1914:
Left Field - 300 ft
Center Field - 450 ft
Right Field - 335 ft
Backstop - 76 ft
Fences - 25 ft
It is also half the name of the current home of the Baltimore Orioles
of the American League, its full name being Oriole
Park at Camden Yards, discussed on a separate page.
The first field specifically called Oriole Park was built on a square
block bounded by 10th Street (later 29th), York Road (later Greenmount),
9th Street (later 28th) and Barclay. This served as home of the major
league American Association entry only briefly, during 1890 and part of
1891. Presumably they were unhappy with the location or had other issues.
They opened Union Park in early 1891 and operated there for the rest of
the 1890s, joining the National League when the Association folded, and
producing the first glory years of the Orioles. Despite their great
success in the 90s, Baltimore was dropped when the League contracted from
12 to 8 teams in 1900.
The newly formed American League took up in 1901 where the Nationals
had left off. They opened a new Oriole Park on the same site as the
1890-91 experiment. They played for just two uneventful seasons before
they were transferred north to become the team now known as the New York
Yankees. Baltimore was thus reduced to minor league status, as an entry in
the International League (then known as the Eastern League) which began
play at this same Oriole Park. There they enjoyed some success, and
producing some marketable players, notably one local boy Babe Ruth, who
was eventually sold to the Boston Red Sox for $28,000.
The last and by far the best known Oriole Park prior to Camden
Yards started in life as Terrapin Park. It was the home field of
the Baltimore Terrapins of
the Federal League and was a block
away from what we refer to as Oriole Park IV. Some of the Fed facilities,
such as the eventual Wrigley
Field, were made of steel and concrete, but Terrapin Park was made of
wood, a fact that would prove to be its undoing and ironically boost
Baltimore's chances of returning to the major leagues.
Terrapin Park was built on a lopsided block bounded by 10th Street
(later 29th), York Road (later Greenmount), 11th Street (later 30th) and
the angling Vineyard Lane. In short, it was directly across the street, to
the north, from the existing Oriole Park. Presumably that did not sit well
with the Orioles, but the Fed only lasted two seasons, and the Orioles
acquired the newer park in 1916 and renamed it Oriole Park, naturally.
FIRSTS
at ORIOLE PARK
Game
04/26/1901
Americans (Red Sox) 6, Orioles 10
Umpires
Joe Cantillon
Managers
John McGraw, Orioles
Jimmy Collins, Americans
Starting Pitchers
Joe McGinnity, Orioles
Win Kellum, Americans
Ceremonial Pitch
American League President Ban
Johnson
Attendance
10,371
Batting
Batter
Tommy Dowd (ground out)
Hit
John McGraw (double)
Run
John McGraw
RBI
Mike Donlin
Single
Buck Freeman
Double
John McGraw
Triple
Mike Donlin
Home Run
Mike Donlin (05/08/1901)
Grand Slam
Jimmy Williams (06/18/1901)
IPHR
Roy Patterson (06/13/1901)
Stolen Base
Bill Keister, Cy Seymour
Sacrifice Hit
John McGraw
Sacrifice Fly
No sacrifice fly in rules at this
time
Cycle
(None)
Pitching
Win
Joe McGinnity
Loss
Win Kellum
Shutout
Roy Patterson (06/13/1901)
Save
N/A
Hit by Pitch
Chick Fraser hit (unknown)
(05/14/1901)
Wild Pitch
Wiley Piatt (05/15/1901)
Balk
Rube Waddell (06/26/1902)
No-Hitter
(None)
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
Following the demise of the Fed, the Baltimore baseball interests
became a primary party in an antitrust suit filed against Major League
Baseball. This resulted in the famous Supreme Court decision, in Federal
Baseball Club v. National League, that exempted baseball from
antitrust laws, a ruling that still stands. That fact is noted here for
historical purposes, although it is out of scope of this discussion except
to emphasize that Baltimore had been spurned by the big leagues yet again.
Fire Leads Indirectly to Major League Team
This Oriole Park was their home for the next 28 1/2 seasons. The team
enjoyed great success, especially in the early 20s when they won seven
consecutive International League pennants. Great care was always taken to
protect the aging wooden structure, such as hosing it down after games.
But on the night of July 3, 1944, the old park's luck ran out. A fire of
uncertain origin (probably a discarded cigarette) totally consumed the old
ballpark and everything the team owned.
The suddenly homeless club took refuge in Municipal Stadium, the city's
football field. Literally rising from the ashes, in heroic fashion, the
Orioles went on to win the International League championship that year,
and also the Junior World Series over Louisville of the American
Association. On the same day a World Series game between the St. Louis
Cardinals and St. Louis Browns was drawing 30,000, the
Louisville/Baltimore matchup in Memorial stadium drew 52,883.
The large post-season crowds at Municipal Stadium as well as a then
minor league record 607,000 in 1946, which would not have been possible at
Oriole Park, was brought to the attention of the major leagues when the
city tried to get the St. Louis Browns in 1953 and Baltimore suddenly
became a viable option for teams looking to move. Had the fire not
happened, Baltimore's baseball saga may well have turned out quite
differently than it has.
Spurred by the Orioles' success, the city chose to rebuild Municipal
Stadium as a multi-purpose facility of major league caliber, which they
renamed Memorial
Stadium. Baltimore, which had seemed to get "no respect"
time after time in the past, finally became big league again in 1954, this
time for good.
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