-
1 week ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
I had to make difficult editorial decisions in 1986 when I wrote a series of articles for the Baltimore Sun about players on the Orioles’ World Series-winning 1966 club and what they were doing two decades later. Thirty-four guys played on that team. I couldn’t write about all of them.
-
2 weeks ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
When he threw ball four to the Detroit Tigers’ Mickey Stanley in the top of the ninth, issuing his third walk of the inning and 10th of the game, Steve Barber knew it was his final pitch of the day. Even though he only needed one more out to complete the second no-hitter in Orioles history, he was on the verge of blowing the game on April 30th, 1967. “I was so wild.
-
3 weeks ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
Of all things, the enduring influence of the New York Yankees led to a tall Midwesterner named Norm Siebern playing first base for the Orioles as they became American League contenders in the 1960s. A few years earlier, when Orioles ownership had grown weary of manager/GM Paul Richards spending their money a little too freely, they’d turned to the Yankees, the sport’s longstanding superpower, and hired Lee MacPhail to replace Richards as GM.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
The Bird Tapes archive currently consists of 41 interviews with former Oriole players, front office executives, managers, scouts, broadcasters and sportswriters. I started my Orioles history project on Substack by posting my vintage interview (circa 1999) with Brooks Robinson over a year ago. My conversation with legendary Orioles newspaper beat writer Richard Justice, recorded in 2025, is the most recent to get posted.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
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.
-
1 month ago | 
baltimorebaseball.com | John Eisenberg
SCROLL DOWN TO READ ARTICLE
Years ago, when the Baltimore Sun sent me around the country to write about former Orioles from the World Series-winning 1966 team, I made a special trip to the Pacific Northwest to interview Wally Bunker. He’d pitched a shutout to win Game 3 of the World Series that year, and two decades later, he was making a nice living selling refrigerator magnets.
-
1 month 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.
-
1 month 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.
-
2 months 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.
-
2 months 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.
