Quick Hits...
Mike Boehm of MVN’s Oriole Magic writes a wonderful article about Memorial Stadium. He opines on Memorial Stadium today and his thoughts of the place while he was growing up. Good job, Mike!
Anyhow, my memories of the place are quite faint. I’m only 28, so I don’t have the recollection of the place that other people do, but it was basic stadium, perfect for it’s time. I had only been there perhaps 4 or 5 times as a kid before Camden Yards opened, as I grew up near Washington D.C., and my parents who were not the biggest baseball fans in the world only drove up there when I forced them to or pleaded to go.
I also went to a few games with my friend back then David and his dad, who loved baseball and really got me into the beauty of the sport and got me playing it. I think I went to the stadium once for like a safety patrol day or something like that in elementary school.
I just remember thinking it was like the Roman Coliseum (remember, as a kid anywhere huge is grand) and the field was perfect. The scoreboard had the cute little swinging board, and there was the smell of smoke everywhere. I never sat up close, and sat in the cheap seats (I think one time I sat behind a pole).
Looking back, Memorial Stadium served it purpose for the years it was up. In the age of luxury boxes, state of the art sound and newness, Memorial Stadium is more or less, substandard. However, for many Baltimore citizens and those who lived through the 50’s to 90’s, the stadium served as a house of magic, where you saw Frank, Brooks, Cal, Eddie, Johnny, Art and many others become icons and cement their legend in Charm City.
Because of my lack of exposure to Memorial Stadium and I not really growing up in Baltimore or the suburbs of the city, I cannot write as well or in a romantic sense that Mike was able to express, but nearing 30 and hoping for kids & family one day, I can now fully understand the bond that people had with the stadium, the Orioles the Colts.
Yankee Doodle-Dandy, the
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