The baseball world changed on April 6th, 1992 when Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened. No one had ever seen a ballpark like it, a wonderful combination of old and new.
It was an immediate hit, and 33 years later, it’s still at or near the top of fans’ and writers’ rankings.
“It’s the best ballpark in baseball,” said Rick Vaughn, who was the Orioles’ public relations director when Camden Yards opened. “Yes, I’m biased, but I think the press box is the best in baseball as well.”
This week will mark the last week of the press box, which was named after the wonderful baseball writer Jim Henneman in 2024. Henneman, who saw more Orioles games than anyone else, died in May this year, and sadly won’t be there for the last game on Thursday.
After the season ends, massive renovations will begin all around the ballpark. The current press box will be turned into a party suite, and the Jim Henneman press box will be relocated just up the third base line.
I’m sure it will be a fine view but forgive me for being a little sad. Along with Roch Kubatko, Dan Connolly and David Ginsburg, who are pictured above, and Peter Schmuck, who isn’t, the five of us have seen nearly every game and every memorable moment in the history of the ballpark.
For years, I’ve been warning other writers that the press box location was just too good not to move. Fortunately, my worst fears weren’t realized when I found out we wouldn’t be moving to left field, the location of the press box at Toronto’s Rogers Centre.
Vaughn worked with Janet Marie Smith, who was hired by Larry Lucchino to oversee the design of Camden Yards, on the construction of the press box. Bob Brown, who had been the longtime public relations director, worked with them, too.
“We shot for the moon, and we got it,” Vaughn said. “We got a great location, almost too good of a location when you think about the foul balls that have come back up in there over the years.”
Those foul balls have broken many computers. Cal Ripken Jr.’s foul smashed Baltimore Sun columnist Ken Rosenthal’s computer and Kubatko lent Rosenthal his laptop for him to finish his column, which turned out to be about Ripken breaking his computer.
Washington Times writer Thom Loverrro interviewed Hideki Matsui, the star Japanese outfielder of the New York Yankees, before a game, and Matsui broke his computer with a foul ball. Loverro was swarmed by Japanese media, and he became a momentary luminary in Japan.
When foul balls hit walls in the press box, Oriole officials would date the dents and holes. They’d stay that way until they were replastered at the end of the season.
Vaughn and his staff somehow crammed 300 media members into the press box for that first game. These days, there are 97 seats in the press box, which was downsized before the 2012 season to make room for a MASN booth.
When the ballpark opened, there were four entities that regularly covered the team, The Sun, and The Evening Sun, which competed, the Washington Post and the Washington Times.
Schmuck and Ginsburg, the longtime Associated Press writer, covered that first game. Though they’re retired, both still work occasionally and are the only active writers who covered the first game. I was a fan at that game and didn’t start covering games until later that season.
The three of us are among the few who have seen games in each year of the park, including the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.
In 1992, print was king, and many regional publications covered the team, including The Annapolis Capital, Carroll County Times, Frederick News-Post, Wilmington News Journal and York Daily Record. None cover the team today.
The Sun remains the legacy publication. The other four who regularly cover the team –MASNsports.com, MLB.com, The Baltimore Banner and BaltimoreBaseball.com — didn’t exist in 1992.
There are four plaques on the walls of the press box facing the field: One for Brown, and others for Monica Barlow, the revered public relations director who died of cancer in 2014, longtime public address announcer Rex Barney, and Henneman’s colleague, John Steadman, who wrote about Baltimore sports for decades.
The people who cover the team have changed along with the publications. Except for Kubatko and me, those who cover for MLB.com, the Sun and the Banner weren’t alive when the ballpark opened.
They’ve brought welcome new ideas and vibrancy. Sometimes they even laugh at my attempts at tomfoolery.
They weren’t around for many of the great moments the park has seen. Besides the first game, there was Cal Ripken Jr. breaking the consecutive games streak, Mike Mussina’s near-perfect game and Eddie Murray’s 500th home run.
More recently, there was the Curse of the Andino, when Orioles infielder Robert Andino singled to beat the Boston Red Sox in the last game of the 2011 season. That was the precursor to the exciting 2012 season, which ended 14 losing years. It was also my first game as a beat writer.
There were Josh Hamilton’s four home runs in 2012; Clinchmas, when the Orioles won the AL East in 2014, their first division title since 1997; and a few weeks later, Delmon Young’s double against the Detroit Tigers in the Division Series, which was arguably the loudest moment in the history of the park.
During the “No Fans Game” on April 29th, 2015, which followed the Baltimore disturbances, I predicted a home run. I called over to Connolly, who was then working for the Sun.
Usually, the park is so alive that my loud voice can’t be heard outside the press box. This time was different. Adam Jones was on deck, and he looked up when he heard me yell.
The new press box will have 75 seats. We’ll just move over a bit, but it won’t be the same.
Ginsburg and Schmuck were among those who lobbied Vaughn for an open-air press box, which he supported, but the new one will have windows that can close in case of inclement weather. It will also be climate controlled.
It won’t have landlines or PR officials who’ll page us when we have a call.
The 75 spaces should be more than sufficient. Adrienne Roberson, one of Barney’s successors as public address announcer, will move upstairs to the ballpark’s production suite. Everyone else in the current box will have a new spot.
The 2026 press box won’t be designed by Vaughn and Smith.
“For a lot of the detail work inside the press box, she was amazing,” Vaughn said. “She has such great vision and we all know everything that she brings to the table, but she also has a really great eye for detail, and so we really kind of leaned on her for that detail work, and she nailed it.”
Smith thought of details Vaughn hadn’t.
“One time when it was close to being finished, we were doing a checklist walk, just the two of us,” he said. “She’s looking around and she goes, ‘Grommet holes!’
“We don’t have any Grommet holes,’ which are the holes in the counter where you can put your electric cord.”
The new press box won’t need grommet holes because plugs will be on the top of the counters.
Hopefully, the new press box will have its share of memories for the new generation of writers. Together, during the life of the press box, Kubatko, Connolly, Ginsburg, Schmuck and I experienced so many life-changing events, marriages, births of children and grandchildren and deaths of parents. We all regularly keep in contact and still see each other at games.
May the new press box bring as many decades of memories and happiness to those who’ll work there.
Call for questions: I answer Orioles questions most weekdays. Please send yours to: Rich@BaltimoreBaseball.com.