Robert K. Shoop's Memorial Stadium - Baltimore Maryland

Memorial Stadium debuted in 1950 for the Baltimore Orioles ballclub, though these were not the Baltimore Orioles that you know. Realize that the St. Louis Browns who would move to Baltimore to become the Orioles were still in St. Louis until 1954, yet this stadium opened to and was played in by the Baltimore Orioles ballclub in 1950. Confused? Many of the American League and National League teams that are somewhat more recent (by recent, I mean not one of the inaugural teams when Major League Baseball began in 1901), actually were Minor League franchises that were sort of "promoted" to the Major Leagues. The San Diego Padres existed for decades before joining the National League in 1969... as a Triple-A Pacific Coast League team. The Los Angeles Angels played at Wrigley Field II in L.A. for the Triple-A PCL before they became an official American League team in 1962. The Marlins played at Bobby Maduro Stadium down in Miami for years before becoming a Major League franchise and the Baltimore Orioles? They had been a Triple-A International League team for 4 decades before the St. Louis Browns ever thought of moving here… and when this stadium was built in 1950... they still were. It’s amazing to think that this ballpark was originally built for Triple-A baseball and not the Major Leagues, but you have to believe that when they created this magnificent structure… they intended for the city to secure an MLB team before long. The new stadium replaced the Orioles former home, Baltimore Municipal Stadium (aka Babe Ruth Stadium)… a monstrous football facility that the Orioles had to escape to in 1944 when their old home… rustic Terrapin Park burned down. Old Municipal Stadium had a very familar oval shape to it, much like Memorial Stadium would have. That similar shape was no accident. While Municipal Stadium was aging rapidly, there was nothing wrong with the ballfield that the Orioles and the football games were playing on. Since the new Memorial Stadium was to have a shape very similar to Municipal Stadium... Memorial Stadium would be built inside Municipal Stadium's footprint. The ballfield that had served Municipal Stadium, would continue to serve the new Memorial Stadium completely intact. In 1949, as sections of Municipal Stadium fell, new sections of Memorial Stadium began to rise in their place. All the while, the Orioles were still playing in it. Needless to say, the 1949 season was a very noisy and bizarre one indeed. With simultaneous construction and destruction happening so fast, the Orioles would come back from a road trip and their home would look completely different from when they had left a week earlier.