Baltimore Orioles opening day. I managed to talk my way into shooting this extravaganza because it's usually a alot of fun. There's lots of excitement about the O's this year with the addition of Sammy Sosa and I wanted to be on the field for his introduction. I picked what I thought would be the best spot to be when that happened and it would have been had not the visiting team's line of players creeped over to block my shot and everybody else's. Later I slinked into the stands and got a great shot of Sammy's sprint to right field for the first time. The crowd went nuts.

Here's Sammy signing autographs before the game. Yeah...it was nice and everything but it seemed so perfunctory. Sammy looked like he was on autopilot, placating the throng. He signed for 5 minutes and abruptly sprinted away. I did get some nice video though.
In batting practice Sammy hit a popup that carried out.
Camden Yards will be berry berry good to heem.

It's nice to be out on the field this day. Everything seems so fresh and alive again. And Camden Yards is truly a great place to watch baseball. I was here on opening day of this ballpark in 1992 as my station broadcast the game. Talk about a great seat...I was in the photog pit about 50 feet from the plate for the first pitch from Rick Sutcliffe. Earlier, to officially open the place, they cut a giant ribbon in center field and I was the cameraman at 2nd base shooting it. I looked in my viewfinder and then looked up at the JumboTron to see my shot being shown. I thought..."that's pretty damn cool." The whole city was looking at the shot that I saw as a little 2" black and white image in my viewfinder. I was in a still photo in the Baltimore Sun the next day. It was a wide shot. I was about a half a millimeter big. But I still kept it.

The players just barely tolerate the media throng. What is it about baseball players that so many of them seemed to be spoiled brats?
These guys are pampered from the day they get a scout to notice them and so many of them seem to think they are privileged. I don't get the same vibe from football players though.
The #1 prick I encountered has got to be Mike Mussina. What a pain in the ass he was. Good riddance.

This is our live setup outside the stadium and as always seems to happen, the game ended just as we go live when all the fans start pouring out. Our little crime scene tape barrier was all for show and only worked to defend us from the 2 guys from Harrisburg TV next to us.
The drunks are the last ones out and the most obnoxious. Last year our sports guy actually cloppered one with his mic.

Honest to God...on a beautiful blue sky afternoon I can't believe there is a more picturesque place to watch a ballgame. One of Baltimore's legendary sportwriters, John Steadman had lobbied very hard to knock this warehouse down and not include it in the design. He was flat wrong and before his death he admitted as much. The warehouse IS Camden Yards. It's also the longest building standing on the East Coast.
Before the ballpark was built I used to shoot the elephants from Barnum and Bailey's circus get off the train on what is now the home of Boog's Barbecue on Eutaw street.
By the way...I've never figured out why Eutaw is spelled E-U-T-A-W.
I'm thinking maybe Utah wasn't even a state when they named it. Baltimore is an old city.
Maybe Utah should be spelled EUTAW.

This is WMAR photog Paul Jaffey. He shoots most of the sports for our station. He and I were the only shooters this day so we conferred and made sure we had all our bases covered. All in all the day went off without a hitch. But we've been doing this too long to expect any real praise. Tomorrow it will be something else and all this work will be video vapor.
On....and...gone.