The Baltimore Orioles (nicknamed The O's and The Birds) are a Major League Baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. They are in the Eastern Division of the American League. They are owned by attorney Peter Angelos.
The modern Orioles franchise can trace its roots back to the original Milwaukee Brewers of the minor Western League, beginning in 1894 when the league reorganized. The Brewers were there when the WL renamed itself the American League in 1900.
At the end of the 1900 season, the American League removed itself from baseball's National Agreement (the formal understanding between the NL and the minor leagues). Two months later, the AL declared itself a competing major league. As a result of several franchise shifts, the Brewers were one of only two Western League teams that didn't either fold or move (the other being the Detroit Tigers). During the first American League season, they finished dead last with a record of 48-89. During its lone Major League season, the team played at Lloyd Street Grounds, between 16th and 18th Streets in Milwaukee.
As the baseball "war" heated up the American League began to challenge the senior circuit more directly. The American League already fielded teams in Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, solid National League cities. It had planned to move the Brewers to St. Louis, but those plans fizzled.
In 1902, however, the team did move to St. Louis, where it became the "Browns", in reference to the original name of the legendary 1880s club that by 1902 was known as the Cardinals. In their first St. Louis season, the Browns finished second. Although they usually fielded terrible or mediocre teams (they had only four winning seasons from 1901 to 1922), they were very popular at the gate.