At Baltimore's newly built field of dreams, the lingering question is not whether people will come or not, it's how they'll get there.
After 38 years of commuting to Memorial Stadium, a neighborhood ballpark comfortably nestled in the middle of a grid of residential streets, baseball fans must head downtown where problems of traffic, parking and mass transit will be entirely new.
Gone are the days of backdoor routes and secret parking spaces that became as comfortable and familiar to the veteran fan as a well-oiled fielder's glove. Ahead is the era of Inner Harbor traffic, Interstate 95 and multilevel parking garages.
Is Baltimore about to confront terminal gridlock 81 times a year? Must fans leave their cars in upstate Pennsylvania to find an empty parking space? Will mass transit offer any salvation for the traffic-weary?
After several years of planning and preparation, the transportation experts have reached a consensus on these issues: They aren't really sure.
"I doubt seriously whether any community in the country has put as much work into making a new stadium work properly," said Robert T. Schaffner, the city's chief of parking management. "But it's difficult to know everything for certain."
For the most part, Schaffner and his fellow planners are keeping expectations low and warning fans in a $400,000 advertising campaign to scout advance routes. The only thing that's certain is that traffic will be heavy before and after games.
It was at Memorial Stadium. When 40,000 to 50,000 people travel to and from one place at approximately the same time, it has a tendency to do that.
But gridlock? Except in the immediate vicinity of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, it should be comparable to rush-hour most nights, the experts say.
The worst will come early in the season as fans adjust to the new ballpark, finding convenient routes and accessible parking once they get there. The worst of the worst probably will be Opening Day -- D-Day in traffic circles -- when a sellout crowd coincides with regular daytime Inner Harbor traffic.
"The majority of my garages will be full April 6 even before the stadium traffic starts," said Bill Roberts, general manager of Edison Parking, which controls 10 downtown parking facilities. "We're expecting the worst."
Coinciding with the opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards is the start-up of Baltimore's new Central Light Rail Line, the $446.3 million electric train system that eventually will cover 22.5 miles from Timonium to Glen Burnie.
A 13-mile segment from Timonium to Camden Yards will be open for limited game-day service beginning April 3. The system opens full time in mid-May.
An additional 3.2-mile section extending the light rail line south from Camden to Patapsco Avenue is expected to be added in July. The remaining link to Glen Burnie is not due to be ready until early 1993.
Few ballparks across the country are better served by public transportation than Camden Yards will be. In addition to the light rail, Baltimore's Metro subway line from Owings Mills and the Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) train lines to Brunswick, Perryville and Washington's Union Station will offer service to the games.
The MTA operates 24 regular bus routes that come within walking distance of the ballpark, and some of the routes have been adjusted to bring fans to the stadium's doorstep. Special shuttle buses will be running east-west along Pratt and Lombard streets and north-south on Eutaw and and Paca streets downtown. A ride costs 50 cents, and they are free with a transfer.
In addition, a fleet of express buses will carry fans from 13 outlying park-and-ride lots, including four "Super" lots where buses run continuously before the game.
Coaxing Baltimore residents out of their cars may not be easy, however. Transportation officials expect 15 to 30 percent of the fans to travel to games by mass transit compared with the 5 to 10 percent who took the bus to Memorial Stadium.
"I'm hoping we can attract a lot of people to transit who normally don't use it," said Ronald J. Hartman, state Mass Transit Administrator. "But what will people actually do? That's what keeps me awake at night."
To help encourage the use of mass transit, the MTA is offering special family fare rates. Buy an "MTA Baseball Card" and any group of four can travel on all MTA buses, Metro and light rail. The cards cost $8 for trips inside the Beltway and on light rail, $14 outside the Beltway. Users also must display four Orioles tickets.
MARC also will offer special discount fares for groups of four and families of four, with the deepest discounts offered the far-flung travelers.
To keep traffic moving, 50 to 60 uniformed police and city traffic personnel will be stationed along downtown intersections, and rush-hour rules will be imposed before and after games, banning most metered parking on downtown streets.
Variable message signs on I-95 and the Beltway will flash traffic conditions, and motorists can tune into to short-range traffic radio stations by tuning into 530 AM on their car radio near critical intersections.
To avoid delays, planners say motorists should avoid I-95 if possible, try less obvious routes like Pulaski Highway or Edmondson Avenue, come early and stay late. As many as 14,000 cars will be coming downtown for games, so an early arrival will make parking and traffic much easier.
Another important tip is to leave the stadium lot to fans from the south and park at a distance -- a 10- to 15-minute walk is ideal -- to avoid the post-game traffic crunch.
Coming from Owings Mills
David Granek of Owings Mills is already an Orioles fan. He hopes to soon become a light rail fan, too.
The Mass Transit Administration plans to offer game-day service on the Central Light Rail Line. The northern leg of the $446.3
million system from Timonium to Camden Yards will open full time in mid-May.
It's a short drive around the Beltway to Timonium where he, his wife, Margi, son Brian, 17, and daughter Jill, 20, can park for free and ride downtown for $8, the cost of an MTA Baseball Card pass.
The Metro from the nearby Owings Mills station costs more -- $13.20 for his family of four -- and the downtown stops at Lexington Market and Charles Center are still six blocks away from the ballpark.
"Light rail is eight bucks and it stops at the door," said Granek. "I don't want my wife and kids walking down Eutaw Street after dark."
But transportation planners believe that Metro would be a better choice, particularly for sellout games. The light rail is expected to be crowded, and parking is limited.
Metro, on the other hand, has 8,000 free parking spaces, and the run from Owings Mills to Lexington Market takes only 25 minutes
In addition, the shuttle bus down Eutaw Street will be free with a Metro transfer.
Coming from Memorial Stadium area
For 19 years, Marilyn Karr never had to worry about how to get to an Orioles game.
After all, Memorial Stadium stands a measly 130 feet from the her home in Ednor Gardens.
But with the opening of Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Karr is uncertain of what to do.
"I'm baffled," said Karr, 45, a housewife who attended an average of 50 games each season. "I don't have the foggiest idea of what to do."
An obvious solution would be a city bus or a special express bus from the park-and-ride lot at Memorial Stadium. The express buses run continuously -- every 10 minutes beginning 1 hour, 50 minutes before game time -- and cost $2 each way.
But Karr is not comfortable with the idea of riding on a bus. She'd be more interested in taking light rail, but no station with parking is convenient to her.
If she does drive, transit authorities recommend she park north of the stadium, perhaps a 10- to 15-minute walk away. Shuttles will be running up Paca Street and down Eutaw Street if she doesn't feel like walking. The cost is 50 cents.
The best route? There are lots of possibilities, from the Jones Falls Expressway to St. Paul Street, but her best choice might be to try the less likely ones, exiting Interstate 83 at Mount Royal Avenue.
COMING FROM ANNAPOLIS
James Cunningham, a salesman for a trucking firm, has access to company-owned season tickets and entertains clients, not to mention his 10-year-old son Brad, with trips to 12 or 15 Orioles home games.
So he called the Mass Transit Administration with a brainstorm.
"Why doesn't the MTA start offering an express bus service to Camden Yards?" he said.
"Already done," he was told.
So when the Cunninghams head to Camden Yards from their home in Arnold, north of Annapolis, they plan to drive to the Severna Park park-and-ride lot at Ritchie Highway and Jones Station Road, where there are 158 free parking spaces.
The 30-minute ride on bus No. 210 will cost the two of them $8 round-trip. They can take either the bus that leaves 1 hour, 15 minutes before the game or the one that departs 15 minutes later.
The buses will park next to the stadium on the Russell Street service drive, and they can simply reboard when the game is over.
Drivers coming from points south along Interstate 95 or the Baltimore-Washington Parkway should try the stadium lot first.
If it's full, look for the next parking garage with available spaces anywhere downtown. Expect to pay a $5 pre-pay fee.
Coming from Columbia
Robert Russell of Columbia isn't asking for much -- just a hassle-free way to the stadium that won't cause him to miss an inning or two.
Since 1989, Russell has been going to 10 games a year with his wife, Barbara, and sons Matthew, 12, and Danny, 8. The family generally drove to Memorial Stadium, a trip that took one hour door-to-door and meant getting bogged down in traffic and parking bumper-to-bumper in the stadium lot.
One alternative is the Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) train, which stops at Savage and Jessup and goes directly to the stadium on the Camden line -- $14 under MARC's round-trip family fare.
MARC plans to run special game-day service. The trains depart the ballpark within a half-hour of the game's end.
Another option would be park-and-ride bus No. 310 from the Snowden River Parkway lot -- $4 round-trip, but any group of four can take it for $14 with an MTA Baseball Card and four Orioles tickets.
If the Russells drive -- they've invested $450 in a permit parking space for the season -- they will take their familiar route downtown -- straight up Interstate 95. If that turns out to be too congested, they could choose to take Interstate 70 to the Beltway and Edmondson Avenue into town.