Former Orioles all-star shares hot take on Camden Yards' controversial dimension changes

During his time with the Baltimore Orioles, Ryan O'Hearn went from a mostly unknown waiver claim to a fan favorite role player to an all-star and then finally a deadline trade piece. That's quite a journey to take in a little under two seasons. Now O'Hearn is one of the veteran leaders on an upstart Pirates team with playoff aspirations for the first time in years. Although he's much more well-known than he was a couple of years ago, O'Hearn isn't exactly the kind of player who is "everywhere," so when clips from an interview that he did on Mookie Betts' podcast On Base got Orioles fans' attention.

Especially because the main clip that the podcast put out on social media to promote the podcast was O'Hearn talking about "The Great Wall of Baltimore". The one-minute clip that circulated on social media was basically the entire discussion on the podcast, so whether you only saw the clip or listened to the whole thing, the gist was the same.

O'Hearn and Betts were discussing big playoff moments, and O'Hearn lamented that he's only ever hit singles in the playoffs, but with the caveat that in 2024, he hit a ball to left field that would have been a homer anywhere else except for Baltimore, where the left field wall was moved back to an absurd degree from 2022 to 2024. Betts then asked if O'Hearn knew why they moved the wall back like that, and O'Hearn joked it was because the Yankees had too many right-handed power bats.

It was a joke, but like a lot of jokes, it contained some truth. In the years directly preceding the wall being moved, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, and Giancarlo Stanton hit a ton of home runs at Camden Yards.

Ryan O'Hearn has not forgiven the "Great Wall of Baltimore"

Hearing O'Hearn say this was interesting because Orioles players outside of Trey Mancini, who declared he hated it, were pretty stoic about the wall being moved. If it bothered right-handed hitters like Ryan Mountcastle or Austin Hays, they didn't say too much about it. The fact that O'Hearn is letting loose what was probably an inside joke among the Orioles players gives a little bit of insight into how the wall being moved was talked about in the clubhouse.

Maybe more interesting than O'Hearn joking about the wall was the statement that Betts and O'Hearn agreed upon right after the joke. Betts said, "It didn't really work, did it?" and O'Hearn agreed.  

The wall has since moved back, so in the sense that the team had to give up on their crazy wall, you could argue it didn't work, but as far as helping the team win, it's almost inarguable that the wall gave the Orioles an advantage.

The Orioles' record in the three seasons leading up to the wall was 131-253.

The Orioles' record during the three seasons with the wall was 275-211.

The Orioles’ record in the season and a half since moving the wall back is 109-126.

The ridiculous wall era of the Baltimore Orioles was the modern golden age for a team that, outside of those three years, has had a dreadful decade of baseball.

Was "The Great Wall of Baltimore" dumb? Yes. Did it look ridiculous? Also yes. Did it lead to more exciting balls in play and triples? Not really. But the wall worked; the Orioles weak pitching staff benefited more from the wall than their offense, which was mostly left-handed hitters who were hurt by it.

As more time passes and the Orioles "Walltimore" era seems more like a flash in the pan than the start of a fantastic, sustained run of success, maybe it's time to start giving the wall more credit.

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