A little more than a week after his 50th birthday, Harold Baines was announced as being elected to the Orioles Hall of Fame. He was the only one of the four finalist to make the Hall. The others were Mike Bordick, Jesse Orosco and Pitching Coach and former Manager Ray Miller.
Some may say he doesn’t deserve to be in Orioles Hall of Fame because he is associated with the Chicago White Sox.
Baines did play most of his 2830 games in the Chicago White Sox uniform, but he was part of an Orioles team in seven seasons (three of these were split seasons with other clubs) playing in 666 games. He batted .301 with 107 home runs and 378 RBIs.
No one blinks an eye when talking about Frank Robinson being a great Oriole player. He only played for the Orioles for six seasons playing in 827 games of his 2808 total.
Bordick played for six seasons for the Orioles. While he was a solid Short Stop he is probably best remembered as the man who replaced Cal Ripken at Short when it was decided that Ripken should finish his career at third.
Orosco played for the Orioles for five seasons late in his career and while he pitched well, his best years were behind him.
Any of these three players contributed to the Orioles enough to be inducted into their Hall of Fame, but I would agree of the three, Baines should be placed there first.
And who knows Bordick might still make it.
But perhaps the one who should have made the Hall of Fame is Ray Miller. Although I suspect that his failure at manager pulls him down. Other than the great George Bamberger, he is one of the better pitching coaches for the Orioles.
This was also published on my Baltimore Oriole Blog at oriolesbaseball.wordpress.com/
