Ballpark - by Peter Richmond (Paperback)

About the Book

In this lively chronicle of the creation of the Baltimore Orioles' new stadium, Richmond interweaves baseball history and hardball politics, architecture and the structure ot sports in the '90s to tell a tale as filled with tussles, turmoil, and triumphs as baseball itself.

Book Synopsis

Named one of the "Ten Best Sports Books" by The Sporting News, Ballpark is the compelling story of how Baltimore's magnificent Camden Yards ballpark was born, and the effects it has had on the city, the team, and the whole course of stadiumbuilding across the country. It's both an examination of the city's psyche and a close look behind the scenes at our national pastime. This is a quintessentially American story of progress, movement, change, triumph, and of an eternal renewal of hope.

Review Quotes

Allen Barra The New York Times Book Review An informative and entertaining account of how Camden Yards came into being. Who got the ball rolling, who picked it up and ran with it, and who dropped it are detailed in short, sharp sketches.

Bob Ryan Boston Globe An important work of scholarship that should be read by politicians, team officials and sportswriters alike, because the lessons contained therein are universal.

Daniel Okrent author of Nine Innings and Baseball Anecdotes Ballpark is a captivating book-the reporting terrific, the writing superb, the subject far more complex than its quiet title. Richmond has managed to combine baseball, architecture, politics, history, and a series of marvelous character studies into something nearly as grand as Camden Yards itself.

John Schulian Los Angeles Times Richmond masterfully dissects [the building of Camden Yards]...His irreverence is precisely what I should have expected from such a stylish, insightful sportswriter.

Jonathan Yardley Washington Post A subtle and revealing book about the making of Camden Yards...Clear-eyed, unsentimental and candid.

Mark Hyman Baltimore Sun Richmond is simply one of the most gifted sportswriters around. He could make a visit to an Eastern Shore sod farm into an exhilerating moment. And in this book, he has.

Robert Lipsyte columnist, The New York Times This savory biography of a place brims with the lives of real people: a dying power-broker, a slickfielding clubhouse lawyer, a steel-willed architect, whose passions for excellence reflect the game itself.

About the Author

Peter Richmond is a senior writer for Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine. He covered the national baseball scene as a sports feature writer -- briefly -- for The National Sports Daily. A veteran of the sports staffs of The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, The San Diego Union, and The New Haven Register, he was awarded a Nieman Fellowship in journalism by Harvard College for the academic year of 1988-89. His work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, New England Monthly, and Glamour.