This Day in Orioles History

By Matthew Taylor

March 18, 1999 - Eddie Clarence Murray joined former GM Frank Cashen as the newest inductees to the Orioles Hall of Fame.

Murray batted .294 with 343 home runs during more than 12 seasons with the Birds. He hit career home run No. 500 at Camden Yards in 1996 after returning to Baltimore in a trade with Cleveland for Kent Mercker.

The switch-hitting Murray was the American League Rookie of the Year with the Birds in 1977, won a World Series with the team in 1983, and made it to the All-Star Game eight times (seven with the O's). Murray hit a home run in his last at-bat as an Oriole, in the 8th inning of the 1996 ALCS.

Murray finished his 21-year career with a .287 batting average, 504 home runs, and 1,917 RBIs. He retired as one of only three players (Willie Mays and Hank Aaron are the others) with 3,000 career hits and 500 career home runs. Rafael Palmeiro has since matched the feat. Murray is the only one of the group to get his 3,000th hit before his 500th home run.

Eddie Murray was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003.

Cashen was with the Orioles from 1966 to 1978. He is perhaps best known as one of the guys who hired Oriole and National Baseball Hall of Famer Earl Weaver.

"It took a lot of guts," Weaver said during his own Cooperstown induction speech. "If they knew how nervous I was, they might have had second thoughts."