Customer Reviews

From 33rd Street to Camden Yards : An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles

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John Eisenberg let it be known that a real history of the Orioles could not be related in one volume, even at five hundred pages. But, considering that most folks wouldn't read (much less buy) a ten volume set, Eisenberg has offered a terrific alternative. This truly is an oral history. Eisenberg guides us through the history of one of the winningest franchises in baseball history without getting in the way of the story. Virtually every key figure from the Orioles' past is represented here. You'll enjoy hearing from not only the Robinsons (Brooks and Frank), but also from players whose names you have probably forgotten, like Tom Phoebus and Joe Durham. Even Eddie Murray adds his memories to Eisenberg's story. It appears that the players, managers, and others who made their living from baseball, want to be sure to get their two cents into the Orioles' only true book of record. Is anyone missing? One does wonder how a history of Baltimore baseball could be complete without a word from or about Hall of Fame broadcaster Chuck Thompson. He appears to be the only missing link in a comprehensive look back at Baltimore's baseball heritage.

This is a good read if you are a baseball fan. It becomes a very good read if one is a Baltimore Oriole fan. And, if one is an Oriole fan old enough to remember the early days it is simply excellent.

The oral history told by those who made that history is just wonderful. Mr. Eisenberg has captured some great stories as the history of a once great franchise unfolds.

The memories are spectacular as we hear from the franchise superstars and the lesser known role players over 46 years. This is story telling at its best. One is reminded of so many players that were part of O's story...and they truly come to life.

The human side comes out as well and we are reminded of just how great a franchise it was and how it got that way. It should be required reading for every member of the current Oriole organization...they could learn something.

I too was amazed that Chuck Thomson and Jon Miller were not interviewed and that Bill O'Donnell not mentioned...they were the voices that we all knew.

I received this book as a birthday present and from the first few glances, I was intrigued. I have read many Oriole books in the past, but none that really told me what had happened. You see, I am 27 now and the first thing I can remember is winning the world series in 1983. So, there is about 300 pages of stories and information that are totally new to me. From the standpoint of a fan who wants to learn more about how the Orioles became what they are in Baltimore this was a very interesting book.

John Eisenberg gives a list of the players he interviewed and a short two lines about them. This was extremely useful to me and I refered back to it often. As the previous reviewer said, I was surprised that Chuck Thompson and also John Miller were not included in the interviewed group, but I'm sure Eisenberg couldn't interview everyone.

From an Oriole's fan perspective, this was an interesting book to read, to learn about how the team got to Baltimore and the different phases of development to the present team. If these things don't interest you then definately skip this book. But I found it to be quite interesting and truly enhanced by the short blurbs from the people who Eisenberg interviewed.

Just about the best book ever written on the Baltimore Orioles baseball franchise. It has interviews from over 100 former Orioles employees and players. Don't know whether I believe all the stuff coming out of Peter Angelos' mouth, but this is a fantastic read for any Oriole or just a baseball fan.

I'm sure most Orioles fans have checked this book out already, but if you haven't, what are you waiting for? This is a history of the O's told through interviews with many former players, managers, and executives involved with the club. Deep (500 pages) and interesting. "The Oriole Way" (great fundamentals, playing for the team and not for the self) worked wonders for the organization for a long time. Free agency did its bit in undermining all that, but there's always next year. One of the better baseball books on the market.

I'm a huge baseball fan and a bigger Orioles fan, but for years I've stayed away from reading books about the game. I'm not sure why, but I could just never bring myself to read tales of yesteryear strained through rose-colored glasses. So it was with great joy that I tore through John Eisenberg's book.

Most "oral histories" tend to be rather boring and well, talky, usually filled with a lot of "me, me, me." Perhaps it speaks to the true nature of what the Orioles organization used to be that the men interviewed tend to sound honest, intelligent and even modest at times.

This is really a fun book - one filled with funny, sad and insightful tales of a different era of baseball. Unfortunately, some players where no longer around to be interviewed (I would have loved to hear what Mark Belanger had to say) and others, it seems, refused to talk (who wouldn't want to hear Reggie Jackson talk about his one season in Baltimore!?).

If you're an Orioles fan, you really can't go wrong with this book. And if you're a baseball fan, I urge to pick this up because you'll begin to understand just what the Birds have meant for Baltimore and for baseball in general.

This is a great history lesson of the Baltimore Orioles that was easier than I accepted to read. The book is more from the prospective of the past players, coaches & owners than from the author and gives a "real" look into the times of the Orioles beginning after the move from St. Louis, to the glory days of the 60's & 70's to the downward spirial of the late 80's and thru the up's and downs of the 90's. Also, the author gives us how the "Oriole Way" was developed. Awesome detail and some funny passages. I would recommend, even to the non-Oriole fan such as myself.

Until Peter Golenbock [the unparalleled master of the baseball oral history - refer, if you doubt me, to "Bums" (about the Brooklyn Dodgers), "Dynasty" (the New York Yankees of 1947-64), "The Spirit of St. Louis" (the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns), and "Fenway" (three guesses)] decides to get the job done, this will have to suffice for an almost comprehensive history of the Baltimore Orioles, one of the more class baseball franchises - at least, since they moved from St. Louis for the 1954 season. (For those whose lives have been lived on Uranus for half a century, the Orioles are the erstwhile Browns.)

The good news: It's as good as it gets for discoursing upon such phenomena as the team's first horrendous season in 1954. (The 1954 Orioles were the 1962 Mets of their day: they dropped over 100 and the fans loved them anyway, and the Birds didn't lack for a little colour, either.) It's even better for giving the closest insight we are likely to receive so far about Oriole minor league pitching legend Steve Dalkowski - Dalkowski (a roommate of future Los Angeles Angels rookie star/playboy Bo Belinsky) threw bullets which have people suggesting long since that he might have been harder than Herb Score (who didn't survive, thanks to an altered pitching motion ruining his arm, in the wake of that nasty line drive off his face) or Sandy Koufax (who finally found the plate in 1961 and became a Hall of Famer and the second deadliest lefthander of them all other than Lefty Grove), except that he could neither handle nor stay away from his booze. (Dalkowski today is widowed and nearly incapacitated for living on his own.) You will also get a pretty good idea as to why Milt Pappas (who made his bones with the Orioles' legendary "Baby Birds" pitching staff of the late 1950s-early 1960s, only to be the key man in the Frank Robinson trade), despite the claims by many including himself, will never be elected to the Hall of Fame: he suffered a terminal case of Billy Loes Syndrome (Loes was legendary for saying he didn't have to win 20 because they'd expect him to do it every year if he did it once; Pappas was a classic disciple - and he thinks he should be in the Hall of Fame???).

On the other hand, you get a little too much of paradoxical and (some Oriole fans say) toxic owner Peter Angelos, while you get an awful little about an awful lot of significant things around the club. Particularly, Brooks Robinson: Nothing is said of perhaps the signature that nailed it down about how popular and how respected Robinson was - Robinson, run bankrupt thanks to some investment errors in the 1970s (the reason why he hung on for two final seasons despite his obviously being through) and sworn to pay every dollar back he owed, got a huge bolt of help and love from Baltimore when the news leaked out.

Still, you do get a lot of goodies, particularly the dominant Oriole teams of the mid-to-late 1960s-early 1970s, and you get especially an insight you haven't had in too many places - how it felt to be on the receiving end of the 1969 Miracle Mets' World Series mojo. (The Orioles, as you might expect, were and remain gracious and slightly awed by that defeat.) And you get some very good workings into precisely what it was that made such men as Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Jim Palmer, Earl Weaver, and Cal Ripken, Jr. what they were.

Give it a pull. Despite the flaws, you will not be able to put it down.

I'm a new Orioles fan, having finally had enough of the high salaries and toxic ownership of my native New York Yankees. Committed to giving my devotion to another storied francise, the Baltimore Orioles, I sought to learn everything I could about my newly adopted team.

This book is as comprehensive an Orioles history as I've found. At only 500 pages it may be a little too condensed for some Baltimore devotees, but all the significant events in O's history are covered - from the team's inception to its salad days in the late 60s and early 70s; from talented rookies like Steve Dalkowsi (who never made the bigs) to talented veterans like Cal Ripken (who did).

The early player development of Paul Richards. The amazing defensive play of Brooks Robinson, the greatest third baseman ever. The owners - Jerry Hoffberger, EBW, Eli Jacobs, and Peter Angelos. Earl Weaver and Cal Senior. Reggie's year in Baltimore. The remarkable farm system and the "Oriole Way." Memorial Stadium and the building of Camden Yards. World Series seasons and sub-500 years. It's all here, told by the players and front office personnel who lived it.

Maybe a more "complete" history will be written someday, but presently this is the best Orioles book to get. Also check out the similarly titled Ted Patterson book, "Baltimore Orioles: From 33rd Street to Camden Yards," which is almost as comprehensive and features a lot more pictures.