Memorial Stadium

With the strike just a day away, fans tried to get baseball off their minds by going to Memorial Stadium for a football game."I'm concentrating on football, or I'd be home watching the Yankees game," said Marlin Sauble Sr., who wore a 1966 Orioles cap to last night's Baltimore CFLs-Hamilton Tiger-Cats game.Sauble, of York, Pa., was at the game with his father, Sterling, and his 7-year-old son, Marlin Jr. Sauble has taken Marlin Jr., who was wearing the current O's cap, to five or six Orioles games this season.

Through the last four decades of Baltimore Orioles' history, or at least since the American League returned in 1954, the acknowledged home run dimensions in Memorial Stadium have been exaggerated. What reads 309 feet in right and leftfield are, in truth, 303 feet.A measurement taken yesterday by a reporter showed 304 down both lines but a more exacting survey, carried out in the past by three members of the Maryland Department of Transportation, using a sophisticated system, produced figures of 303 feet, 5 inches to right and 303 feet, 2 inches to left.

That "Grand Old Lady," known in a venerable sporting way as Memorial Stadium, never looked better. She's on her feet and breathing. A coat of paint, 90,000 gallons of it, all blue and white, has been a reawakening to an edifice, thought to be in retirement, that again has a future.The Baltimore CFL Colts made it possible.It tells all of us how important it is that even stadiums, the same as houses, need to be lived in, not abandoned and left to stand unused. The stadium will house the Canadian Football League team for a homecoming exhibition June 29 and the official opener July 16.Team owner Jim Speros also has a date in Hamilton, Ont., on July 11, to offer additional facts in his attempt to acquire the 1996 Grey Cup championship for Baltimore.

Elton John's "Crocodile Rock" blared over the loudspeaker. Lisa Rothe of Greenbelt plunged into her plate of nachos. And then, just as the sun took a convenient dip, Her Majesty, the Queen of England, her most prim, her most proper, stepped into Memorial Stadium to mix it up at an O's game.She waved that little wavette of hers, and the crowd stood, whistled, cheered and, of course, pulled out cameras and binoculars that were more abundant last night than baseball caps."She looks kind of simple, not what I expected," said Pam Brown, a student at the Institute of Notre Dame.

Ed Bilz set up camp at Memorial Stadium at 8 a.m. today. He was dead-set on giving his sons a chance -- maybe their only one -- to see a National Football League game in Baltimore."

The other day I glanced westward along Pratt Street and caught sight of light towers on the Camden Yards ball park. The same day I found myself looking wistfully at their counterparts at Memorial Stadium.Like a lot of Baltimoreans, I'm more than a little reluctant to cut the emotional ties with that big old brick hangar on 33rd Street. These days, I swallow heavily every time I pass the place.Was it so many lazy July Sundays ago when my grandfather, Edward Jacques Monaghan, escorted me to the ballpark?

IT WAS SUPPOSED to be so depressing. A midweek Orioles game, a chilly night, an opponent - the Toronto Blue Jays - with little charisma, and a crowd that would once again challenge the record for the smallest turnout since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened its retro doors more than a decade ago. But two friends in the area from England wanted to see a baseball game, and I had agreed to act as their tutor in these arcane arts and this game was the one...

Several thousand people are expected to take part in a singing and praying procession from Baltimore's Memorial Stadium to Clifton Park beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday.It is part of an international celebration of Christianity called "A Day to Change the World.""I've been thrilled by the coming together of various faiths, cultures and races to plan this event," said the Rev. John Cummins, pastor of Joppa Road Baptist Church and an organizer of the Baltimore march. Across the United States, about 2 million people are expected to participate and, worldwide, the number of registered marchers is estimated at 100 million.

You know what they should have done? For the fans, I mean. For all those who worship at the shrine of the Orioles, who consider baseball an heirloom passed from one generation to the next, but now find themselves shut out on their way to a seat inside the ballpark for Tuesday night's All-Star Game?They should have turned back the clock. They should have opened their hearts, and opened the ballpark on 33rd Street one more time. They should have brought back the Diamondvision scoreboard, and sold tickets at 1958 Memorial Stadium All-Star prices and welcomed about 50,000 people inside to watch the game together on the big screen.

Peter Kirk said this week that if one of his minor-league clubs "needs a temporary home again, we wouldn't hesitate to consider" a return to Memorial Stadium.The Bowie Baysox owner has been satisfied with the experience of the Double-A franchise so far this year at the storied 33rd Street park abandoned by the Orioles after the 1991 season."On a temporary basis, I think we've shown we can be successful," said Kirk. "We've done a lot of cross promotion with the Orioles, we've been a good spot for rehabilitating players and we've been able to do a large number of community fund-raisers."