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Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a Major League Baseball ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland. Home field of the Baltimore Orioles, it is the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s, amd remains one of the most highly praised.[2] The park was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium. It is situated in downtown Baltimore a few blocks west of the Inner Harbor. Historically, Oriole Park at Camden Yards is one of several venues that have carried the "Oriole Park" name for various Baltimore franchises over the years. The park is typically known simply as "Camden Yards."
[edit] History[edit] ConstructionPrior to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, the predominant design trend of big league ballparks was the symmetrical "multi-purpose stadium". Camden Yards was the first Major League downtown "retro" ballpark. It was designed by the architectural firm HOK Sport (now Populous), which had pioneered retro ballparks on the minor league level four years earlier with Coca-Cola Field in Buffalo, New York. Construction began in 1989, and lasted 33 months. Former Orioles owner Eli Jacobs favored naming the new field Oriole Park, while then-Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer favored Camden Yards. After considerable debate a compromise was reached to use both names.[3] The ballpark opened on April 6, 1992, the Orioles hosting the Cleveland Indians. The great success of Camden Yards which followed sparked a trend in the construction of more traditional, fan-friendly ballparks in downtown locations across the U.S. [edit] 1993–presentCamden Yards hosted the 1993 MLB All-Star Game. On June 18, 1994, 43 fans were injured in an escalator accident; one of the stadium's multiple-story escalators, overcrowded with fans heading to their upper-deck seats, jerked backward, throwing passengers to the bottom landing. On September 6, 1995, Camden Yards witnessed Cal Ripken, Jr.'s record-setting 2,131st consecutive game. Exactly one year later, Eddie Murray blasted his 500th home run there.  Two orange seats stand out from the park's dark green plastic chairs. One, located at Section 96, Row D, Seat 23 in the right-center field bleachers (officially known as the Eutaw Street Reserve sections), commemorates the spot where Murray's 500th home run landed. The other, Section 86, Row FF, Seat 10 in the left field bleachers, was the landing spot for Ripken's 278th home run as a shortstop, breaking Chicago Cubs legend Ernie Banks' record for the position. That home run was hit on July 15, 1993. Ripken finished his career with 345 home runs as a shortstop and 431 overall. [edit] AttendanceBetween 1992–2000, the Orioles averaged more than 40,000 spectators per game, with a total attendance of 3.71 million persons in the 1997 season.[4] Since then, attendance has declined to 1.91 million in the 2009 season.[5] The current single game highest attendance record at Camden Yards is 49,828, set on July 10, 2005 against the Boston Red Sox. The low-attendance mark was set on May 26, 2009, when just 10,130 fans watched the Orioles play the Toronto Blue Jays On August 19, 2008, the stadium hosted its 50 millionth fan, a milestone reached in just seventeen seasons, the fastest park in baseball history to reach such a figure. Since opening in 1992, Oriole Park has hosted the third-most number of fans in Major League Baseball, exceeded only by Dodger Stadium and Yankee Stadium.[6] [edit] Memorable games
[edit] Design and features Camden Yards was built on land that once served as the rail yard for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Camden Station. The view from much of the park is dominated by the former B&O Warehouse behind the right-field wall. Many seats in the stadium before 2007 had a good view of the downtown Baltimore skyline. The bullpen area was designed after many write-in designs were submitted by the public. Its unique two-tiered design was a first in major league parks. On the street there is a statue of Babe Ruth entitled, "Babe's Dream", created in 1996 by sculptor Susan Luery[7] The scoreboard in center field advertises The Baltimore Sun at the top. The "H" in "The Sun" will flash to show a scoring decision of a hit, and the "E" will flash to show an error. The stadium is the first major league park to have an outfield wall made up entirely of straight wall segments since Ebbets Field. The playing field is 16 feet below street level. New HD video scoreboards were installed in 2008. [edit] B&O Warehouse The stadium planners incorporated the warehouse into the architecture of the ballpark experience rather than demolish or truncate it. The floors of the warehouse contain offices, service spaces, and a private club. The warehouse has been hit on the fly only once, by Ken Griffey, Jr. during the Home Run Derby of the 1993 MLB All-Star Game. Adam Dunn of the Nationals reached the wall on one hop on June 28, 2009. [edit] Eutaw StreetEutaw Street, between the stadium and the warehouse, is closed to vehicular traffic. Along this street, spectators can get a view of the game or visit the many shops and restaurants that line the thoroughfare, including former Oriole star Boog Powell's outdoor barbecue stand. On game days, pedestrians must have a ticket in order to walk on the part of Eutaw Street adjacent to the stadium; however, on non-game days the street is open to all, while access to the stadium is gated. Sections 90–98, called Eutaw Street Reserve, are located not in the stadium, but adjacent to Eutaw Street, with the seats descending toward the outfield below. If a game sells out, fans may purchase reduced-price "Standing-room only" tickets, which entitle them to enter Eutaw Street and watch the game from two designated standing areas. Many home run balls have landed on Eutaw Street, and the Orioles organization has marked the spots with small baseball-shaped bronze plaques embedded in the street, though it sometimes takes up to a year for each homer to get a plaque. The first home run to reach Eutaw Street was hit by Mickey Tettleton of the Detroit Tigers on April 20, 1992. [edit] Access and transportationOn the far side of the B&O Warehouse is the present Camden Yards station, served by both the Baltimore Light Rail and MARC commuter rail. The latter rail line provides direct service to Washington, D.C., and the former to BWI Airport. The Light Rail service began around the time the stadium opened. The stadium is located in downtown Baltimore, near the Inner Harbor. The ballpark, along with the adjacent M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League, make up the Camden Yards Sports Complex, though Camden Yards generally refers to only the baseball stadium. The football stadium wasn't built until 1998. Camden Yards is just a short walk from Babe Ruth's birthplace, which is now a museum. Coincidentally, Ruth's father once owned a pub located in what is now center field of the stadium. In May 2005, a new sports museum, Sports Legends at Camden Yards, opened in Camden Station. [edit] Ballparks influenced by Camden YardsSince its opening day in 1992, Camden Yards was a success and fan favorite. Attendance jumped from an average of 25,722 over the last ten years of Memorial Stadium's tenure to an average of 43,490 over the first ten years of Camden Yards' existence.[8] Due to its success, many other cities built traditional-feeling asymmetrical ballparks with modern amenities (such as skyboxes) in a downtown setting. These ballparks include:
[edit] Blocked skyline viewsThe construction in 2007–2008 of two large buildings beyond the stadium's outfield walls — a 757–room Hilton Baltimore hotel north of the stadium occupying a two-city block area and a high-rise apartment building —has blocked views of the city's skyline from most sections of the grandstand. The Baltimore Sun said on April 21, 2008, "There's just a glimpse of the Bromo Seltzer Tower's crenellated top just to the right of the new Hilton Baltimore Convention Center hotel ... something's drastically different at Oriole Park this year ... the sweeping view of downtown Baltimore that fans have enjoyed for the past 16 seasons has changed considerably..."[9] Sportswriter Peter Schmuck complained, "the big, antiseptic convention hotel ... looms over Camden Yards ... [and] has blocked out the best part of the Baltimore skyline".[10] A Washington Post columnist called it a "cruel cubist joke on a previously perfect ballpark", although others said they were pleased with new construction downtown as indicative of urban revitalization.[9] [edit] In popular culture
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