If anyone needs a reminder of how much better things used to be in Baltimore, check out this article in the Baltimore Sun (quick, free registration). It mentions some of the more colorful characters who have attended O's games over the years. There is an update on Wild Bill Hagy in the article:
In all the years of baseball at 33rd Street and Camden Yards, the most enduring character is Wild Bill Hagy, the Dundalk cab driver with the full beard and jug-band hat who led cheers from the upper deck in the 1970s and '80s, when the Orioles seemed always in the hunt for a pennant.
The Hagy thing developed the way these things should - spontaneously, a natural progression from man sitting with beer and watching his team, to man standing and leading cheers by spelling the name of the team with his pot-bellied body, to man becoming local legend and the face of down-home Baltimore.
Hagy, now 65, retired in January from driving a cab. He subscribes to a 29-game plan with the Orioles, his seat in the first row of Section 312. Once in a while he leads a cheer, but for the most part he keeps a much lower profile at Camden Yards. "I don't think most of the people around me know who I am," Hagy says with a laugh, "and that's OK; I kind of like it that way."
Hagy and his Section 34 gang flourished at Memorial Stadium in a time when such things could develop on their own, without contrivance by marketing managers. His was a genuine outburst of affection in the time of tank tops and Oriole Magic. Before it was over, Hagy had secured iconic stature, and someday there will just have to be a statue.
The people from the past were truly colorful and unique. The recent people mentioned are a guy who dresses up for games (big deal! No wonder Baltimore is terrified of Washington getting a baseball team- the Hogettes will put these clowns to shame) and that idiot lemonade shaking vendor. Granted, the first time I saw him, I was amused, but this is out of control. The guy is a motivational speaker and minor celebrity. You can book him to come to your event dressed in his vendor's uniform and do some shaking. You think he's booked this Saturday night?
Check out his website for some scary almost pornographic photos.
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3 comments:
I had no idea who that lemonade guy was but after seeing those photos, I hate him with all my being.
-jeremy
That lemonade guy is a complete wanker. Much, much cooler is the beer guy that has the battery-operated automatic can-opener wired down his arm and to his hand ("Robovendor," as I like to call him). I still can't figure out how he isn't constantly electrocuting himself.
As for 33d St. characters, what about Reggie? (The vendor that used to repeat--at the top of his lungs--everything announced by Rex Barney). That guy was intense--and he even sold beer at the away games!! Not kidding--my parents and I saw him at an O's game in Fenway in '85, I think. Floyd Rayford hit a homer off of Oil Can Boyd, if I remember correctly.
i completely forgot about the vendor who would mimic rex barney. oh how i miss both the vendor and rex. although i guess i can't really say i miss the vendor since i had forgotten about him. but now that you reminded me, i can remember him very clearly.
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