July 3, 1944: The Fire That Made Baltimore Major League

The 1914-44 Oriole Park. The photo is colorized, but otherwise real.

July 3, 1944: A fire burns down Oriole Park in Baltimore. No one knows it yet, but this disaster will ultimately benefit the city, and lead to it becoming "major league."

The 1st Oriole Park was at what is now the northwest corner of 25th Street and Greenmount Avenue, and was home to the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association from 1882 to 1888. A 2nd Oriole Park was built 4 blocks north, at 29th and Greenmount, and was used in the 1889, 1890 and early 1891 seasons.

In mid-1891, the Orioles moved back to 25th & Greenmount, into the new Union Park, which was usually called Oriole Park, and is often retroactively called Oriole Park III. In 1892, the Orioles moved into the National League, and won Pennants at Union Park in 1894, 1895 and 1896, and nearly another in 1897. But changes in NL ownerships meant that they were broken up, and were contracted out of the League in 1899.

Baltimore got a team in the American League in 1901, although it only lasted 2 years. These Orioles were disbanded, and replaced in the AL by the team that became the New York Yankees. Research has proven that they were 2 different franchises, not a single moved franchise.

In 1903, the International League, one of the top minor leagues, put a team in Baltimore, using the same Oriole Park (IV, or III, depending on how you count them) as the 1901-02 AL team. These Orioles won the IL Pennant in 1908, and were runners-up 3 other times while playing there. In 1914, this Oriole Park became the 1st professional home field of Babe Ruth.

Those Orioles were forced to sell Ruth to the major-league Boston Red Sox, and then to fold, because the Federal League had debuted the Baltimore Terrapins, who played at Terrapin Park, just to the north of Oriole Park II at 29th & Greenmount. In 1916, after the FL folded, the IL put a new Orioles team in Terrapin Park, and it was renamed Oriole Park, making it either Oriole Park IV or (the name more commonly used by baseball historians) Oriole Park V.

It seated about 14,000, with shape similar to many ballparks of the time, with close foul poles and a distance center field: Left, 290; center, 450; right, 313. It began hosting night games in 1930, 5 years before the major leagues began doing so. The Orioles dominated the IL, winning 7 straight Pennants from 1919 to 1925, contributing some of the players who led the Philadelphia Athletics to AL Pennants in 1929, 1930 and 1931.

On the night of July 3, 1944, a fire, believed to have been a started by a discarded cigarette, burned the ballpark to the ground, destroying every object the team had on-site, including uniforms and trophies. Ballpark fires had been common in the wood era, but not since the advent of concrete and steel ballparks in 1909. But Oriole Park was built on the cheap, of wood. So the Orioles had to think fast.

A few blocks away at 33rd Street and Ellerslie Avenue, was the 70,000-seat Municipal Stadium. It was built for football, a horseshoe open at the south end. They put home plate in the northwest corner, giving themselves a short right field fence, and made do. Amazingly, they won the Pennant, and then beat the Louisville Colonels, Champions of the American Association, in the Junior World Series, attracting crowds of over 50,000, records for minor-league ball.

That caught the attention of the major leagues, who began to view Baltimore as a viable major league city again. It also caught the attention of the city government. In 1947, the Baltimore Colts began playing football there. In 1950, as the Orioles were winning another Pennant, the conversion of Municipal Stadium began. It was rebuilt, piece by piece, until it was a 48,000-seat (later 52,000-seat) horseshoe, open at the north end, with home plate at the south end, 309-foot poles leading to 380 feet to straightaway left and right, making it a pitchers' park. Renamed Memorial Stadium, it opened in 1954, and the team formerly known as the St. Louis Browns moved in.

Memorial Stadium would host the Colts as they won the NFL Championship in 1958, 1959, 1968 and 1970; and the Orioles as they won the American League Pennant in 1966, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1979 and 1983, including winning the World Series in 1966, 1970 and 1983.

But it didn't have modern amenities, and it didn't have enough office space for one major league sports team, let alone two. In 1984, team owner Robert Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis. In 1987, a deal was made to built a new baseball stadium in the city's Inner Harbor neighborhood. Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened for the 1992 season. In 1996, the Baltimore Ravens began play at Memorial Stadium. In 1998, they moved to what's now M&T Bank Stadium, across the street from the successor to the old Oriole Parks.

Memorial Stadium was demolished in 2002, with the site having hosted football for 76 seasons, and baseball for 48 seasons. Senior citizen housing was built on the site. It is still fondly remembered. Few people are alive today to remember even the last of the old Oriole Parks. Housing and/or retail are on the site of all of them.

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July 3, 1944 was a Monday. Baseball was the only sport in season at the time, and no games were scheduled for this date.