Baltimore baseball fans were once revered for their passion. In recent years, the attendance numbers at Oriole Park at Camden Yards have dipped. But today, a group of Orioles fans will attempt to create a unified voice to explain why they?re no longer coming in droves to cheer for the team they love.
“The people are crying out for a new owner,” said Nestor Aparicio, who owns sports-talk station WNST 1570 AM. “I hear it every day, and I hear it everywhere I go.”
Aparicio is optimistic that 10,000 fans dressed in black will gather in the Camden Yards upper deck to voice their issues during today?s 4:05 p.m. game against Detroit.
“The community feels helpless,” Aparicio said. “For one day, for one afternoon, they will be able to be heard en masse.”
Don?t expect things to get ugly, though.
“This isn?t some vigilante, angry mob scene,” Aparicio said. “This is a bunch of people showing their love for the Orioles and, at the same time, their disdain for [owner] Peter Angelos.”
A planned mass exodus from the stadium is scheduled for 5:08 p.m. According to a release from WNST, the significance of the numbers is simple ? the “5” is for Brooks Robinson, and the “8” for Cal Ripken.
“I?m sure it?s going to be an absolute outpouring of love for the team,” Aparicio said. “People love the team, but they?re angry at the owner.”
The Orioles are aware of the rally, which has been in the works for about two months.
“If anything, I think it may have a negative effect on the players,” Orioles executive vice president Mike Flanagan said last week. “That?s the thing that I?m most bothered by.”
Flanagan pointed to the potential for a bright Orioles future, with budding young talent on the field and the newly incorporated Mid-Atlantic Sports Network on board.
“I think it?s awful timing,” Flanagan said.
Aparicio, however, points to a ninth straight losing season as reasoning for his timing.
“I think the timing of it is phenomenal,” he said. “They need to see what their fans think. They?ve been ignoring their fans, and they?ve been protected by the media and their rights-holders for a decade.”
Still, Flanagan said he feels that a walkout will have a marked effect on those people on the field.
“They may not say it publicly, but they?re very upset by it,” Flanagan said of the players in the Orioles? clubhouse. “I just think you don?t want your fan base turning against you.”
Aparicio says the target of animosity isn?t the team itself, but Angelos, who led a group that bought the club in August 1993.
“The real problem is they don?t understand people,” Aparicio said. “They don?t understand their customers, and they don?t understand Baltimore.”
