Next Up: Indians vs. Orioles at Camden Yards

Beautiful Camden Yards changed everything, and a fair share of the credit for that goes to Janet Marie Smith. Who is she, you might ask. To properly answer that, we must first look back at what came before the Orioles played in the shadow of the B&O Warehouse near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

Baltimore’s history with their baseball and football franchises is similar in many ways to Cleveland’s. The Indians and Orioles are two of the original eight charter members of the American League dating back to 1901. While the Indians have always played in Cleveland, the Orioles started off as the Milwaukee Brewers. After playing only one year in Milwaukee, the team moved to St. Louis where they became the St. Louis Browns; the club played there from 1902 until moving to Baltimore in 1954.

The Baltimore Colts, like the Cleveland Browns, were part of the All-America Football Conference (1946-49) which competed briefly with the NFL. The Cleveland team was part of the AAFC all four years while the Colts didn’t enter the fledgling league until 1947. When neither the NFL nor AAFC could no longer afford their war of competition, they decided to merge the leagues in 1950 and three teams — the Browns, Baltimore Colts and San Francisco 49ers — were admitted to the NFL. Unfortunately, the Colts folded after only one year, but a new Baltimore Colts franchise with different ownership was made an expansion team beginning with the 1953 NFL season.

The owner of the Colts from 1953 until 1972 was Carroll Rosenbloom (1907-1979). He had a pretty successful run as the Colts owner but by the 1970s he was often at odds with Baltimore city officials over the condition of Memorial Stadium, where both the Colts and Orioles played. Fed up with the ongoing strife, Rosenbloom purchased controlling interest in the Los Angeles Rams in 1972, moved to the west coast, and sold controlling interest of the Baltimore Colts to Robert Irsay (1923-1997). Irsay was no happier with Memorial Stadium than was Rosenbloom, and he too had squabbles with the city over the need for a new structure. The subject of public financing for stadiums for privately owned teams was becoming more and more flammable as cities like Phoenix and Indianapolis offered to foot the bill for new stadiums.

In Baltimore, neither the Colts nor the Orioles were satisfied with the antiquated, dilapidated condition of Memorial Stadium; in Cleveland, neither the Browns nor the Indians appreciated the obsolete and rundown condition of Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Both stadiums were built at a time when large, multi-purpose stadiums were the preferred style, but fifty years later it would be universally acknowledged that trying to accommodate both baseball and football in the same space was a losing battle.

Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium was first built in 1922, re-built in 1950, and was later expanded. Its seating capacity grew from 31,000 to 53,000, but it was always considered a multi-purpose stadium.

Cleveland Municipal Stadium was designed by the well-known Cleveland architectural firm Walker and Weeks, which also designed Severance Hall and other prominent buildings in Cleveland. Contrary to popular opinion, it was not built in an effort to attract the 1932 Olympics; it was just considered the best idea at the time to build one huge multi-purpose structure to attract any and all sports. Near the end, Cleveland Stadium had a seating capacity of 78,000 for football and 74,000 for baseball. Both Baltimore and Cleveland, however, would eventually discover that their efforts to outdo facilities like Wrigley Field and Fenway Park would not stand the test of time. Since the two main sports (baseball and football) are played on essentially different shaped fields, the multi-purpose stadiums turned out to be not very good places to watch either game.

Added to the fundamental problem of the different shape requirements was the failure of local governments and/or teams to maintain the stadiums themselves. A well-known quote that is much loved by the world of civil engineers says something like, “A civilization’s success is not judged so much by what it builds, but how it maintains what it builds.”

Eventually, Indianapolis made Irsay an offer he could no longer refuse and in 1984, he moved the Colts to Indiana. Twelve years later, Art Modell moved the Cleveland Browns to Baltimore for pretty much the same reason.

Having already lost the Colts to Indianapolis, Baltimore decided to pursue the construction of a new baseball stadium in order to avoid the risk of losing the Orioles. Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened on April 6, 1992 with the O’s hosting the Indians.

Following the immediate and sustained success of Camden Yards, it’s easy to forget that the original design was anything but what we now recognize as the inspiration for so many other ballparks that followed, including Jacobs/Progressive Field. Originally, the design for a new Baltimore baseball stadium was a lot like the one that is now the home of the Chicago White Sox. Not that U.S. Cellular Field, which opened for business in 1991, is a terrible ballpark — it’s just more of the same kind of place that lacks intimacy and the ability to inspire fans’ devotion. Before Baltimore fell victim to that kind of mistake, however, they listened to their consultant, Janet Marie Smith, an architect and urban planner. The result was that the Orioles rejected the initial proposal and embraced the idea, spearheaded by Ms. Smith, of a retro-style ballpark. The rest, as they say, is history, although Ms. Smith is still adding addenda and footnotes to that history, having worked for the Atlanta Braves, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and, again, for the Orioles.

So a tip of the Tribe’s C-Cap to Janet Marie Smith as the Indians get set to face the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards.

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It was only three weeks ago that the Orioles visited Cleveland for a three-game series. The Indians had just finished a stretch of winning 14 of 20 games and five of six series, and were a mere one game under .500. The Orioles at that point were struggling. They were 24-29 and had lost six of their last ten. Today, though, it’s a different story. The Orioles won two of three in Cleveland and are on the rebound. They’re now 38-34, third place in the AL East and two games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. They’re 7-3 in their last ten games and have an excellent home record of 22-13.

The Indians, on the other hand, are slip-sliding away. They’re now 33-38, in fourth place, nine games out of first place, and they’ve lost six of their last ten.

Pitching Matchups for the Friday-Saturday-Sunday series:
LHP Wei-Yin Chin (3-4, 2.86, 81 innings) vs. Corey Kluber (3-9, 3.65, 103.2 innings)
RHP Chris Tillman (5-7, 6.22, 72.1 innings) vs. Cody Anderson (0-0, 0.00, 7.2 innings)
RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (6-3, 3.40, 79.1 innings) vs. Trevor Bauer (6-4, 3.86, 84 innings)

Since their first matchup against the Orioles in early June, the Indians have parted ways with Shaun Marcum, who took one of the losses in that series. In his place as the Tribe’s new fifth starter is rookie, Cody Anderson, who went 7.2 innings in his major league debut last Sunday. Will Anderson be more than a one-hit wonder? Ubaldo pitched very well against the Tribe last time around but got a no-decision, and Chen has yet to face the Indians this year.

Another change for the Indians three weeks later is that Lonnie Chisenhall and José Ramirez have been replaced by Giovanny Urshela and Francisco Lindor.

Will team performance change? Will the Indians hit this weekend? With very few exceptions, their offense is not trending well. Michael Bourn, Yan Gomes, Brandon Moss, and even Michael Brantley are slumping. Only Jason Kipnis (who is still setting the world on fire), David Murphy (who’s been solid all season), and Ryan Raburn are hot, but Friday night against the lefty Chin, Murphy will probably sit and wait for a pinch hitting opportunity.

The Orioles are out-performing the Indians offensively in almost every category except on-base percentage. Cleveland is third in OBP compared to the Orioles at eighth, but while the Indians get on base, they’re too often stranded there. Indians hitters are 12th in the American League hitting with runners in scoring position and with two outs and runners in scoring position, they’re 14th out of 15 with a .170 average. That’s just ugly.

Overall, the Orioles pitching staff is looking solid. They’re fifth in the AL with a 3.79 ERA, sixth with a .246 opponent batting average, and seventh with a 1.27 WHIP, while the Indians are 10th, 9th, and 11th, respectively, in those categories.

We’re not quite at the season’s half-way point yet, but here in late June, Baltimore is showing signs of being a contender, while the Indians are looking like it will be a chore for them to reach the .500 mark.

Can both teams rise to their optimistic pre-season expectations? And while we’re asking, can their two ballparks be maintained so that they last more than, say, fifty or sixty years?

The Indians have been playing better on the road than at home. Flights to Baltimore can be booked through Hipmunk.com to watch Cleveland have their best chance at winning. Take in an entire series on the road by reserve hotels near Oriole Park at Camden Yards through Hipmunk.