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1998 Baltimore Orioles season

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Major League Baseball season

Major League Baseball team season
1998 Baltimore Orioles
LeagueAmerican League
DivisionEast
BallparkOriole Park at Camden Yards
CityBaltimore, Maryland
Record79–83 (.488)
Divisional place4th
OwnersPeter Angelos
General managersPat Gillick
ManagersRay Miller
TelevisionWJZ-TV/WNUV
Home Team Sports
(Jim Palmer, Michael Reghi, Rick Cerone)
RadioWBAL (AM)
(Fred Manfra, Jim Hunter)
← 1997 Seasons 1999 →

The 1998 Baltimore Orioles season was the 98th season in Baltimore Orioles franchise history, the 45th in Baltimore, and the 7th at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The Orioles finished fourth in the American League East with a record of 79 wins and 83 losses, the first of 14 consecutive losing seasons.

Offseason

  • December 11, 1997: Doug Drabek was signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles.
  • December 12, 1997: Joe Carter was signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles.

Regular season


Eddie
Murray
1B
Retired 1998
* From July 2 to August 15, Eric Davis hits in 30 consecutive games during which time he hits .400 (52-130) with 10 home runs and 35 runs batted in.
  • On September 13, 1998, Ryan Minor would make his Major League debut.
  • The 1998 Baltimore Orioles season marks the last time a team other than the New York Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball until 2013, when New York was surpassed by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Season standings

AL East
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
New York Yankees 114 48 .704 — 62‍–‍19 52‍–‍29
Boston Red Sox 92 70 .568 22 51‍–‍30 41‍–‍40
Toronto Blue Jays 88 74 .543 26 51‍–‍30 37‍–‍44
Baltimore Orioles 79 83 .488 35 42‍–‍39 37‍–‍44
Tampa Bay Devil Rays 63 99 .389 51 33‍–‍48 30‍–‍51

Record vs. opponents

1998 American League record
Sources:
Team ANA BAL BOS CWS CLE DET KC MIN NYY OAK SEA TB TEX TOR NL 
Anaheim — 5–6 6–5 5–6 4–7 8–3 6–5 6–5 6–5 5–7 9–3 6–5 5–7 4–7 10–6
Baltimore 6–5 — 6–6 2–9 5–6 10–1 5–6 7–3 3–9 8–3 6–5 5–7 6–5 5–7 5–11
Boston 5–6 6–6 — 5–6 8–3 5–5 8–3 5–6 5–7 9–2 7–4 9–3 6–5 5–7 9–7
Chicago 6–5 9–2 6–5 — 6–6 6–6 8–4 6–6 4–7 4–7 4–7 5–6 5–6 4–6–1 7–9
Cleveland 7–4 6–5 3–8 6–6 — 9–3 8–4 6–6 4–7 3–8 9–2 7–3 4–7 7–4 10–6
Detroit 3–8 1–10 5–5 6–6 3–9 — 6–6 8–4 3–8 7–4 3–8 5–6 3–8 5–6 7–9
Kansas City 5–6 6–5 3–8 4–8 4–8 6–6 — 7–5 0–10 7–4 4–6 8–3 3–8 6–5 9–7
Minnesota 5–6 3–7 6–5 6–6 6–6 4–8 5–7 — 4–7 4–7 2–9 7–4 7–4 4–7 7–9
New York 5–6 9–3 7–5 7–4 7–4 8–3 10–0 7–4 — 8–3 8–3 11–1 8–3 6–6 13–3
Oakland 7–5 3–8 2–9 7–4 8–3 4–7 4–7 7–4 3–8 — 5–7 5–6 6–6 5–6 8–8
Seattle 3–9 5–6 4–7 7–4 2–9 8–3 6–4 9–2 3–8 7–5 — 6–5 5–7 4–7 7–9
Tampa Bay 5–6 7–5 3–9 6–5 3–7 6–5 3–8 4–7 1–11 6–5 5–6 — 4–7 5–7 5–11
Texas 7–5 5–6 5–6 6–5 7–4 8–3 8–3 4–7 3–8 6–6 7–5 7–4 — 7–4 8–8
Toronto 7–4 7–5 7–5 6–4–1 4–7 6–5 5–6 7–4 6–6 6–5 7–4 7–5 4–7 — 9–7


Notable transactions

  • June 2, 1998: Cliff Lee was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 20th round of the 1998 amateur draft, but did not sign.
  • June 16, 1998: Rich Becker was selected off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles from the New York Mets.
  • July 23, 1998: Joe Carter was traded by the Baltimore Orioles to the San Francisco Giants for Darin Blood (minors).

All good things must come to an end

In June, Cal Ripken Jr. began to contemplate ending his still-active, record-breaking streak of consecutive games played. However, the Orioles were still in contention for a wild-card spot in the playoffs at that point, so he continued playing. By mid-September, after the team fell out of wild-card contention, Ripken decided that, since the games that began his streak (May 30, 1982), tied Lou Gehrig's old record of 2,130 games (September 5, 1995) and surpassed it (September 6, 1995) all took place in his Baltimore hometown, it would be most appropriate to bring his incredible run to a close at home also. Thus, on September 20, after playing 2,632 games without a break, Cal Ripken Jr. asked to be taken out of the starting lineup for the Orioles' last home game of the season against the New York Yankees. Everybody was stunned when rookie Ryan Minor took third base instead of Ripken for the start of the game. The game's first batter, New York's Chuck Knoblauch, grounded out to shortstop for the first out, officially ending Ripken's streak and prompting both teams and the fans to give "The Iron Man" a thunderous ovation for his monumental achievement.

Roster

1998 Baltimore Orioles
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

Other batters

Manager

Coaches

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Chris Hoiles 97 267 70 .262 15 56
1B Rafael Palmeiro 162 619 183 .296 43 121
2B Roberto Alomar 147 588 166 .282 14 56
3B Cal Ripken 161 601 163 .271 14 61
SS Mike Bordick 151 465 121 .260 13 51
LF B.J. Surhoff 162 573 160 .279 22 92
CF Brady Anderson 133 479 113 .236 18 51
RF Eric Davis 131 452 148 .327 28 89
DH Harold Baines 104 293 88 .300 9 57

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Lenny Webster 108 309 88 .285 10 46
Joe Carter 85 283 70 .247 11 34
Jeffrey Hammonds 63 171 46 .269 6 28
Jeff Reboulet 79 126 31 .246 1 8
Rich Becker 79 113 23 .204 3 11
Willie Greene 24 40 6 .150 1 5
Lyle Mouton 18 39 12 .308 2 7
Danny Clyburn 11 25 7 .280 1 3
Charlie Greene 13 21 4 .190 0 0
Calvin Pickering 9 21 5 .238 2 3
Ozzie Guillén 12 16 1 .063 0 0
Ryan Minor 9 14 6 .429 0 1
Jesús Tavárez 8 11 2 .182 1 1
P. J. Forbes 9 10 1 .100 0 2
Jerry Hairston Jr. 6 7 0 .000 0 0
Willis Otáñez 3 5 1 .200 0 0
Gene Kingsale 11 2 0 .000 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Scott Erickson 36 251.1 16 13 4.01 186
Juan Guzmán 33 211.0 10 16 4.35 168
Mike Mussina 29 206.1 13 10 3.49 175
Doug Drabek 23 108.2 6 11 7.29 55
Scott Kamieniecki 12 54.2 2 6 6.75 25

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Sidney Ponson 31 135.0 8 9 5.27 85
Doug Johns 31 86.2 3 3 4.57 34
Jimmy Key 25 79.1 6 3 4.20 53
Nerio Rodríguez 6 19.0 1 3 8.05 8
Rocky Coppinger 6 15.2 0 0 5.17 13
Bobby Muñoz 9 12.0 0 0 9.75 6
Chris Fussell 3 9.2 0 1 8.38 8
Richie Lewis 2 4.2 0 0 15.43 4

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Armando Benítez 71 5 6 22 3.82 87
Alan Mills 72 3 4 2 3.74 57
Jesse Orosco 69 4 1 7 3.18 50
Arthur Rhodes 45 4 4 4 3.51 83
Norm Charlton 36 2 1 0 6.94 41
Pete Smith 27 2 3 0 6.20 29
Terry Mathews 17 0 1 0 6.20 10
Joel Bennett 2 0 0 0 4.50 0
Radhames Dykhoff 1 0 0 0 18.00 1

Farm system

Level Team League Manager
AAA Rochester Red Wings International League Marv Foley
AA Bowie Baysox Eastern League Joe Ferguson
A Frederick Keys Carolina League Tommy Shields
A Delmarva Shorebirds South Atlantic League Dave Machemer
Rookie Bluefield Orioles Appalachian League Andy Etchebarren
Rookie GCL Orioles Gulf Coast League Butch Davis

References

  1. "Doug Drabek Stats".
  2. ^ "Joe Carter Stats".
  3. "Title Unknown". Archived from the original on April 26, 2009. Retrieved April 30, 2009.
  4. "Top Performances for Eric Davis at Retrosheet". retrosheet.org. Retrieved October 19, 2022.
  5. 100 Things Orioles Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Dan Connolly, Triumph Books, Chicago, 2015, ISBN 978-1-62937-041-5, p.224
  6. "MLB 2013 Payroll Tracker". Spotrac.com. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  7. Cliff Lee Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
  8. "Rich Becker Stats".
  9. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
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