Baltimore teams leave different impressions

BALTIMORE — Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium are only about 500 yards apart, but for the past three months the ethical and moral distance separating the teams — and the sports they play — could not be greater.

Indeed, the only common denominators between the teams are their success on the field and the fans who wildly cheer them.

The Baltimore Orioles hold a 2-0 lead over the Detroit Tigers in their American League division series. The Ravens are 3-1 going into a pivotal game in Indianapolis against the Colts on Sunday.

While local fans may bristle over the notion there is a halo hovering over Camden Yards, where the Orioles play, and a cloud hanging over the Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium, even the most loyal Baltimore fans concede they understand how the rest of the country may have this view.

“Unfortunately, the Orioles’ success in Baltimore is not going to mitigate it in New York or Atlanta or anywhere else where they’ve really painted the Ravens with such an ugly brush,” said Marc Sklar, president and chief executive of Gian Marco, a high-end menswear store in downtown Baltimore.

“In Baltimore, the Ravens could do no wrong before; the Ravens and Orioles will do no wrong now,” said the 67-year-old Sklar, a Baltimore native and a Ravens season-ticket holder.

Not that the Orioles are purer than the driven snow.

First baseman Chris Davis was suspended last month for testing positive for the stimulant Adderall. Major League Baseball announced the penalty, and the Orioles, without a fight, complied. The Ravens and the NFL appeared to do all they could to protect the team and the league after learning of the existence of a graphic security tape showing Ray Rice knocking out his then-fiancée in an elevator.

Orioles Manager Buck Showalter alluded to the bond between Baltimore fans and their two major pro teams.

“I can’t imagine a more supportive fan base,” Showalter said. “There is a closeness and identification with this club, and our guys will be there at the Ravens games. They pull for them.”

Johnny Unitas played quarterback here. Brooks and Frank Robinson and the fiery manager Earl Weaver were the faces of Orioles championship teams.

Those were magical times, when athletes were part of the community largely because they had to be. “It’s different now,” Sklar said. In the glory days of the Baltimore Colts, players did not earn million-dollar salaries in professional sports.

“There was no money in that,” Sklar said. “Don Shinnick was a professional wrestler; Lenny Moore owned a tavern. Today these guys earn obscene amounts of money. The reality is that those people were working-class people, just like Baltimore at that time.”

Sklar’s business partner, John Massey, said: “Baltimore was a factory town. It’s no longer a factory town.”

Professional athletes, no matter where they live, are no longer factory workers. And thanks in part to social media, they are not heroes anymore, either.

Which raises a question: Is it wise for cities to attach their images to sports teams?

Mayor Stephanie Rawl - ings-Blake speaks for many residents for whom the Colts and the Orioles have been cornerstones of civic pride.

“Whether it’s wise or not, cities are going to do it,” she said. “People look for something to root for.

“I don’t think you’ll find any team that hasn’t had its challenges. Ours have been more public than most, but they’re the same challenges that many people have in their families. And we’re looking to heal and to acknowledge when we’re right and acknowledge when we’re wrong, try to heal and move on. “That’s what families do.” Rawlings-Blake, whose father, Howard P. Rawlings, was a respected Maryland legislator and political activist, is a lifelong fan of pro football in Baltimore and of Orioles baseball.

She turned 14 on March 17, 1984, and 12 days later the Colts, who had been playing in Baltimore since 1953, left the city like thieves in the night and relocated to Indianapolis.

“I still have PTSD over that,” she said.

What is heartening — or distressing, depending on your moral compass — is that player misdeeds have had little negative impact on Ravens attendance.

“The crowds have not diminished,” Massey said. “The crowds have gotten bigger. I still see Ray Rice shirts on women and on men.”

Since the mid-1970s, Baltimore’s Harborplace has been a model of urban revitalization. The Orioles and the Ravens have added tremendous value to the downtown area.

“I don’t want to minimize the current issues that have surfaced,” said Dr. Jay A. Perman, president of the University of Maryland and chairman of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore. “I don’t think people in Baltimore want to minimize it. But I don’t see issues that need to be solved by the NFL damaging the image of downtown Baltimore or Baltimore in general.”

From a national perspective, Camden Yards is bathed in light and M&T Bank is wrapped in darkness. But viewed through the prism of a major metropolitan city fighting to survive, there is no light. There is no darkness.

Two teams, a 10-minute walk apart, are closer than you think.