Tuesday, July 11, 2017

World Champions 1983, 1970, 1966 American League Champions 1983, 1979, 1971, 1970, 1969, 1966 American League East Division Champions 2014, 1997, 1983, 1979, 1974, 1973, 1971, 1970, 1969 American League Wild Card 2016, 2012, 1996 Tuesday, July 11, 2017 Columns: So near and yet so far: Camden Yards warehouse an inviting target, just not within striking distance The Sun 7/11 Orioles' Chris Davis doubles for Frederick in his first rehab outing The Sun 7/10 Schoop at ASG: Tonight at 7:30 ET on FOX MLB.com 7/11 Bullpen set up nicely for Orioles MASNsports.com 7/11 Quick update on Chris Davis MASNsports.com 7/10 Outfielder Austin Hays moved up to Double-A and didn’t miss a beat MASNsports.com 7/11 Jonathan Schoop has his bobblehead in Miami and it’s adorable CSN Mid-Atlantic 7/10 Orioles' First-Half Recap: Five Things That Went Wrong PressBoxOnline.com 7/10 The six biggest storylines of the Orioles’ first half — and what happens with each one now BaltimoreBaseball.com 7/11 O What A Star BaseballEBM.com 7/11 Manny Machado's Drive, Miami's '305 Boys' Turned Hungry Child into $400M Man Bleacher Report 7/10 http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-camden-yards-warehouse-0711- story.html So near and yet so far: Camden Yards warehouse an inviting target, just not within striking distance By Eduardo A. Encina / The Baltimore Sun July 11, 2017 Of all the unique nuances that still make Oriole Park at Camden Yards the standard-bearer of the retro ballparks that followed, it is the old B&O railroad warehouse beyond the right-field wall that is the most iconic feature of Baltimore’s crown jewel. To any left-handed hitter, whether it’s an Orioles player or an opponent, the eight-story brick structure that spans 1,116 feet along Eutaw Street — making it the longest brick building east of the Mississippi River — beckons. From the field, the girth of the building makes it seem like a reasonable target, and when the ballpark opened in 1992, the windows on the first three floors were installed with shatterproof glass because of a concern from the Maryland Stadium Authority that home runs would hit off the warehouse regularly. But as Camden Yards celebrates its 25th anniversary this season, only one ball has ever hit on the fly, when Ken Griffey, Jr. reached the building during the All-Star Game Home Run Derby with a blast estimated at 465 feet 24 years ago Tuesday. That is the only batted ball to touch the warehouse, and through more than 2,000 games at Camden Yards, no hitter has ever reached the building in a game, creating a kind of mythical nature to the ballpark's most recognizable feature. Griffey's blast is marked by a plaque. Many have come close in games. Ninety-one home run balls have landed on Eutaw Street, the 60-foot-wide in-park concourse beyond the right-field flag court, and some of those balls have hit the warehouse on a bounce. And while the warehouse can be reached down the right-field line at just 439 feet — a length that is often hit by today's standards — it has yet to take a ball on the fly in a game. Going into this season, Montreal Expos outfielder Henry Rodriguez owns the farthest Eutaw Street blast, hitting a ball 443 feet in 1997, but the blast didn’t come close to hitting the warehouse because it was hit to right-center field. The perfect shot toward the warehouse would be down the line, and Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons came close in 2003 with a ball that hugged the foul pole against the Philadelphia Phillies with an estimated 420-foot blast. The Houston Astros’ Lance Berkman and Kansas City Royals’ Alex Gordon also came close, hitting home runs of 430 and 425 feet, respectively, within two weeks of each other in 2008, and if their balls were just slightly more toward the line, they might have had the best chances of hitting the warehouse. Janet Marie Smith, the Orioles’ architect responsible for making the team’s vision for Camden Yards come to life, said that while the warehouse played a key role in laying out the asymmetrical dimensions that team president Larry Lucchino wanted for the ballpark while also meeting then-manager Frank Robinson’s desire for the park to play fair, the warehouse more served as the vehicle for the novelty of the Eutaw Street concourse as a landing spot for home runs rather than be any intended target itself. “One of the questions was how big should the bleacher section and the flag court over the right- field wall be because we wanted there to be enough home runs to be hit onto Eutaw Street, where it would be a novelty and exciting, but not so many that it was an everyday occurrence. So to tell you the truth, it was more about how the ball landed on the street that we were fixated on and less so whether the warehouse was a target. But in setting the dimensions as we did, with the 50- foot-wide Eutaw Street and the flag court being another possibly 50-feet wide, there was a concern that the Maryland Stadium Authority had that the warehouse could be hit and if it could be hit that those offices on the lowers floors could be vulnerable.” Still, over the years, it hasn’t stopped hitters from taking aim — with all but Griffey falling short. “You think about that warehouse staring at you,” said former major leaguer and current MLB Network studio analyst Cliff Floyd, who played in the American League East with the Boston Red Sox in 2002 and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008. “And trust me, many times in batting practice, even though I didn’t play a lot in the American League, we all tried to hit that damn thing and never did. It wasn’t like you weren’t trying, but it was one of those things where you’re like, ‘Eh, I’m probably not going to hit it unless I one-hop it. From home plate, a lot of guys probably think they have a chance, but when you go back there and walk through the street, you see the distance between the right-field wall and the building.” Orioles first baseman Chris Davis’ 10 homers onto Eutaw Street are the most for any player, and Davis has long been intrigued by the warehouse, so much so that he’s visited Eutaw Street several times to look at the markers designating the homers hit there and their distances. “My first couple of [full] seasons here, I hit quite a few homers onto Eutaw Street,” Davis said. “And I didn’t pay that much attention to it until I’d say about halfway through the year in 2013 because I had hit some balls up to that point that I thought, ‘Man, that’s got to be all over it.’ … I started getting more and more curious about where these balls were landing, whether they were even close. So I decided one afternoon to go up there as close to game time as I could. We’re talking around 4 o’clock, and I just got up there and just walked around and looked at some of the markers.” Davis noticed a steady breeze along Eutaw Street the first time he went to look at the markers. He didn’t know whether it was just that day, but on other occasions there still always seemed to be a steady breeze blowing off the warehouse. When the dimensions of Camden Yards were being laid out, studies were done to gauge the warehouse’s impact on the wind to ensure it wouldn’t significantly affect play, Smith said. “In the whole course of trying to set the field dimensions, there was a lot of speculation about whether we should make it a little further than you think it ought to be to account for what the wind might do or is it going to hit the warehouse and bounce back, so should it be a little closer?” Smith said. “At the end of the day, you do the best you can and I think it feels like it’s a pretty comfortable set of dimensions.” A glance at the two oriole bird weather vanes placed on opposite sides of the top of the center- field scoreboard give a clue that there is a wind blowing in along the warehouse, Smith said. “You know there’s an impact,” Smith said. “The one closest to the warehouse is always kicking in a little … And that would indicate it’s true that there is wind coming through Eutaw Street hitting the warehouse and bouncing back in a different way than the way it swirls around the rest of the park.” Though Davis’ power is more naturally toward the middle of the field, he said he’s seen balls he’s hit toward the flag court drift toward right-center field. “There have been a few balls that I’ve hit to straightaway right field that you can kind of see as they’re falling,” Davis said. “I wouldn’t say they’re being blown with that force, but just being guided that way. The tough thing about it for me is that most of the balls I’ve hit really far are right-center, center field, left-center, so I’ve always been a guy who’s had more power to the middle of the field than down the lines.

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