Baltimore Orioles tickets

As the St. Louis Browns, this franchise produced just 12 winning seasons in 53 years. Several of the biggest Browns names- George Sisler, Ken Williams, Marty Mc-Manus and Urban Shocker-played for the best Browns teams in the 1920s, but they failed to win a pennant. Neither did Browns stars Bobby Wallace, George Stone, Del Pratt, or Harlond Clift. Only Vern Stephens, of the best Browns stars through the years, managed in 1944 to play for a Browns pennant winner.The franchise prospered in Baltimore, with 30 winning seasons in 47 years. The golden era was from 1960 to 1985, when the Baltimore Orioles Baseball produced 24 winning seasons and eight postseason appearances in 26 years. Pitchers Jim Palmer, Milt Pappas, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Dennis Martinez formed the team's core strength, while Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Davey Johnson, Bobby Grich, Ken Singleton, Doug DeCinces, Eddie Murray, and Cal Ripken produced lively lineups. Iron man Ripken became a legend in the 1990s, while playing with Brady Anderson, Rafael Palmeiro, Mike Mussina, and Gregg Olson.

George Sisler: Sisler was one of the best players ever, a non-power hitter dominating a power hitter's position, until a sinus infection that created double vision caused him to sit out the entire 1923 season. He came back in 1924, but played at a below average level. This disparity in performance is even more obvious when his career is adjusted for hitter's inflation and deflation:
In his first eight seasons, Sisler had adjusted batting averages of .309, .334, .390, .372, .359, .392, .342, and .397.1. After 1924, he had only three adjusted batting averages over .300. The best fielding first baseman of the 1920s, Sisler hit .340 with 102 home runs, and he stole 375 bases in his career. Adjusted for a career 2.5 percent hitter's inflation, he hit .332 with 105 home runs. His 855 Total Factor ranks ninth in league history for rate of success at first base, while his 452 Hits Contribution ranks tenth in league volume of success.

Eddie Murray:Murray shows what a player can do when he gets a chance to play at his full potential for a full career. In fact, Murray overstayed his time, generating a net negative contribution over his last seven seasons in order to amass over 500 home runs and over 3,000 hits in nearly 13,000 total at bats. If a player wasn't judged on gross numbers but, instead, on real contribution, Murray would have been better off retiring after the 1990 season.
For his career, Murray hit .287 with 3,255 hits and 504 home runs. Adjusted for a 1 percent career hitter's inflation, he hit .284 with 521 home runs. His 842 Total Factor ranks Murray 14th in league rate of success, while his 454 Hits Contribution ranks him ninth in league volume of success. (If Murray had retired after the 1990 sea-son, he would have ranked seventh in rate of success and sixth in volume of success.)

Cal Ripken: 40-year-old Ripken is the Iron Man of baseball. He accomplished this feat while playing shortstop, which makes his endurance record even more remarkable. Rip-ken is no longer adding to the streak, and he has no range at third base. However, he can still hit, as he proved in 1999 by batting .340 with 18 home runs, while being limited to half a season of playing time in both 1999 and 2000 due to the first real injuries of his career. Ripken hit .277 with 3,070 hits and 417 home runs to date. Adjusted for a career 2 percent hitter's inflation and a 162-game schedule, he has hit .271 with 3,084 hits and 416 home runs. His 788 Total Factor ranks 11th in league rate of success, while his 701 Hits Contribution ranks second behind Joe Cronin.

Vern Stephens: In his career, Stephens hit .286 with 247 home runs in a no inflationary period. Stephens' 815 Total Factor is the league's sixth best rate of success among shortstops, while his 521 Hits Contribution is the league's seventh best volume of success. What is remarkable about Stephens' career are the ten years from 1942 to 1951, when he was a consistently valuable contributor to his team's success. During that period, he generated all of his Hits Contribution, which means he averaged a 52 Hits Contribution every year for ten years.

Brooks Robinson: Robinson played so well and so long at third base that he owns most of the volume-related fielding records at that position. As a hitter, he produced nearly 3,000 hits despite a career .267 batting average. Robinson's reputation places him in the elite class of the top two or three third basemen of all time. But his low batting average, his in frequent rate of drawing walks that leads to an even lower on-base percentage, his career slugging average that barely tops .400, and his lack of speed all point to an average offensive player. Robinson hit .267 with 268 home runs in 11,567 total at bats. Adjusting for a career 2.5 percent hitter's deflation, he hit .274 with 276 home runs, for a 744 Wtd. Production. Add in 56 career Fielding Factor points, and his 793 Total Factor ranks Robinson 15th in league rate of success, while his 429 Hits Contribution ranks him seventh in league volume of success.

Jim Palmer: Palmer issued a lot of walks with his high fastball. But the longtime ace of the Baltimore Orioles Baseball Team staff also overpowered hitters. In his career, Palmer was 268-152, and he won 20 or more games in eight different seasons in the 1970s. Palmer achieved a 2.86 ERA and a 3.49 Wtd. RA/9, saving more than a run a game from scoring, which ranks him 11th in league rate of success. He saved 479 runs from scoring over his career, which ranks him sixth in league volume of success.

Mike Mussina: Mussina is the new Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles History staff. The 32-year-old rightly boasts a 147-81 record in his first ten seasons, with a 3.53 ERA. Mussina's ERA is high relative to history, as he is pitching in the greatest hitter's era in many decades. His 3.35 Wtd. RA/9 is the league's eighth best rate of success, showing how tough he is when compared to the league average pitcher. Mussina saves 1.2 runs from scoring every 9 innings, which over 2,010 innings gives him 282 Runs/162, currently the league's 26th best volume of success.

Ken Williams: Williams was baseball's first 30-30 man, and was nearly baseball's first 40-40 man in 1922, when he hit a league-leading 39 home runs and stole 37 bases, while batting .332. What made Williams' performance even more remarkable is that Babe Ruth was the only player to hit more than 30 home runs in a season prior to the 1922 season. And only three other players achieved the 30-30 mark in the next 37 years. Williams was an erratic outfielder, but he made up more for his fielding problems with his speed, hitting, and power.