Orioles hire Murray as special advisor (O's down 5-0, delay)

Less than two weeks after Brooks Robinson informed the media of his hiring by the Orioles as a special advisor, another Hall of Famer is back in the fold.

Eddie Murray has been named special advisor to John and Lou Angelos, the organization again reaching into its past while also moving forward with its rebuilding effort.

Standing on the track next to the home dugout at Camden Yards, Murray explained how the Orioles contacted him a few months ago to set the wheels in motion. He had breakfast with executive vice president John Angelos during Murray's next visit to Baltimore, ended up making "pretty good headway" and an agreement was reached, with specific duties to be made clearer.

Murray will be at spring training and intends to have a more hands-on role than just serving as an ambassador.

"If I didn't believe it," he said, "I wouldn't have took it."

Murray spent 13 of his 21 seasons with the Orioles during two stints, hitting his 500th home run on Sept. 6, 1996 at Camden Yards. He's one of six players with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs, joining Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Rafael Palmeiro, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols. And he was part of the 1983 World Series team, the last Orioles championship, before an ugly parting five years later in an ill-advised trade with the Dodgers that netted pitchers Ken Howell and Brian Holton and shortstop Juan Bell.

Today's news is just the latest return for Murray, who has served in a coaching capacity and did part-time work as an analyst on MASN broadcasts.

Why now?

"I'm not going to say it's broke, but it's pretty close," said Murray, who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. "They're not playing very well and hopefully just come in and maybe add something. We'll see what I'm capable of doing."

Murray still lives on the West Coast and isn't sure how his schedule will unfold. The club will want him to make appearances - he was a surprise guest yesterday at the Birdland Social Media Night - but he also is going to attend spring training in Sarasota.

"Hopefully, I can see them on the road a little bit," he said. "Hopefully, can maybe see some of the kids in the minor leagues. Who knows what's going to happen? Once we get to spring training, we can really define more of my role here. But it's basically right now to be special advisor to John and Lou."

And to be reunited with Robinson.

"I can work with him," Murray quipped. "See, my first year (1977) was his last year, so we pretty much think alike. Brooksie is a good, good friend. When I come into town here, he's somebody that's out eating crabs with me from time to time. And Boog (Powell). That group of guys, that's what we do. We still talk to each other, we still get together and break crabs."

What can today's players learn from the past?

"We know a little bit," Murray said. "It's hard to say. I don't see that many of the Oriole games on the West Coast, but I've seen a few and everything can change. I mean, you know, like body language. I think you've got to get back to, really, like basics.

"What we used to do here in Baltimore, it was really, really defense and the bottom line right there is learning how to catch the ball, learning how to make the plays. You start from there. But they're playing for each other and I'm not saying they don't play for each other because you see when they do something ... now all that jumping on people and stuff, they couldn't have done that to me. I would have been like (clenches fists). No. But it's kind of fun to see everybody getting up and celebrating when they win a ballgame. And you should. It's not easy beating that opponent over there."

Murray had an adversarial relationship with the media as a player and also tried to avoid interviews as a coach. He was pretty loose today, shaking hands, cracking a few jokes and laughing easily.

Asked if he'll be more accessible to the press, Murray quipped, "We'll leave that up to Brooksie."

"No," he continued. "I can say something here. If you level the playing field, I'll deal with anybody. This field wasn't ever level. Otherwise, you would have ran when I came out. If the field was level, you talk to people, you deal with them. There were some things done to me that definitely weren't fair and I have no time to fight a battle I can't win. Like I said, level it out and you would have been tired of me."

The Orioles are excited to bring back a few of their legends and perhaps signal a new era. Changes are in the works, the latest touched off by another meeting with John Angelos.

"It was a great conversation we had," Murray said. "He was letting me know that there's definitely going to be a change made here. They say this is their chance to shine also and they would really like to get down here on this field turned around. It's no doubt it made it easy. John really just spoke about trying to get something done."

The Orioles will need to change the course of tonight's game. Dylan Bundy served up back-to-back home runs to Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez in the first inning to fall behind 2-0.

Update: Mookie Betts hit a two-run homer off Bundy in the second inning to give the Red Sox a 5-0 lead before rain caused a delay.