Pretty easy to explain, right? A history of Baltimore Orioles Sports Illustrated covers, just for kicks, all courtesy of the SI Vault.
August 31, 1964: Brooks Robinson crossing home plate. "Orioles vs. White Sox" wound up a bit premature. The Yankees (99-63) outdisanced the White Sox (98-64) and the Orioles (97-65) in one of the great pennant races.
October 10, 1966: Printed one day after the Orioles finished off their sweep of the Dodgers for the team's first World Series win.
October 6, 1969: Frank Robinson at 33, helping guide the Orioles to 109 wins and a romp over the Twins in the ALCS. And then came the Miracle Mets.
April 12, 1971: Boog Powell, Power Personified. Graphics!!
July 21, 1975: Jim Palmer and Tom Seaver, Baseball's Toughest Pitchers. This is back when you could get away without doing much research to support claims like this. Not that this one was necessarily untrue.
August 30, 1976: Reggie Jackson and his lone season in Baltimore.
June 18, 1979: No truer words were ever posted on the SI cover.
October 22, 1979: Doug DeCinces tackles Phil Garner. The "We Are Family" Pirates win the World Series anyway.
August 25, 1980: The Orioles do battle back against the powerful Yankees, but fall three games short of a division title at 100-62.
October 24, 1983: The Hero!
March 9, 1987: The Ripken Baseball Family, a brief piece of Americana and baseball royalty. If only anyone had known how disastrously short-lived it would all be.
July 18, 1994: Goofus sticks a baseball in his mouth when the photographer isn't looking. Gallant sits up straight and looks neat.
December 18, 1995: Cal Ripken, Jr., named Sportsmen of the Year after being credited with bringing the greedy world of baseball back into the hearts of America.
June 15, 2007: A commemorative issue celebrating Cal's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Likely to be the only Orioles cover story of the decade.
