Post up your Memorial Stadium experiences.

[BamaOsFan]

Having grown up in North Alabama in the Orioles glory years, I had always dreamed of attending a game(s) on 33rd street. After years of talking about it I finally made it in 1987 and attended a series against the Blue Jays. I truly felt honored to be there. After idolizing the team and stadium for many years, especially in my youth, the emotions were overwhelming. It was a magical experience for me to attend and hated to hear of it's demise years later.

I've since been to OPACY many times over the years. It's a baseball palace and a great stadium to watch a game, but I will always cherish my visit to the Old Grey Lady of 33rd Street.

[NewMarketSean]

First ever baseball game, probably 1985 or 86...against the Angels, people booed Reggie Jackson and I asked my parents why.

At a game vs Yankees in 1989, everyone was watching the scoreboard to see what Toronto was doing. About the fifth inning, everyone in stadium sees they lost to Milwaukee. About two or three innings later my dad stands up and yells as loud as he can, Milwaukee 5!!! Toronto 3!!!

At a game probably 87 or 88 vs Detroit I spent most of the game playing with peanut shells under my seat.

First pre-season football game in 1996.

Final game at Memorial ever, vs. Tennessee, 1997.

[Mayor McCheese]

I remember going to games with my father and uncle... we would drive down and free parking was on someones front lawn about 3-4 blocks from the stadium..

good times

good times

[Larry18]

The Friday night double header

[Dr. Unk]

First game in 1972, and practically lived there in college. Oh, and you could bring in your own beer. Totally raucous atmosphere.

[Tx Oriole]

Having grown up in North Alabama in the Orioles glory years, I had always dreamed of attending a game(s) on 33rd street. After years of talking about it I finally made it in 1987 and attended a series against the Blue Jays. I truly felt honored to be there. After idolizing the team and stadium for many years, especially in my youth, the emotions were overwhelming. It was a magical experience for me to attend and hated to hear of it's demise years later.

I've since been to OPACY many times over the years. It's a baseball palace and a great stadium to watch a game, but I will always cherish my visit to the Old Grey Lady of 33rd Street.

I was there only once and it was for a Colts game in 1981. Wish I could have gone

there to an O's game. Sure would have been fun.

[OFFNY]

.

In April of 1979, my cousin Donnie (Yankee fan that live in West Springfield, VA) took me to to my only game ever at Memorial Stadium.

And that was the night that "Orioles Magic" TRULY began.

We had a miraculous comeback against the Yankees that night. We were losing 5-2 going into the bottom of the 9th. We scored 3 runs to tie the game at 5-2. The next inning, we had 2 outs and the bases-loaded. Rick Dempsey hit a check-swing single that blooped into center-field between the Yankee infielders and outfielders. Mickey Rivers was so pissed that he actually tried to throw the runner out at the plate. The 16,000-plus fans at the stadium went crazy, and the celebration carried out into the parking lot. I still remember a guy with long hair with his arms triumphantly raised into the air, saying, "Orioles of '79!"

The trivia question at the beginning of the game was, "What year did this happen ??? Boog Powell hit a home run against the Senators in the Opening Day Game in Washington." Then, they played a song to give us a hint (It was "Louie, Louie," by the Kingsmen.) The year was 1963.

[russ snyder]

My first game was Orioles vs. Red Sox ( 8/25/68) This game was one day before my sixth birthday. My two older brothers and I traveled by bus and sat in General admission seats. The Orioles and Red Sox played an 18 inning affair. Brooks Robinson drove in the winning run with a broken bat single. We stayed for the whole game.

My first Colts game was September 24, 1972. This was the Unitas vs. Namath game where they combined for 872 yards passing. The Colts lost 44-36.

I went to many games Oriole games on my own. My mom would give me bus fare and

10 bucks. I'd buy an upper deck ticket and buy a hot dog and a coke.

My friend Gary and I crashed the gate at the Elway game. We wound up watching the Broncos comeback led by Steve DeBerg from a walkway ramp. We had a pretty good view from the closed end. That was the loudest crowd I ever heard at a football game.

While in college in the early to mid 80's my teammates and I would fill an orange cooler with a case of beer. When we ran out of beer in about the fourth or fifith inning, one of us would coerce one of the girls at a concession stand to fill it up for five bucks or so.

Got a free ticket to the second game of the Orioles White Sox ALCS. I was waiting for my older brother outside one orf the west gates of the stadium, he was very late when an elderly couple offered me a ticket. I sat with them during the game. It was like going to a game with your grandparents.

[OFFNY]

My first game was Orioles vs. Red Sox ( 8/25/68) This game was one day before my sixth birthday. My two older brothers and I traveled by bus and sat in General admission seats. The Orioles and Red Sox played an 18 inning affair. Brooks Robinson drove in the winning run with a broken bat single. We stayed for the whole game.

My first Colts game was September 24, 1972. This was the Unitas vs. Namath game where they combined for 872 yards passing. The Colts lost, 44-36.

I went to many games Oriole games on my own. My mom would give me bus fare and

10 bucks. I'd buy an upper deck ticket and buy a hot dog and a coke.

My friend Gary and I crashed the gate at the Elway game. We wound up watching the Broncos comeback led by Steve DeBerg from a walkway ramp. We had a pretty good view from the closed end. That was the loudest crowd I ever heard at a football game.

While in college in the early to mid 80's my teammates and I would fill an orange cooler with a case of beer. When we ran out of beer in about the fourth or fifith inning, one of us would coerce one of the girls at a concession stand to fill it up for five bucks or so.

Got a free ticket to the second game of the Orioles White Sox ALCS. I was waiting for my older brother who was very late when an elderly couple offered me a ticket. I sat with them during the game. It was like going to a game with your grandparents.

44-34.

[russ snyder]

44-34.

It was a long time ago.

[russ snyder]

Join Date

Apr 2007

Location

Encino, California

Posts

9,175

My memory of Memorial Stadium ironically, has NOTHING to do with the Orioles and its an honor that few if any would experience in a lifetime.

In 1997, when I had a rare in depth interview for ESPN with John Unitas, I told him I never got to see him play with the Colts at Memorial Stadium.

He simply said"Well, lets do something about that".

We got into his car and drove with me and my crew to the stadium. He got out, talked his way into the overgrown and badly disheveled stadium and

for the next 90 minutes or so(it was all recorded on video) gave me a tour of the old locker room and then walked the field with me. He showed me the exact spots where he threw to Raymond Berry...where Lenny Moore dressed in the locker room, where John Mackey caught a TD vs the Giants,

where Gino Marchetti smoked cigars in the stall before the game. 90 minutes of this! ESPN ran about 2 minutes of it. No matter. It was still one of

great experiences of my broadcasting career, and John was gone about 4 years later, as was the stadium.I'll never forget that experience, and the

kindness Unitas extended to me. He was a hell of a guy.It was an incredible experience.

Roy. I'm pretty sure that I saw the short piece. It's a shame that the network did not show more of what you experienced.

That's a helluva story. Thanks a lot for sharing it with us.

[srock]

It was 1990 or 1991 with my Dad and Uncle. I was 8 or 9 years old and we left the game early (I think my Dad was irritated with my drunken Uncle or something) only to find the truck to be stuck in the old dirt lot where there double parked everybody.

So there I am listening to Joe Angel call the game on the radio and hearing the crowd from inside the stadium. I'm none to happy with all this. Then in the 9th, bases loaded and either Sam Horn or Randy Milligan is up to the plate. I have never seen a Grand Slam in person. I hear the bat hit and ball and the crowd screaming before Joe Angel confirms the Grand Slam has occurred. My grand slam and I'm in the parking lot.

Based on HR Logs on BBRef its either

Milligan 1991-07-23

Horn 1990-09-14 (I think its this one as I'm pretty sure it was Sam Horn and we moved to California not long after so its unlikely we attended the '91 game)

Horn 1991-04-15

[Tony-OH]

My memory of Memorial Stadium ironically, has NOTHING to do with the Orioles and its an honor

that few if any would experience in a lifetime.

In 1997, when I had a rare in depth interview for ESPN with John Unitas, I told him I never got to

see him play with the Colts at Memorial Stadium.

He simply said"Well, lets do something about that".

We got into his car and drove with me and my crew to the stadium. He got out, talked his way into

the overgrown and badly disheveled stadium and

for the next 90 minutes or so(it was all recorded on video) gave me a tour of the old locker room

and then walked the field with me. He showed me the exact spots where he threw to Raymond

Berry...where Lenny Moore dressed in the locker room, where John Mackey caught a TD vs the

Giants,

where Gino Marchetti smoked cigars in the stall before the game. 90 minutes of this! ESPN ran

about 2 minutes of it. No matter. It was still one of

great experiences of my broadcasting career, and John was gone about 4 years later, as was the

stadium.I'll never forget that experience, and the

kindness Unitas extended to me. He was a hell of a guy.It was an incredible experience.

Great story Roy!

[Frobby]

I had so many great experiences there I could never remember them all. I started going to games not long after I got my driver's license in 1973. A few that stand out:

- O's win on a Mark Belanger walk-off homer, July 20, 1974.

- Game in the first week of the '77 season, April 9, 1977, after Jackson, Grich and Garland had all departed for free agency. A kid walked up to my dad after he parked his car in the lot, and said "hey mister, I'll watch your car for a quarter." My dad said "maybe I'll just ask that policeman over there to watch my car," and the kid ran away. My first look at Eddie Murray, Rich Dauer and Dennis Martinez. It was freezing even though it was a day game, and the O's lost 5-1 before a crowd of 5,305. There was no hint of the excitement to come from that team.

- July 4, 1977: the O's take a doubleheader from the Tigers. In the second game, the O's beat the near-invincible Mark Fidrych before a crowd of 45,339. I got interviewed by a WBAL-TV reporter about Fidrych between the two games. Unfortunately, that game marked the turning point of Fidrych's career and he was never effective again.

- August 13, 1978: The night the ground crew dumped the water off the tarp so that they game couldn't be resumed after the Yankees had gone ahead in the top half of the inning and the Orioles hadn't batted yet, so the game reverted to the prior inning and the Orioles won. (We actually left during the rain delay).

- O's win on a Pat Kelly walk-off homer after I'd been compaining about how bad he was prior to the game, May 23, 1979

- Last night before I went to law school, August 10, 1979. Eddie Murray hit a game-tying double in the 7th after a protracted argument by Earl Weaver that was clearly designed to disrupt the pitcher. Lee May singled in Eddie and the O's went on to win 8-6.

- Took a bunch of unprivileged kids to a game on September 18, 1983. These kids idolized Eddie Murray, and got excited whenever he came up. The O's fell behind 7-0 early, caught up to 7-5, and Eddie delivered a grand slam in the 8th to put the O's ahead 9-7 and send these kids into orbit. The Brewers tied the game in the top of the 9th but the O's won in the bottom half on John Stefero's walk-off single, 10-9.

- Phase One of my bachelor party, July 10, 1987. O's fell behind 4-0, 5-4, 8-5, and 10-8. They came back each time, went ahead 12-10, the Twins tied it in the top on the 9th but the O's won on a Larry Sheets sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 9th, 13-12.

- Last game at Memorial Stadium, October 6, 1991. The game itself stunk, but the post game ceremony was unbelievably moving. For those too young to know: They played the James Earl Jones monologue about baseball from Field of Dreams on the scoreboard, and then suddenly, Brooks Robinson came charging out of the dugout in full uniform with his glove on, went to 3b and started crouching and pawing his feet around the dirt like he always used to do. After a minute long roar, Frank Robinson came out and ran to RF. Then Jim Palmer took the mound, and on and on. Roenicke and Lowenstein ran out to LF together. It was amazing, and I get goose bumps even now when I think of it.

[The Blade]

I was at Game 5 of the 1970 World Series. I ran on the field after the game with many other fans. I took a small chunk of grass with me and planted it in my backyard.

I was also at Memorial Stadium to see Unitas play his last game in Baltimore. I still can picture the "Unitas We Stand" sign fly around Memorial Stadium in the 3rd quarter. I remember Unitas coming off the bench to throw a 4th quarter TD. I ran into Bill Curry at the airport a few years ago. He was the center for the Colts in Unitas's last game in Baltimore. The play before Unitas threw the TD Curry recovered a fumble. I thanked Curry for making that play. He told me of all the games that he played in - which included Super Bowls - he mentioned that Johnnu U's last game as his most favorite. He also told me that more people stop him to talk about that particular game than any other one he played in. I spent 30 minutes talking to him about the Colts - what a great guy.