From Browns to Birds

Opening Day at Memorial Stadium, 1954

The modern-era Baltimore Orioles are born 70 years ago today as the foundering St. Louis Browns officially become the Baltimore Baseball Club Inc.

Five months later – and after the Orioles split their first two games of the 1954 season against the Tigers in Detroit – Bob Turley delivers the Orioles’ first pitch in their new home at Memorial Stadium.

Richard Nixon’s ceremonial first pitch

Turley and the Orioles win the game, beating the Chicago White Sox 3-1 before a Thursday afternoon crowd of 46,354.

Before Turley’s first real pitch for the new Orioles, the ceremonial first pitch is thrown by Vice President and noted baseball enthusiast Richard Nixon.

“There was a lot of excitement then,” says Ernie Harwell, the Detroit Tigers’ Hall of Fame broadcaster who in 1954 is the voice of the Orioles. “Everything was new.”

The Orioles play another 3,005 games at Memorial Stadium before moving in 1992 to Camden Yards.

The Orioles estimate by the time the team leaves for Camden Yards that fans over 38 seasons at Memorial Stadium consume 48.5 million hot dogs, 7.1 million bags of peanuts and 12.5 gallons of soda and beer to wash down all of those hot dogs and peanuts.

Bob Turley with the Orioles during the 1954 season