1983 Baltimore Orioles season

The 1983 Baltimore Orioles won the Major League Baseball World Series after finishing first in the American League East with a record of 98 wins and 64 losses, The Orioles won the championship by beating the Philadelphia Philles, 4–1, in the 1983 World Series. The season was the Orioles' first in nearly 15 years without manager Earl Weaver, who retired after the Orioles missed the playoffs in the final game of the 1982 season. The Orioles replaced the future Hall of Famer Weaver with Joe Altobelli.
As of the 2025 season, this is the most recent time the Orioles won a World Series, as well as their most recent World Series appearance.
After many years the Orioles made the jump to cable television, with a separate broadcast team on their then first cable broadcaster, Super TV. They would move to Home Team Sports the following year.

Offseason

October 19, 1982: RHP, Don Stanhouse was released by the Orioles.
November 13, 1982 Named Manager, Joe Altobelli
November 29, 1982 signed, LHP, Dan Morogiello as a free agent.
January 15, 1983: Catcher, Joe Nolan was re-signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles.
February 3, 1983: Third Baseman, was signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles.
February 23, 1983: Outfielder, John Lowenstein was re-signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles.
April 4, 1983 Pinch Hitter/Outfielder Terry Crowley was released by the Orioles

Regular season

Opening Day starters

Notable transactions

June 13, 1983: Traded catcher/third baseman Floyd Rayford to the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later
June 30, 1983: Todd Cruz was purchased by the Orioles from the Seattle Mariners.
August 13, 1983: Aurelio Rodriguez was released by the Baltimore Orioles.
August 31, 1983: Acquired outfielder Tito Landrum from the St. Louis Cardinals completing the Floyd Rayford trade.

An Overview of the Team

On April 3, 1983, the Baltimore Orioles left spring training with much the same team that fell just a game short of the playoffs the year before. Of the Orioles starting in the only Lenn Sakata and Al Bumbry would lose their opening day spots in 1983. Terry Crowley was the last player cut during spring training, and on his way out of the clubhouse he predicted an Orioles championship, "The shame of it is," he told a Sun'' reporter, "the Orioles are going to win in it all this year, and Joe is going to do a tremendous job" Still, the team was an up-and-coming squad, in fact, no Oriole would be voted on to the All Star team's starting lineup. However, the team featured three future Hall of Famers:

Cal Ripken who had won Rookie of the Year honors the year before completed his transition from third base to shortstop playing his first full season at his new position
Perennial All-Star Eddie Murray won a Silver Slugger Award and Gold Glove Award at first base
The aging Jim Palmer started only 11 games but would come out of the bullpen for his final career victory in the World Series
During an August 24, 1983 game, Orioles pitcher Tippy Martinez picked off three Toronto Blue Jays baserunners in one inning. The baserunners were Barry Bonnell, Dave Collins and Willie Upshaw.

While the Orioles fielded a team similar to the team fielded in 1982 Altobelli put his own mark on the squad by breaking camp with a four-man rotation which occasionally increased to five pitchers rather than the three man rotation preferred by Weaver.

Starting pitching

One significant difference between the 1982 Baltimore Orioles and the 1983 Baltimore Orioles was Altobelli's willingness to use different starting pitchers., Orioles pitchers would take the mound to start a game in 1983 whereas in 1982 only got the starting nod.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

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

	Player
C		128	347	33	80	.231	4	32	1
1B		156	582	115	178	.306	33	111	5
2B		140	459	49	108	.235	5	41	1
3B		81	221	16	46	.208	3	27	3
SS		162	663	121	211	.318	27	102	0
LF		122	310	52	87	.281	15	60	2
CF		124	378	63	104	.275	3	31	12
RF		103	407	63	114	.280	9	55	9
DH		151	507	52	140	.276	18	84	0

Other batters

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

Player
	126	325	52	84	.258	5	27	15
	115	323	45	84	.260	19	64	2
	64	203	21	50	.246	6	26	1
	100	196	37	56	.286	8	38	1
	73	184	25	51	.277	5	24	0
	66	134	23	34	.254	3	12	8
	47	104	12	23	.221	4	13	0
	45	67	0	8	.119	0	2	0
	23	47	5	10	.213	0	2	0
	26	42	8	13	.310	1	4	0
	25	36	5	6	.167	0	2	1
	9	11	2	5	.455	0	4	0
	6	0	0	0	----	0	0	0
	2	0	0	0	----	0	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Player		IP	W	L	ERA	BB	SO
	36	260.0	18	7	3.18	45	86
	34	200.1	13	7	3.59	64	125
	27	179.0	16	8	2.77	52	120
	32	153.0	7	16	5.53	45	71
	20	125.1	12	4	3.30	31	50
	14	76.2	5	4	4.23	19	34
	11	57.0	4	4	3.47	30	20

Other pitchers

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

Player		IP	W	L	ERA	BB	SO
	7	21.2	1	1	2.91	6	7
	3	9.2	0	0	5.59	4	7

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; BB = Walks allowed; SO = Strikeouts

Player		IP	W	L	SV	ERA	BB	SO
	65	103.1	9	3	21	2.35	37	81
	58	144.1	9	4	7	3.62	67	95
	47	57.2	4	3	9	6.09	29	50
	22	37.2	0	1	1	2.39	10	15
	11	26.2	0	2	0	5.40	10	16

Awards and honors

'''All-Star Game'''

League leaders

Cal Ripken Jr. – American League Leader in At-Bats
Cal Ripken Jr. – American League Leader in Hits
Cal Ripken Jr. – American League Leader Runs Scored
Cal Ripken Jr. – American League Leader Doubles