Baltimore Memorial Stadium: 'Rise & Fall'

Source:Forgotten Places with a look at Baltimore Memorial Stadium.

"The story of Memorial Stadium" 

From Forgotten Places

"Memorial Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, that formerly stood on 33rd Street (aka 33rd Street Boulevard, renamed "Babe Ruth Plaza") on an oversized block officially called Venable Park, which was a former city park from the 1920s. The block was bound by Ellerslie Avenue to the west, 36th Street to the north, and Ednor Road to the 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 (expansion to an upper deck) was completed in mid-1954, would become known as Memorial Stadium. The stadium was also known as "The Old Gray Lady of 33rd Street," and also "The World's Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum" when used by the Baltimore Colts.[6] the latter which was coined by Cooper Rollow." 

From Wikipedia

As someone who grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, just 40 miles south of Baltimore, I had an opportunity to see a lot of Oriole games growing up and I'm old enough to remember at least hearing about the Colts in the early 1980s, when I was just starting to get into sports as a young kid. 

Bethesda is literally next door to Washington, but Washington didn't have an MLB franchise for most of the 1970s and the 1980s, so the Oriole which were just about a 50-60 minute drive (depending on traffic) were the local baseball team for most Marylanders. So I got to see a lot of Orioles games growing up in the 1980s and early 90s as a kid and got to go to several Orioles games, when they were still in North Baltimore at Memorial Stadium. 

When I think of Baltimore Memorial, I just think of a great old ballpark, that was a lot of fun to be at. Perhaps not so much fun to get to, at least coming from Washington, because you have to get to the city first, which might not be so bad, but then you have to get to the stadium as well, which could be another 40-60 minutes, because the stadium is in the north of the city, it's a big city, and you have to deal with the traffic. 

Baltimore Memorial was just a big, fun, old ballpark to be at: 

Beautiful sight lines as far as what surrounded the ballpark, with no upper deck porch, so you always had a great view of the sky

The grass field and hill, the trees, the old houses beyond the outfield wall of the ballpark, 

The food was always good

The seats were close to the action, as well as on the the ground level, unlike at the cookie-cutter stadiums 

The fans were great and were always loud 

The place looked beautiful during the day and night 

Short porches but with high walls and no foul territory down the lines, which made it a great ballpark for extra base hits and for players with good speed, but it also had deep gaps and a deep center field, so pitchers could be successful there 

The garden in the left field foul territory 

Maryland crab cake sandwiches from the Chesapeake Bay and perhaps Maryland Cream of Crab Soup as well.

Yes, Baltimore Memorial Stadium was officially a multi-purpose stadium because different sports franchises from different sports, also played there. The Orioles shared Baltimore Memorial with the Colts for 30 seasons from 1954-83, there was an NASL soccer franchise there briefly in the 1960s, with the Bays. 

But similar to Cleveland Municipal, Milwaukee County, Shea Stadium in Queens, New York, Atlanta Fulton Stadium, Candlestick Park, the Oakland Coliseum,  Anaheim Stadium, Jack Murphy Stadium, Baltimore Memorial was always a baseball first stadium, that could accompany other sports, but perhaps not very well, because it was a natural baseball park. 

So in this sense, at least, Baltimore was better off the the Colts leaving in 1984 because it gave them the opportunity to make Baltimore Memorial look as beautiful as possible for baseball and get the city's act together as far as building a football stadium, that was just for football, which is one reason they were able to get the Ravens from Cleveland, in 1996.

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