A Tip of the Cap to William Donald Schaefer
by Dave Tucker on Apr 19, 2011 2:36 PM EDT
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PrintAs Oriole fans all over Birdland discuss how a promising 6-1 start has quickly turned into an August-esque eight game losing streak, we should all take time to remember former Baltimore mayor and Maryland governor William Donald Schaefer, who passed away last evening at the age of 89.
While the Orioles are in the midst of 13-straight losing seasons, we've at least been able to watch them falter in what is arguable one of the best and most influential baseball stadiums in the U.S. and we have Schaefer to thank for that.
After the Colts slithered away to Indy in 1984, which was fueled mainly by the issue of the city not wanting to build a new stadium to replace what was becoming an outdated and inadequate Memorial Stadium, there were fears that the Orioles could do the same thing if a new stadium wasn't built. Feeling personally responsible for the loss of the Colts, even thought he himself wasn't a football fan, Schaefer was determined to not let history repeat itself with the Orioles.
Knowing the impact a new baseball stadium could provide as the cornerstone for additional downtown revitalization, Schaefer worked tirelessly to get Oriole Park at Camden Yards built in a time when cities weren't exactly running out and building publicly financed stadiums for their sports teams. Schaefer knew the great economic impact a new stadium could have on the city and also knew that if the city wanted to get another NFL team, the Orioles and that team of the future needed their own separate stadiums.
Finally, the decision was made to build the Orioles their own stadium. But this wasn't going to be just another cookie-cutter, concrete donate stadium that the 70s and 80s were known for. Rather, the stadium would have a retro and open feel, embracing the historic brick architecture of Baltimore and blending into and revitalizing the Camden Yards train depot area. The result was miraculous - an old school feel with a new twist, embracing the old and making it new, all while breathing new life into what was previously a lifeless area. The only problem was - what to name it? Schaefer, now governor, wanted to call it Camden Yards, honoring the old B&O warehouse and train history that the site possessed. Then Orioles owner Eli Jacobs wanted it to be called Oriole Park. The two agreed to combine the names, which is how Oriole Park at Camden Yards was born.
When the stadium opened its gates for the first time in 1992, it received rave reviews and breathed new life into the Orioles' fan base. Games were constantly sold out and everyone across the U.S. wanted to see the new stadium in Baltimore that everyone was talking about. Schaefer has achieved his goal - build the Orioles and new stadium and keep them playing in Baltimore and revitalize yet another downtown area, providing a big economic boom to the city of Baltimore. But Oriole Park did more than that - it also inspired a new ballpark frenzy across the U.S., as cities tried to replicate the model Baltimore followed to breath more life into both their teams and their downtowns.
So despite the recent lack of on the field productivity by the Orioles, at least we still get to watch them play in what remains one of the best stadiums in the U.S. - one that inspired a baseball stadium renaissance across the country that continues today. And for that, we should tip our cap to William Donald Schaefer. Whether or not you agreed with his political ideology, you knew he wanted the best for Baltimore and the State of Maryland. And I'm reminded of that every time I walk onto Eutaw Street and look around at the awesomeness that is Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
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Nice.
It also bears mentioning that downtown as we know it owes it’s existence to Schaefer.
The Aquarium, the Convention Center, Harborplace (and, by extension Power Plant), OP@CY (and because of that Pickles & Sliders as well as Ravens Stadium), the continued discussion of a soccer stadium… hell, Harbor East wouldn’t be there if Schaefer’s projects hadn’t been successful.
Can anyone else be said to have had more influence on Baltimore City development?
From the Land of Pleasant Living...
Nice article
Glad to see you come over here from Testudo Times, Dave
Back on the Sweed train. Choo Choo!
"It’s easy to lie with statistics, but it’s easier to lie without them." -Fred Mosteller
Thanks!
Yeah, us SBN MD blogs stick together. You, Duck, and several other CC folk frequent and comment over at TT a lot (which we appreciate, btw), and I try to do the same here. I hadn’t seen anything up yet on Schaefer, so I wrote this up.
This is a great post.
Schaefer was a larger than life figure. I probably heard as many crazy William Donald Schaefer stories from my dad growing up as I did old stories about the Orioles. As an Orioles fan, you really do have to appreciate the leadership that he showed in getting OPACY built. And you know it was a success because every subsequent baseball stadium tried to rip off parts or all of the design – and the ones that didn’t sucked.
"What the hell is a Baltimore knot?" "I don't know, but it's never the same thing twice." - The Wire
by Eat More Esskay on Apr 19, 2011 5:20 PM EDT reply actions
Willy Don
They broke the mold on that guy. When I was a kid, Schaeffer was Baltimore. He was as big a part of the city as the Orioles, who he always championed. I remember when he bet the Mayor of Philly a bushel of crabs for a basket full of cheesesteaks over the 1983 World Series and won.
There was a good documentary on Schaeffer that ran on Maryland Public Television a few years back – and I’m sure they must be running now. I think it was Ben Cardin who had bumped into Schaeffer who was sitting alone in a coffee shop downtown. It was after Harborplace had been built and Schaeffer had been proclaimed as hugely successful Mayor in the national press, but rather than basking in it, he was down in the dumps. Cardin asked him what was wrong – and Schaeffer replied “We’ve got nothing in the pipe. How are we going to grow if nobody’s building here, if nobody’s developing here?” And that was Schaeffer. He spent day and night worrying and sweating over the future of the city.
Fan-dabby-dozy.....tastic.....
Exactly what I would've said.
Willy Don was the first politician I was ever aware of as a kid, far more important to me growing up than distant figures like Reagan. There will never be another one like him.
"Might as well just win this game." - Adam Jones, 4/17/2008
Adam Jones is the tits.
by KenDixonFanClub on Apr 19, 2011 8:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks for posting JP
Willy Don was Baltimore when I was a kid too. I think he inspired the Carcetti in the Wire.
If you look at those UZR ratings or whatever
David Simon has cautioned against reading too much into Carcetti
While O’Malley was an influence, he claims a lot of other people influenced that character too and that you can miss the point if you look at it as just an attack on O’Malley.
I know, I know...
…but c’mon. Look at the guy. He’s O’Malley. But of course Simon steals from all over the place. That’s what The Wire is – a collage of local Baltimore stories. But it’s fairly obvious who Carcetti is. It’s super obvious who the Sheila Dixon character is. They don’t even disguise Tommy D. III.
Fan-dabby-dozy.....tastic.....
2nd paragraph after the jump:
But this was not going to be just another cookie-cutter, concrete donate stadium that the 70s and 80s were known for.
I think you missed a word’ there.
But a good article, typo notwithstanding. I was too young when the stadium was built to know anything about what when on, so thanks for the history.
You come at the king, you best not miss.
by organizedchaos52 on Apr 19, 2011 7:42 PM EDT reply actions
Thanks
Fixed. My sister called and told me that too.
by Dave Tucker on Apr 19, 2011 10:22 PM EDT up reply actions
Whatever His Faults
Even the people who hated him agreed: never a crooked bone in his body.
/Hope Hilda Mae has a fresh plate of crabcakes waiting for him.
One slight quibble
Whether or not you agreed with his political ideology, you knew he wanted the best for Baltimore andthe State ofCentral Maryland.
Dude didn’t give two shits about the Shore. And Rte. 50 was only improved so y’all could get to the beach faster.
"Complacency is your demise." - Kerry King
bullshit
that’s the fallout from one remark he made that got totally overblown. It’s no different that O’s fans not forgiving HUff for referring to Baltimore as a ‘horseshit’ town.
Eastern Shore people wear their distaste for Schaefer as a badge of honor. The actual fact is, restoring and cleaning the Chesapeake Bay was one of his highest priority projects. Everyone was afraid he would try to roll back all that Hughes had done—instead, he pushed everything forward and got the bay pollution cleaned up. If you look at the record, Bay environmental activists held him in high regard, and without a cleaned-up Bay, many Eastern Shore livelihoods would have disappeared.
"I put a pepper rub on the scallops so you have a little contrast. You have sweetness from the coconut oil and a little acidity from the splash of lemon." – Luke Scott
Bet he didn't call YOUR hometown a "shithouse," did he?
And he totally fucking meant it.
It could be argued that all the environmental good he did was completely wiped out by the expansion of Rte 50 and the wetlands that were destroyed building 3 new fly-over bridges (Kent Narrows, Cambridge, and Vienna) and 2 new bypasses (Easton & Salisbury) that destroyed THIOUSANDS of acres of wetlands.
"Complacency is your demise." - Kerry King
re: shithouse
that’s the one remark i referred to in my first sentence above.
and you can argue all you want about how much overall impact he made and whether the expansion route 50 hurt or helped the region (or as may would probably suggest, both). reasonable minds can disagree about this stuff.
what you cannot do is casually state that he didn’t give two shits about the shore and/or only cared about “central” maryland and not expect to get called on it—because that’s a whitewashing of what really happened. especially since you’re overlooking western maryland in that remark as well, an area where he is absolutely championed for keeping kelly-springfield from moving their headquarters after their plant was shut down, among other things.
"I put a pepper rub on the scallops so you have a little contrast. You have sweetness from the coconut oil and a little acidity from the splash of lemon." – Luke Scott
I'm noting a lack of specific examples of actions taken by Schaefer
that benefited the Shore.
"Complacency is your demise." - Kerry King
Schaeffer heralded a favorable business climate for the expansion of Frank Perdue enterprises.
leading to numerous local jobs not to mention the outright commoditization of the chicken at a scale never before seen. This advancement would make it possible to feed generations cheap and unhealthy food. In addition the eastern shore would become a leading laboratory for biotech as well as large scale waste production for the burgeoning industrial livestock movement.
I was all ready to start slamming this after the first two sentences
i’m glad it took a turn and you took care of it for me.
I always thought that Schaefer just meant that place was a bird-Shithouse
because jobs (minimum wage or otherwise) at any cost is what is important. Externalities be damned.
have you tried...
…the Perdue Oven Stuffer Roasters? they might change your mind…
Fan-dabby-dozy.....tastic.....
by Jonny Pops on Apr 23, 2011 12:21 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I mean honestly though...
…how many beneficial actions are you going to get from anyone? There’s not that many people over there. Not that many votes over there. Not that much money over there. The majority of people that are there vote against the dominant political party in the state as though their lives depend on it. You think some Democrat from Central Maryland is going to say “Thanks for nothing and here’s the keys to candy store.”? Same thing goes for Western Maryland.
Fan-dabby-dozy.....tastic.....
During Schaefer's time as Gov.,
The Eastern Shore voted overwhelmingly Democratic. Aside from one State Senator (Lewis Riley from duck’s neck of the woods) who ran unopposed in ‘86 & ’90, the rest of the Shore was represented by Dems. Now, there are of course different degrees of Democrat, and those from the Shore certainly did not represent the same policy objectives as those from Central MD. But, nonetheless the Shore was a Democratic stronghold and Schaefer essentially flipped us the proverbial bird.
Now, I was but a wee tyke when Schaefer was Gov, so I don’t know what type of cooperation (or lack thereof) he received from the delegation representing the Shore ( I remember hearing my parents joke about St. Sen. Walter Baker ((36th district) wanting to secede from MD in order to form a new state), but they were of the same party.
Why the Buck not?!?
by PBR me ASAP! on Apr 22, 2011 8:39 PM EDT up reply actions
Okay...
…but if this is following the trend I think it’s following, what you had back then were what we used to call Dixie-crats. Those have all flipped Republican, across the entire South. Your point holds that it wasn’t the way people voted that put Schaefer off to them. But nonetheless there were still not many people, not many votes and not much money on the Eastern Shore back then. Same as now. That’s a hard sell to any politician.
Central Maryland politicians can’t sell their own constiuents on fixing up Baltimore City. Convincing them it’s a good idea to float Central MD money across the Bay to bring the Eastern Shore into the Northeast Megalopolis is mission impossible.
Fan-dabby-dozy.....tastic.....
re:
Cities weren’t running out and building publicly financed stadiums because taxpayers and politicians questioned the economic return. It’s still a good question as to what benefit the local taxpayer receives after carrying the burden of construction for a multi-billion dollar industry. The earlier round of multi-purpose stadium construction, in the 60’s and 70’s, was generally tied more closely to associated business development. The next wave of construction in the 80’s was less tied to a city’s economic development and geared towards single sport stadiums located in the wealthier and/or more accessible suburbs.
EBW drove a very favorable profit sharing agreement as a tenant. EBW shielded the Orioles from escalating constructions costs and subsequent maintenance, and construction costs did rapidly escalate because the stadium was built in the most expensive option presented by a local sports commission. Lansdowne and BWI areas were ranked ahead of Baltimore, but Schaefer made sure the stadium was built where it is. The Orioles shared stadium profits with the Stadium Authority. Baltimore civic leaders rushed into the deals because of the experience with the Colts and EBW’s declining health.
Bottom line is, it’s not so crystal clear that the stadium deal was best for the city. It surely was for the city’s sports psyche, but Baltimore has much deeper problems.
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