Orioles Spring Training Pays Homage To History And Looks To The Future

Last Sunday, the Baltimore Orioles pitchers began the annual two-month spring training ritual at the  and the rest of their teammates take to the field today.

When this Maryland writer arrived last Saturday in Sarasota, the temperatures were unseasonably warm, but certainly not as warm as the hot seat Buck Showalter, the 55-year-old DeFuniak Springs, Florida native and returning Orioles manager must be feeling.

The following day when the pitchers and catchers took to the field, dark skies and rain followed — a combination coupled with that warm Saturday seems to be the regular forecast pattern for the O's this season.

Showalter, the two-time American League Manager of the Year, who took over the helm of the ailing Birds on July 29, 2010, has his work cut out for him if the team is to overcome its dismal 2011 season record of 69-93 — the team’s 14th losing season in a row.

This year much of the buzz over the O’s is not taking place on the field as much as the personnel — and physical changes — in the operations center, where new Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations Dan Duquette has come on board.

The says it best:

“The Orioles have added roughly a dozen players under … Duquette, and there won't be any shortage of storylines this spring.

“Baltimore has 10 players who are out of options and must be placed on waivers if they don't make the team this spring, giving Duquette and manager Buck Showalter a tall task in roster juggling to try to give them the best possible outlook for the season.”

And this spring, rebuilding the Orioles team roster is not the only reconstruction for the Birds taking place in Sarasota.

The Birds took over the training facility, at the 22-year-old, 9,000-seat Ed Smith Stadium, in 2010, from the Cincinnati Reds who had moved to a facility in Arizona. Before 2010, the Orioles had not trained in Sarasota since 1995.

Since 2010, renovations to the facility, including a , have continued in earnest.

As Patch shared earlier this week, the "43,000-square-foot building is about one and a half times the size of the old building and features just about everything a pro ball player will need. ... "every part of the Big Red Machine is gone."

The center is sprinkled with memories of Spring Training long ago in black and white photos of old Miami Stadium where the O's once trained in the '60s are beside ones from the Daytona Beach and Arizona days.

Before the Orioles had dreams of moving to Sarasota, you have to appreciate how the Orioles even came to Baltimore. The history of Baltimore baseball goes back 130 years.

A number of media sources, including VisitBaltimore.org, the website for Baltimore Convention & Tourism Board, reports the first mention of baseball in Baltimore came in 1882, “when Harry Vonderhorst sponsored a Baltimore team in “what was then known as the American Association of baseball clubs, (1882-1891.)

“In 1894, the (at that time, National League) Baltimore Orioles won their first professional baseball championship…(I)n 1903 the team moved to New York and eventually became today's NY Yankees.”

The current Baltimore Orioles franchise began playing baseball in 1954 in Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street (1950-1991,) after it was announced on Sept. 28, 1953, that the St. Louis Browns were moving to Baltimore.

The humble beginnings of the St. Louis Browns may be traced back to the Milwaukee Brewers, which formed in 1894; years before 1900 when the minor league Western League reorganized as the American League.

Even the team's World Series titles in 1966, 1970 and 1983 seem like an entry in a history book in 2012, but no matter the year, optimism reigns in the spring.

Hopefully the humble beginnings of a new operations center and Duquette will bring forth another era and sunny days ahead for Baltimore baseball.

Kevin Dayhoff has been a Florida snowbird for more than 15 years. He writes about history, art, and government for a number of publications, including Westminster, Eldersburg and North Baltimore Patch sites in Maryland. He may be reached at kevindayhoff@gmail.com