James Curtin - Oriole Park at Camden Yards - Post 4

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is the home stadium of the Baltimore Orioles. They have been playing there since the 1992 season. I have been to 6 MLB stadiums, and this is my favorite. It is important in sports stadium design for a few reasons. First, it was introduced the "retro" ballpark look that most baseball parks built since have followed. A significant factor in the retro look of Camden Yards is the warehouse beyond right field. It is an actual B&O Railroad warehouse that served the Camden Station railroad yard that the stadium is built on. It was completed in 1905 and is now used for team offices, stadium store, etc. Camden Yards also started two recent trends in baseball. It stated the trend of building baseball only stadiums, as apposed to the multipurpose (football and baseball) stadiums that were generally built in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It also started the trend of building stadiums downtown instead of in the suburbs of the cities they service. The reason it was built downtown was to revitalize the city and it has been very successful in drawing people to the city. I lived in Maryland from 1991 to 1997 and was lucky enough to attend several games there, including an ALCS game there in 1997.