- March 27, 2026
- By Annie Krakower
As a middle and high schooler, Jona Jancewicz ’27 remembers marveling at the beauty of Camden Yards, especially with the B&O Warehouse stretching behind the ballpark’s right-field wall. What he didn’t know was how that now-iconic landmark was initially a point of contention.
“It was not in good shape, so people wanted to take it down because it blocks the view of the harbor. There was a big fight over that,” he said. “But it stayed, and that decision is so key because when a lot of people think of Camden Yards, they think of that warehouse.”
It’s just one of many nuggets the University of Maryland journalism major discovered when working on “Creating Camden Yards,” a five-part oral history and multimedia project exploring the politics, construction and impact of the Baltimore Orioles’ stadium, which inspired similar retro-classic, intimate ballpark concepts around the country. Developed by two dozen students at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism’s Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism over two semesters, the project was widely released Thursday to coincide with MLB’s Opening Day.
“Every student involved in this project was researching, interviewing, listening, writing and reporting,” said Mark Hyman, George Solomon Endowed Chair in Sports Journalism and director of the Povich Center. “Those are the tools you that you need in your toolbox to succeed as journalists.”
The project started as part of Hyman’s Spring 2025 sports capstone class after a group of former aides to William Donald Schaefer, Maryland’s governor during Camden Yards’ 1992 opening, as well as former stadium and Orioles officials, reached out to him for advice on preserving the stadium’s history. Hyman, a Baltimore Sun reporter in the 1980s and ’90s, had covered the park’s debut; he joined retired UMD journalism Professor Sandy Banisky, who had covered the political side of the story for The Sun, to lead the effort.
Student teams set to work researching ballpark history, urban planning, stadium architecture and Maryland politics. Besides scouring photo and video archives from the Orioles and local news organizations, they conducted more than 60 interviews with stakeholders ranging from Orioles owner David Rubenstein to Camden Yards principal architect Joe Spear to players on the roster for the park’s first game, including Ben McDonald, Rick Sutcliffe and Joe Orsulak.
“Doing all these interviews was the highlight for me—getting their perspectives and getting their stories out there,” Jancewicz said.
That resulted in five sections on the project website covering the aging Memorial Stadium, Camden Yards’ predecessor; the impact of the Colts’ exit from Baltimore; the governor’s persuasion game to keep the O’s in town; planning a modern ballpark with “old charm;” and its ultimately influential opening. Besides videos, the acts also include historical photos, galleries, pull quotes and student-written articles with additional context.
Rubenstein himself praised the final product on X: “Happy to share this incredible history of @Orioles Camden Yards produced by the students and faculty of the @UofMaryland’s Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism. Great job!”
But the project is for more than just the Orioles faithful, Jancewicz said.
“Camden Yards touches a lot of things that are relevant to sports fans today. There’s a big boom of creating new ballparks and stadiums all across the country,” he said. “Camden Yards did it in a way that’s gonna last forever, and I think that’s what people want for all their teams.”