Games In Baltimore

The Royals are coming to Memorial Stadium . . . the ones from London, not Kansas City.Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip will be at the stadium May 15 to watch what apparently will be their first baseball match ever."

Heavy rain and the possiblity of severe weather postponed all games and cancelled all practices Tuesday afternoon in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford and Howard counties. All other after-school activites also were canceled in the public schools in those jurisdictions. Carroll County officials postponed all games except volleyball, while Baltimore City sports were scheduled to go on as usual. Much of the area was under a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch during the afternoon just as game and practice time approached.

Art Modell's induction into the Ravens' Ring of Honor, scheduled for halftime of last night's Ravens-Pittsburgh Steelers game at M&T Bank Stadium, was postponed because the team owner was battling flu-like symptoms and did not attend the game. It was the first, Ravens home game ModeIl has missed. "I'm disappointed, but I'd rather be well and disappointed," Modell, 78, said in a phone intetwiew before kickoff. Modell was even included on the injury report that ran early in the game on the stadium's video board, showing him listed as out with the flu. The ceremony honoring Modell has been rescheduled for halftime Saturday, when the Ravens play host to the Tennessee Titans in an AFC wild-card playoff game.

For Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Bryant Johnson, going on the road meant going home. When the Cardinals traveled to Baltimore to face the Ravens yesterday at M&T Bank Stadium, it was Johnson's first visit to his hometown as an NFL player since Arizona drafted him in the first round in 2003. It was a trip Johnson, a two-time All-Baltimore City/County pick and an All-Metro selection in his senior year at City, had been looking forward to since the schedule was released earlier this year.

One year after arriving as Maryland's men's basketball coach, Mark Turgeon says the nonconference schedule "is not where I want it to be" and that he hopes to toughen it by adding more marquee games in future seasons — perhaps including some in Baltimore. But a contest at 1st Mariner Arena has not been scheduled for the upcoming season, as he had hoped. "We really wanted to play a game in Baltimore this year, and we're still trying to do that. I don't think it's going to happen," said Turgeon, who this week began running a series of one-hour, summer-session practices with his young team.

After 15 years of waiting for playoff baseball at Camden Yards, Orioles fans had to endure an extra 21/2 hours as chilly rain pushed back the start of Sunday's division series opener against the hated New York Yankees. A mighty roar shook the stadium when the grounds crew peeled away the protective tarp at 8 p.m., conveying just how badly Baltimore fans wanted their October moment. The crowd didn't grow quiet until the Yankees scored five runs in the ninth inning on their way to a 7-2 victory.

The day the Orioles arrived in Baltimore, trolleys clanged down cobbled streets. Kids rushed to see Pinocchio at the Hippodrome. Banana boats dumped their bushels onto weathered wharves where the Inner Harbor now stands. On April 15, 1954, Baltimore had no Beltway, no Harbor Tunnel, no Jones Falls Expressway. Working farms still prospered inside the city; ditto, a row of bustling department stores. Nationally, April was a month of firsts. Hank Aaron hit his first home run. Elvis cut his first single.

Tony Banks had it all in St. Louis. And then he had nothing.He had instant celebrity and unmistakable charisma as a starting rookie quarterback with the Rams. He had a big-time arm, fast feet, a quick mind and an undeniable swagger.He was the first quarterback taken in the 1996 NFL draft, a prodigy on the superhighway to fame and fortune. Or so it seemed. Two years later, his gilded carriage turned into a pumpkin and the highway dead-ended. His celebrity dissipated with each fumble. His charisma took a beating with each loss.

Steve LaPlanche - "Sports Steve" to his friends - says he hasn't missed a professional football game played in Baltimore since 1956. His streak, he says proudly, is 358 games and counting. "I started going when I was 3, and I haven't missed a Baltimore home game since then," said LaPlanche, 59. "Ever since I was born, sports was like a magnet to me. I've lived and slept sports. " But LaPlanche, whose loyalty has lasted through Baltimore's NFL Colts, USFL Stars and CFL Stallions before settling on the Ravens, isn't simply a dedicated fan. He also makes a proud spectacle of himself at every home game with an intricate homemade getup.

Sitting in the visitors' dugout, Davey Johnson looked out over the park that used to be home, took a deep breath and grinned. It had been 15 years, but Johnson was finally managing again in Camden Yards. "Feels good to be back," said Johnson, now the manager of the Washington Nationals, before Friday night's series opener against the Orioles. "Little different view from this angle," he added. Different view, same landmarks. There, in the dugout across the field, that's where Johnson watched his final game wearing an Orioles cap. Over the right field wall, that's where Tony Fernandez launched his series-clinching home run in the top of the 11th inning, breaking a scoreless tie for the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the 1997 American League Championship Series.