COMMENTARY: America could use more such men today, not least in politics, like the 1966 Baltimore Orioles.
I am not usually given to apocalypticism, but I think I got the imagery exactly right when, in 2001, I called my brother and described the ruins left by the demolition of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium as akin to “the abomination of desolation” (cf. Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11).
What had once been our youthful field of dreams, where we encountered mythic figures — Triandos and Wilhelm, Robinson and Aparicio, Palmer and Weaver — was a field of rubble. And in a weird compromise that satisfied no one, the magnificent brick-and-concrete façade with stainless steel Art Deco lettering that had named the old ballyard was left in place for a few months before it, too, was torn down, adding insult to the desecration of memory. The façade’s stirring inscription should be remembered, a quarter-century later:
ERECTED BY THE CITY OF BALTIMORE 1954/ DEDICATED BY THE MAYOR AND THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE PEOPLE OF BALTIMORE CITY IN THE STATE OF MARYLAND/ AS A MEMORIAL TO ALL WHO SO VALIANTLY FOUGHT AND SERVED IN THE WORLD WARS WITH ETERNAL GRATITUDE TO THOSE WHO
