For one Baltimore fan, Sunday is a first in more ways than one.
Timothy Bess, a Ravens superfan from Danville, Kentucky, has never been to a Major League Baseball game. He’s also never tried to cram football and baseball into the same day. That changes when Baltimore stages its first-ever day with regular-season games for both the Ravens and Orioles downtown.
Bess will be there for the whole stretch, taking in the Ravens’ home opener against the New Orleans Saints and then sticking around for the Orioles’ night game against the Milwaukee Brewers, with Baltimore fans trying to pull double duty for both teams.
His routine in Baltimore is already set. He starts at Blue Moon Too in Federal Hill, then heads into a tailgate around 10:30 a.m. with local friends he’s made over the years. After the 1 p.m. kickoff, he’ll take a break before settling in again for the Orioles at 7:20 p.m.
That adds up to about 13 hours, but Bess doesn’t sound concerned.
“The newness of never going to a baseball game should be a revamping energy,” he said. “And hopefully the Ravens take care of business, so I’m flying sky-high after that one.”
The setup is unusual even by Baltimore standards. M&T Bank Stadium and Oriole Park sit next to each other and share parking lots, and the teams’ leases are written so the Ravens should avoid scheduling home games on the same day as the Orioles, since the MLB calendar is released first.
The point is to avoid traffic jams and security headaches. It has happened a few times before, but never with both teams playing regular-season games on the same day.
For fans like Bess, it creates a rare kind of citywide overload - Baltimore’s own Barbenheimer.
He and his wife, Amber, are using the chance to finally get to Camden Yards. Bess even mixed up the ballpark name, calling it Comiskey Park, which is a fair mistake from someone who doesn’t follow baseball closely. Still, the plan was simple.
“I found us some good tickets at a great price, and we decided to do it,” he said.
The trip has already been a grind. On Friday night, Bess drove an hour to watch his son play high school football, then got home around midnight.
By 5 a.m. Saturday, he and Amber were back on the road for Baltimore, and they won’t head back to Kentucky until Monday.
Bess has made the Ravens part of his life for years. He usually goes to five games a season, often with one of his children - his daughter’s middle name is Raven - and this will be his fourth straight home opener. This time, though, the kids are staying with grandparents.
His loyalty traces back to childhood. Bess grew up in Ohio with a Browns-fan family, and when the team moved to Baltimore in 1996, he moved with it. His Ohio relatives have never let him hear the end of it, but he’s not backing off.
“Best decision I ever made sports-wise, I’ll tell you that much,” he said.
Even as a Kentucky fan, Bess has found room to appreciate Lamar Jackson, who starred at rival Louisville.
“He’s just so fun to watch,” he said.
The last time both teams hosted non-preseason games on the same day was in 1997, when the Ravens played at Memorial Stadium in Waverly and the Orioles had a playoff game later that afternoon. The Ravens kicked off at 1 p.m., and the Orioles began after 4 p.m. Some fans made it to both, making the short trip to Camden Yards in time to see the Orioles beat the Seattle Mariners and clinch the series.
Sunday’s crowd will have the same kind of easy walk between stadiums, with less than a half mile separating the two venues downtown. Bars are expected to be full, horns will be blaring, and fans who do both games will be looking for a quick reset before the second act.
“Probably eat,” Bess said of the break. “Maybe take a nap, depending on how things go.”
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