Box Seats

Merriweather Post Pavilion launches its season tomorrow with a new look intended to keep the concert site competitive with other venues. A $750,000 renovation has been completed just in time for the first concert featuring the alternative rock band Nine Inch Nails. The face lift also included several new amenities, such as covered boxes costing up to $14,175 that sold out in weeks. "Our kids are very popular now that we have box seats at Merriweather," said Bill Pullin of Ellicott City, who paid about $9,000 for a box that offers him seating at all the shows, wait staff service and access to the VIP deck.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Seven hours after Omar Jennings left his Catonsville home for his Kentucky Derby getaway, he was sitting before a big screen TV at Churchill Downs hollering for a horse named Dublin Assets. He was hollering for a first-place finish. For a quick $80 payoff. At his side were New York Leni, Mister B, Big Jeff and Dave the Rave, who each ponied up $700 for this weekend at America's premier racing event, the first jewel in the Triple Crown. Al the Hammerhead was there, too. But he needed to be on his feet, within an easy stride of the betting windows at Silks, a restaurant inside the track.

The sight of it should have sent a shiver through the offices of Major League Baseball.In the aftermath of one of the most exciting seasons in baseball history, there were large banks of empty seats at Turner Field in Atlanta for Game 2 of the National League Championship Series.That should be a wake-up call for both the players and owners. There are going to be more and more empty seats if baseball persists in marketing itself as an upper-class sport.OK, OK, so that's not what they say they're doing.

Whether Gov. Parris N. Glendening has vision is a matter of opinion. But there's no doubt that he has a great view.The Governor's Box at Camden Yards sits on the exclusive club level of Oriole Park, just a little to the first-base side of home plate, with a panorama of the city skyline. Its sightlines ensure that occupants will miss little of the action on the field -- unless they're distracted by the television, the phone or a suite attendant bringing a glass of chardonnay.For some, an invitation to watch a game there is a much-appreciated ego stroke.

Get out the bathing suits and picnic baskets and prepare to mark the calendar, as the activities begin to pile up for the summer weeks ahead.This week marks the last week of school for students in Carroll County, so let me begin with a few wishes and reminders.To all graduates, I wish happiness and success in the future.To students who will return to Carroll County classrooms in August, have a safe and fun-filled summer.To their parents, keep smiling because summer vacation is not as long as it used to be. (The kids won't know the difference if you tell them they went to school longer last year)

The Bowie Baysox will retain minor-league ticket prices during the team's 1993 stay at Memorial Stadium, general manager Keith Lupton announced yesterday, as the Orioles' Double-A affiliate opened its ticket operation.Individual game tickets will go on sale Feb. 22. Box seats will be $7 per game and general admission tickets $5. Tickets are $3 for youths 6-17 years old, senior citizens and active military. Children 5 and under will be admitted free, as will children in youth sports uniforms (cap and jersey)

The Orioles have restructured their ticket prices for the 1993 season. The net result could be an increase in overall ticket revenues of nearly $3 million next season for a team that already is one of the more profitable in the major leagues.The restructuring will come as good news to some fans and bad news to others.The worst news, though, comes for fans who sit in even-numbered sections from 74 to 86 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Those seats, which are directly behind left field, will go from $8 to $12.The club added $2 to the price of about half of the seats, and they reduced the prices of seats with poor sightlines and obstructed views and left prices unchanged on the rest.

Despite the near-unanimous plaudits for the new ballpark and the excitement of an unexpected pennant race by the Orioles, there is a sour note at Camden Yards. Hundreds of fans are bitter about their seats around the left-field foul pole. Others complain that high-priced seats well down the right-field line and some of the terrace boxes are inferior. Were these design errors, or is the problem a public relations blunder by the Orioles?Stadium Authority and Orioles officials deny the controversial seats are the result of bad design.

The Opening Day magic at Oriole Park at Camden Yards never touched some fans who are disappointed with the new stadium's sight lines and their seat locations.Most of these fans bought season tickets well in advance of Opening Day, believing their seats would be as good as or better than the ones they had in Memorial Stadium.But fans in the back rows of terrace box seats say structural overhangs partially block their view of the Baltimore skyline, main scoreboard and Sony Jumbotron video board, the large state-of-the-art television screen that provides replays, messages, sports trivia and player information.

Opening Day, a great American tradition. I left the office at about 12:30 and took a cab to Cubs Park.Then I met my host in our corporate reserved seats, which have a fine, unobstructed view of the playing field.I wasn't sure what I'd have for lunch. As at most of today's ballparks, the food menu has become as extensive as that of a restaurant.When the rain became bothersome, we stopped in at the stadium's private club and had a drink. Then, after the crowd subsided, another cab home.A very nice way to spend the day at the ballpark, you must agree.