M&T Stadium where the Ravens play is right across the parking lot.
The long thin building beyond right field is the old B&O Railroad warehouse – now house the Orioles offices.
Russell Street entrance.
View from Section 364 on Inaugural Opening Day in 1992.
My old next-door neighbor Joe Kleban heads to our seats.
From the top deck behind home plate.
The old B&O Railroad warehouse is the backdrop in right field. If you break a window hitting a home run they’ll put your name on the wall. It’s never happened in a regular season game, but Frank Thomas of the White Sox did it during the Home Run Derby before the All-Star game.
Down the third base line.
Jason Varitek takes a strike from Dave Bronkowski in 2004.
David Ortiz homers off Buddy Ryan in 2004. Sox were down 4-0, with two outs in the 9th. Ramirez followed with a called third strike. O’s won 4-1 in a game that lasted only two hours.
Damian Moss in his first start for the Orioles. He was part of the Sidney Ponson trade with the Giants.
View from the Orioles bullpen. The visitor’s bullpen is right behind it, but raised about 6 feet.
Jay Gibbons homers v. Twins in Summer 2003
Former O’s 1st baseman Boog Powell runs Boog’s BBQ in the right field concourse. He’s frequently hand to sign autographs.
Note the price of an Opening Day ticket in 1992.
First game: Opening Day, April 6, 1992. We drove down to Baltimore and stayed with my old Mix 106.5 boss Bob Lind and family. Bob got excellent Club seats and invited me to join him, but I had earlier agreed to go with my old next-door neighbor, Joe Kleban. Joe and I sat in Section 384, upper deck in left field. But we were in the house for the Inaugural Game. President George HW Bush threw out the first pitch and the Navy Thunderbirds did a thunderous flyover. Rick Sutcliffe threw a 2-0 shutout against the Indians.
I’ve been to at least one game every year since – usually with Rhody Bosley, Marc Greenspan, and Charlie Sislen of The Research Director, based in Annapolis. Twelve years later I finally saw the Red Sox play there in the curse-breaking year 2004. The O’s beat Curt Schilling 4-1. Very quick game (2:06). I called in to “Orioles Talk” on WBAL on the way to the hotel and everyone was talking about how many fans had Red Sox hats, shirts, etc.
One woman who called in ahead of me was asking why Orioles fans would boo their own player and the hosts didn’t seem to know the answer. She was referring to Karim Garcia, who the Orioles just had just picked up at the waiver deadline three weeks earlier. Garcia was the Yankees right fielder who jumped into the Yankees bullpen at Fenway Park, Bostonto beat up a groundskeeper. (The groundskeeper might well have been sitting there in the bullpen chanting “Yankees suck” at the time). Anyway, I explained to the WBAL hosts and audience that the Karim booing was from all those Red Sox fans and it was because of what he did in Boston as a Yankee.
Memorable game: Wednesday, August 22, 2007. This ticket is from the biggest blowout in the history of Major League Baseball. The starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers was Kason Gabbard. The left fielder was David Murphy. Both had just been traded to Texas by the Red Sox in exchange for Eric Gagne. A truly horrible trade on Boston’s part. Texas was trailing 3-1 after three innings, but by the time they took Gabbard out in the 7th he had a 14-run lead. Murphy wound up going 5 for 7 with two RBI’s and five runs scored. When the Texas lead got to 24 runs everyone was cheering for the Rangers to hit the big 3-0. Which they did. The final score was 30-3.
The previous record for worst drubbing was in 1947 when the Red Sox beat the St. Louis Browns (who became the Orioles in 1954), 29-7.
Another side note: 10 days later I saw the Orioles again at Fenway Park. A Red Sox rookie named Clay Buchholz threw a no-hitter at them.
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