This story was excerpted from Jake Rill’s Orioles Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

BALTIMORE -- Last February, I arrived in Sarasota, Fla., for my first Orioles Spring Training, shortly after I became the beat reporter for MLB.com. Not too many days later, Jim Henneman showed up and achieved a personal milestone of his own -- his 50th O’s Spring Training.

Of course, “Henny” was making an appearance there. The 88-year-old is as synonymous with Orioles baseball as Boog’s BBQ sandwiches, the playing of “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” during the seventh-inning stretch and The Oriole Bird.

Henneman, a longtime Baltimore sportswriter and former official scorer, is believed to have attended more O’s games than anybody else. If you’ve visited Camden Yards at any point in the ballpark’s 22-year history, Henneman was likely there, too, in the press box behind home plate.

So, it’s only fitting that the Orioles announced on Tuesday their decision to name that press box the “Jim Henneman Press Box” in honor of a beloved member of the Baltimore sports community. A formal dedication will occur during a ceremony to be held at a later date, with more details coming in the near future.

“I can’t imagine a better honor,” said a visibly emotional Henneman during a speech at a surprise luncheon held on the fourth floor of the Camden Yards warehouse on Tuesday.

There’s no better person who could have received this honor, either.

Henneman is a Baltimore native who attended Calvert Hall College High School and Loyola College in Maryland (now Loyola University Maryland). He worked in the clubhouse for the Orioles when they were a Minor League club in the International League, and he was an 18-year-old at Memorial Stadium on Opening Day 1954, the O’s return to the Major Leagues.

Hired by the Baltimore News-American to serve as a “copy boy” in 1958, Henneman’s first Opening Day on the job in ‘63 resulted in him serving as a batboy for the Orioles in a game vs. the Washington Senators at District of Columbia Stadium. Henneman borrowed a sweatshirt and cleats from the late Brooks Robinson, an O’s legend and Baseball Hall of Famer.

After a stint as the public relations director of the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets from 1968-73, Henneman returned to the News-American in ‘73, when he was hired to be the newspaper’s Orioles beat writer. He held that position until ‘79, then served in the same role for The Evening Sun/The Baltimore Sun from 1980-95.

Henneman was later the Orioles’ primary official scorer for home games from 1997-2019, and he wrote “60 Years of Orioles Magic,” the team’s 60th anniversary book, which was published in 2015.

Now writing sporadically for PressBoxOnline.com, Henneman is still a regular occupant in the Camden Yards press box -- a place that will feature a plaque with his name and picture on it beginning in the 2024 season.

Henneman loves to talk about the Orioles with other members of the local media, many of whom took time out of an offseason day to celebrate him at the snow-covered ballpark.

“Being able to hang with you guys this long is an unbelievable blessing,” Henneman said. “I admire every one of you.”

And all of us admire “Henny,” a living legend in both the Baltimore and Orioles communities.