Cal Ripken Jr. stood on the site of old Memorial Stadium, near home plate, and peered at the pile of construction dirt about 60 feet away.
The heap stood 40 feet high.
Ripken shook his head in mock surprise.
"It's been a while since I was here, but I don't remember the mound being that tall -- except when [the Seattle Mariners'] Randy Johnson pitched," the Orioles' Hall of Famer said.
Groundbreaking ceremonies were held Wednesday for a youth development park being built on the spot on East 33rd Street where the Orioles and Colts once played to millions of fans. The $1.5 million project, spurred by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, will have synthetic turf, dugouts and a touch of historic relevance. Home plate will be right where it used to be.
Gov. Martin O'Malley called the locale "sacred soil" and thanked the Ripken Foundation for spearheading the project, which is to be completed in November.
"For a long time, this site has been a source of worry and angst, a place where Brooks Robinson and Ripken and so many other greats once played," O'Malley said. "It'll be nice to have the holy ground restored."
Ripken called the project "a no-brainer" and said it would "capture the spirit" of his father, whose career as Orioles coach, manager and minor league player spanned 36 years. Cal Sr. died in 1999.
"You want to bring tribute to Memorial Stadium, and this is the perfect way to celebrate it," Ripken said. "The wrecking ball was a temporary sting. Baseball was played here at its highest level, but now it can be played at its early stages -- and that's the part that would make Dad, who taught life lessons through sports, most proud."
Robinson, 73, the Orioles' Hall of Fame third baseman, took part in the ceremony, grabbing hard hat and shovel to hoist a spadeful of earth alongside Ripken, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and others.
Robinson played 23 years at Memorial Stadium and recalled the sadness he felt in 2001 when the place was torn down. Memorial Stadium opened in 1954 and had replaced earlier ballparks that stood on the site since the 1920s.
"Memorial Stadium was a white elephant from the day it was born, with obstructed seats and those monstrous poles, but people still miss it," Robinson said. "The last game played there [in 1991], John Unitas and I threw out the first pitch -- mine was a baseball, his a football. That was painful, but I've gotten over it. And I think it's very apropos to build a replica here. It's nice to break ground today and, now, to watch it grow. This will be a field of dreams."
The park, one of three that the Ripkens hope to build in Baltimore in the next 21/2 years, will have a retractable mesh fence allowing it to be used for football, soccer, lacrosse and softball, said Steve Salem, executive director of the Ripken Foundation. Its baseball dimensions are 190 feet to right field, 245 to center and 200 to left.
"We tried to do it to scale for Memorial Stadium, but we had to tweak some things," Salem said. Builders scrapped plans to use the original lettering from the old ballpark, he said. "Those letters were too big and too heavy -- 13 feet high and made of steel," Salem said. "We thought of melting down the letters and making them smaller, but that idea was too expensive."
Those letters remain in storage.
Memorial Stadium was dedicated to America's war dead. The legacy of the new ballpark could be limitless, said Bill Ripken, Cal's brother and former Orioles second baseman.
"Dad taught myself and Cal so much more than baseball while on the field," said Bill Ripken, co-founder of the foundation. "If we can get these kids out here, show them that we care and give them a place to learn, then the only way they can go is up. We're not trying to build major league baseball players or National Football League Players at this site of Memorial Stadium. We're just trying to give kids a chance."
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