The Baltimore Orioles are a dream on the field. Behind the scenes it’s different

Baltimore have been the baseball season’s unlikeliest success story. But their ownership’s taste for self-made controversy has threatened to dwarf the feelgood tenor at Camden Yards

With her Baltimore Orioles-themed Hawaiian shirt draped over her Baltimore Orioles T-shirt, Maureen Hall has been hooked on baseball since she was seven years old. The clacking sound of metal baseball spikes reminds her of the time she caught eyes with franchise legend Brooks Robinson as he jogged onto the field at Baltimore’s old Memorial Stadium. The muffled sounds of AM radio remind her of the nights she tucked a transistor radio underneath her pillow so she could listen to the Orioles before falling asleep. Weekday afternoon games remind her of when she ditched the nuns at Seton High School in favor of a deli sandwich and a daytime ballgame.

Standing beneath the brick buildings that tower over the right field pavilion at Camden Yards, Hall has the Orioles logo dangling from her earlobes, adorning the temples of her sunglasses and tattooed on the inner part of her left arm. She worked for 25 years as a middle school teacher, but that didn’t stop her from attending every opening day and, if she was able, around 50 games per season. Since Camden Yards opened in 1992, she spends as much time in the stands as she can.