Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a baseball stadium located in Baltimore, Maryland, which was constructed to replace the aging Memorial Stadium. It is the home field of the Baltimore Orioles. It was the first, and thus one of the most highly praised, of the “retro” ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s. It is situated in a picturesque location, at the corner of downtown Baltimore and near the Inner harbor.

	Capacity		48,262
	Location		333 West Camden Street Baltimore, Maryland 21201
	Opened		April 6, 1992
	Owner		Maryland Stadium Authority
	Cost		$110 million
	Architect		HOK Sport

Historically, Oriole Park at Camden Yards is one of several stadiums that have carried the Oriole Park name, for various Baltimore franchises over the years.

In 1989, construction began on an all-new, baseball-only ballpark for the Baltimore Orioles. Construction lasted 33 months on the ballpark, which finally opened on April 6, 1992, against 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[citation needed].

The retro-style ballpark began a trend among other cities to construct more traditional, fan-friendly ballparks, including Jacobs Field in Cleveland, Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Texas, Safeco Field in Seattle and Comerica Park in Detroit.

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 people 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, 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 Oriole Park 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.

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