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Ballpark: Camden Yards and the Building of an American Dream
Named one of the "Ten Best Sports Books" by The Sporting News, Ballpark is the compelling story of how Baltimore's magnificent Camden Yards ballpark was born, and the effects it has had on the city, the team, and the whole course of stadiumbuilding across the country. It's both an examination of the city's psyche and a close look behind the scenes at our national pastime. This is a quintessentially American story of progress, movement, change, triumph, and of an eternal renewal of hope.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 27, 2008
There really was a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow for the Oriole owners - photo from The Baltimore Sun
Ballpark tells the tale of how Baltimore’s much lauded new field, Camden Yards, came to be. It includes satisfying depictions of the personalities involved, the owners, architects, politicians, and of how a perfectly serviceable, if uninspiring Memorial Stadium was shunned to make way for a shiny new (and old-looking) money-making machine. The focus is off the players here, but there are some nice depictions, particularly of the history of Camden Station and Yards. There is also a wonderful quote from Cal Ripkin about needing to write something the day his consecutive inning streak ended. It is a good, but not great book. I would recommend it to serious fans, but not to those less committed to the subject.
Peter Richmond - from his Twitter page
Links to author's personal and Twitter pages
July 27, 2021
Great history of a great ballpark with lots of details you won't find anywhere else, including a photo of the napkin where the O's owner in the late 1960s sketched out an idea for a domed stadium. Did not know keeping the B&O Warehouse was literally a last-minute decision. If you have any interest in Camden Yards, get this book.
April 24, 2020
Everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about the building of Oriole Park at Camden Yard. The book starts to drag a little in the middle, especially when author Peter Richmond gets heavily into the political maneuverings behind the scenes. But even the politicking is sort of interesting in light of its contribution to the final product. A must read for anyone who really wants to experience all the nuances of the ballpark.
August 1, 2007
Not just a book about a baseball stadium, but a book about baseball, about architecture, about the city of Baltimore and the wounds the city has suffered and lived with for years, and why the Yard was the first piece of redemption for a city that's been trying to be less angry for as long as it has existed.
May 15, 2021
I read this ahead of my first game at Camden Yards and after the pandemic deprived me of live baseball for nearly two years. Part architectural history, part celebration of baseball and Opening Day, and part defense of the chip-on-shoulder Baltimore psyche, Ballpark is an obvious passion project for Peter Richmond, detailing the logistics, emotions, and history of how Camden Yards revolutionized the way American ballparks are built.
We get the zoomed in picture of freshly cut grass, hot dogs scents, and general comradery of baseball, juxtaposed against the high-levels dealings of ownership, which more than once flirted with the idea of a DC team, architectural rivalries, and the positioning of a classic baseball stadium against the concrete ovals that were the industry standard (“no interaction with the surrounding neighborhood; no relation to city; no view of anything… the epitome of the modern profit machine”).
The book is about the Orioles and its new ballpark, but it’s really about the city and the Orioles’ place in it: “Cal Ripken’s streak is now the Baltimore standard… It is a blue-collar record for a town without shout. It’s an X-Days-on-the-Job-without-an-Accident record… just low-profile dutifulness, which is as Baltimorean as you can get.”
We get a new view of stadium architecture that celebrates brick-laden exteriors and lacy steel gridwork in a shoutout to classics like Wrigley, while denouncing concrete. It’s probably way more than what one needs to know about architecture and stadium design, but Richmond does a good enough job to link these traits to the city and history of baseball, all with an excited passion that echoes a youthful exuberance, that one can forgive him for indulging.
“Baseball has always belonged where American People gathered,” writes Richmond. “Baseball in cities has always mattered in America.” And with that theme in mind, Richmond paints Camden as remnant of a previous era, with its warehouse, asymmetry, and downtown location, and a look to the future: “Camden Yards is something more than a paeon to the old; it is old. The oldest ballpark in America, as well as its newest.”
We get the zoomed in picture of freshly cut grass, hot dogs scents, and general comradery of baseball, juxtaposed against the high-levels dealings of ownership, which more than once flirted with the idea of a DC team, architectural rivalries, and the positioning of a classic baseball stadium against the concrete ovals that were the industry standard (“no interaction with the surrounding neighborhood; no relation to city; no view of anything… the epitome of the modern profit machine”).
The book is about the Orioles and its new ballpark, but it’s really about the city and the Orioles’ place in it: “Cal Ripken’s streak is now the Baltimore standard… It is a blue-collar record for a town without shout. It’s an X-Days-on-the-Job-without-an-Accident record… just low-profile dutifulness, which is as Baltimorean as you can get.”
We get a new view of stadium architecture that celebrates brick-laden exteriors and lacy steel gridwork in a shoutout to classics like Wrigley, while denouncing concrete. It’s probably way more than what one needs to know about architecture and stadium design, but Richmond does a good enough job to link these traits to the city and history of baseball, all with an excited passion that echoes a youthful exuberance, that one can forgive him for indulging.
“Baseball has always belonged where American People gathered,” writes Richmond. “Baseball in cities has always mattered in America.” And with that theme in mind, Richmond paints Camden as remnant of a previous era, with its warehouse, asymmetry, and downtown location, and a look to the future: “Camden Yards is something more than a paeon to the old; it is old. The oldest ballpark in America, as well as its newest.”
September 14, 2021
The story of the first ‘retro’ ballpark and how it came to fruition in 1992. Acutely observed with good access.
October 20, 2012
Every Orioles fan should read this book.
As someone who moved to town after Camden Yards opened, I was mostly ignorant of the wrangling that occurred with the state, ownership, and the architects while the ballpark was being planned and built. Fascinating stuff. The Warehouse was not in the original plans! Unbelievable. I was also amazed that Camden Yards was floated as a ballpark site as far back as 1967. Nice little primer on Orioles history too.
I learned a lot from this book that I otherwise wouldn't have.
As someone who moved to town after Camden Yards opened, I was mostly ignorant of the wrangling that occurred with the state, ownership, and the architects while the ballpark was being planned and built. Fascinating stuff. The Warehouse was not in the original plans! Unbelievable. I was also amazed that Camden Yards was floated as a ballpark site as far back as 1967. Nice little primer on Orioles history too.
I learned a lot from this book that I otherwise wouldn't have.
January 25, 2016
As an Oriole fan since childhood, and as someone with an almost visceral love of baseball stadiums, this book was bound to hit the spot. On top of that, it turns out to be a very readable tale of politics, baseball ownership, architecture, stadium construction... All baseball fans should be thankful that the right confluence of people and events led to Camden Yards, and the subsequent revolution in stadium construction. Enjoy!
June 23, 2010
ballparks,Baltimore Orioles
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews