Oriole Park (V) is the name used by baseball historians to designate the longest-lasting of several former major league and minor league baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, each one named Oriole Park.
Oriole Park (V) is the name used by baseball historians to designate the longest-lasting of several former major league and minor league baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, each one named Oriole Park.
A third major league, called the Federal League, began play in 1914, challenging established baseball clubs in several major league cities, as well as some of the larger minor league cities, of which Baltimore was one.
Although the Federal League folded after the 1915 season, the league had a profound impact on the sport of baseball, much of that impact centered on Baltimore.
The Terrapins, as the Baltimore Federal League club was called (a nickname associated with the University of Maryland since 1933), built their ballpark, Terrapin Park, on a wedge-shaped block bounded by 29th Street, York Road (later Greenmount Avenue), 30th Street, and the angling small alley-like Vineyard Lane (originally Gilmore Lane).
The ballpark was located at 39°19′26″N76°36′40″W / 39.32389°N 76.61111°W . Home plate was toward the southwest corner, in the "vee" of the wedge-shaped block. The playing field was small by modern standards. The exact dimensions are not known with precision, but a Baltimore Sun item from May 2, 1935, indicates left field 290 feet (88 m), center field 412 feet (126 m) (it was about 450 before the scoreboard was added), and right field 313 feet (95 m).
This location was directly across the street to the north from Oriole Park (IV), the home of the Baltimore Orioles of the minor International League. This was competition at its most direct, and the established Orioles suffered a drop in attendance so severe that owner Jack Dunn was compelled to sell the contracts of some of his best players, most notably the young left-hand pitching sensation Babe Ruth, who was sent to the Boston Red Sox, as was right-hand pitcher Ernie Shore. The Orioles were solvent again, but could not survive the competition. Dunn pulled the club out of Baltimore after the game of August 22. Although they were still listed as Baltimore in the standings, they staged their September home games in neutral sites such as Wilmington, Delaware. For 1915, Dunn settled the club in Richmond, Virginia, leaving the Terrapins as the sole professional baseball team in Baltimore.
After the Federal League experiment had ended, Dunn created a new Baltimore Orioles club for the International League. Their previous ballpark had been demolished in favor of a Billy Sunday tabernacle. The Orioles arranged to take over the now-vacant property, Terrapin Park, and quickly renamed it the traditional name, Oriole Park (later retroactively labeled Oriole Park V).
Of the new ballparks built by the "Feds", the longest-lasting has been Chicago's Wrigley Field, which was made of steel and concrete. Terrapin Park had been built primarily of wood. That decision would prove to be its undoing, but its eventual demise would boost Baltimore's chances of returning to the major leagues.
Following the demise of the "Feds", the Baltimore professional baseball interests became a primary party in an antitrust legal suit filed against Major League Baseball and involving the Commissioner of Baseball. This resulted in the landmark 1922 U.S. Supreme Court decision, in Federal Baseball Club v. National League , that exempted baseball from antitrust laws.
The new Orioles soon established themselves as a strong, competitive team. Their greatest success at this ballpark included winning seven consecutive International League championships from 1919 through 1925.
On April 18, 1919, the Red Sox came through town on their way north from spring training, and played an exhibition game at Oriole Park. By now, Babe Ruth had become known as a great home run slugger as well as a top-level pitcher. In his old hometown's ballpark, Ruth put on a hitting exhibition the likes of which Baltimoreans (and most others) had never seen before, rocketing four home runs out of the ballpark, three of which were estimate to have traveled 500 feet (150 m) or more.
In 1930, Oriole Park joined the growing ranks of minor league ballparks with lights for night games. The Orioles played a couple of exhibition games against major league teams, then staged their first International League night game on September 11. That year also saw a lot of excitement on the field, as Joe Hauser of the Orioles began hitting home runs at a record clip, eventually reaching 63, which surpassed Ruth's season high of 60 in 1927.
Due to World War II travel restrictions, the 1944 Boston Red Sox held spring training at the park, rather than traveling to Florida. [1] [2]
This fifth Oriole Park was the club's home for the next 28½ seasons. The club was very conscious of the ballpark's potential as a firetrap. 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, a fire of uncertain origin (speculated to have been a discarded cigarette) consumed the old ballpark and every object the team had on-site, including uniforms and trophies. All that was left standing were the outfield fences and the scoreboard.
The club quickly arranged to make their temporary home in Municipal Stadium, the city's football field which had opened in 1922. Literally rising from the ashes, the Orioles went on to win the International League championship, and then the Junior World Series over Louisville of the American Association. The large post-season crowds that fall of 1944 at Municipal Stadium, which would not have been possible at the old wooden Oriole Park, caught the attention of the major leagues, and Baltimore soon became a viable option for struggling teams who were considering moving to other cities.
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "The Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a star left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees. Ruth is regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture and is considered by many to be the greatest baseball player of all time. In 1936, Ruth was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as one of its "first five" inaugural members.
Fenway Park is a baseball stadium located in Boston, Massachusetts near Kenmore Square. Since 1912, it has been the home of the Boston Red Sox, the city's American League baseball team, and since 1953, its only Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. While the stadium was built in 1912, it was substantially rebuilt in 1934, and underwent major renovations and modifications in the 21st century. It is the oldest active ballpark in MLB. Because of its age and constrained location in Boston's dense Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood, the park has many quirky features, including "The Triangle", Pesky's Pole, and the Green Monster in left field. It is the fifth-smallest among MLB ballparks by seating capacity, second-smallest by total capacity, and one of eight that cannot accommodate at least 40,000 spectators.
John Joseph Dunn was an American pitcher and infielder in Major League Baseball at the turn of the 20th century who later became a minor league baseball club owner.
The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the established National and American Leagues, from 1914 to 1915.
Arlington Stadium was a baseball stadium located in Arlington, Texas, United States, located between Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas. It served as the home for the Texas Rangers (MLB) from 1972 until 1993, after which the team moved into The Ballpark in Arlington.
Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a baseball stadium located in Baltimore, Maryland. It is the home field of Major League Baseball's Baltimore Orioles, and the first of the "retro" major league ballparks constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s. It was completed in 1992 to replace Memorial Stadium.
Edward Hugh Hanlon, also known as "Foxy Ned", and sometimes referred to as "The Father of Modern Baseball," was an American professional baseball player and manager whose career spanned from 1876 to 1914. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996 by the Veterans Committee.
League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of E. 66th Street and Lexington Avenue in the Hough neighborhood. It was built in 1891 as a wood structure and rebuilt using concrete and steel in 1910. The park was home to a number of professional sports teams, most notably the then-Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball. League Park was first home to the Cleveland Spiders of the National League from 1891 to 1899 and of the Cleveland Lake Shores of the Western League, the minor league predecessor to the Indians, in 1900. From 1914 to 1915, League Park also hosted the Cleveland Spiders of the minor league American Association. In the late 1940s, the park was also the home field of the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League.
Memorial Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, that formerly stood on 33rd Street on an oversized block also bounded by Ellerslie Avenue (west), 36th Street (north), and Ednor Road (east). Two stadiums were located here, a 1922 version known as Baltimore Stadium or Municipal Stadium, or sometimes Venable Stadium, and, for a time, Babe Ruth Stadium in reference to the then-recently deceased Baltimore native. The rebuilt multi-sport stadium, when reconstruction was completed in the middle of 1954, would become known as Memorial Stadium. The stadium was also known as The Old Gray Lady of 33rd Street, and also as The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum.
The Baltimore Terrapins were one of the most successful teams in the short-lived Federal League of professional baseball from 1914 to 1915, but their brief existence led to litigation that led to an important legal precedent in baseball. The team played its home games at Terrapin Park.
Ed Smith Stadium is a baseball field located in Sarasota, Florida. Since 2010, it has been the spring training home of the Baltimore Orioles.
The city of Baltimore, Maryland, has been home to two minor league baseball teams called the "Baltimore Orioles", besides the four major league baseball teams,.
Harbor Park is a stadium, used primarily for baseball, on the Elizabeth River, in downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Once rated the best minor league stadium by Baseball America, it is home to the Norfolk Tides Minor League Baseball team. The Tides are the Baltimore Orioles' Triple-A farm team and compete in the International League. Harbor Park opened on April 14, 1993, and can seat 11,856 people.
The Baltimore Orioles are a Major League Baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland. They are in the Eastern Division of the American League. They are owned by attorney Peter Angelos.
The 1966 Baltimore Orioles season involved the Orioles finishing first in the American League with a record of 97 wins and 63 losses, nine games ahead of the runner-up Minnesota Twins. It was their first AL pennant since 1944, when the club was known as the St. Louis Browns. The Orioles swept the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers in four games to register their first-ever World Series title. The team was managed by Hank Bauer, and played their home games at Memorial Stadium. They drew 1,203,366 fans to their home ballpark, third in the ten-team league. It would be the highest home attendance of the team's first quarter-century at Memorial Stadium, and was eclipsed by the pennant-winning 1979 Orioles.
The 1991 Chicago White Sox season was the White Sox's 92nd season. They finished with a record 87-75, good enough for 2nd place in the American League West, 8 games behind of the 1st place Minnesota Twins, as the club opened the new Comiskey Park on April 18.
JetBlue Park is a baseball park in Fort Myers, Florida, part of the Fenway South training and development facility.
McCurdy Field, located in Frederick, Maryland, is the former home of the Frederick Hustlers, Warriors, and Frederick Keys, a class A minor league affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. The current stadium structure is largely an aluminum superstructure with dual brick buildings on the sides. The field first opened in 1924. McCurdy Field was the home of the Frederick teams of the minor league baseball Blue Ridge League from 1924 to 1930.
Oriole Park, often referred to as Terrapin Park, opened in 1914 and closed after a fire on July 3–4, 1944. "Oriole Park" was the name of multiple baseball parks in Baltimore, Maryland, all built within a few blocks of each other.
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