Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 5, 1994< TAG: 9404050077
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BALTIMORE, MD. LENGTH: Medium
Must have overslept and somehow missed a day.
Not a chance this was major-league baseball's Opening Day at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Can't be.
No denying there was a pile of people here. But when it comes to baseball in this sporting temple, there always are almost as many customers as there are fire-in-the-mouth crustaceans at one of the local crab houses. Fifty-three straight Camden Yards sellouts and counting.
No kidding, though. This was Opening Day, it said so right there on that 12-story scoreboard in center field. "Welcome to Opening Day," quoth the lights.
How can it be? Breathtakingly beautiful weather, enough to bring a joyful tear to the eye of any newly escaped prisoner of snow and ice - in Baltimore? On Opening Day?
Isn't it supposed to be about 38 degrees, with a chill fog blowing in off the water? Like last year? Like most years?
"A cold one it was last year," said one of the stadium ushers, whose orange and white bow-tie and cap ensembles make them look like gas station attendants of yesteryear. "But we overcame."
Monday, there was nothing to overcome but your own euphoria.
"This is as happy as you can possibly be," chirped a particularly well-appointed young woman as she sashayed through the gate at Eutaw Street on the arm of her equally well turned-out escort.
Easy for her to say. She had a ticket, unlike the gauntlet of pleaders and bargainers who lined every footpath into the ballpark hours before game time.
One fellow's approach was more effective than most if for no other reason than he stood out because of an unusual sartorial juxtaposition of top hat and black leather motorcycle jacket.
Turning back his head in the best tradition of hog callers, auctioneers and all-purpose hollerers, he bellowed to the blue heavens: "O-o-o-ri-o-o-les! Need a ticket!"
Among the throng was former Oriole Mike Boddicker, who mingled with the rest of walk-up crowd at one of the gates a couple of hours before the game was to start.
"Hey, that's Mike Boddicker," one helpful sort announced loudly. "Get your autographs while you can."
Boddicker may have resented this intrusion on a right arm that has known happier tasks, but sign away he did with nary a complaint.
By and by, Boddicker was honored on the field along with former O's Bob Turley, Brooks Robinson and Mike Cuellar, who all had notable baseball achievements in years that ended, like this one, in the numeral "4." Boddicker was a 20-game winner - the Orioles' last - in 1984.
That was part of the usual ceremonials at home plate that led up to the wobbly first pitch by Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer.
The festivities were such that they delayed the first official act of Orioles starter Mike Mussina from its scheduled 3:05 p.m. arrival.
At precisely 3:17, the initial Orioles pitch of the 1994 season was delivered to Vince Coleman, the swift left-handed-hitting leadoff man for the Kansas City Royals.
It was a fastball, catching the outside corner of the plate for a strike.
The game proceeded briskly to a concluding 6-3 Baltimore victory. Mike Devereaux and new Orioles acquisition Rafael Palmeiro swatted home runs, Mussina allowing two hits over eight innings, and Lee Smith, another new guy, came on to put out a ninth-inning blaze with two pitches.
Later, Cal Ripken Jr., who was born an Oriole and has played 1,898 games in succession for them, discussed the whole first-day-of-the-season uproar. Surely you get over it after a while, he was asked?
Not quite, said he.
"It's the closest thing that baseball has to an event," he said. "Personally, I like to get the festivities out of the way and get into a routine."
Camden Yards was plenty festive Monday, and the sun didn't stop shining until it went into graceful retirement about time most folks in the old harborfront city were sitting down to supper.
by CNB