Free Republic

Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson, whose deft glovework and folksy manner made him one of the most beloved and accomplished athletes in Baltimore history, has died. He was 86. "We are deeply saddened to share the news of the passing of Brooks Robinson," his family and the Baltimore Orioles said in a joint statement. "An integral part of our Orioles Family since 1955, he will continue to leave a lasting impact on our club, our community, and the sport of baseball." The statement did not say how Robinson died. The Orioles held a moment of silence before their...

As a kid I used to read stories about how Babe Ruth (or was it Ted Williams, maybe both) visited a terminally ill child, promised to hit a home run in his honor in the next game, and delivered. Were these stories true? I don’t know, but I enjoyed them. Something close to this scenario occurred in Baltimore last night. Trey Mancini plays first base for the Orioles. ... Mancini missed all of last season. He was diagnosed with stage-three colon cancer and underwent surgery and lengthy recovery/rehabilitation. During the rehabilitation process, he got to know Mo Gaba, a terminally...

MLB is giving players the option of wearing BLM patches on their jerseys? Knock yourselves out as I won't be watching....ever again

Four fans were escorted out of Oriole Park at Camden Yards after unfurling a pro-Donald Trump banner during Thursday’s game between the Orioles and Blue Jays, according to a Baltimore Sun report. The red, white and blue banner, which supported Trump’s reelection campaign, bore the messages “Keep America Great!” and “Trump 2020.” It was unfurled during the eighth inning of the Orioles’ 11-2 loss.

A photo taken by a Baltimore Sun reporter at the game shows the fans hanging the red, white and blue banner with the words “Keep America Great!” and “Trump 2020” during the eighth inning at Camden Yards. The paper reports the banner remained up for less than 10 minutes as other fans shouted “take it down!”

Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis entered the Major League Baseball record books on Monday night yet again after his 0-for-5 performance against the Oakland Athletics pushed his hitless streak to 49 at-bats, setting the longest such streak ever recorded in baseball history. Davis lined out to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning for the record-breaking out. In his second at-bat, Davis popped an easy foul ball that was dropped, giving him a potential gift-wrapped opportunity to avoid history. But he would then go on to hit a hard line drive to left field that was also...

The last time we checked in on Chris Davis around these parts, things weren’t going so hot. He was about halfway through what turned out to be one of the worst seasons in baseball history. In 470 at-bats for the Baltimore Orioles, Davis hit .168, the lowest average since 1900 for a player who qualified for the batting title. Based on the advanced metric wins above replacement, or WAR, he was worth about three wins less than a typical Triple-A call-up. But it’s a brand new year. The stats reset. The turn of the calendar to another spring marks a...

BALTIMORE (WJZ)- Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis entered the Major League Baseball record books on Monday night yet again after his 0-for-5 performance against the Oakland Athletics pushed his hitless streak to 49 at-bats, setting the longest such streak ever recorded in baseball history. Davis lined out to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning for the record-breaking out. In his second at-bat, Davis popped an easy foul ball that was dropped, giving him a potential gift-wrapped opportunity to avoid history. But he would then go on to hit a hard line drive to left field that...

The Yankees have agreed to a deal to acquire O's closer Zach Britton, pending physicals, according to MLB.com's Jon Paul Morosi. Right-handers Dillon Tate, who is the Yankees' No. 9-ranked prospect, and Cody Carroll, who's ranked No. 15, and Triple-A left-hander Josh Rogers are in the package for Britton, according to sources. The Orioles were still reviewing medical records, a source told MLB.com's Brittany Ghiroli, so it's unlikely a deal will be announced on Tuesday night. The Yankees will pick up the remainder of Britton's salary, which is about $5 million for the rest of 2018, and no international pool...

It has been 3½ months since Adam Jones endured what he describes as "one of the worst nights" of his 12-year major league career. Now, with the Baltimore Orioles' center fielder returning to Boston for the first time since a racial incident that rocked baseball, it's fair to ask: Has anything changed?

A Baltimore Orioles executive says he'd prefer President Trump not throw out a first pitch at Camden Yards without first apologizing for statements that could be viewed as problematic "from a race, ethnicity, religious, gender, disability" standpoint.   John Angelos, son of owner Peter Angelos and the Orioles' executive vice president and chief operating officer, said on a Baltimore-based podcast that divisive rhetoric and actions during Trump's campaign and since his swearing-in require that the president re-double efforts to embrace all members of the community.

With racial issues in the United States coming to the forefront in the sports world, Major League Baseball players generally have been absent from the growing chorus of athletes who have publicly spoken out about problems they may see in the United States, and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones thinks he knows why. "Baseball is a white man's sport," the Orioles star told USA Today. "We already have two strikes against us already,'' Jones told the newspaper, "so you might as well not kick yourself out of the game. In football, you can't kick them out. You need those players....

Greensboro resident Hal "Skinny" Brown, who pitched in the major leagues for 14 seasons, has died at age 91 ... Brown, who was 6 feet 2 and 180 pounds during his playing days, compiled a record of 85-92 with a 3.81 earned-run average in 358 appearances with the Chicago White Sox (1951-52), Boston Red Sox (1953-55), Baltimore Orioles (1955-62), New York Yankees (1962) and Houston Colt .45s (1963-64) ...

Curt Schilling took on the Internet – and the entire Muslim world – on Tuesday and lost. Badly. The two-time National League strikeout king took to Twitter to voice his concern over Islamic extremism. He posted a photo of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler with the words, “It's said only 5-10% of Muslims are extremists. In 1940, only 7% of Germans were Nazis. How'd that go?” The 48-year-old also tweeted, “The math is staggering when you get to true (numbers).” Schilling, who won three World Series championships during his 20-year MLB career, deleted the post after 10 minutes. Currently working with...

For sustaining evidence of a world gone nuts with the media’s steady, selective and frightened compliance, there’s Delmon Young — now with the Orioles, who spent the week here playing the Mets, then Yankees. But first the lasting legacy of John Rocker — the big, white, not too bright Braves pitcher quoted in Sports Illustrated making bigoted, ethnic and racist remarks about NYC’s inhabitants. Though he broke no laws or jaws, Rocker, at 24, became a national symbol of hate, a pariah, too. On TV, radio and in print — “Saturday Night Live” to “The CBS Evening News with Dan...

Gus Triandos, a brawny slugger who won the hearts of Orioles fans starved for someone to cheer for in the 1950s, died Thursday at his home in San Jose, Calif. He was 82.

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton's torrid 2012 season now includes his first career four-home-run game, all of them two-run shots in a 10-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Hamilton homered off Jake Arrieta in the first and third innings, added another off Zach Phillips in the seventh and topped it off with a one-for-the-books shot against Darren O'Day in the eighth. During the last at-bat, Hamilton took a mighty hack and missed, lined a foul into right-field seats and then sent an 0-2 pitch over the center-field wall. It marked the 16th four-home-run game in major league history. Hamilton is...

The early morning-after speculation proved true. Suicide. And those with direct and indirect interest, his actual and his baseball family alike, must wonder. What drove Mike Flanagan–once a tenacious but abundantly-humourous Baltimore Orioles pitcher, eventually a team coach, broadcaster, and executive who withstood the heat in and for Peter Angelos’s chameleonic kitchen–to leave himself with a bullet in his head, to be found dead on a trail of his property at 59. What drives a man who knew himself, laughed at himself, analysed where others might condemn, thought where others might explode, and taught a proud city bedeviled by its...

Good morning and Happy Easter, I am writing to you today because over the course of the past few weeks I have heard, read and have become upset by stories about 37 year Baltimore Oriole bullpen coach Elrod "Ellie" Hendricks and how Oriole managment seems to have mis-handled Ellie's situation both prior to his mild stroke and after his massive and fatal heart attack the night before his birthday last December. I as well as many other fans in Baltimore and abroad were very upset at the fact that the Orioles did not retire Ellie's number on opening day. Ellie...

Van Halen Closing in on Orioles By Joal Ryan Fri Aug 12, 8:57 PM ET If Van Halen was a sports franchise, the argument could be made it'd be the dysfunctional, "Bronx Zoo" version of the New York Yankees. In which case the Baltimore Orioles might be in trouble. More often than not, the Yankees of that era beat the Orioles. A showdown between Van Halen, the hard-rock supergroup, and the Baltimore Orioles, the fourth-place baseball club, is on after a judge rejected the team's attempt to bench the band's lawsuit challenge, the Baltimore Sun reported Friday. The start of...