Prominent Marylanders offer their suggestions for naming the new ballpark at Camden Yards:
BROOKS ROBINSON, Hall of Famer, former Orioles third baseman
"I haven't paid much attention, and I really don't care what they name it. I'm just happy they're building a new stadium because it's the only way to keep major-league baseball in Baltimore.
"But if we're picking a name . . . I'd rather have Camden Yards than Babe Ruth Stadium, which I don't see a lot of support for.
"Brooks Robinson Stadium? Great. I've been out there campaigning, which, you know, Babe Ruth can't do."
TAYLOR BRANCH, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
"I once made an imaginative suggestion to [Orioles principal owner] Mr. [Eli] Jacobs himself. I suggested it be called Chesapeake Park or Chesapeake Yard, on the theory that the Chesapeake is one of the qualities that gives this area its greatest resonance. He said he could guarantee the name would not have anything to do with Chesapeake. He said he wanted something simple. My guess is Oriole Park."
ALLAN PRELL, Radio talk show host
"Prell-Ko Stadium . . . because [the ballpark] is a symbol of greed and desire, qualities that Prell-Ko has been so closely identified with. Every time the games are broadcast nationally, I'd get millions of dollars of free advertising."
JEROLD HOFFBERGER, former Orioles owner
"Memorial Stadium. That was the name put up to memorialize all Marylanders who served and who will serve in all wars. . . . I really don't see Camden Yards. It's not Camden Yards. That was a railroad station."
DAVID ZINMAN, conductor, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
"First, what I think it will be -- Schaefer Stadium. If everyone has their wits about them, it must be that. The governor has been so instrumental in seeing that it happens.
"What I'd like -- Beethoven Stadium. There are no sports parks named after composers. Not one in the world. Baltimore, a center of great culture and art, should be at the vanguard of this."
SCOTT McGREGOR, former Orioles pitcher
"What's wrong with Memorial Stadium? I kind of like that because it worked well for me."
PAM SHRIVER, tennis player
"Oriole Park, since we're basically building it for the Orioles. And because it's a very non-political name. . . . Then we could honor politicians and other people by naming parts of the stadium for them. For instance, the scoreboard could be named for Brooks Robinson or a certain deck in the stands could be the William Donald Schaefer deck. There's a stadium in Australia where they do that -- not a bad idea."
