saturday before football

one week before the season begins....

so what do i do? finally make it to an Orioles game.

uh huh. baseball.

Okay, you have to know me a little better. I grew up a huge Orioles fan. It was always my dream to see an Orioles home game. So now, finally, I actually live in the area, and it's almost September before i get out there. I'm sure that has more to do with time, money, probably as much as anything not as much interest in baseball.

i mean, baseball's nice. it's got it's nostalgia and tradition factor and all that, and it meant the world to me to finally see Camden Yards, not sure how many times i walked around taking it all in. I remember as a kid taking the bus downtown in Lincoln because I heard that a sporting goods store there had an Orioles hat. What paper route profits that weren't already spent on pop, candy and baseball cards went into buying that hat, which was a huge treasure to me many years to come. That was because in those days, you just didn't see stuff from other teams around. There were maybe 3 or 4 Orioles games on TV all year, unless they made the playoffs. But those were the Earl Weaver/Jim Palmer/Boog Powell days when they were in the playoffs almost every year. All those mornings opening up the newspaper to look up the box score before starting my paper route all came back to me as i walked around that ball park. For that reason alone, I was in heaven.

Those were the days when it was rare to even get to listen to my favorite team on the radio. One team had radio coverage in Lincoln in those days, Kansas City. The few times the Orioles and Royals played, there was no way you were getting me away from the radio. I remember one night sitting up in my room, having been lucky enough to get permission to eat away from the dinner table, eating mom's homemade Runzas (great food if you've never had one) and making so much noise when Paul Blair hit a grand slam inside the park homerun. Even the KC announcers were excited about that one.

Maybe it's that today, it's too easy to get baseball. the rarity of it is lost. it just doesn't have quite the same appeal. but don't get me wrong, today was special. and some of the magic of the game came back when Ramon Hernandez came through with a 2-out single in the 9th to drive in the winning run.

So how does a midwest kid become a diehard Orioles fan, rather than the Twins, Royals or Cubs? I have to blame football. Particularly, Superbowl 5. I wasn't old enough to know anything yet about football but i had a quarter bet with my Dad, a Cowboys fan at the time. I don't remember a thing about it except the Colts won, I won a quarter... and I was to be forever more a Colts fan (which was a tough thing to be for a long, long time). So, when I got interested in baseball, well, a kid's gotta have a favorite team. And I was gaining an affinity for Baltimore cuz of the Colts (that really dates me, doesn't it?)... so it had to be the Orioles.

And then, in 1970, my 5th grade teacher assigned me to keep up a chart on the playoffs and the world series, which the Orioles won..... and I was clinched as an O's fan for life.

So, today was a great day. Finally!!! But i'm glad i got that out of the way, cuz i'm much more excited about next week. It's FOOTBALL TIME!!!!!