Oriole Park at Camden Yards

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Template:Infobox Baseball Stadium Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a ballpark located in Baltimore, Maryland, which was completed in 1992 to replace the aging Memorial Stadium. It is the home field of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball. It was the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s, and remains one of the most highly praised.[1] It is situated in the southwest corner of downtown Baltimore close to 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 in short as "Camden Yards."

History

In 1989, construction began on an all-new, baseball-only ballpark for the Baltimore Orioles. Construction lasted 33 months and the ballpark opened on April 6, 1992, when the Orioles hosted the Cleveland Indians. After considerable debate on whether to name the new ballpark "Oriole Park" or "Camden Yards" — former Orioles owner Eli Jacobs favored Oriole Park while then-Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer favored Camden Yards — a compromise was reached to use both names.[2]

The first "downtown retro" ballpark was the minor league Dunn Tire Park in Buffalo, which opened four years earlier and was designed by HOK Sport, the same architecture firm that designed Camden Yards. The success of the retro-style Camden Yards sparked a trend in other cities of constructing more traditional, fan-friendly ballparks in downtown locations. Prior to Camden Yards, the predominant design trend of stadiums was symmetrical dual-purpose "concrete doughnuts" located in the suburbs. The Orioles' previous home, Memorial Stadium, was a "concrete doughnut"[3] (although not in the suburbs, it was well outside the downtown area). Baltimore could have easily followed the old pattern, as the original design proposed by HOK Sport was very similar to the new Comiskey Park. However, at the urging of architectural consultant Janet Marie Smith, the Orioles turned it down, preferring a retro-style park.

Camden 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 (the layout of the playing field was, in fact, somewhat designed to match Ripken's hitting style). Exactly one year later, Eddie Murray blasted his 500th home run there.

Two orange seats stand out from the park's trademark sea of 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's 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.

The only no-hitter thrown at Camden Yards to date was tossed by Hideo Nomo, then with the Boston Red Sox, on April 4, 2001. Nomo faced 30 Orioles batters, walking Mike Bordick twice and Chris Richard once, as the Red Sox won, 3-0.

The current single game highest attendance record at Camden Yards is 49,828, set on 7/10/05 against the Boston Red Sox.

Most memorable games

  • September 5, 1995: Cal Ripken, Jr. tied Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive games played and homered.
  • September 6, 1995: Cal Ripken, Jr. broke of the streak of 2131 games and hit another home run. Attendees of the game included President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, as well as Cal Ripken, Sr., who had not been to a game since being fired by the O's.
  • September 6, 1996: Eddie Murray hit his 500th career home run exactly one year after Cal Ripken, Jr. broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive game streak.
  • October 6, 2001: Cal Ripken, Jr.'s final MLB game. Ripken's last game was originally scheduled to be played against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. However, the tragic events of September 11 forced this game (previously scheduled to be played on September 16) to become his final game. Former President Bill Clinton and MLB Commissioner Bud Selig were in attendance.
  • August 22, 2007: Texas Rangers beat the Orioles 30 to 3, the highest scoring game in 110 years.

Architecture, transportation, and the local area

File:Camden yards marc corrected.jpg
Camden Yards Transportation Center.

Camden Yards is built at the former location of a major rail station; its name derives from the rail yards that were formerly on the site. 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 also have a good view of the downtown Baltimore skyline. The stadium planners incorporated the warehouse into the architecture of the ballpark experience rather than tear it down or shorten it. The floors of the warehouse contain offices, service spaces, and a private club. The warehouse has been hit on the fly only once; Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a blast that reached the wall, but not during a game; it was during the Home Run Derby contest of the 1993 MLB All-Star Game.

The wall of the warehouse facing the stadium initially held numbers that recorded the number of consecutive games that Cal Ripken, Jr., played, changing in the middle of the 5th inning as each game became official. It elapsed until the 2,632nd game, which was the last one of Ripken's streak. It was later repeated for the countdown to Ripken's 3,000th hit. The countdown to 2,131 was re-enacted on September 8, 2005, for the 10th anniversary of the breaking of the record, and "2,632" was put back up during the week of July 23-July 29, 2007, as part of ceremonies to commemorate Ripken's entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

At street level, between the stadium and the warehouse, is Eutaw Street, which is officially closed to all vehicular traffic. Along this avenue, spectators can get a view of the game or visit the many shops and restaurants that line the thoroughfare, including Boog Powell's outdoor barbecue stand. On game days, pedestrians must have a ticket in order to walk on the part of Eutaw Street that is adjacent to the stadium; however, on non-game days the street is open to all, while access to the stadium itself is blocked by gates. Sections 90 - 98, called Eutaw Street Reserve, are located not in the stadium itself, but rather 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 itself. The latest home runs are not marked immediately, and 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. The pitcher who surrendered the home run was Ben McDonald.

Susan Luery's 1996 statue Babe's Dream

On the street there is also a statue, created in 1996 by sculptor Susan Luery[4], of left-handed Babe Ruth holding a right-handed fielder's glove. The statue is entitled, "Babe's Dream", and shows him at the beginning of his career, before left-handed gloves (for the right hand of a fielder) were an option. However the inclusion of the incorrect glove on the statue was the result of a lack of baseball knowledge on the part of the people working on the project. [5]

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.

Immediately adjacent to the current stadium on the far side of the B&O Warehouse is a rail 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 began service around the time that 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. 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's pub was 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. The following year, Geppi's Entertainment Museum opened above the Sports Legends museum.

Controversy surrounding Camden Yards living wages campaign

In 2004, the Maryland Stadium Authority, the state entity that owns and operates Oriole Park, began to come under intense criticism for its treatment of its day-labor staff. About 150 workers a day are hired to clean the stadium after events, making Camden Yards the largest temporary worker employer in Baltimore. The temporary janitorial staff was paid $7 an hour: more than the federal minimum wage of $5.85, but less than Baltimore's living wage of $9.62. The nation-wide median wage for janitorial workers is $9.58. Most workers ended up earning $30-35 a day.[6]

The recent passage of a Maryland State Living Wage did not apply to the workers, because of the so called "Living Wage Loop Hole" that exempts temporary workers from receiving the minimum wage.

In addition to the low hourly wage, stadium workers and other critics pointed out a number of other unfair conditions. These include workers spending hours at the stadium without pay, being told to hold lunch breaks in restrooms, and being charged as much as $6 a day for transportation.[7]

Opponents of a raise for the workers, such as columnist Dan Gainor, argued that the workers are highly unskilled, and are paid on par with other similar temporary jobs. Giving them a higher wage, Gainor argues could force other employers to "compete against ridiculously high wage scales for totally unskilled work." As a result, "Many might go out of business or fire low-wage earners, creating more homeless people and, possibly, more day laborers."[8]

On September 7, 2007, a few days ahead of a highly publicized worker hunger strike, the board of the Maryland Stadium Authority voted 4 to 1 to approve wage increases for the day laborers beginning in the 2008 baseball season. Although legal documents have yet to be signed, the board agreed to provide the workers with the either Baltimore’s living wage of $9.62 an hour plus benefits, or the Maryland’s contactors’ living wage of $11.30 an hour without health benefits.[9]


Ballparks influenced by Camden Yards

Since 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.[10] Due to its success, many other cities have built traditional-feeling asymmetrical ballparks with modern amenities (such as skyboxes) in a downtown setting.

These ballparks include:

Trivia

References

  1. ^ http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6609590
  2. ^ Vanhooser, Cassandra M. "Inside Camden Yards." Southern Living.
  3. ^ "Home of the Game: The Story of Camden Yards" by Thom Loverro (Taylor Publishing) ISBN 0-87833-222-7, p 57.
  4. ^ Biography of Susan Luery, the sculptor of the Babe Ruth statue. URL last accessed July 6, 2006.
  5. ^ Oriole Park at Camden Yards - Babe's Dream; URL last accessed July 6, 2006.
  6. ^ Baltimore Sun: After three years of broken promises workers are fed up; URL last accessed Aug 28, 2007.
  7. ^ Baltimore Sun: After three years of broken promises workers are fed up; URL last accessed Aug 28, 2007.
  8. ^ Dan Gainor: Poorly called strike at Camden Yards; URL last accessed Aug 28, 2007.
  9. ^ Baltimore Sun: Maryland Agency approves $11.30 'living wage' next year; URL last accessed Sept 20, 2007.
  10. ^ Baltimore Orioles Attendance Records by Baseball Almanac

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Camden Yards.
Preceded by Home of the
Baltimore Orioles
1992–present 		Succeeded by
Current
Preceded by Host of the All-Star Game
1993 		Succeeded by

39°17′1.11″N 76°37′18.49″W / 39.2836417°N 76.6218028°W / 39.2836417; -76.6218028

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