Vernon Hallis initially selected his Orioles seats online, but he wasn't sure he'd made the right choice until Saturday, when he brought his family to the ballpark to get an in-person view of the field.
He was among dozens of season ticket holders who went to Oriole Park at Camden Yards for Tag Day to pick their seats for this year.
Available seats — marked by white and orange pennants — cost as much as $4,095 for an 81-game package near the home team dugout. A 13-game plan in Upper Reserve could be had for $160.
Greg Bader, a team spokesman, said the Tag Day tradition dates back some 30 years to Memorial Stadium as a way to let people "try out their seats before they make a commitment." He remembers Tag Day 1987, when his dad brought him to the ballpark to pick their season seats, an experience that "cemented my love for the Orioles."
"We think a lot of people are ready for spring," Bader said. "Whether it's cold or not, people are thinking baseball."
Bader wouldn't reveal how many season ticket holders the team has, but the club expects more this year after last year's division championship.
Hallis, of Eldersburg, is among the first-time purchasers. He tried some other locations but remained sold on his original choice — two seats in Section 55, Row 5 that will give him enough cover from the elements and an unobstructed view of the diamond.
And it will be there that Hallis imagines building a new family tradition with his unborn grandchild, expected this summer.
"For me, this is a special this year," said Hallis, a youth pastor and high school math teacher in Carroll County. "I wanted to start bringing grandkids to the games one at a time. My dad would bring them to the ballpark, and have that granddad-grandkid experience. It was a neat thing I wanted to continue with my family.
"I'm set and I am ready to go when they're born."
His daughter, Jessica Lockett, said she's excited for her child, due Aug. 15, to have the same experience she had with her "Pop Pop."
"We used to come and have breakfast with him and get a souvenir at the park. Just us and him," she said.
Closer to the field, Dennis Schultz, a retired letter carrier and season ticket holder for nearly 20 years, stood with two friends and his Orioles account executive, Jacki Olup, talking about seating options.
Schultz, of Forest Hill, said getting out to the Yard reminded him of how close opening day is. The home opener is April 10.
"It feels good. It always feels good," Schultz said. "Baseball's on the radio. It's on TV. We're almost there, a couple of weeks away. Spring is here."
His friend Mel Howell of Bel Air ticked off the reasons he was considering a season ticket plan.
"The Orioles are a good team, they're doing well, and we're retired now, so work doesn't get in the way," Howell said.
Like so many fans, Orioles baseball has been part of Sharon Robinson's life since she was a child. Robinson, of Columbia, persuaded her husband, Charles, to commit to a 13-game plan for about $350 a seat in Section 59.
Robinson, a retired Baltimore math teacher, remembers going to the games with her uncles when she was growing up in Dundalk.
"It's an American pastime," she said. "Rather than watch it on the television, I come to the games for a real-life experience."
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