Memorial Stadium

If you went to any youth baseball game in or around Baltimore in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, there were certain things you were sure to see. There'd be about a half-dozen kids on each team with the same batting stance: their back elbows cocked and their weight shifted hard onto their rear foot in homage to Eddie Murray. At least one pitcher per game would attempt the high leg kick, a la Jim Palmer. If an infielder made a great stab, his excited coach would inevitably call him "Brooksie."

Nearly a half-century of Baltimore sports history is to be blown into dust next year when the city demolishes Memorial Stadium to make room for a 446-unit senior housing development and a recreation center.Yesterday's decision by Housing Commissioner Daniel P. Henson III ended at least three years of debate about what the city should do with the landmark and its 30 acres of prime real estate.Completed in 1953, Memorial Stadium in Northeast Baltimore has been vacant since Dec. 14, 1997, when the Ravens played their last football game there before moving across town to a new stadium.

Retirement park is best way to reuse stadium siteAs Anna Mae Becker noted in her recent letter ("`Technology Park' could revive community," April 5), there is no unanimity in Ednor Gardens-Lakeside over how best to redevelop the Memorial Stadium site. However, a clear majority of residents present at the Feb. 23 meeting of the local community association supported the GEDCO/PHI retirement community proposal rather than the "technology park" Ms. Becker favors.Nearly 200 residents attended the Feb. 23 meeting and the GEDCO proposal garnered 103 votes, compared to 62 for the technology park and 19 for the mixed-use development proposal.

The Memorial Stadium land game is now in the fourth quarter, and at stake is how North Baltimore's prized piece of real estate will look in the next century -- with or without the storied ballpark's architecture.An 11-member review panel convenes tonight in a closed-door meeting at city planning offices to compare three dramatically different development proposals: a retirement community, a research and technology park and upper-income housing/retail use.The goal, city Planning Director Charles C. Graves III said, is to "figure out a recommendation" to forward to Housing and Community Development Director Daniel P. Henson III, who will have the final say on the matter.

In Baltimore CityRedevelopment plans for Memorial Stadium to be presentedThree redevelopment proposals for Memorial Stadium in Baltimore will be presented during a community meeting starting at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the auditorium in City College, 3220 The Alameda.The proposed uses include affordable housing for the elderly, a technology research and office park, and a residential and commercial development featuring movie theaters with "stadium seating."Two of the proposals call for at least partial preservation of the stadium, while a third calls for the 29.5-acre site to be cleared for development.

Three familiar businesses -- a drugstore, supermarket and bank -- announced closings or shut down recently in Waverly, creating inconvenient vacancies in the pedestrian-friendly Greenmount Avenue business district, but not daunting the community's optimism about its economic future.Provident Bank of Maryland, which has maintained a Waverly branch for 90 years, announced last month that its 3111 Greenmount Ave. operation will close March 19.A Super Fresh grocery store at Gorsuch Avenue and Old York Road shut down last month after 60 years in the neighborhood.

No city revels in its past, or wallows in it, depending on your perspective, like Baltimore. So it's a given that television sets around town will be punched in to ESPN in the early hours of Monday morning.That's when a lovely tribute to Memorial Stadium, the great lady at the corner of East 33rd Street and Ellerslie Avenue, airs as a segment of "NFL Films Presents."The piece isn't long -- only about 10 minutes -- but it will give old-timers a reminder of how things here used to be and provide the younger generation a primer on the traditions of one of the venerable facilities in American sports.

The nonprofit group hoping to redevelop the Memorial Stadium site passed another hurdle this week when its financing plans were approved by Baltimore officials.The Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. (GEDCO), which wants to turn the site into a senior center and YMCA, presented a proposal outlining the financing for the plan to the city Department of Housing and Community Development on Monday.The nonprofit, church-based group won a city government-sponsored competition this year with its proposal to turn the storied stadium site, former home to the Baltimore Colts and Orioles, into a campus including housing for low- and moderate-income senior citizens and a 45,000-square-foot YMCA for all ages.

In the first neighborhood show of support for a specific proposal to redevelop the Memorial Stadium land parcel, the Ednor Gardens/Lakeside community association has voted decisively in favor of a senior citizens retirement village.The winning proposal by the Govans Ecumenical Development Corp. of Baltimore (GEDCO) received 103 votes in the ballot taken Tuesday at Our Savior Lutheran Church at 33rd Street and The Alameda.A technology park proposal that would preserve the shell of the stadium received 62 votes.

Retirement village at stadium will be a national modelBy choosing our affordable retirement community to redevelop the Memorial Stadium site, Baltimore's leadership is setting an excellent example for the nation on two scores. ("Memorial Stadium's last Memorial Day?" May 30).First, the mayor is setting a precedent by using a residential model to replace a stadium in a residential neighborhood. Second, the project makes Baltimore the first city in the nation to develop an affordable retirement community.

Ralph Vincent Chase Sr., a former Baltimore City Recreation and Parks official who had been manager of the old Memorial Stadium, died Sunday of heart failure at Sinai Hospital. He was 71. Mr. Chase, the son of a federal worker and homemaker, was born and raised in Washington. After graduating from Spingarn High School in 1956, he attended what is now Morgan State University on a football scholarship. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1961 in physical education. After serving in the Army as a military policeman, Mr. Chase was honorably discharged in 1963 and then began his 28-year career with the city's Recreation and Parks Department.

Baltimore baseball fans of a certain age had to be saddened by the recent news that veteran baseball broadcaster Ernie Harwell, who was the voice of the Detroit Tigers for 42 years and before that was the voice of the Orioles for the first six years after the St. Louis Browns' franchise arrived in Baltimore in 1954, was diagnosed with cancer. Harwell, now 91, told The Detroit Free Press last week that he has declined to undergo surgery or treatment. "We don't know how long this lasts.

They called it Orrsville, that patch of pay dirt in the Baltimore Colts' end zone where No. 28 plied his trade. How many teams were buried there, in the closed end of Memorial Stadium, beaten by a scoring pass to the elusive Jimmy Orr? "I must have caught 45 or 50 touchdowns in that right corner," said Orr, a favorite Colts receiver in the 1960s. "It was sloped some, a little downhill, which helped me, speed-wise. I wasn't all that fast." But Orr had sure hands and he ran smart routes, which made him All-Pro - and the club's deep threat for much of his 10 years with the Colts.

A foundation run by Cal Ripken Jr. and his family plans an estimated $6 million project to build five state-of-the-art youth ballparks in distressed Baltimore neighborhoods - including one at the old Memorial Stadium site that would resemble the former ballpark's field. The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation's Swing for the Future campaign envisions turning the little-used field at the redeveloped Stadium Place on 33rd Street into a multipurpose, artificial turf sports complex with a running track and exercise stations.

Joseph B. Codd, who memorized the names of the Baltimore Orioles season ticket holders and their seat locations during his five decades in the club ticket office, died of pneumonia Tuesday at his Oak Crest Village retirement home in Parkville. He was 93. Born in Baltimore, he was raised above a bar his father owned at Hoffman and Ensor streets. He attended St. Paul's Parochial School and Loyola High School. After serving in the Army in Germany during World War II, he worked in real estate with his sister, Marie Codd, who had a flourishing sales and rental business in the Mount Vernon section of downtown Baltimore in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Some of the best music of the rock 'n' roll era will be featured at the Senator Theatre this weekend, as owner Tom Kiefaber continues to mark the coming end of his family's 70-year run as owners and operators of the North Baltimore landmark. Jonathan Demme's 1984 Stop Making Sense, a concert film capturing the Talking Heads at their creative peak, will play at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, followed at 10:30 p.m. by Francois Girard's 1994 Secret World Live, featuring Peter Gabriel in concert.

Congratulations, new Ravens fan, you've made it through basic training. Now sit back and enjoy the game with your family and friends. But beware, someone might test your loyalty. Be ready to meet fire with fire. Here's some Ravens trivia: * Who was the first player drafted by the Ravens? (Jonathan Ogden) * In their first game, what team did the Ravens beat? (The Oakland Raiders, 19-14, with Earnest Byner scoring the winning touchdown on a 1-yard run.) * Bruce Matthews has a place in Baltimore football lore.

Where were you 29 years ago today? On Oct. 10, 1979, Baltimore witnessed its earliest measurable snowfall. Only a third of an inch at BWI, it was enough to postpone the opening game of the World Series at Memorial Stadium between the O's and the Pirates. Man, it was cold! We set a new record low - 34 degrees. And the day's high - just 47 degrees - remains the lowest daytime high for Oct. 10.

COLLEGE PARK - Injuries are exposing freshmen and other inexperienced players to more prominent roles as Maryland heads to Clemson on Saturday for what coach Ralph Friedgen calls "a defining game" in one of the nation's most intimidating stadiums. The untested Terps, many of them on defense, will need to acclimate quickly to Clemson Memorial Stadium (capacity 81,500), a place opposing players either love or fear. Coach Ralph Friedgen is hoping it's the former when such players as Cameron Chism, a freshman defensive back, encounter the stadium popularly known as "Death Valley."

Fire destroyed the sprawling playground that thousands of volunteers built three years ago at the site of the old Memorial Stadium on 33rd Street, a blaze that community leaders called "devastating" as they vowed to rebuild. Residents and children walking from school watched from a hillside while about 35 firefighters doused the flames, which were spotted about 2:20 p.m. as plumes of thick, black smoke rose above the city. Fire officials said the cause was not immediately known, and arson investigators were exploring the possibility that the fire was set. As the fire continued to smolder, a police officer and a fire investigator at the scene talked to a juvenile who was seated in the back of a squad car with his head in his hands.