Fire
This Oriole Park was the club's home for the next 28½ seasons. The team enjoyed great success, especially in the early 1920s when the Orioles won seven consecutive International League pennants. Great care was always taken to protect the aging wooden structure, such as hosing it down after games. But on the night of July 3, 1944, the old park's luck ran out. A fire of uncertain origin (speculated to have been a discarded cigarette) totally consumed the old ballpark and everything the team owned.
The suddenly homeless club took refuge in Municipal Stadium, the city's football field. Literally rising from the ashes, in heroic fashion, the Orioles went on to win the International League championship that year, and also the Junior World Series over Louisville of the American Association. The large post-season crowds at Municipal Stadium, which would not have been possible at Oriole Park, caught the attention of the major leagues, and Baltimore suddenly became a viable option for teams looking to move. Had the fire not happened, Baltimore's baseball saga may well have turned out quite differently than it has.
Spurred by the Orioles' success, the city chose to rebuild Municipal Stadium as a multi-purpose facility of major league caliber, which they renamed Memorial Stadium. Baltimore, which had seemed to get "no respect" time after time in the past, finally became big league again in 1954, this time for many years to come.
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Famous quotes containing the word fire:
“For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases. As charcoal is to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome person for kindling strife.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Proverbs 26:20-21.
“In England if something goes wrong—say, if one finds a skunk in the garden—he writes to the family solicitor, who proceeds to take the proper measures; whereas in America, you telephone the fire department. Each satisfies a characteristic need; in the English, love of order and legalistic procedure; and here in America, what you like is something vivid, and red, and swift.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947)
“The day’s at end and there’s nowhere to go,
Draw to the fire, even this fire is dying;
Get up and once again politely lying
Invite the ladies toward the mistletoe....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)