Soccer Dad

Thoughts about 25 years of season tickets

From the Baltimore Orioles mailing list ... (reprinted with permission)

This is kind of a long ramble, but hey...its about the O's :)

I went to this game last night....My family has had season tickets since
'82. 20+ rows back from the O's On Deck circle. Back then we had 4. A few
years into Camden Yards we increased it to 6. A few years after the
tailspin began, we lowered it back to 4. 2 years ago we lowered it to 2
seats. My family is now thinking we'll give up our seats next season. We
can't find anyone who wants to split them anymore and at $97 a game
($45/ticket, $7 parking) to watch this crap, its just not worth it.

So I figured I'd take my nephew and go to one last game in the family seats.
We rushed to make it in time for the first pitch--which Zambrano promptly
used to nail the first hitter in the side.

It only got worse...and it just seemed as if he had no control other than to
lay it in there. Any time he tried to actually PITCH, they took it for a
ball. Only things getting over the plate were medium speed meatballs.

Finally they pulled him after it was 5-0, bases loaded 2 outs. Birkins then
completed Zambrano's night by allowing all 3 inherited runners to score.

8-0. Zambrano's line? 2/3 inning, 8 runs. I kept repeating that in my
head. 7...8...9 years ago, that would have been all the sports stations
were talking about the next day. Yet today I know that if I turn on 1300 or
1570, it'll be mostly Ravens chatter about their game in Cleveland (I'm a
huge Raven's fan, so that doesn't bother me that much).

On the drive home (we left after the 6th inning since it was a bit sticky
out and a school night and I had to get my nephew home), I called my Dad and
chatted a bit. He lamented about giving up the tickets, but knew deep down
the only reason he'd kept them these last couple years was for my nephew
who's a huge Orioles fan. Prior to that, we'd kept them because my mother
and I were crazy Orioles fans and loved going to the games. My dad was
always a tag-along and would bring the Wall Street Journal or a sailing
magazine and read while my Mom and I would follow the finer points of the
game.

Every Opening Day was like a holiday for my family. I would have an excuse
written to get out of school to go see my dentist. What the administration
didn't realize was my Dentist was my Dad and I'd be seeing him sitting next
to be at the ballgame! (side-bar, I submitted this many years ago to ESPN
the Magazine for best excuse used to get out of something for opening day
and they printed it in issue #2).

Anyway, so I talked with my dad and just said "Angelos has killed my love of
the Orioles. Can you believe it? A diehard fan like me and he has left me
just not caring." And its true. I used to attend or watch well over 140
games a year when I was younger. I knew the O's TV schedule by heart and
looked forward to watching each game. As the losing continued, I would
watch less and less. I'd check the box scores less and less. Every Spring
I would get so excited. I had to watch the first televised spring training
game, even though I knew I would only see the real players for the first
inning or two. Didn't matter. It was the O's.

And here I am now. I'm 32 years old and I feel like I'm in mourning. I sat
in the old seats and it looked and felt different. I couldn't see the
Bromo-Seltzer Tower because of the monstrosity of a hotel they're building
which blocks out 1/2 the view of the outfield (not really Angelos' fault,
but still. The players are mostly mailing it in, other than Markakis. Even
BRob looked a little slow and uncaring on some plays/at-bats. There were
maybe 5 thousand people in the stands. There are far less employees around
(nobody directing traffic in the parking lots, most concessions only had 1
cashier working).

And in that phone conversation with my Dad I realized it didn't matter if he
gave up the tickets; honestly, what exactly would I be missing? It didn't
FEEL like a fun place to come. It felt like a Shiva house (a Jewish house
in mourning). I've gone to maybe a dozen Frederick Keys games over the last
decade and I can get more enjoyment out of those games. It feels like a
place people want to come! My boss has season tix to the Nationals so I'll
probably got a few of their games next year. Not that their record is much
better, but they show more promise and don't have the weight of 10 losing
years hanging on them.

I'll have positive memories of games I've attended in my family seats...

'83 playoffs and world series in Memorial Stadium (we had practically the
same seats/sections before the move)
Last game at Memorial
First game at Camden
Ripken's 2131 game with my mom
Playoff runs in '96 and '97
Ripken's last hit from game1 on 10/05/01

I'll always remember last night...but for much different reasons. With all
apologies to Don McLean, for me, it was the day the Orioles died.

Kevin

_______________________
Kevin Gandel
IT Manager
Lemek LLC dba Panera Bread

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