Compared with Comiskey Park, a good place to catch a cold, Oriole Park at Camden Yards is where you go for pennant fever.
That’s where the White Sox went Tuesday night to open a crucial three-game series, and you didn’t hear any of them complain about the sounds of tumultuous merriment. It’s very loud here.
“I’m surprised we didn’t have a special noise workout yesterday,” said Robin Ventura. “You know, with those big speakers, like football teams do before they play in a dome.”
Ventura snickered at his little funny, but his heart wasn’t into it, even before the Sox lost 5-1 to fall a half-game behind Baltimore in the wild-card scramble.
“Tell you what,” he went on, more serious now. “If we make the playoffs, and the fans still don’t show up, then we’ll know it’s not our ballpark that’s the problem.”
Camden Yards, of course, symbolizes both the strength of this Orioles franchise and the revival of downtown Baltimore. There is no apathy toward baseball here. The mural downtown says, “Death, Taxes, Cal Ripken Jr.” The citizens talk about their “Orryulls” by day and then pack this magnificent facility every evening.
“It’s the Taj Mahal,” said Jim Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher, now a broadcaster. “Everything’s perfect. The warehouse in right field, it looks like a Hollywood set, only it’s real.”
Correct on all counts. This feels like a ballpark, smells like a ballpark, sounds like a ballpark.
“Then there’s Comiskey Park,” said Orioles manager Davey Johnson. “It’s just not a warm place.”
But is it the building or what’s in it? The Orioles are averaging almost 45,000. The Sox can’t pull in even half that. Comiskey Park just isn’t that bad.
“All my life, I thought if you win, you draw people,” said shortstop Ozzie Guillen. “Except this year with our team. I don’t understand, but if I get mad, then it sounds like I’m angry at the people who do show up.
“And I’m not. I appreciate them. But I’m jealous. Jealous, not mad. On the road, I watch the Cubs a lot on TV during the day and I see how they draw. Jealous, because I remember only a few years ago, our park was full.
“I don’t know what happened. Nobody knows the answer. Those people didn’t all die, did they? I’d still rather play home games, because it’s home. But it’s still nice to come to a place like this, because it pumps you up. You’re the enemy, but at least there’s people in the seats.”
Johnson had them all squirming when he ordered Frank Thomas, the game’s third batter, walked intentionally to load the bases with none out–not a likely strategy for May. But it is September, and it worked. Danny Tartabull engaged Orioles lefty David Wells in a duel that lasted much longer than Mike Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon and was infinitely more interesting.
Finally, Tartabull fanned on the 13th pitch of a gritty at-bat. Ventura drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but Ray Durham flied out, and that was game, set, match. Thanks muchly to Rafael Palmeiro, whom the Cubs traded because he showed little power potential. The homer he drilled in the fifth inning was his 35th.
“I wasn’t going to let Thomas beat us,” explained Johnson of his first-inning maneuver.
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“I didn’t like it at the time,” said Wells, “but I understand.”
Peter Angelos, the Orioles’ chairman and president, bought the club for $173 million. His payroll is $50 million. He can’t sit around and wait for the law of averages to kick in. Meanwhile, the Sox wonder whether they’ll be watched if they’re still playing come October.
“Dynamite,” said Johnson. “That’s the answer for Chicago.”
As in Comiskey Park, a dynamite place to watch baseball?
“No,” Johnson concluded. “Dynamite, as in start over.”