base and actually try to build the franchise back from its tattered two decades of despair and disrepair.
The New York Yankees are in town for four games beginning with tonight’s re-coronation of the modern day Baltimore Orioles living legend. Cal Ripken will get a monument tonight and all fans of the franchise will have their eyes (and bodies) attached to Camden Yards and the place will have electricity.
It almost makes the hairs on my neck stand up, especially considering what we’ve all been through as Baltimore Orioles fans.
I have two tickets for tonight’s game. After 21 years of having a press credential – and six years of banishment from the “free media” – I’ll be tweeting every pitch from the centerfield bar for tens of thousands of people while observing what should have never left Baltimore – real “Orioles Magic.”
It’s “magic” because it will involve the community and bring the city together.
The last time we had a community moment was the day Cal Ripken was on the hill in Cooperstown. That was 2007. Before that, it was the wild Opening Night in 2004 when Pedro Martinez got crushed by the Camden Yards fans’ chants of “Whose Your Daddy?”
It was the one time a true football crowd broke out at a baseball game since 33rd Street.
All the D.C. fans drinking wine and reading The Washington Post are now gone.
At some point, Peter Angelos will be gone as well.
At some point, real Orioles Magic will return for good and the club will be fully embraced again by the community at large.
I’m not sure where this crazy orange ride will end. But for one night (and perhaps one full weekend), the Baltimore Orioles will illuminate the downtown area with playoff-race baseball and a weekend to remember. If it goes well, this could last all month.
I’m hoping that these September games with impact are a little more frequent than the cicadas.
I hope it ends with a parade.
The magic begins at 7:05 p.m. The Cal Ripken statue kicks it off at 5:15 p.m.
I’ll be Tweeting my thoughts all evening from Camden Yards. I hope you follow along.
BUCKle up…
