Before he is buried next Wednesday at a suburban Baltimore cemetery, the body of former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor William Donald Schaefer will go on a final tour of some of the city landmarks he was responsible for — such as Camden Yards.
If they have time, a drive down to Nationals Park in Washington might be appropriate as well. Schaefer may be identified closely with Camden Yards, but if it wasn’t for the colorful and forceful Maryland politician, baseball might have never returned to the District.
It was Schaefer’s battle to have the Orioles’ new ballpark built at Camden Yards that ultimately left the door open just enough for baseball to come back to Washington in 2005 — after a 33-year absence.
When the decisions were being made for a new ballpark for the Orioles, legendary Washington attorney Edward Bennett Williams owned the franchise. Williams had already marketed the Orioles as a Baltimore-Washington regional team and wanted the new ballpark to reflect that regional identity.
Larry Lucchino, currently the president of the Boston Red Sox, worked for Williams during the ballpark site selection process and told me that Williams was looking further south for a new home for his baseball team.
“Williams started the process with a bias towards being someplace between the two cities,” said Lucchino, who became one of the driving forces behind Camden Yards. “It was Schaefer who persuaded Williams that Camden Yards was the site.”
If Williams had succeeded in building a new ballpark in southern Baltimore County or even Howard County, that likely would have killed any chance of major league baseball returning to the District.
Schaefer’s push for the Camden Yards site changed more than baseball in Baltimore and Washington. Camden Yards started the revival of sports facilities in the cities instead of the suburbs.
Baseball commissioner Bud Selig called the opening of Camden Yards in April 1992 “the most dramatic event in sports in the past 25 years.” It changed the course of history.
In the wake of William Donald Schaefer’s death, there may be a movement to rename Camden Yards in his honor. That would be a mistake because Schaefer fought then-owner Eli Jacobs about the name of the facility.
Jacobs simply wanted “Oriole Park.” Schaefer wanted “Camden Yards.” They compromised on “Oriole Park at Camden Yards,” but it is almost always referred to as Camden Yards.
Schaefer had a vision of what he wanted, and even if it wasn’t his intention, that vision extended all the way to southeast Washington — the home of Nationals Park.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
