Upper Deck

All this reminiscing about the Baltimore Colts started when a collection of business folks and political figures finally decided to tear down Memorial Stadium. I kept thinking back to my days as a Colts ballboy and training camp assistant. Then I decided to make a farewell visit to the long-vacant stadium. On a brisk morning in late January, I spent half an hour in the building that once felt to me like a shrine. I walked alone through the old Colts locker room and slowly made my way through the dark, narrow tunnel leading out to what used to be the field.

THE FIRST NFL game in Baltimore since the Colts departed in 1984 was played Sept. 1, 1996, and the Oakland Raiders were beaten 19-14 by our new team, the Ravens. I cut short a pre-game interview on the field to greet Raiders owner Al Davis on the 20 yard line to welcome him back to Baltimore. He thanked me, then told me he thought I was a "nice guy" and apparently made an on-the-spot decision that "I'm not going to sue you." I don't know why Mr. Davis would have sued me -- he sues a lot of people -- but I was pleased that one less lawsuit, and one not from Cleveland, would arrive on my doorstep.

If this is the summer you planned to paint the house and you're dreading all the trips up the ladder to scrape and prime, consider the task facing the Orioles and their landlord: re-painting Camden Yards. The deep green paint has faded on the roof of the upper deck and the structural steel below. Preparation for re-coating the 9-year-old stadium has been under way for a year. The job will take 10,000 gallons of paint and cost $1.25 million, to be shared equally by the team and the Maryland Stadium Authority.

IT WAS A BAD ballgame, but a good lunch. That's my quick take on my opening-day eating excursion at Camden Yards. In fact, I ate two lunches -- a pit-beef sandwich and beer, then a grilled Italian sausage with onions and peppers, chased with a lemonade. As an intermezzo, I had a cup of french fries. The best thing I ate was the $6.75 pit beef. This sandwich, which I grabbed at Boog Powell's stand on Eutaw Street, revved my engine. The beef tasted of smoke, and that is high praise in barbecue circles.

Reveling in the Ravens' victory over Indianapolis last season, owner Art Modell said, "In all my years, I can never recall a game in Cleveland, Denver, or wherever, where there was so much electricity. It was deafening, unbelievable enthusiasm."Recalling the Minnesota Vikings' visit, Brian Billick said last January, "The fans really got behind [the Ravens] With the enthusiasm of the fans in that new stadium, I was blown away by Baltimore."But reeling from another bitter defeat to Jacksonville last Sunday, several players privately offered a different view.

The cheap seats are back at the "Big Jack" in Landover for tomorrow night's Women's World Cup quarterfinal doubleheader.Cup officials reversed course about 3 p.m. yesterday and added between 13,000 and 14,000 upper-deck seats for the games at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium between the United States and Germany at 7 p.m. and Brazil-Nigeria at 9: 30.Spokesman Richard Finn said the last of 41,110 lower- and mid-level seats, which officials had long thought would be...

The U.S. team could play its biggest game thus far in the Women's World Cup before its smallest crowd in Thursday night's quarterfinal doubleheader at Landover.Despite saying ticket sales are near Jack Kent Cooke Stadium's "downsized," 41,110 capacity, World Cup officials in Los Angeles decided late yesterday not to open the stadium's spacious upper decks, which can accommodate another 39,000. Downsizing is a marketing term that means officials felt incapable of filling one of the nation's largest stadia.

From time to time I run across a program or Web site that intrigues me, and I put it on a "someday" list for my column. When I collect enough of them, someday arrives -- in this case, today:Collectibles Department: When I was a kid, we'd take baseball cards and attach them to the struts of our bicycle wheels with clothespins so they'd slap against the spokes and make a sound like a motorcycle.Nobody's likely to do that today. Trading cards are big money. Kids and adults collect them as an investment, and publishers are constantly coming up with new wrinkles to convince buyers that today's card is tomorrow's tuition at Harvard.

DETROIT -- Tiger Stadium is coming down after this season. Albert Belle tried to accelerate the process last night.With the night's first four RBIs, Belle provided the Orioles a long-awaited offensive jolt last night while starting pitcher Mike Mussina slogged his way to an effective but often inefficient 9-4 win over the Detroit Tigers before an announced crowd of 15,519.The effort lifted the Orioles to their fifth consecutive win and sixth in their last seven games. Though they never trailed, they had to survive a nervous bullpen performance behind Mussina, who left the game after walking the first batter in the seventh inning.

Twins: Minnesota outhit Boston, 13-11. Left-fielder Chad Allen made two errors, giving him four for the season. Twins pinch-hitters are 6-for-11 (.545) in their last 14 appearances. The last time Minnesota swept Boston at home in a three-game series was Aug. 8-10, 1994.Devil Rays: Jose Canseco, who needs three homers to tie the major-league record of 13 for the month of April, was 1-for-5 for the day. He also struck out three times, twice in the first game and once in the second.White Sox: Frank Thomas' home run in the first game was his 587th career extra-base hit, tying a club record set by Luke Appling.