A 25th anniversary stroll down memory lane (O's win 9-7)

Rick Sutcliffe, the man who stood on the mound for the first inning of the first game at Camden Yards back in 1992, remembers the excitement in his household as the letter arrived from the Orioles inviting him to the 25th anniversary celebration that's taking place this weekend, beginning with today's luncheon at the B&O Warehouse.

The feeling was much different for Glenn Davis, the former first baseman who arrived with tremendous fanfare and left as the centerpiece in arguably the worst trade in franchise history.

The Orioles sent outfielder Steve Finley and pitchers Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling to the Astros in January 1991 for Davis, a two-time All-Star who hit 166 home runs in parts of seven seasons before the trade, who finished second in Most Valuable Player voting in the National League in 1986 and won a Silver Slugger Award, who was viewed as a much-needed power bat in the middle of the order. But Davis managed only 24 home runs in 185 games over parts of three seasons in Baltimore, his career ruined by a neck injury that caused his right shoulder to atrophy.

The last three years of Davis' professional career were spent in Japan and the independent Northern League.

Davis admitted today, with tears in his eyes, that it wasn't easy to come back to Baltimore. But he's glad that he made the decision, no matter how hard it tugged at him.

"Yes, I have to admit. Yes," said Davis, who accounted for the first hit at Camden Yards with a single in the second inning on Opening Day. "Emotional. I can say that I might still have a lot of monsters in the closet that you still deal with, the mental aspect of where you felt like you let somebody down. The expectations were so great and the drive coming in every day, you just wanted to do so much for such great people. And the game of baseball, the fans, the city, your teammates. You just wanted to live up to expectations."

Davis' body failed him. And, in turn, he failed the Orioles.

"I knew after I was diagnosed after the first year with stretch palsy to the spinal accessory nerve, everybody said, 'What was that?'" Davis said. "I was paralyzed. It took me almost a full year to find out that I was paralyzed. And then the challenge of trying to get back to the point of being the player that I was before. It wasn't easy. But with these guys, what I remember the most out of all my teammates, my manager Johnny Oates was just incredible. To have the support of these guys and play behind them was amazing.

"This is a group that's really dear to me and I'll never forget Baltimore. Baltimore is a great place, greatest fans in the game, and I just wish it would have ended on a better note."

Davis, now 56, retired in 1996 after 39 games with the St. Paul Saints. Reluctant to make another appearance in Baltimore, he seemed to genuinely cherish the hours spent today at Camden Yards.

"As a player and these guys are my teammates, it's just great to be back together," he said. "Baseball's always been like one big fraternity and that's what it is. Here we are, just seeing each other. It's not talking about what happened back then and who did what and what was actually going on on the field. It's catching up with family and how you're doing. It's almost like nobody's changed.

"Maybe I've gotten older. Maybe they've gotten younger. I was amazed at seeing some of the younger players earlier. They still look the same. Then I got to thinking about, well, yeah, they were young back then. I was in my 30s and they were in their early 20s, so yeah, they're young. I tell people, now that I'm over 50 I can't see, I can't hear and I can't remember. But just catching up, that's great.

"That's always great spending time with your fellow teammates, because we know what it's like internally and working together - the bond, the fellowship, the brotherhood - of going out day after day. No matter what the circumstances or conditions. You're going out together trying to work for a common goal and a common good, and that's to win ballgames. These guys were some of the best guys that I ever played with, that I ever had the opportunity to put on a uniform and go out on the field with. They were awesome.

"Going through challenges in my career, these guys were some of the best guys in providing support and just keeping your mental focus and attitude where it needed to be, going out day in and day out and realizing what needed to be accomplished that day. It may have come down to just trying to contribute, do something that day to contribute, but for the most part it's one of the greatest group of guys I've played with. And being back here and seeing it all, it's amazing."

Everyone marveled at how the ballpark has held up over 25 years.

"The visionary aspect of how this stadium was built, No. 1, we could see the ball," Davis said. "Coming over from Memorial Stadium to Camden Yards, we could finally see the ball, especially at night when you could hit. But the visionary aspect, the architectural aspect, the people who were involved in bringing this all together ...

"You look at this ballpark, I sit here looking down on it in amazement. It doesn't even look 25 years old, it really doesn't. This is a class ballpark. Someone knew what they were doing. You have all these new ballparks out there and Camden Yards is right up there at the top, and I can't believe it's 25 years."

That seemed to be the theme as former players, and one current executive, were asked about the ballpark and the time that's passed.

"It's crazy. Twenty-five years goes by in the blink of an eye. I guess that's how life is," said Brady Anderson.

"It seems, not like yesterday, but not too long ago when Devo (Mike Deveraux) and I walked on the field for the first time when we got off the bus. Just checked it out. Can't tell you what he said. I almost did because I'm an idiot. But yeah, it doesn't seem long ago."

Said Deveraux: "When we first looked at the stadium, it was crazy. It was 2 o'clock in the morning or something like that. We had just come in from Florida. And if you think about it, Comiskey was a new stadium in '91 and you never heard anything about that. Coming to Camden Yards, it just blew up. And every stadium after Camden Yards was designed because of Camden Yards."

Deveraux sat with Anderson, Sam Horn and former outfielder Joe Orsulak during the interview and noted how every game was sold out during their time together. "And that was also a tremendous thing," he said.

Sam Horn was considered the biggest threat to the warehouse, a guy who would knock out a few windows, but Ken Griffey Jr. remains the only player to hit it - in the Home Run Derby before the 1993 All-Star Game.

"Now that I'm not trying to hit the wall, it looks a lot closer," Horn said.

"I remember when we first came to the ballpark, I was just in awe of the field, how nice it was prepared, and of course that right field. I just remember that was my target that I really concentrated on."

No one has hit the warehouse, listed at 439 feet from home plate, in a game despite the predictions and expectations.

"Sometimes, everything has to fall in place," Horn said. "Has to be great weather, has to be the wind blowing out, get your right pitch. I keep that in my mind all the time. But it just goes to show that from home plate it looks closer than it really is. All of this time and nobody's hit it in a game, so that just goes to show you just how far that wall is."

Did Horn hit the warehouse in batting practice?

"I hit it over the roof in batting practice," he said.

The guy hasn't lost his sense of humor over the years.

Horn joked about calling his shot in Saturday's Home Run Derby, just to "create a little static" among his friends. He's the favorite. Anderson also is participating, but not Cal Ripken Jr.

Not invited?

"No. He's not good enough to be in the Home Run Derby," Anderson said, delivering a playful jab at his best friend.

"I'll have to have a conversation with Brady before I respond to that," Ripken said. "No, Brady's still hitting in simulated games out here, so Brady's ..."

"Tell the truth," Sutcliffe said. "You said you hurt your hip playing golf yesterday."

"You're not supposed to say that," Ripken said. "I think Brady's trying to set the whole thing up so he can win."

Sutcliffe baptized the ballpark with a two-hit shutout over the Indians on Opening Day. Manager Johnny Oates wanted him on the mound that afternoon, choosing the veteran over Ben McDonald and Mike Mussina.

"Two days before Opening Day, we played an exhibition game at RFK and there was this huge submarine sandwich out there after BP to snack on, and a lot of us got food poisoning," Sutcliffe said. "The night before Opening Day at Camden Yards, my wife (Robin) had to drive to a pharmacy to get some stuff because I had it bad. I was throwing up, I had a fever, I had all kinds of problems.

"I remember my agent saying, 'You should call the manager and let him know he won't be able to pitch,' and Robin goes, 'He's going to pitch. Don't worry about that.' I remember laying on the trainer's table next to (Cal Ripken) Senior. Neither one of us felt very good. But it was one of those days where I was lucky that it was overcast. And I probably should have had that mentality more in my career because I didn't know how long I was going to last.

"I knew that I had a fever, I knew that I lost a bunch of weight, so I was trying to get outs as quick as I possibly could. I think a lot of that might have led to me having success. Maybe I should have done a lot more of that."

Sutcliffe began to have second thoughts about making the start, more than a week before the sandwich incident. He questioned whether he was the right guy. Oates knew it all along.

"Johnny Oates in December of '91 asked me to come back to sign with the Orioles," Sutcliffe said. "I had no intention of doing that. I was older, I had no business being in the American League East, but as a favor to Johnny, who as a long-time friend and one of the most important people, not only in my career but in my life, I came back here. He walked me out to the mound. It's cold, the ballpark's not even complete, and he said, 'I don't want you to tell anybody, but you're going to throw the very first pitch ever in this ballpark.' And goosebumps just overcame me. `I told my agent, 'Let's do it. I want to sign here.'

"With 10 days to go in spring training, I said, 'Hey Johnny, you're making a mistake. I shouldn't pitch opening day.' I go, 'Ben McDonald is a lot better than me.' And he goes, 'Well, Mike Mussina is a lot better than you are, too.' But he goes, 'I don't want them to have to deal with opening day, I don't want them to have to deal with the media and I don't want to have them lined up against every other team's No. 1 pitcher the first month of the season.' He said, 'If we're going to get to the playoffs and if we're going to be a contending team, we're going to do it on the shoulders of those two guys?' As far as the rotation was concerned. And I think he was exactly right."

Note: The Orioles announced an approximate start time of 7:40 p.m.

Update: Albert Pujols hit a two-run homer off Jeremy Hellickson in the first inning and Kole Calhoun homered on the next pitch to give the Angels a 3-0 lead.

Update II: C.J. Cron and Kaleb Cowart have hit solo home runs in the second inning to give the Angels a 5-0 lead. The four home runs are a career high for Hellickson.

Update III: Mark Trumbo homered off Andrew Heaney with two outs in the second, his 19th of the season, to reduce the lead to 5-1.

Update IV: Caleb Joseph homered to lead off the third and reduce the lead to 5-2. The ball is flying out of here.

It continued to do so after Tim Beckham singled with one out. Manny Machado homered to center field to cut the lead to 5-4. That's seven home runs in three innings.

Update V: Mike Trout hit a two-run homer in the fifth to give the Angels a 7-4 lead. Hellickson was done after 4 2/3 innings, serving up five home runs among the eight hits allowed.

Machado led off the bottom of the fifth with his second home run of the night to reduce the lead to 7-5. He has three multi-homer games this season and 12 in his career.

Update VI: Machado's third home run, a grand slam off Keynan Middleton with one out in the bottom of the ninth, gave the Orioles a 9-7 win.

Anthony Santander singled off Yusmeiro Petit for his first major league hit. Pinch-hitter Seth Smith walked, and Tim Beckham singled off Middleton.

This is Machado's third slam in the last 11 games and the seventh of his career.