Oriole Park at Camden Yards - Baltimore, MD - 1000 Places to See Before You Die on Waymarking.com

Back in the 1970s, if you were led blindfolded into a major league baseball stadium, you wouldn’t know if you were in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Philadelphia or any number of other cities with large round “cookie cutter” type stadiums with perfectly symmetrical playing fields. These “new” stadiums were supposed to be better than the old ones like Fenway Park in Boston or any of the stadiums they replaced, which were usually located closer to the downtown area and because they were jammed into a smaller, irregular space, featured fields with odd dimensions and lots of nooks and crannies.

These large round stadiums soon came to be described as ‘boring,’ usually by those who describe baseball as boring. Not that I’m one of those folks. I remember listening to a baseball game on the radio with my brother a while ago. I don’t remember who was playing but the score was 1-0 in the middle of the sixth inning, there was one out, nobody on base and a 2-1 count on the batter. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, the announcer finally said, “and here’s the pitch…fouled off.” I remember my brother saying, “I don’t understand these people who say baseball’s boring: What could be more exciting than ‘fouled off’?”

Anyway, the “new” Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which opened in 1992, was a throw-back to those earlier days with irregular outfield dimensions, architecture with character and views of downtown Baltimore (although those views have been recently blocked by some newer hi-rise buildings). It was the beginning of a trend in major league stadium design that’s been copied in many cities across America. One particularly interesting feature is the large warehouse that sits behind right field. Although it appears to be part of the stadium, it’s not (although some of the stadium’s lights have been mounted on its roof).

And it’s a great place to see a baseball game. I’m not from the area but I’ve seen several games there. I went to see a game back in 1997 with a colleague of mine (an Orioles fan) who wanted to check out the new stadium. The O’s beat the hapless Phillies 8-1 in early interleague play as Mike Mussina cruised to his 100th career victory. More recently, I took my family there when we were in the area visiting relatives. The Orioles lost this one 3-2 to the Toronto Blue Jays.

Name of Source Book: 1000 Places to See Before You Die - In the USA and Canada (2007) Page Location in Source Book: 122 Type of Waymark: Site Location of Coordinates: Entrance Cost of Admission (Parks, Museums, etc.): 15.00 (listed in local currency) List Available Hours, Dates, Season: Baseball season is from April to September and tours are available if there’s no game being played. The cost listed above is the current cost of a tour. Tickets to a game vary widely in price. Official Tourism Website: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log   08/15/2022 Don.Morfe visited it