardinals.

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In 1953, losing local credibility to the perennial contenders across town, having to ration baseballs, and eventually not even being able to afford upkeep on Sportsman's Park, owner Bill Veeck sold the stadium to the Cardinals and tried to find a buyer for the club.  His initial desire was to send the team back to Milwaukee, but a delegation from Baltimore convinced him otherwise.  Upon moving for the 1954 season, the team was renamed the Orioles in honor of the great National League club that played there in the 1890s.

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Almost from their arrival in Baltimore, the Orioles were contenders.  They enjoyed a sustained period of winning from the mid-60s through early '80s, during which time they won 3 World Series.   After that, however, things went south.  Apart from a period of competitiveness in the 1990s, much of the period since the early 1980s has been dismal. But, the sale of the club by Peter Angelos in 2024 (long hoped for by fans), along with the arrival of a number of young stars and post-season appearances in 2023 and 2024 may portend better times ahead.    

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The main purpose of this page is to illustrate those players, managers and coaches who have been the most prominent in the franchise's history.  Links below will take you to galleries highlighting each, by position.  Generally, an individual is included if he spent at least 2 full seasons (consecutive or cumulative) as a starter, relief pitcher, closer or manager. For coaches, I've generally used 5 years of service as the bar.  None of this is scientific, though, so there are exceptions.  Where possible and practical, I used pictures of actual baseball cards because that it is the medium through which I, and I suppose many others, first discovered the game. Where necessary, I designed my own images.  Images of actual baseball cards were obtained at the Card Cyber Museum, and for my own designs I used photos found at host of different sites, but none moreso than the wonderful forum at Out of the Park Developments.  

 

I claim no rights to, or ownership of, any of the photographic images I've used on these pages.   You are welcome to use them yourself.  All I ask is that that if you use any of my personal creations, you give credit to this site.