Camden Yards rocking like it is 1997

BALTIMORE (WMAR) - It's long been argued in this charming city of ours, is Baltimore a football town or a baseball town?

Certainly in the last 15 years if you made the latter argument, it echoed off an empty seating bowl at Camden Yards, but if history is any indication, that argument may find an audience in the crisp autumn air.

The pillars of one of major league baseball's most storied franchises revealed themselves in bronze this season, the past seemingly on a parallel course with today's players who, like a character in a Shakespeare tragedy, are in the throws of seeking a classic literary redemption.

Hundreds of thousands of Oriole fans have been locked in what by any measure was an abusive relationship for 15 years, only now, only in September are they willing to consider forgiveness.

This team is doing what every baseball mind said they would never do; at the top of their division on Labor Day...not Memorial Day and that finally has Camden Yards rocking like it is 1997.

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"If we can return to some of those times, it makes a difference."

And to the tune of millions of dollars says Anirban Basu who runs the Sage Policy Group, an economic consulting group here in Baltimore.

This Oriole resurgence is not just a feel good story he explains, it's a very real and very important economic one.

"Look at what happened in Philadelphia after the Phillies won their world series, it's possible and if you do that it means a lot of economic impact.  As I say, several hundred thousand to millions of dollars of economic impact.  Remember if the Orioles are good, they get on TV more, the city gets more exposure, national TV and that is very positive as well.  It is hard to calculate the marketing impact of that but it is significant," said Basu.

It is Tom Noonan's job to try and calculate that impact, the president of Visit Baltimore has been waiting for this resurgence and says it could mean anywhere from a 10 to 20 percent bump in hotel occupancy, more spending at restaurants and downtown businesses.

The Os are a known Baltimore brand around the country, the consistent success of which can only translate into a tourism boom well beyond the eight Ravens games.

"They [tourists] say we know about crab cakes, we know about the harbor, we know about the Os, we know about the Ravens and we know about Hopkins.  That's our brand and the fact that one of our brands is really shining right now, the rest of them are too, but it is nice to have that brand shining again and an example of why people want to come to Baltimore," said Noonan.

And with 81 home games a year for a shockingly sudden competitive team, add any sort of playoff run and the Os can become the most powerful bang for this city's Buck.

But all of that is predicated on the Oriole faithful and the economics of the heart are a far more complicated equation.

The crowd on the first night of the Yankee series just may be where it starts, where Baltimore buys in, where they forgive, forget and fall in love all over again because this is September and just four days before the Ravens open their season, Baltimore is once again a baseball town.