Camden Club

Among the perks of a Camden Club membership are monthly luncheons with Orioles players during the season. The format is casual -- a 45-minute lunch followed by a question-and-answer period with several people from the Orioles organization.I joined my legal-eagle buddy, Camden Club member Frances Reaves, at the luncheon, which featured O's manager Johnny Oates and O's catcher Jeff Tackett. Others at her table were Diane Bark, stockbroker; Edie Brown, public relations director at the Baltimore Arena; and Renee Ades, one of the founders of NeighborCare pharmacies.

The long, cold winter officially ended two weeks ago, but the spring did not truly begin in Baltimore until 3:17 p.m. yesterday, when Mike Mussina threw a strike past Kansas City Royals outfielder Vince Coleman to open the 1994 baseball season.The downtown area had come to life hours earlier, as if the ice had just melted and the sun had come out for the first time. The Orioles were soon to follow, unveiling their new-look lineup to defeat the Royals, 6-3, in front of a festive sellout crowd of 47,549 at Camden Yards.

Wayne Simonsen doesn't have season tickets to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but he may have the next best thing.As a waiter in the posh Camden Club restaurant on the seventh and eighth floors of the warehouse behind right field, he has a clear view of the action whenever he looks out the window."

Reading Time, Two Minutes:How come U2 can do blockbuster dates at RFK Stadium, the Meadowlands and the Vet in Philadelphia and Baltimore wouldn't even allow the rock group to practice in lonesome Memorial Stadium for a big fee?The city's argument that the practices and construction of a stage for U2's world tour would mess up the field for the ho-hum Saints-Dolphins exhibition Aug. 27 doesn't fly in the face of those other stadiums playing host to NFL teams with the regular season right around the bend.

Starting next month, something new and different is coming to the posh club level at the new Camden Yards ballpark: the average fan.The Orioles and Maryland Stadium Authority announced yesterday a plan to distribute about 300 of the most desirable tickets to fans who haven't been able to sit in or even see one of the ballpark's most exclusive sections.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke already has begun turning over seats in his 10-seat luxury suite to community groups and to local charities with ties to Baltimore.

City firefighters today extinguished a small fire on the top floor at the north end of the B&O Warehouse, the red brick structure just beyond right field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.About 100 people were evacuated from the eight-story structure as a precaution. No injuries were reported. Oriole offices are in that end of the warehouse.Fire officials said a welder accidentally ignited some material with his torch about 11 a.m. while working on an eighth-floor elevator.The fire sent black clouds of smoke into the downtown area.

The A-Bomb -- UP -- Albert Belle waited 98 games before going off on the Anaheim Angels for three home runs on his no-trade clause on certain beat writers. Belle reminded everyone at a news conference he'll be here for 4 1/2 more years. But that's a bet he doesn't want to make.Matt Riley -- UP -- Forget the Pan American Games. The Orioles' organizational prize will be appearing at Camden Yards this season. The only question is whether the left-hander makes an August or September debut. Double-A has been child's play.

Cal Ripken Jr. is looking to set another milestone this summer - this time in the reading field. The Orioles third-baseman kicked off Friday the annual "Reading, Runs & Ripken" fund-raiser to benefit the Baltimore Reads literacy organization, a campaign that has raised more than $526,000 for child and adult reading activities over the past eight years. This year, organizers are hoping to push that total over the $600,000 mark, with donors earning premiums ranging from bookmarks to lunch at the Camden Club, depending on their contribution level.

Let's see now. One, two, three . . . 42 days until Opening Day.You could smell it yesterday in the 69-degree air around Oriole Park at Camden Yards and feel it in the sunshine that bathed the promenade between the stadium and the warehouse.But you knew it as a stone-cold fact when people lined the promenade outside Pastimes Cafe looking for jobs -- seasonal jobs, that is, the season being baseball.Supervisors for ARA Leisure Services Inc. accepted applications from 640 people yesterday and Saturday for 300 to 400 jobs during the Orioles season.

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem will be in Baltimore today, meeting with community and business leaders for breakfast at the Camden Club to discuss the future of the Greater Baltimore Classic. The Senior PGA Tour event is scheduled for June 21-23 at Hayfields Country Club in Hunt Valley, but tournament officials are still trying to get sufficient corporate support to ensure that it will go ahead as planned. "What they're looking for is a strong commitment from the community," Brian Thompson, the tournament's executive director, said yesterday.