Watching the Orioles play in Sacramento

I grew up not far from Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and attended many games and made many happy memories there. The Orioles were one of the best teams in baseball from 1966-1974 or so. I was aged 7 through 15 at that time. If you didn't attend the game, baseball was mostly a radio venue back then. Suffice it to say I listened to many hours of the radio, including many years with play-by-play announcer Jon Miller of more recent San Francisco Giants fame. Ironically, the colors of the Orioles and Giants are both orange and black. Professional baseball has come to Sacramento in the form of the (formerly Oakland) Athletics and when I found out my Baltimore Orioles were coming to town, I bought two tickets for me and Carol, my closet Orioles fan. Don't tell her family. So last Friday, there we were in section 103, sweating it out for the first few innings until the sun went down. Thankfully, we were under the roof in the very last row. Before the game, I researched the do's and don'ts of Sutter Health Park (the current name of the stadium). My main concern was "prohibited items." It turns out a lot of things are prohibited, including Orioles fans. Just kidding – there were a lot of those there that night. But prohibited items included backpacks, any bag that isn't clear, noise-making devices and water. "Back in my day" at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, my mother would sometimes make me two large hot dogs and send some Berger's chocolate top cookies with me when I went to the game. It was a different time. So we still got two overpriced hot dogs and garlic fires and later, some soft serve chocolate ice cream. It is not a ballgame without a hot dog. It was enjoyable even though the Orioles lost (or, depending on your perspective, the Athletics won). All in all, we had a good time. Hey, it's baseball. I wondered why we did not have too difficult of a time leaving the parking lot until I found out that there were fireworks afterward. Despite the inevitable and inescapable high prices of parking, seating and concessions, it was a good game to watch. Carol thanked me for not complaining about money (often my default attitude). Catch a game if you can, before the A's settle in Las Vegas in 2028. Tom Rupp is a Folsom resident and weekly Telegraph columnist. You can reach him at truppfolsom@yahoo.com.