It was fifty degrees and drizzling, but Scott and I each had a seven dollar beer and toasted each other with “Happy summer!” So began our afternoon at Camden Yards for opening day. My mom and her special friend were along for the game, which was fun, even though the game wasn’t very good. I haven’t been to a baseball game with my mom since… it might have been a game at Memorial Stadium when I was wee little, although I think at some point when I was in high school we went to a Phillies game. Maybe.
Camden Yards is still beautiful, and I wither a little just thinking of seventy-five percent of the seats sitting empty by mid-season. I don’t think that Peter Angelos is actually satan, but the fact that he started his career with all sorts of good government type stuff and now won’t recognize the impact that empty seats have on the downtown economy and change course – it’s upsetting. The value of the team has tripled (or something like that) since he bought the franchise, so perhaps it’s time now to take a little franchise equity loan and rebuild. I can dream, can’t I?
Anyway, even with a losing game and lousy weather, it was a great day. Some of my earliest memories are tied to Orioles baseball – games at Memorial Stadium when my entire family had season tickets, Eddie Murray and his afro on first base, games on the radio at my grandmother’s house, visits by players to my grandfather and father’s dealership. Times have changed of course; I heard people boo the team (although, to be fair, I think they were only booing Aubrey Huff), and Scott was yelled at and called “the gayest guy in the stadium” for wearing an Eagles jacket. I don’t think Cal Ripken would endorse that kind of behavior. And it doesn’t make much sense, anyway. For one thing, Baltimore and Philly aren’t great rivals, and for another, it’s a totally different sport. And furthermore, not that anyone could have known this, but the only reason Scott wore the jacket was because it is warm and waterproof.
Still, I’ll go back for more games this Spring and Summer, no matter how much the team sucks, no matter how empty the stadium looks, and no matter how weird it is to look out on the field and not see Eddie Murray’s afro bursting out from under his cap. It’s still the Orioles, and if my grandmother were around, she would still be listening to every game on the radio and probably cursing Peter Angelos under her breath with every loss. It’s not the good old days, but it’s a beautiful place and I am looking forward to one day being in the stands at Camden Yards for some postseason game in the very near future, and looking back on the days when you couldn’t give away tickets after the all-star break. I can dream can’t I?
