BALTIMORE — University of Maryland sports journalism students are highlighting the history of Camden Yards in a new five-part docuseries called "Creating Camden Yards."
The series, which releases here this Thursday for Opening Day, explores the political push and the architectural choices that changed baseball stadium design throughout the country.
University of Maryland students explore the history of Camden Yards in a new five-part documentary series
"Camden Yards will forever live on," student Jona Jancewicz said.
Jancewicz and his classmates spent hours crafting the project.
"Camden Yards has influenced so many stadiums in ballparks around Major League Baseball, whether it's Petco Park now Oracle Park in San Francisco. And so if you're not even a fan of the Orioles, your ballpark is probably affected by the Orioles," Jancewicz said.
The students believe the project is vital for baseball fans because of its historical significance to Baltimore.
"There were so many different aspects of this stadium — from the politics behind it, to the people who excavated the area, to the design — and then the back-and-forth over who would get the naming rights, the brick or steel for the stadium. For me, the most memorable part of the project was interviewing the first person I spoke with, Bob Flanagan, who was part of the Orioles’ ownership group at the time. He explained to me," Jancewicz said.
"When the Colts leave, it's such a blow to the city that the Orioles are the last major league team in Baltimore, and the fight to keep the Orioles here just shows how Baltimore really came together and created something iconic," Jancewicz said.
Montanna Norman looked at photo archives for the project. Norman said the celebration of Baltimore's history and the intentional preservation of that history stood out.
"The creators of Camden Yards were very intentional in kind of like revitalizing the history and like for example, like keeping the B&O warehouse was very important to creating Camden Yards, but just in general, like just the historical celebration of what Camden Yards is and everything that it still is even today really stood to me," Norman said.
Bode Ramsay was part of the design and construction team for the documentary. Ramsay said the uniqueness of the ballpark comes from the choice of brick, steel, and seat designs that give it an unmatched feeling.
"The ballpark had its own unique feel — it wasn’t just another redundant stadium like the ones being built around that time. I mean, they kept building all these dual-purpose stadiums for football and baseball, but they wanted this one to be specifically for the Baltimore Orioles," Ramsay said.
"It just feels like baseball home almost in a way like it's comfortable there. Like you, you really get this feeling of like just being able to enjoy a ballpark in one of the most beautiful iconic places in the sport now that was built by these people," Ramsay said.
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