ABERDEEN'S first family of baseball has truly given its hometown a field of dreams. When the elegant new 5,557-seat Ripken Stadium opens tonight, it will join such minor-league shrines as Norfolk's Harbor Park and Indianapolis' Victory Field as must-see destinations for fans' pilgrimages.

Among minor-league baseball's 176 teams, some may have catchier names than the Aberdeen IronBirds. Some examples: the Batavia Muckdogs, Hickory Crawdads, Kannapolis Intimidators, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. How about the Lansing Lugnuts or Wisconsin Timber Rattlers? But no other team surely can boast of a more handsome $18 million stadium - or a Hollywood-like story that goes along with it.

In that story, Cal Ripken Sr., a catcher and Orioles farmhand, is on the road, while his kids, the daughter included, play ball in the pastures and woods near their Harford County home. None plays harder than Cal Jr. "If you didn't feel good, tough, you still played," brother Fred once recalled about the future Orioles legend. "When he got old enough, a sprained ankle might have gotten him out of cutting the grass, but not out of playing ball."

That attitude was the foundation for a legendary career in Baltimore. It ended last year, but his legacy will be rekindled tonight in Aberdeen.

Now that the stadium has been built, will the fans keep coming? Why wouldn't they? Game tickets won't cost an arm and a leg, and Aberdeen - which is an hour from Baltimore or Philadelphia - is tailor-made for family outings. It has other things worth seeing as well - from the Ripken Museum to the Ordnance Museum.

With all the attention that is heaped on the Ripken Stadium, all other minor-league teams in Maryland - from the Delmarva Shorebirds to Hagerstown Suns - should get a well-deserved boost. Professional baseball may have its troubles, but the minor-league teams, once plagued by attendance problems, have been thriving. That's the way it should be, because they are still mostly about the game - not about money.

Tickets to tonight's game have been coveted items for weeks. The Williamsport Crosscutters, however good they may be, are in an unenviable position. The Aberdeen IronBirds have the crucial at-home advantage: They are Cal's team playing in the Ripkens' field of dreams.