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After an undistinguished run in the American Association that was actually interrupted in 1890, when the team chose to be a minor league club, the original Baltimore Orioles were absorbed by the National League after the AA fell apart following the 1891 season. Part-owner and manager Ned Hanlon built a dynasty around the Hall of Fame talents of John McGraw, Hughie Jennings, Willie Keeler, Joe Kelley, and Wilbert Robinson, and the team pioneered a cutthroat style of play that was simultaneously heady and dirty. The owners bought the Brooklyn club later in the decade and transferred most of the Orioles' best players to their new team, and when the NL dropped four teams after the 1899 season, the fabled Orioles were no more. (SH)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » January 28, 1901: The AL formally organizes: the Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Athletics, and Boston Somersets are admitted to join the Washington Nationals, Cleveland Blues, Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers, and Chicago White Stockings. Three of the original clubs-Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Buffalo-are dropped. League power aggregates in Ban Johnson as trustee for all ballpark leases and majority stockholdings, and with authority to buy out refractory franchises. Player limit is 14 per team, and the schedule will be 140 games. AL contracts give the Players Protective Association what it asked for, with 5-year limits on the rights to player services.