411 REFERENCE · Wikipedia
1998 Baltimore Orioles season
Reference material by Wikipedia contributors. This retains its source identity and is not 411 news reporting.
Major League Baseball season
March 2026
November 2013
Baltimore Orioles 1998 American League East Oriole Park at Camden Yards Baltimore, Maryland 79–83 (.488) 4th Peter Angelos Pat Gillick Ray Miller WJZ-TV/WNUVHome Team Sports(Jim Palmer, Michael Reghi, Rick Cerone) WBAL (AM)(Fred Manfra, Jim Hunter)
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.https://www.baseball-reference.com/d/drabedo01.shtml Doug Drabek Stats
December 12, 1997: Joe Carter was signed as a free agent with the Baltimore Orioles.https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cartejo01.shtml Joe Carter Stats
Regular season
95pxEddieMurray1BRetired 1998* From July 2 to August 15, Eric Davis hits in 30 consecutive games during which time he hits .400 (52 hits over 130 at-bats) with 10 home runs and 35 runs batted in.Title Unknown http://www.thebaseballpage.com/stats/lists_feats/30g_hitting_streaks.php https://web.archive.org/web/20090426055708/http://www.thebaseballpage.com/stats/lists_feats/30g_hitting_streaks.php April 26, 2009 live April 30, 2009 mdy https://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/D/PX_davie001.htm Top Performances for Eric Davis at Retrosheet retrosheet.org October 19, 2022
On September 13, 1998, Ryan Minor would make his Major League debut.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
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.https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/2013/ MLB 2013 Payroll Tracker Spotrac.com en-US 2019-01-23
Season standings
Baltimore Orioles
Record vs. opponents
BAL
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.Cliff Lee Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
June 16, 1998: Rich Becker was selected off waivers by the Baltimore Orioles from the New York Mets.https://www.baseball-reference.com/b/beckeri01.shtml Rich Becker Stats
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
49 Armando Benítez
28 Joel Bennett
37 Norm Charlton
27 Rocky Coppinger
15 Doug Drabek
28 Radhames Dykhoff
19 Scott Erickson
52 Chris Fussell
57 Juan Guzmán
55 Doug Johns
30 Scott Kamieniecki
21 Jimmy Key
38 Richie Lewis
51 Terry Mathews
75 Alan Mills
32 Bobby Muñoz
35 Mike Mussina
47 Jesse Orosco
43 Sidney Ponson
53 Arthur Rhodes
39 Nerio Rodríguez
26 Pete Smith Catchers
34,23 Charlie Greene
23 Chris Hoiles
42 Lenny Webster
Infielders
12 Roberto Alomar
14 Mike Bordick
1 P. J. Forbes
13 Ozzie Guillén
13 Jerry Hairston Jr.
10 Ryan Minor
25 Rafael Palmeiro
6 Calvin Pickering
36 Jeff Reboulet
8 Cal Ripken Jr. Outfielders
9 Brady Anderson
18 Rich Becker
29 Joe Carter
41 Danny Clyburn
24 Eric Davis
11 Willie Greene
11 Jeffrey Hammonds
40 Gene Kingsale
32 Lyle Mouton
52 Willis Otáñez
17 B. J. Surhoff
32 Jesús Tavárez
Other batters
3 Harold Baines Manager
31 Ray Miller
Coaches
45 Carlos Bernhardt (first base)
48 Rick Down (hitting)
46 Mike Flanagan (pitching)
44 Elrod Hendricks (bullpen)
33 Eddie Murray (bench)
2 Sam Perlozzo (third base)
54 Sam Snider (bullpen catcher)
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
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 DavisJohnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 3rd edition. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 2007
References
1998 Baltimore Orioles team page at Baseball Reference
1998 Baltimore Orioles season at baseball-almanac.com
Category:Baltimore Orioles seasons
Baltimore Orioles Season, 1998
Baltimore