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Baltimore Orioles
On October 14, 2009 I wrote a blog entitled “Could it Happen Again,” and it was regarding ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary entitled “The band that wouldn’t die.” As most people know, the program detailed how the Baltimore Colt marching band stayed together for the 12 years that Baltimore was without football, and was instrumental (no pun intended) in getting the NFL to come back to the city in the form of the Baltimore Ravens. Today, the Colts came back to Baltimore to play the Ravens. This isn’t the first time the two teams have played in Baltimore, but I suppose that it has to be strange to former Baltimore Colt fans…
In most cases, when a team moves to a new city they change their name. That never happened with the Colts, as they kept their name, traditions, records, etc. So the very band and the same fanbase that was so pro-Colt for so many years now finds themselves rooting against that same team. Without a doubt, the Ravens have a stronger lineage to the Baltimore Colts than do the current Colts. I’ll be honest, I like Peyton Manning, but I’m rooting for the Ravens this week. To anyone that grew up a Colt fan, it has to be strange rooting against that same uniform, helmet, etc, even after all these years.
So how does this relate to the O’s? Well first off the Ravens are a Baltimore team, and they play in the same complex as do the Orioles. But that aside, I have an interesting historical footnote that might surprise a lot of people…Baltimore lost it’s Orioles at one point as well. The Baltimore Orioles were one of the league’s founding franchises, and they remained in Charm City until 1903, when they moved. And you’ll never guess where they moved…the Bronx, NYC. Yes folks, that’s right…the team that we all know and hate, the New York Yankees, were originally the Baltimore Orioles. So my question is whether or not there was any bitterness in 1903 when the city lost the O’s?
The answer is that I don’t know. Show me someone I can interview that was alive in and has clear memories of 1903. (I asked my Dad, but he just got ticked off and hung up the phone!) But first off, let’s remember that in 1903 sports were thought of as simply entertainment. Granted there was a business side to it even back then, but the general public wasn’t aware of that as much so as now. Not to mention that newspapers were the main way that people followed sports in that era. While radio did exist, it’s unclear if that era’s Orioles were carried on a local Baltimore station, and if so, the level of coverage most certainly didn’t equal what we hear on WJZ and MASN today. So the other qustion then becomes whether or not most people were even aware that Baltimore had a team! But that aside, if radio coverage was in existance, it only would have been for home dates, as in the early days of sports on the radio stations would only cover home games. (It’s doubtful that radio coverage existed however, because as a proud Italian-American I’ll tell you that Guillermo Marconi didn’t send morse code across the Atlantic until 1901.)
Odds are that most people probably opened the newspaper one day, found out that the O’s had left town, and thought to themselves, “…that’s a shame.” Nowadays we form bonds with our teams in that they’re part of our communities and our livelihoods. Speaking for myself, I root much more for the uniform than for anything else, so if a team moved away and didn’t change it’s name (i.e.-Brooklyn/LA Dodgers), I might be a little more bitter about that. I’ve met a lot of older guys that grew up rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers and are still Dodger fans even though they moved to LA. I have to agree with Baltimore Colt fans in that those uniforms, traditions, etc. belong to the city with which they’re associated, which is why Art Modell did the right thing and left the Browns in Cleveland. Too bad Irsay couldn’t have done the same in 1984. In fact, it would be poetic justice if the Ravens decided to come out wearing “throwbacks” this Sunday and wore the Colt home uniforms, with the Colts wearing their away uniforms. That would never happen, but it would be hilarious to see. As I said, I do like Peyton Manning, along with the Colts. But the people and the community of Baltimore is more important to me than are they, so Go Ravens!
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