-
1 week ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
(One in a series of articles highlighting former Orioles whom I interviewed for my oral history a quarter-century ago, but only on the phone, depriving me of a recording that I could play now as part of the Bird Tapes.)Robert Richard Boyd could hit a baseball. His numbers tell that tale. While playing in the Negro leagues after World War II, he never hit less than .352 in a full season.
-
2 weeks ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
In 1953, the year before they moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles, the St. Louis Browns had one Black player — the legendary Satchel Paige, who’d pitched for pay since he was a skinny teenager in the Negro leagues in 1927. Working mostly out of the bullpen more than a quarter-century later, he was still effective enough to make the American League All-Star team in 1953 as, in theory, a 46-year-old.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
Forty-one states and nine countries. By my count, that’s where my work travels took me during my 23 years with the Baltimore Sun. I was lucky. My time at the paper (1984-2007) coincided with a golden era for sportswriting, an era when editors at major newspapers didn’t blink at sending reporters and/or columnists to faraway places in search of good stories.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
Coming off a long road trip, Orioles manager Paul Richards scheduled an offday workout at Memorial Stadium on September 20th, 1956. In fact, he scheduled two workouts, one in the morning and one after lunch. He wanted his players in the right mindset for a strong season-ending push. The day dawned sunny and warm, giving way to perfect conditions for the morning workout. But strong winds began to gust around midday, prompting Richards to cancel the afternoon practice.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
When the Orioles were at their very best as an organization in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Bobby Grich and Don Baylor exemplified just how superior they were. Smack in the middle of a six-year run in which Baltimore’s roster of All-Stars and future Hall of Famers won four American League pennants and two World Series titles, the club drafted and developed two of the game’s most outstanding prospects.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
When I debuted the Bird Tapes nearly a year ago, I had a shoebox full of plastic microcassettes containing recordings of rare interviews with figures from the history of the Orioles. The figures ranged from the legendary (Brooks, Earl, Frank, etc.) to the not-so-famous (Barry Shetrone) and also included front office executives, a broadcaster (Ernie Harwell) and even an owner (Peter Angelos).
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
In the chapter on Steve Dalkowski in my 2001 book on Orioles history, I quoted numerous people who’d played with or seen the legendary fireballer. Boog Powell, Steve Barber, Milt Pappas, Barry Shetrone, Earl Weaver, Walter Youse, Harry Dalton and others eagerly recalled him and told stories. Their memories of Dalkowski still burned bright. But one voice was absent from the chapter. There wasn’t a single word from Dalkowski himself.
-
2 months ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
Suddenly, it just made sense. I had a free companion ticket on Southwest Airlines that was about to expire, which meant I had to figure out somewhereto go in late February — and preferably, it would be somewhere warm as this year’s colder-than-usual winter lingered in Baltimore. And considering all that, when one possesses, as I surely do, a condition best described as “baseball on the brain,” there really is only one option. Spring. Training.
-
2 months ago | 
birdtapes.substack.com | John Eisenberg
As a manager back in the day, Earl Weaver helped push Baltimore’s baseball franchise to the forefront of the American conversation. The Orioles never basked in the limelight more than when Weaver was in charge, leading them to four pennants, a World Series victory and a long run of winning seasons between 1968 and 1982. Now, more than a decade after his death, Weaver is again bringing attention to the Orioles — the history of the Orioles.
-
2 months ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
In the long chronicle of Orioles history, Steve Dalkowski is the greatest mythological figure. No one else comes close as a source of baseball tales that sound completely made up. “Saw him strike out 24 and walk 18 one night.”“On a crappy little field with dim lighting in Tennessee, he threw a fastball that the batter never saw. Ball hit the guy in the head and bounced back onto the field, landing near second base. Shattered the guy’s helmet.
