It was a writing assignment that I desperately wanted: now that Oriole Park at Camden Yards is turning 30 years old, how did it come to be?
I was living in Maryland in 1992. In fact, my office was just a couple of blocks away from the shiny new ballpark. You could look out of our conference-room windows and watch the construction as the park took shape.
I attended the first game ever played at the park — a five-inning exhibition against the Mets three days before the regular-season opener on April 6, 1992. On that Opening Day, I watched the proceedings from the roof of our office building.
The City of Baltimore was absolutely alive. Everyone was excited that the new baseball park was a reality.
At that time, though, we had no idea that Camden Yards was going to change the sport in profound ways.
So I put all I had into writing the article for USA TODAY Sports. I spoke to Jon Miller, the Orioles’ broadcaster at the time. Larry Lucchino, the team’s president. Janet Marie Smith, arguably the greatest ballpark consultant of all time (and should be in the Hall of Fame). Joe Spear, lead architect. Rick Sutcliffe, the O’s pitcher in the Opener. Lainy Lebow Sachs, the top aide to mayor-then-governor William Donald Schaefer. Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore’s mayor when the park opened.
It made for a very long article, but the editors at USA TODAY HQ didn’t flinch. They ran the entire piece, giving it three full pages in USA TODAY Sports Weekly, and posting it for all the world to see on USATODAY.com. It was a testament to the popularity and the impact of Camden Yards.
I had a lot of great material that I couldn’t fit into that print article, so I asked for permission to post it on this site — with additional quotes from all of the people I interviewed. Just click here and you can read the expanded piece.