The History of the Baltimore Orioles: Every Era, from the First Season to Today
The Orioles' story from the 1901 Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Browns to Memorial Stadium, Camden Yards, three World Series titles and a 14-year losing streak, told in eras with the numbers behind each one.
The Orioles have won seven American League pennants and three World Series, and the franchise did not start in Baltimore, was not always called the Orioles, and spent its first half-century being one of the worst clubs in the sport. The historical record covers 125 seasons for this franchise, from 1901 through 2025, and shows 9,195 wins against 10,171 losses, a winning percentage of .475. That is a losing record overall, and almost all of the damage was done before 1954.
The club's life divides cleanly in two. Through 1953 it was the St. Louis Browns, a poor relation in a city that preferred the Cardinals. Since 1954 it has been the Orioles, who in the stretch from 1966 to 1983 were as good as any team in baseball, built on pitching, defense and a manager who would not bunt. Between those peaks sits one of the strangest droughts in the modern game, fourteen straight losing seasons, and then a rebuild that produced a 115-loss season and a 101-win team within five years of each other.
Milwaukee, St. Louis and the long Browns years, 1901 to 1953
The franchise was a charter member of the American League and spent exactly one season, 1901, in Milwaukee as the Brewers, finishing 48-89 at the Lloyd Street Grounds. In 1902 it moved to St. Louis and became the Browns, and it stayed there for 52 seasons, playing at Sportsman's Park, first the third version of the grounds and from 1909 the fourth. It was a club that had a few good seasons and many terrible ones. The Browns went 78-58 and finished second in 1902, and they would not win a pennant for another 42 years.
The best of the early teams was the 1922 club, which went 93-61 and finished second, one game behind the Yankees. George Sisler won the Most Valuable Player award that year and holds the franchise's career batting average (.344, minimum 3,000 at-bats) and its stolen-base record with the club (351). His 2,295 hits as a Brown remain third in club history behind Cal Ripken and Brooks Robinson. The 1922 team also drew 712,918 fans, the largest crowd total the franchise would see in St. Louis, and it was a number the Browns never matched again.
The rest of the era was grim. The Browns lost 107 games in 1910 and again in 1911, 108 in 1937, and 111 in 1939, a 43-111 record that is the worst winning percentage in the franchise's history. In 1935 they drew 80,922 fans for the entire season, an average of about a thousand a game. Rogers Hornsby, who played for and managed the club in the 1930s, could not turn it around, and neither could anyone else.
The 1944 pennant and the sale to Baltimore
The Browns won exactly one pennant in St. Louis, in 1944, when many of the best players were in military service and rosters across the league were thin. Luke Sewell managed the club, which finished 89-65 and won the league by a single game. It met the Cardinals in the World Series, and since both clubs shared Sportsman's Park, every game was played in one building. The Cardinals won, four games to two.
The postwar years went back to the old pattern: seventh or eighth place almost every season, with 101 losses in 1949 and 102 in 1951. In 1951 the owner, Bill Veeck, staged his most famous stunt by sending a 3-foot-7 pinch-hitter, Eddie Gaedel, to bat in a game against Detroit, where he walked on four pitches. It was funny and it was entirely beside the point. The club went 54-100 in 1953, with the Cardinals firmly the city's team, and was sold to a Baltimore group that moved it east. The name Orioles was an old one in Baltimore, used by earlier ball clubs in the city, and it is also the name of Maryland's state bird.
Memorial Stadium and the climb, 1954 to 1965
The first Baltimore team went 54-100 and finished seventh, which shows that a new city did not change a club overnight. But Baltimore turned out well: the 1954 team drew 1,060,910 fans, more than any Browns team had ever managed, and attendance stayed above 750,000 for the rest of the decade. The home was Memorial Stadium, which would host the club through 1991.
Paul Richards, who managed from 1955 to 1961 and also ran the baseball operation, is the architect of what followed. His 517-539 record as manager does not look like much, but he stocked the club with young pitchers and a group of prospects, and by 1960 the Orioles went 89-65 and finished second. Ron Hansen was Rookie of the Year that year. In 1961 the club won 95 games and finished third. Milt Pappas and Steve Barber, who rank sixth and seventh in club strikeouts, were part of that first wave, and a third baseman named Brooks Robinson, who debuted in 1955, began a 23-season career with the club.
By 1964 the Orioles had won 97 games, with Robinson named Most Valuable Player, and finished third, two games behind the Yankees. The next year they won 94 games and finished third again, while Curt Blefary took Rookie of the Year honors. Hank Bauer, who managed from 1964 into 1968, had built a team that was ready for one more piece.
The Robinsons and the first title, 1966
That piece was Frank Robinson, who arrived from Cincinnati ahead of the 1966 season. In his first Orioles year he won the Triple Crown and the Most Valuable Player award, and the club went 97-63 to win its first pennant since moving to Baltimore. The World Series opponent was the Los Angeles Dodgers, with Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale on the roster, and the Orioles swept them in four games, 4-0. The Dodgers scored two runs in the whole series. The title was the franchise's first, and it came on pitching: the staff held one of the great pitching teams of the decade to almost nothing.
The 1967 season was a letdown, a 76-85 finish in sixth place, and 1968 saw Bauer replaced mid-season by Earl Weaver, a former minor-league manager. The club finished 91-71 and second under the combined management. Weaver would stay for the better part of two decades and finish with a 1,480-1,060 record in 2,541 games, easily the best mark of any Orioles manager. He is the central figure of the franchise's golden era.
Three straight pennants, 1969 to 1971
What Weaver built in 1969 was a team that won 109 games and went 109-53, the best record in franchise history. It swept the first American League Championship Series, three games to none over Minnesota, but then lost the World Series four games to one to the New York Mets, one of the great upsets of the 20th century. The Orioles' answer in 1970 was a 108-54 record, another sweep of Minnesota in the ALCS and a 4-1 win over the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, their second title. Brooks Robinson's defense at third base became a legend in that Series, and Boog Powell was named Most Valuable Player for the regular season.
In 1971 they won 101 games, swept Oakland in the ALCS and met Pittsburgh in the Series, losing in seven games. The 1971 pitching staff produced four 20-game winners, Mike Cuellar, Pat Dobson, Dave McNally and Jim Palmer, an uncommon feat. Over three seasons the Orioles won 318 games and lost 164. The table below puts the whole period into context.
| Season | Record | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | 97-63 | Won pennant, swept Dodgers 4-0 |
| 1969 | 109-53 | Swept Twins in ALCS, lost World Series to Mets 1-4 |
| 1970 | 108-54 | Swept Twins in ALCS, beat Reds 4-1 for second title |
| 1971 | 101-57 | Swept Athletics in ALCS, lost World Series to Pirates 3-4 |
| 1973 | 97-65 | Division title, lost ALCS to Oakland 2-3 |
| 1974 | 91-71 | Division title, lost ALCS to Oakland 1-3 |
| 1979 | 102-57 | Beat Angels 3-1, lost World Series to Pirates 3-4 |
| 1983 | 98-64 | Beat White Sox 3-1, beat Phillies 4-1 for third title |
Weaver, Palmer and the Oriole Way, 1972 to 1982
The club stayed good for another decade. It won the division in 1973 and 1974, losing the ALCS to the Oakland Athletics both times, and finished second in 1975, 1976 and 1977. The 1977 team won 97 games and still finished behind the Yankees, and Eddie Murray took Rookie of the Year honors.
The staff was the reason. Jim Palmer won 268 games for the club, the most in franchise history, and is also first in strikeouts with 2,212 and in shutouts with 53. He won the Cy Young Award in 1973, 1975 and 1976. Cuellar shared the award with Detroit's Denny McLain in 1969, Mike Flanagan won it in 1979 and Steve Stone won in 1980. Weaver's method was to preach pitching, defense and three-run home runs, and he disliked giving up outs on bunts or stolen-base attempts. It worked well enough that, in the 15 seasons from 1969 to 1983, the club won at least 80 games in every full season.
In 1979 the Orioles won 102 games, beat California 3-1 in the ALCS and took a three-games-to-one lead on Pittsburgh in the World Series before losing the last three games. The next season they won 100 games and still finished second, which was the price of playing in a division with the Yankees. The 1982 club won 94 games and finished second as well, in a race that was decided on the final day. Weaver then retired, and the manager's job went to Joe Altobelli.
1983 and the Ripken years
Altobelli's first Orioles team went 98-64, won the division, beat the White Sox 3-1 in the ALCS and beat Philadelphia four games to one in the World Series. It was the franchise's third and most recent championship. Cal Ripken, who had been Rookie of the Year in 1982, was named Most Valuable Player in 1983, and he and Eddie Murray formed the core of the club for the next decade. Ripken played 21 seasons, all with Baltimore, and leads the franchise in home runs (431), hits (3,184), runs batted in (1,695), runs (1,647) and walks (1,129). He won a second MVP in 1991. In 1995 he passed Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games played, and the streak finally stopped at 2,632 games in 1998.
The club did not follow the 1983 title with more titles. Weaver returned in 1985 for a final two years, and the Orioles went 73-89 in 1986. Then came a collapse: 67-95 in 1987, and in 1988 a team that lost its first 21 games and finished 54-107. A year later the club went 87-75, finished second and had the whole city believing, and the 1989 season is remembered in Baltimore as the "Why Not?" year. The Orioles climbed back to 89 wins in 1992 and won 85 in 1993.
Camden Yards and the late 1990s
The move out of Memorial Stadium was the club's most consequential decision since the move from St. Louis. Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992 with a brick-and-steel look and an asymmetrical field, and it changed what a ballpark could be. Attendance went from 2,552,753 in 1991 to 3,567,819 in 1992 and 3,644,965 in 1993. The 1997 season drew 3,711,132, which remains the franchise's single-season record. For more on the park itself, see the ballpark guide and the Camden Yards page.
The baseball matched the buildings for a few seasons. The 1996 team went 88-74, claimed the wild card, beat Cleveland 3-1 in the division series and lost the ALCS to the Yankees four games to one. Brady Anderson hit 50 home runs that year, second in the American League to Mark McGwire's 52. The 1997 club won 98 games, finished first, beat Seattle 3-1 in the division series and lost to Cleveland in the ALCS, 4-2. Mike Mussina, who is second in club strikeouts with 1,535, led that rotation. It was the last good team for a long time.
Fourteen losing seasons, 1998 to 2011
The 1998 team went 79-83, and the club did not finish above .500 again until 2012. The streak runs 14 seasons: 79-83, 78-84, 74-88, 63-98, 67-95, 71-91, 78-84, 74-88, 70-92, 69-93, 68-93, 64-98, 66-96 and 69-93. The Orioles finished fourth or fifth in the American League East in 13 of those seasons, with the Yankees and Red Sox spending far more and winning far more than they did.
The fans drifted away. Attendance fell from 3,684,650 in 1998 to 1,733,018 in 2010, nearly a 53 percent drop. Gregg Olson, Zack Britton and Jim Johnson were among the closers in the franchise's record books, and Brian Roberts, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones and later Chris Davis kept the lineup interesting, but there was no consistent base to build on. Mike Hargrove's club went 271-364 in his 637 games from 2000 to 2003, which says plenty about the stretch.
Showalter and the three-playoff run, 2012 to 2016
Buck Showalter took over in mid-2010 and, after he arrived, the franchise's trajectory turned. The 2012 club went 93-69, earned the wild card, beat Texas in the one-game wild-card round and took the Yankees to five games in the division series before losing. In 2014 the Orioles won 96 games and the division, swept Detroit 3-0 in the division series and were then swept by Kansas City in the ALCS. They got back to the postseason in 2016 as a wild card but lost the one-game round to Toronto. Davis hit 53 home runs in 2013, the most in the majors that year, and finished with 253 as an Oriole; Jones hit 263 over 11 seasons.
Showalter's tenure, which ended after 2018, produced a 669-683 record, a mark that undersells the three postseason trips. The 2017 team slipped to 75-87, and the rebuild that followed was drastic.
Tear-down and return, 2018 to 2025
The 2018 club went 47-115, the second-worst winning percentage in franchise history after the 1939 Browns, and a new front office led by general manager Mike Elias began to rebuild. The team lost 108 games in 2019 and 110 in 2021 under Brandon Hyde, who managed from 2019 until he was fired in May 2025 and finished with a 421-492 record. Then it turned around. The Orioles won 83 games in 2022, and in 2023 they went 101-61 and won the American League East, with Gunnar Henderson named Rookie of the Year. The Rangers swept them 3-0 in the division series.
In 2024 the club went 91-71, finished second and lost the wild-card series to Kansas City, 2-0. In 2025 it fell back to 75-87 and fifth place, and Hyde was fired after a 15-28 start, with coach Tony Mansolino finishing the season as interim manager. Through 2025, the franchise's rebuild had produced one division title and one wild-card berth in three years, and no pennant. The Orioles have not reached the World Series since 1983, a drought now four decades long.
Common questions
Are the Orioles and the old St. Louis Browns the same team? Yes. The Browns moved to Baltimore after 1953 and became the Orioles, and the historical record treats the whole run from 1901 as one franchise, which is why it begins with Milwaukee.
How many World Series have the Orioles won? Three, in 1966, 1970 and 1983. They lost three more as the Baltimore club (1969, 1971 and 1979), and the Browns lost the 1944 Series.
Who is the greatest Oriole? Ripken leads the franchise in the counting stats, Brooks Robinson in defensive reputation and Palmer on the mound. A full ranking by position is in the all-time greats list.
Where to go next
The best companions to this history are the best Orioles seasons and every October run and the Orioles team page. For rivals in the same division, read the Red Sox franchise history, the Yankees franchise history and the Rays franchise history, and for the postseason formats that shaped these results, see the history of the World Series. Current coverage is on the Orioles topic page.