As you walk into the park, along Eutaw Street, you may notice some plaques dotting the street.
These plaques represent the 54 baseballs (as of July 23, 2010) that had been hit onto Eutaw Street. When the ballpark was constructed, it was thought that the warehouse would be an easy target. Each of the windows of the warehouse was fitted with shatterproof glass. As it turns out, the dimensions of the warehouse itself creates a wind tunnel effect that blows balls toward the ground once they reach that area. This is why only 54 baseballs have reached Eutaw Street.
One would think, that with all of the 'performance enhancing drugs' that were allegedly consumed by baseball players in the 1990s, SOMEONE had to hit the warehouse more than once. Since Camden Yards opened in 1992, the warehouse has been tagged by a ball only one time, and it was NOT during an official major league game.
Some guy no one has ever heard of, Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a ball during the 1993 Home Run Derby that came into contact with the warehouse. It is really awesome to walk along Eutaw Street and try to find the plaque for the ball that Griffey crushed. He had to tattoo that ball for it to make it that far... I wish I could find that on video.
Of the 54 baseballs hit onto Eutaw Street as of July 23, 2010, Rafael Palmeiro holds the record of balls hit onto the street with 5. Luke Scott has 4 and BRADY Anderson has 3.
Inside the park, in the club level, the Orioles have many of their achievements on display. Below, are replicas of the Cy Young Awards that Oriole pitchers have received in the past. 3 for Jim Palmer, one for Mike Cuellar, one for Mike Flanagan, one for Steve Stone. Here are the replicas of the MVP awards won by Orioles. Brooks in 1964, Frank Robinson in 1966, Boog Powell in 1970, Cal in 1983 and Cal again in 1991.
The Orioles have jerseys showing all of their retired numbers on display: 4 - Earl Weaver, 5 - Brooks, 8 - Cal Ripken, 20 - Frank Robinson, 22 - Jim Palmer and 33 - Eddie Murray. The Orioles, of course, have 42 - Jackie Robinson retired, but since he was never an Oriole, they don't have a jersey retired. I wonder if the Orioles have the most players named Robinson with retired numbers. Maybe they should lobby to have the last name Robinson retired, or at least demand that they get first dibbs on any player named Robinson.
I love that the flash in my camera emphasised the gold of this replica Gold Glove award which was on display to represent the 16 gold gloves that Brooks had won. It looks amazing.
4 comments:
I've never taken the ballpark tour. Maybe the next time I go to see a game I will. BTW, I noticed the link to my blog in your blogroll is out of date for some reason. You might want to update it....
Sounds like a cool tour! Just, except for the Orioles stuff ;), jk, very nice actually, gotta like Ripken and the Robinsons
Ryan, I'll take a look. I don't know why it does that, but I only have the links to the blogs in the widget, so maybe its not refreshing like it should...
Great stuff! I haven't seen these things before.
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