Team Bibliography: Baltimore Orioles

A by-no-means complete, annotated (in some cases) bibliography of books about the Baltimore Orioles and their incarnations. (Note: This is only a list of books about the team in general. It does not include biographies of the team’s players, managers, front office personnel, etc.)

Baltimore Orioles: Where Have You Gone? by Jeff Seidel (Sports Publications, 2006). SP has published similar collections of anecdotes about several teams, trying no doubt to cash in on boomer nostalgia. The styles of the books are similar: the writer reminisces about team members and memorable moments. The stories in these books seldom offer any new or inside information.
Tales from the Orioles Dugout, by Louis Berney (Sports Publishing, 2004). Similar in scope to the Where Have You Gone… series, Tales from… features brief profiles, sometimes under the imprimatur of a player to give it cachet (although I imagine in some cases the name is just used as a marketing device).
The Baltimore Orioles: Four Decades of Magic from 33rd Street to Camden Yards, by Ted Patterson (Taylor Trade, 2000). Publishers are big on anniversaries, but this one jumps the gun a bit since the team didn’t relocate from St. Louis until 1954.
Oriole Magic: The O’s of ’83, by Thom Loverro (Triumph, 2004). The release of this one by Loverro, a reporter for the Washington Times, was a year too late to take advantage of the anniversary nuance.
Black and Blue: The Golden Arm, the Robinson Boys, and the 1966 World Series That Stunned America, by Tom Adelman (Little Brown, 2006). Books that include commentary on what the rest of the world was doing during a specific historic baseball event are among my favorites. This one — which marks the 40th anniversary of the Orioles’ upset win (or was it) over the L.A. Dodgers — notes the civil unrest that was plaguing the U.S. due to the war in Vietnam and racial strife. Some titles, however, do engage in a bit of hyperbole. To say that the outcome of a sporting event “stunned” a country seems a bit much. (There’s another title marking the occasion, Glory of the 1966 Orioles and Baltimore, by Mark R. Milikin and published by Saint Johann Press, but I have no other information about it, other than the fact the John Eisenberg (see below) of the Baltimore Sun called it a “fine book” in his column of Nov. 25, 2006.)
From 33rd Street to the Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles, by John Eisenberg (McGraw Hill, 2002). Oral histories are also a passion of mine. I find getting the story directly from the horse’s mouth, as it were, preferable to second-hand reporting, even if time does exaggerate memory.
Where They Ain’t: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball, by Burt Solomon (Free Press, 1999). Technically, I guess this should go in the Yankee’s folder, but maybe we’ll just list it twice, for the sticklers in the crowd. Solomon is also the author of the entertaining reference work, The Baseball Timeline: The Day-by-Day History of a Glorious Century of Baseball.
The Baltimore Orioles: The History of a Colorful Team in Baltimore and St. Louis, by Frederick Lieb (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005). SIUP reprinted a series of books — originally published by G.P. Putnam Sons — written by some of the most famous sportswriters of their day. The plan was to come up with one for each of the original 16 major league teams, but so far, that has not come to fruition. This volume was released to mark the 50th anniversary of the franchise in Baltimore.
Other titles on the Orioles include: Day-by-Day in Baltimore Orioles History (by Patterson, Sports Publishing, 1999) and Orioles Essential: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Real Fan! (by Loverro, Triumph, 2007), another of those catch-all books which will be released for several teams.