The Improbable Orioles
Against all expectations, the 2023 Orioles are seeded first in the American League postseason series, with the best record in the American League — 101 wins in the regular season. Only the Atlanta Braves in the National League won more.
Two years ago, the Orioles lost 110 games, the worst record in the major leagues. Since then, the team has made one of the most dramatic turnarounds in major league history. No other big-league team has gone from a 110-loss season to a 100-win record so fast. Racking up the best record in the league gives them more than just bragging rights. They get a week off to rest their players, especially pitchers, while teams with less stellar records slug it out in the league’s Wild Card series.
This turnaround has been guided by manager Brandon Hyde, whose team includes several talented young players. A lot of credit also goes to general manager Mike Elias, who scouted and signed — among others — catcher Adley Rutschman and infielder Gunnar Henderson, a likely Rookie of the Year winner this season. The 2023 Orioles include a core group of veterans from before the rebuild, and a few acquisitions from trades and free agency. Remarkably, it’s a team without a superstar (though some say Rutschman and Henderson have the makings) and gets contributions from everyone on the roster.
At the same time as it clinched the division, the team announced that it had agreed in principle — the exact terms still must be negotiated — to a new 30-year lease with the city of Baltimore to continue playing in Camden Yards, thus keeping the team in the city for another generation. Whatever happens in the next cycle of games — and anything can happen in a short series, as the saying goes — this is a historic season for the team.
Not everything was good news for the Orioles’ family. Just before the season’s 160th game, Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson died. A mainstay of the team’s glory years of the 1960s and 70s, Robinson is widely considered the finest fielding third baseman of all time. More than that, he was beloved as “Brooksie” and “Mr. Oriole” to the team’s fans. Cal Ripken, Jr., with his own Hall of Fame Orioles’ career after Robinson retired in 1977, referred to him as a role model for younger players. Ripken called Brooks “baseball’s gentleman, on and off the field.” Fans agreed.
The Baltimore Orioles have a long history. The original team in the National League practically defined the early game in the 1890s, with an aggressive playing style and several memorable characters. That team was broken up when the league was realigned, and its best players went to the team in Brooklyn, N.Y., that became the Dodgers.
When the American League was first organized, a new Orioles team was founded in 1900, but in 1903, the city lost that team to New York — where it eventually became the Yankees. A minor league Orioles team filled in the gap for most of the early 20th Century, until 1954, when a deal brought the lowly St. Louis Browns to the city — a move that included the team’s assumption of the Orioles’ name. It took a while for the team to put together a respectable record, but by the 1960s, they were regularly winning more than they lost. And in 1966, they won their first World Series by sweeping the Los Angeles Dodgers four straight. Since then, they have won two more World Series and eight American League pennants. Now, after a disappointing gap, they’re back in the playoffs.
Baseball in Maryland may center on the Orioles, but there’s more to the Maryland story, as any fan knows. The game’s greatest player was a Baltimore boy, Yankees legend Babe Ruth, who single-handedly sparked the game’s popularity in the 1920s. The Eastern Shore has its share of baseball history, too, starting with Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx, the slugger who spent most of his career with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox. Foxx’s 534 career homers were for a long time second only to Ruth’s 714. His statue stands in the town square in Sudlersville, his hometown.
Another ballplayer’s statue stands just outside town hall in Chestertown. It shows Kent County’s favorite baseball son, Bill Nicholson, who played for the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies. Nicknamed “Swish” for his powerful practice swings, Nicholson led the National League in homers twice in the World War II era. In a 1944 double-header in New York, he hit home runs in four consecutive at-bats. When he came up for his next at-bat with the bases loaded, he was intentionally walked, giving up one run but depriving him of the chance to drive in several more.
Kent County had another home-grown star more recently in Ryan Thompson, who played for five big-league teams in the 1990s, including the Mets and Yankees. Nor should we forget Harold Baines, a St. Michaels native who played for the Orioles for seven years along with several other major league teams, notably three stints with the Chicago White Sox. Between 1980 and 2001, Baines helped to define the role of designated hitter by setting several records.
But the baseball story of 2023 — at least in Maryland — remains the Orioles. While their more optimistic fans thought they had a shot at making the playoffs, nobody expected them to have the best record in the league. They’ve got some tough baseball still to play — as of this writing, they’re in an 0-2 hole in a best-of-five series against the Texas Rangers. The odds against them gaining the next level are daunting, though not impossible. Even so, their rise from the bottom of the league just two years ago to the top seed for the playoffs is an amazing accomplishment.
We’re rooting for our improbable Orioles. This could still be their year!
Peter Heck is a Chestertown-based writer and editor, who spent 10 years at the Kent County News and three more with the Chestertown Spy. He is the author of 10 novels and co-author of four plays, a book reviewer for Asimov’s and Kirkus Reviews, and an incorrigible guitarist.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
