Baltimore Orioles

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States. They are a member of the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's American League. One of the American League's eight charter franchises in 1901, it spent its first year as a major league club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers before moving to St. Louis to become the St. Louis Browns. After 52 often beleaguered years in St. Louis, the Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and adopted the Orioles name in honor of the official state bird of Maryland. The Orioles name had been used by previous major league baseball clubs in Baltimore, including the American League Baltimore Orioles franchise from 1901 to 1902 that became the New York Yankees and the National League Baltimore Orioles. Nicknames for the team include the O's and the Birds.

The Orioles experienced their greatest success from 1964 to 1983, as well as the mid-1990s, and have won a total of eight Division Championships (1969–1971, 1973–1974, 1979, 1983, 1997), six pennants (1966, 1969–1971, 1979, 1983), three World Series Championships (1966, 1970, 1983), two wild card berths (1996 & 2012), and five Most Valuable Player awards (3B Brooks Robinson 1964, OF Frank Robinson 1966, 1B Boog Powell 1970 and SS Cal Ripken, Jr. 1983 & 1991).

Despite being one of the most historic major league franchises, the O's suffered a stretch of fourteen straight losing seasons from 1998 to 2011. However, the Orioles posted a winning record in 2012 and qualified for the postseason for the first time since 1997. The Orioles are also well known for their successful stadium, the trend-setting Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which opened in 1992 in downtown Baltimore.

ORIOLE PARK AT CAMDEN YARDS

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a Major League Baseball (MLB) ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland. Home to the Baltimore Orioles, it is the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s, and remains one of the most highly praised. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium.

The park is situated in downtown Baltimore, a few blocks west of the Inner Harbor in the Camden Yards Sports Complex. The Orioles celebrated the ballpark's 20th anniversary during the 2012 season and launched the website CamdenYards20.com as part of the celebration. Historically, Oriole Park at Camden Yards is one of several venues that have carried the "Oriole Park" name for various Baltimore franchises over the years. The park is typically known simply as Camden Yards.