Eddie Murray

Hall-of-Famer Eddie Murray declined all comment when asked Saturday about being investigated by the federal government as part of an insider trading operation that involved Murray's former Orioles teammate Doug DeCinces. Murray has not been charged in the investigation, but DeCinces was fined $2.5 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission last August. Murray has been directed by his attorneys not to comment on the investigation and continued that stand Saturday. “You know I can't say nothing, right?

When the Orioles won the team's first American League East division title in 17 years, many fans knew the next play. "I bought a hat," said Charles Lingner, 39, of Dundalk, a longtime fan who plans to wear his cap at Thursday's game, along with an Eddie Murray jersey and, "for luck," orange Chuck Taylors. "It's been a while since we had a team this talented. It's exciting. " Sales in Birdland are soaring as the team advances to the postseason. Team merchandise sales leaped 80 percent in the last four weeks, according to SportsOneSource, which collects data from major retailers.

Eddie Murray , the former Orioles Hall of Famer, has been linked to an investigation by federal authorities in a wide-ranging insider trading case that already has ensnared teammate Doug DeCinces, according to a Reuters report. Investigators have been trying to determine whether Murray traded on inside information that Abbott Laboratories was about to announce a deal to acquire Advanced Medical Optics for $2.8 billion in 2009, according to the Reuters report. He has not been charged with a crime.

My favorite Orioles-Yankees game of the last 15 years took place during the 2012 American League Division Series. On a chilly October night at Camden Yards, the Orioles beat the Yanks 3-2 to tie the series at one game apiece. Yankee fans often occupied half the seats at Oriole Park during regular season match-ups, but the stands that night were a beautiful sea of orange and black. After 14 years of futility, the Orioles finally didn't stink, and the hometown fans took full, vocal ownership of the stadium.

When Eddie Murray's sculpture is unveiled at Camden Yards this afternoon, if the sun catches the bronze just so, onlookers might get a glimpse of themselves in the reflection. It's fitting for the Orioles' most prolific hitter ever. Writers, and even some fans who didn't like Murray's personality, projected their own bitterness onto him for his entire career. For the fans who didn't care what they read, only what they saw, they'll have their Eddie. They can cheer the man today, and later they can bring their kids to the statue, point and say, "There's one of the best switch hitters to ever play the game.

PHILADELPHIA -- Former Baltimore Oriole Eddie Murray has been a fixture at first base during his 15-year career, but last night, he made a rare appearance at third base in the eighth inning for the Los Angeles Dodgers.It was the second time since going to the Dodgers that Murray was used there, the first time coming at the end of a 22-inning game two years ago. Murray had no chances in the Dodgers' 9-8 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.With the Orioles in 1978, his second season in the major leagues, Murray started the season as the third baseman, but the experiment lasted only three games.

It never bothered me that Eddie Clarence Murray kept his uniform clean and his mouth shut. The man produced, week in and week out, year after year. The Orioles went to two World Series within five seasons during the peak of Murray's 12-year run here, and they haven't been to one since.The Eddie trade of 1988 never should have happened. He deserved respect and an opportunity to play his entire career with the Orioles, just as Cal Ripken has. What he got, instead, were cheap shots from the then-blustery, now-dead Edward Bennett Williams, sports commentators and foul-mouthed fans who took all their frustrations out on the Sphinx of first base, criticizing him for not getting his uniform dirty, not putting out.No wonder Eddie left bitter.

WHEN Eddie Murray is inducted into the Hall of Fame today, Major League Baseball will show an appreciation of the superstar that he didn't receive as a player, either nationally or in Baltimore. Even though Murray was one of the sport's best clutch hitters and switch-hitters, and the best hitter to wear an Orioles uniform, his departure from Baltimore in 1988 was one of the lowest moments in this city's sports history, as sad as the Colts leaving for Indianapolis, and as embarrassing as Colts officials allowing quarterback John Unitas to wear a San Diego Chargers uniform.

WILL they chant his name in Cooperstown, the way they used to at Memorial Stadium, when the quiet kid out of Los Angeles took over first base for the Orioles, then never stopped producing hits and homers and runs, all the way back to Camden Yards? Will they chant "Ed-die, Ed-die" like they used to, before anyone suspected Eddie Murray would pose a frustrating puzzle and perplex Baltimore fans who revered baseball's greatest switch-hitter this side of Mickey Mantle but could not always, unconditionally, extend their love?

Excerpts from Eddie Murray's speech yesterday at Cooperstown: A nice, little sea of black and orange out there. It's a wonderful thing. I'm thankful to be here today. It's a dream, one of the few things I never dreamed. The game, I knew I was going to do. It's a great honor to be here today. When Ted Williams was here and inducted into the Hall of Fame 37 years ago, he said he must have earned it because he didn't win it because of his friendship with the writers. I guess in that way I'm proud to be in his company that way. I was never one much on words.

When Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis slapped a single to left field in his first at-bat Friday night against the Cleveland Indians, he continued his climb up the franchise's all-time hit list. Markakis was by no means finished. He hit another single to left in his second at-bat off Indians left-hander T.J. House, passing Paul Blair for sole possession of eighth place on the Orioles' all-time list. When the night was complete, Markakis had his first four-hit game of the season.

PITTSBURGH -- The Orioles public relations department crunched some more numbers on Chris Davis' three home-run game Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park, the second of his career. It's the 20th time it has happened in Orioles history and 13th on the road. The last Orioles player to do it away from Camden Yards was Cal Ripken, Jr., May 28, 1996 at Seattle. Davis joins Eddie Murray and Boog Powell (three times each) as the only Orioles to hit three homers multiple times (Goose Goslin achieved that feat with the St. Louis Browns)

Cal Ripken Jr. and Eddie Murray were back together again Friday night. Jokes were cracked and smiles were frequent as the former teammates reminisced about being raised "the Oriole Way," and talked about the resurgence of an Orioles franchise they expect to contend again in 2014. Murray was honored by Ripken and the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, along with Japanese baseball legend Sachio Kinugasa and New Jersey high school basketball coach Bob Hurley Sr. But as Murray and Kinugasa joined Ripken at a press conference announcing the honorees, Murray joked, "You people just came to see him. " Murray and Kinugasa, who flew in from Japan for the foundation's 10th annual Aspire Gala, were the men of the night, though, not Ripken, who said he chose Murray because he wanted to celebrate both his "special relationship" with Ripken's father and his Hall-of-Fame career.

Weeks before he unexpectedly collapsed and died at a Pikesville bowling alley on Dec. 26, former Orioles great Paul Blair spent Thanksgiving with his mother in Southern California. During that time, Blair, according to his niece Anjanette Preston, told his mother, "Mom, I've really had a great life. I am truly blessed. My dream was to grow up and be a baseball star. I got to fulfill my dream, and I am still living my dream. I am happy and content with my life and what I've become.

We'll take a break from Orioles rumors that most likely won't come to fruition -- I never say never, but I say "most likely not" a whole lot in the winter -- to look at the findings of a pretty cool book I thought would be of interest to many of you. In October, Sports Illustrated put out a monstrous coffee-table book called “Baseball's Greatest,” in which a panel of SI's baseball writers and editors looked at the best at each position in...

Last week, former Orioles great Cal Ripken, Jr.'s duties as a postseason television analyst for TBS took him to Los Angeles, where he caught up with former teammate Eddie Murray for dinner. It was 30 years to the day when the pair sealed the Orioles' last World Series title by winning Game 5 in 1983 with a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies at Veterans Stadium. Murray hit two homers in the victory. Ripken caught the final out, a line drive off the bat of Garry Maddox that is an iconic image in Baltimore.

Researcher: Paul McCardell: Sun Staff

Aug. 30, 2003: Seattle scores 10 runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, all with two outs, to rout the Orioles, 13-1. The Mariners send 15 players to the plate in the inning and send the Birds to their seventh straight defeat. Aug. 30, 1999: According to the NCAA's annual graduation rate survey, none of Maryland's six Division I public colleges has graduated a men's basketball player for the class that entered in 1992. Aug. 31, 1994: Sparrows Point High won't field a football team this season.