Game Days

On game days in the town of Union Bridge, students at Francis Scott Key High School seldom have difficulty figuring out which of their classmates play varsity softball, even if they're not carrying gloves.They're the ones making a fashion statement.As a symbol of team unity, players dress alike during the school day, sometimes a bit outlandishly. In an effort to stand apart from the crowd, they've been known to wear uniform socks with shorts or wear their hair in pigtails."It's that link that kind of unites them," said Eagles coach Joe Linthicum.

Towson resident Jerry Turner and his sons have watched the Ravens play in the new stadium. But his daughter, Maria, 18, has been reluctant to go because of an unfortunate experience with rowdy spectators at Memorial Stadium.When Turner's daughter came to her first professional football -- game, she was doused in beer by a bunch of drunken fans and vowed never to return.Experiences like hers led the franchise to adopt the Fan Credo, a list of rules and expectations for conduct in the downtown stadium.

Another year, another series of moves on Ravens radio.For a third straight season, the cast of characters is being changed on Ravens broadcasts on WJFK (1300 AM) and WLIF (101.9 FM), with the biggest shift coming among the game announcers themselves, where former analyst/sideline reporter Bruce Cunningham has been taken out of the mix on game days.Also, Tony Harris, news anchor at channels 45 and 54, will be host of the team's Sunday pre-game show, with Stan "The Fan" Charles, last year's pre-game and post-game host, taking over just the post-game program.

Look at Lisa Gladden's tall, slender frame wrapped in such good looks and - if you're inclined to think stereotypically - you would think "model." But, as in most cases where stereotypical thinking is used, you'd be wrong.Try thinking ex-Marine. Ex-corrections officer. Former counselor to gang members in Boston before she moved to Baltimore.Try also thinking woman of action, as city officials found out earlier this year. Gladden lives within a block of Memorial Stadium, home of the depressingly mediocre Baltimore Ravens.

Among the titanic battles of church and state, it rates barely a footnote.But each Sunday at Memorial Stadium when the kickoff whistle blows at 1 p.m., it recalls a dispute that once pitted civil and ecclesiastic authority against the demigods of professional sports.The winner? Sports, of course. But it wasn't until this fall that the losers, the area's houses of worship, were affected.For years, events at Memorial Stadium on Sundays could not start earlier than 2 p.m. This was no mere ordinance; it was written into the City Charter at the behest of community and church leaders around the stadium.

The Orioles announced a sellout for yesterday's home opener, but not before they sold roughly 1,000 tickets in the 18 hours before the game.Orioles officials had been calling the game a sellout for weeks. But by last weekend, that appeared premature.The team had held back 7,500 tickets. Those seats were put into a lottery for Orioles mini-plan holders, with winners offered the chance to buy two tickets.When some of the winners turned down their seats, the Orioles found themselves with tickets to a previously sold-out game.

There is a 40 percent chance that today will be a washout. Today is a Saturday in early June, a time when hundreds of events from birthday parties to baseball games are scheduled to be held outside. The last time I looked, the forecast called for a 40 percent chance of scattered showers.Now showers, as veteran weather report readers know, are different from rain. Showers are bursts of precipitation. Rain, however, means steady precipitation. If it rains, you're going to get wet. If it showers, there is a good chance you can take cover and emerge later to push away the puddles.

His window looks out onto Eutaw Street, and the field at Camden Yards. On game days, it's the best view in baseball.Sitting at his desk, Roland Hemond can see the smoke rising from Boog's barbecue, the crowds gathering on Eutaw Street, the players stretching on the field below.The window is his clock, his mirror to the game's soul.Yesterday, Hemond searched for a reflection of the Orioles preparing to play the New York Yankees in the opener of a three-game series.All he saw was a groundskeeper mowing the lawn.

Despite snow flurries and a chilling wind, thousands of people turned out at Oriole Park at Camden Yards yesterday to get their first good look at the place.Fans in parkas, office workers in pinstripes and the merely curious came to the ballpark at lunchtime. Admission was free.And last night, hundreds more gathered outside the stadium for a pep rally to greet Orioles players just back from Florida, many of them seeing their new baseball home for the first time.The rally was a brief affair, but not a disappointment to the baseball fanatics collecting free pennants and balls handed out by a costumed Tony the Tiger in a cereal promotion and then getting autographs on them from players.

Every night the Birds are roosting at Oriole Park is a winner for bars and nightclubs around the stadium. In fact, just about the only place you can't buy a beer is in the stretch of outfield where Babe Ruth's father once ran a tavern.Probably the best gauge of how thirsty fans get is to stand on the stubby block of Washington Boulevard directly across from Camden Yards as a game lets out and then brace yourself as many of those 45,000 fans head toward you. Anyway, that's the vantage point for the barkeeps at Pickles Pub (520 Washington Blvd.

The Baltimore ordinance seems clear. Drinking an alcoholic beverage "in open container" on a "street, etc., or in vehicle" is illegal, and violators are subject to fines of up to $500. A judge can throw you in jail for up to a month. That rarely happens, of course. But if you ask people who live near M&T Bank Stadium, it never happens on a day the Ravens play at home. They complain that many laws, particularly the one governing where revelers can drink beer and throw their empty cans, seems to get lost in the revelry of the spirited tailgate.

The voice was loud and angry. It rose above the noise of the fans watching the Ravens train at McDaniel College on Wednesday, like the whine of a blender in a crowded bar. "Hey, Flacco!" the voice cried. "What about the handicapped zone?" Joe Flacco shook his head. "Guess that's supposed to make me feel bad," he said softly. The Ravens quarterback had just spent a few minutes signing autographs after the team's morning practice. But he hadn't made it over to a group of fans in wheelchairs, having been pulled aside by a member of the team's public relations staff to do a media interview.

Brenda Arbogast was one of those mothers who swore her son would never play football. Fearful of injury, and not knowing much about the sport, she was completely against the idea until a trusted friend convinced her it would be OK. Many years later, with her son's playing days long behind him, the 48-year-old full-time accounting assistant is not only still a fan of the game she grew to love, but now spends much of her free time supporting it at the...

Before you saw the Old Town Gators, you heard them coming. "WHO GOT YOUR BACK?" the pint-sized football players would chant as they marched in their electric blue-and-orange uniforms through East Baltimore streets to their home field on game days. "I GOT YOUR BACK!" the 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds would echo back over the sound of cleats clicking on pavement. Leading the parade - often chanting and clapping with dreadlocks flying - was their 31-year-old coach, Aaron McCown. A one-time high school quarterback and wrestler, he said it pumped up his players to march through "the projects," where many of them lived.

A win for the Ravens is a win for John Giorgakis - and there have been many wins this season. The owner of the Hilltop Carry Out pizzeria and Skybox Bar and Grill in South Baltimore, Giorgakis has seen his restaurants much busier on game days this season than in seasons past. He has had to bring in an extra cook to handle the pre-game and post-game rushes at the pizzeria, and he has noticed that the crowds have been lingering longer at his bar on game days. "When the local team wins, people stay behind, people drink more, they have a good time," Giorgakis said.

Camden Pub A short walk from the stadiums, Camden Pub is a prime spot for pre-gaming. Where --647 W. Pratt St. Call --410-547-1280 Web site --camdenpub.com Notable --Decent drink specials and food and amiable service. There are also plenty of black-and-white Babe Ruth photos on the walls. Vibe --Here, you can rev up for or unwind from a game among diehard sports junkies and casual fans. What to wear --Depends on who you come to cheer. You can also sport a ruddy outfit or something nice and chances are no one will care.

DENVER - The flow of people through the lobby of a posh downtown hotel is a steady one. They've come hoping to see something, or, more accurately, someone. The situation plays itself out in 27 other cities around the United States and Canada. The faces change, but the scene is almost always the same: Some fans get wind of where the Washington Wizards are staying and come to the team hotel wondering where Michael Jordan is. One energetic young woman has driven in from the suburbs with an autograph book, hoping to get Jordan's signature for her husband.

TAMPA, Fla. - Carl Harbuck and Matthew St. John claim to have the best seats for Sunday's Super Bowl XXXV matchup between the Ravens and New York Giants, but it's not what you think. They have to get to the game about eight hours early and they're going to be a good 1,700 feet from the field of play. You see, Harbuck and St. John will be piloting the Budweiser.com blimp that will provide the network overhead shots of the festivities at Raymond James Stadium - and about 60 other major television events over the course of the coming year.

A year of planning is peaking as Baltimore primps and gussies itself for all the soldiers, sailors and fans coming to town for Saturday's Army-Navy football game at PSINet Stadium. The city will skim crud off the Inner Harbor's waters. It will sandblast away some of the graffiti. And with banners, buttons and welcome signs, it will put on a big, gleaming smile for all the visitors (and TV cameras) to see. Then, it will wait for the visitors to crack open their wallets and spend, spend, spend.

You know it's been a slow summer at Camden Yards when nearly two months of baseball remain and sports fans are talking about the Ravens more than the Orioles at Pickles Pub, the most loyal of O's bars . Yesterday's Orioles game against the Indians in Cleveland wasn't even showing at the pub, just a stone's throw from the stadium, until a reporter asked about it. The area around the downtown stadium has bustled with activity every summer since it opened...