Having grown up as a New York Yankees' fan, Tom Flynn heard tales about the glory days of that storied franchise.

When he moved to Charm City, Flynn discovered his adopted hometown also had a deep and rich history of professional baseball dating back to the 1800s.

The funny thing is, Flynn, 42, came of age near the end of a decade -- 1965 to 1975 -- when the Yankees didn't win a pennant.

"I was a kid in the early '70s and the Yankees were dogs," Flynn said. "The way we got through was (how) my parents and uncle all reminded me (about) Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio and Elston Howard."

The recent woes of the present Orioles, who have finished below .500 for 10 consecutive seasons and are threatening to make it 11, had Flynn thinking about his early days as a Yankee fan.

"During a period when the Yankees weren't very good, you had this huge treasure trove of stories you can crank out," he said. "It's sort of the same idea here, but I think a lot of the older (Orioles) stuff has fallen off the map."

Flynn, a financial analyst for Wells Fargo, moved from New York to Baltimore in September 1989, just a year after the 1988 Birds began the season 0-21.

When the "Why Not" Orioles of 1989 made a serious push toward a pennant, he was struck by the passion of the fans.

Eventually, his love of history and baseball sent him on a journey that culminated with the February release of "Baseball in Baltimore," by Arcadia Publishing.

It features 187 images representing Baltimore baseball, ranging from a vintage photo of the Baltimore Past Times of 1867 to the Baltimore and Ohio warehouse with the numbers 2,632 draped on the building's brick wall at Oriole Park at Camden Yards July 24, 2007.

That number represented Cal Ripken Jr.'s consecutive games played streak and the photo was taken on a night when the Orioles honored the Aberdeen native before his Hall of Fame induction.

Ripken may be the most popular native son among present-day fans, but Flynn, who played baseball at Mount St. Mary's University, also highlights Baltimore's Babe Ruth; Lefty Grove, from western Maryland, and Catonsville native Fritz Maisel.

The legendary Ruth, who attended St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, which is now the campus of Cardinal Gibbons School, has a chapter that includes a photo of the Bambino catching a ball thrown from an airplane.

The book also boasts a team photo of Ruth with Jack Dunn's International League Orioles of 1914, just before the Bambino was sold to the Boston Red Sox.

"That was such a rare shot because he was only on the team for a few months," Flynn said.

Maisel, who led the American League with 74 steals in 1914 while with the New York Yankees, also played with the International League Orioles. He played five years for the Yankees and one season with the St. Louis Browns.

Flynn also features Grove, a dominant pitcher for the International League Orioles before he signed in 1925 with the Philadelphia Athletics and began a Hall of Fame career.

"Baltimore had a tremendous minor league team in the early part of the 20th century," Flynn said. "With each league, they were the best of the best."

He includes a chapter on the Baltimore Elite Giants and Baltimore Black Sox Negro League teams and plans a second book on the Elite Giants.

The feisty National League Orioles, who won three consecutive championships from 1895 to 1897, also captured Flynn's attention.

"Those Oriole teams were very interesting because they were good and they were shifty," said Flynn, noting John McGraw and Wee Willie Keeler got their starts with the National League Orioles.

Wilbert Robinson, Hughie Jennings and Dan Brouthers were also members of that juggernaut.

"What was the most interesting to me and Baltimoreans should take a lot of pride in is that these were baseball guys that got their start in Baltimore," Flynn said.

The book features a chapter of pictures of all of Baltimore's ballparks, including two shots of the July 4, 1944, fire that burned old Oriole Park to the ground.

The chapter titled "Back in the Majors" is a pictorial reference to many of the greats of the modern era (from 1954), but also includes photos of Jeff Ballard and Mickey Tettleton from the 1989 Orioles.

"I just got caught up in that team," he said. "That team was so good and so unexpected. It didn't fully convert me to (be) an Oriole fan, but it really made me appreciate the fans."

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