Oriole Park - Terrapin Park / Oriole Park

Terrapin Park / Oriole Park

The last and by far the best known Oriole Park prior to Camden Yards started in life as Terrapin Park. It was the home field of the Baltimore Terrapins of the short-lived Federal League of 1914–1915. Some of the Fed facilities, such as the eventual Wrigley Field, were made of steel and concrete, but Terrapin Park was made of wood, a fact that would prove to be its undoing and ironically boost Baltimore's chances of returning to the major leagues.

Terrapin Park was built on a lopsided block bounded by 10th Street (later 29th), York Road (later Greenmount), 11th Street (later 30th) and the angling Vineyard Lane. That is, it was directly across the street, to the north, from the existing Oriole Park. Presumably that did not sit well with the Orioles, but the minor league club survived the challenge. The Fed only lasted two seasons, and the Orioles acquired the newer park in 1916 and renamed it Oriole Park, now retroactively labeled Oriole Park V.

Following the demise of the Fed, the Baltimore baseball interests became a primary party in an antitrust suit filed against Major League Baseball. This resulted in the famous Supreme Court decision, in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, that exempted baseball from antitrust laws, a ruling that still stands. That fact is out of scope of this discussion except to point out that Baltimore had been spurned by the big leagues yet again.

Terrapin / Oriole Park was located at 39°19′26″N 76°36′40″W / 39.32389°N 76.61111°W / 39.32389; -76.61111.