This, that and the other

Anthony Santander sheepishly made his confession yesterday, pleading ignorant but doing so with a big smile.

Santander knew about setting the club record for home runs by a switch-hitter after belting his 36th the previous night against the Nationals. Outfielder Ken Singleton held it since 1979.

“I was aware,” Santander said yesterday. “Just happy and proud to be able to reach that number and be on the top as a switch-hitter. That’s pretty special.”

What about the player that he passed?

Singleton spent the last 10 of his 15 major league seasons with the Orioles and finished third in Most Valuable Player voting in the American League in 1977 and second in ’79, when he batted .295/.405/.533 with 29 doubles, 35 homers and 111 RBIs in 159 games. He hit 182 homers with the Orioles and registered a .284 average and .388 on-base percentage. He also made three All-Star teams and earned a World Series ring in 1983, the last championship in Baltimore.

Singleton recalls All-Star Game that ended work stoppage

Singleton recalls All-Star Game that ended work stoppage
In the summer of 1981, Orioles outfielder Ken Singleton was putting up All-Star numbers in the season's first half. Then he spent a month wondering if the season would be completed. Singleton was hitting .408 on May 9 after getting three hits for the Orioles in a game at Texas. He was on a streak of getting hits in 13 of 16 games when the players decided to go on strike June 12. Singleton was averaging .340 with a .433 on-base percentage, a .978 OPS and nine home runs when the strike...

Notes on the offense, Aberdeen's All-Stars and more with the Hall of Famers

Notes on the offense, Aberdeen's All-Stars and more with the Hall of Famers
Will the real Orioles offense stand up? Is it the group that scored just three runs on six hits in the last two games of the Toronto series? Or is it the group that scored 22 runs on 31 hits with nine homers the last two games against St. Louis? Chris Tillman and Ubaldo Jimenez probably don't want to analyze it. They are happy to get that run support, and the Orioles look for the sweep this afternoon at Camden Yards. After scoring nine or more runs in just five of their first 111 games, the...

Celebrating 60: Singleton's arrival in Baltimore gave O's, Weaver unconventional leadoff hitter

Celebrating 60: Singleton's arrival in Baltimore gave O's, Weaver unconventional leadoff hitter
A few days after Ken Singleton arrived for his first Orioles spring training in 1975, manager Earl Weaver called him into his office and told him that was going to lead off. In 1973 for the Expos, Singleton had 23 home runs and 103 RBIs, but Weaver also knew that Singleton led the National League with a .425 on-base percentage, which put Weaver ahead of his time for appreciating that statistic. "On-base percentage was not thought of like it is today,'' Singleton says. "I led the league on...

Singleton hopes Markakis "stays with the Orioles for the remainder of his career"

Singleton hopes Markakis "stays with the Orioles for the remainder of his career"
The Orioles are in New York tonight to open a three-game series against the Yankees, but YES Network analyst Ken Singleton is vacationing with his family in Hawaii. Singleton isn't completely detached from the baseball world. For instance, he knew that right fielder Nick Markakis recently passed him on the Orioles' all-time hits list. Markakis needs 115 more hits to tie Boog Powell for sixth place. "I did see it," Singleton said in a phone interview while, as he described it, gazing at the...