With a legacy that spans two fiercely loyal baseball towns a half-nation apart, the Baltimore Oriolesoriginally the St. Louis Brownsrank among baseball s most storied teams. One of the fifteen celebrated team histories commissioned by G. P. Putnam s Sons in the 1940s and 1950s, The "Baltimore Orioles: The History of a Colorful Team in Baltimore and St. Louis" chronicles the club s early history and is reissued on the fiftieth anniversary of their first season in Baltimore.

Hall of Fame sportswriter Frederick G. Lieb begins with the history of baseball in Baltimore from its pre-Civil War...