Oriole Magic: The O's of '83 [Hardcover]

Thom Loverro (Author), Rick Dempsy (Afterword), Cal Ripken (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2004

That great season is resurrected with candid, colorful interviews and stories from every key member of the 1983 Orioles World Series Championship team along with detailed narrative about the major events throughout the season.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The 1982 baseball season ended in bitter disappointment for the Baltimore Orioles. After a brilliant stretch run put them in position to claim the Eastern Division title, the entire campaign came down to one game - winner take all. But the Oriole Magic ran out on the final day of the season, and the team's World Series dreams were put on hold for the duration of a long winter.

It was during that winter that the Orioles named Joe Altobelli their new manager, replacing retired legend Earl Weaver. Altobelli had enormous shoes to fill come spring training, but he also had a veteran ballclub that had something to prove. With everyday players like Cal Ripken, Eddie Murray, Ken Singleton, and Rick Dempsey, and a pitching staff that included Mike Flanagan, Scott McGregor, Mike Boddicker, Dennis Martinez, and Jim Palmer, the Orioles were poised to achieve the glory that had eluded them the previous season.

It wouldn't be a walk in the park, though. In fact, from the season's Opening Day - an embarassing loss to start the "Altobelli Era" - to the final out of the World Series, the Baltimore Orioles' 1983 season was a virtual roller-coaster ride. Together the team experienced dramatic highs and lows and held on during the many twists and turns on the way to their ultimate goal.

What made the 1983 championship all the more special - though nobody knew it at the time - was that it would be the franchise's last title to date, marking the end of a proud era that dated back to 1966. Younger players like Ripken and Boddicker, as well as the legions of Baltimore fans, naturally expected to be in another World Series before long, as the franchise had been to six Series in the past 18 years.

But things didn't turn out that way, and the franchise bottomed out five years later after starting the 1988 season at a record 0-21 en route to a franchise-worst 107 losses. Years later we are finally seeing signs of that Oriole Magic again and feeling what it was like to be linked to the Orioles in the summer of '83.

Oriole Magic is the first book that introduces us to all of the subplots and personalities that contributed so greatly to that unforgetable summer. Orioles fans will not only relive one of the proudest times in Baltimore's sports history, they will also get a true, inside look into the machinations of the franchise's last world championship.

About the Author

Thom Loverro is a sports columnist for The Washington Times. The winner of numerous awards, Loverro joined the Baltimore sun in 1984 as a reporter and editor. In 1992 he moved to the Times, where he has covered Baltimore Orioles baseball, Washington Redskins football, and a host of other sports, including several Olympic Games. Other books by Thom Loverro include Blazing Trails with John Mackey, The Story of Camden Yards, and The Washington Redskins: The Authorized History.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (April 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157243564X
• ISBN-13: 978-1572435643
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,616,457 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Travel > United States > States > Maryland

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, May 4, 2007

By 

R. Mujica "RMR" (Mex) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Oriole Magic: The O's of '83 (Hardcover)

Being an Orioles fan, I was very excited about the possibility of going back in time to re-live the last championship season. Unfortunately, the book turned out to be a disappointment.
This book has little insight on what went on, with few in-depth interviews or details. The book is poorly written and soulless, being more a chronological narration of events than a true document that takes you back to the excitement lived by a championship team. It seems to me that you would get close to the same effect of how the season went by just going over the boxscores of Orioles' games.
Inevitably, I compared it with the book "The Bad Guys Won!" (the tale of the 1986 Mets) and it pales in comparison. Both teams where quite different, but the way the Orioles' book is written, it seems they where the dullest of teams, winning without any heart. Even though I'm an Oriole fan, I got more excited about the Mets' championship season than the Orioles'!
Finally, as a literary piece of work, it is quite poor: bad use of the English language, bad storytelling, relies to much on stats description, etc.