When it comes to Major League baseball parks, it's really just Baltimore's Camden Yards and then everywhere else. And I'm not just saying this because I was dinged at Lehman, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley for a winter internship and am now desperately begging the Orioles for a job. I'm also writing this because I'm hoping that an avid reader of The D will see this article and then tell daddy to hire me.
But honestly, Camden is a world-class ballpark. Completed in 1992, it's not the newest ballpark. It's not the glitziest park either. There's no swimming pool (like at Arizona's Bank One Ballpark) or a kayaking cove (like at San Francisco's Pac Bell Ballpark). But it's certainly the classiest Major League ballpark.
Camden Yards, or Oriole Park at Camden Yards as it is officially known, is situated flawlessly within the urban context of Baltimore, only minutes away from the Inner Harbor.
The stadium evokes images of historical ballparks, with its steel trusses, arched brick faade and natural grass playing field. It is also quite an intimate setting, seating just under 49,000 at capacity. Nevertheless, Camden Yards doesn't suffer from the claustrophobic feel of Boston's Fenway Park. The layout of the park is such that it feels quite spacious, yet there isn't a bad seat in the house. I've sat in the cheap seats at Camden Yards before, and it wasn't half bad.
Another unique quirk to the Camden Yards complex is the Baltimore & Ohio Warehouse visible in right field, which is the longest warehouse on the East Coast.
Compared to most ballparks, Camden Yards goes unmatched in regard to its food selection. In addition to the usual menu of burgers, fries and hot dogs, stadium venders also sell relatively healthy food, including salads and grilled sandwiches.
A can't miss at Camden Yards is Boog Powell's Bar-B-Q. Located in right field, the established is own by Powell, a mid-'60s Orioles great. Powell is even rumored to show up behind the grill from time to time.
Other unique amenities include that fact that it hosts a kosher hotdog stand and Jewish prayer services after the fifth inning of evening games.
Many people, including the lovely Dana LaMendola '06, often erroneously weigh a team's tradition of success, or defining moments, when determining the beauty of a ballpark. And in fact, Camden Yards has not had many successful teams or memorable moments since it opened its door, which leads many to wrongfully suggest that parks such as Wrigley Field, Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium are the most elegant in baseball. If Baltimore, however, had made the playoffs year-in, year-out or produced any memorable moments, ESPN anchors, when not patting themselves on the back about the network's 25th anniversary, would certainly salivate over the structural beauty of Camden Yards.
Yankee stadium certainly isn't the best ballpark in the majors, as Dana argues. Unlike Oriole Park, Yankee Stadium is very poorly shaded, which makes the ballpark unbearably hot on summer days. Sitting in the bleachers at the ballpark entails an extra hassle because weird lighting makes it impossible to see the stadium scoreboard for those seats -- which makes it difficult to follow the game.
That said, Yankee stadium isn't the worst MLB ballpark either. Three MLB stadiums better come to mind as contenders for that honor:
1) Shea Stadium (Queens, N.Y.): An unsightly, uncomfortable, and economy structure built in Queens, N.Y. Upside: helps accommodate overflow parking for the U.S. Open.
2) Olympic Stadium (Montreal, Canada): A cavernous dome with an Astroturf field. It will close its doors at the end of the season, when the Expos finally abandon town for the Washington, D.C. area.
3) Coors Field (Denver, Colo.): The stadium is beautiful, but it raises issues for baseball's record books because of the staggering home run totals tallied at the park. Apparently, low air pressure, coupled with creatine, androstenedione and steroids makes it easier for players to jack balls out of the park.
