A little bit of old Baltimore died yesterday - A remembrance of Wild Bill Hagy

[BrianLindenmuth]

I felt compelled to write this and since there are no other Baltimore people here please feel free to ignore it

It's a sad day. A little bit of old Baltimore died yesterday.

My phone rang yesterday much more then it normally does on a rainy Monday evening at dinner
time. Everyone had the same thing to say but it was my mom who broke it to me first. Wild Bill Hagy had died. Maybe the rain was appropriate.

Ironically we had been talking about him just the day before. Everyone I spoke to had stories to
share about the wild days of Oriole magic, Memorial Stadium and the man himself.

He was a Dundalk cabdriver who would refuse fares from out of towners who openly displayed the colors of the opposing team especially those of the reviled Yankees. He met two presidents. He might just be in the top 5 of most popular Orioles ever and he never played a single game. He signed more autographs then most players did.

His signature move was the O-R-I-O-L-E chant contorting his body into the shape of the letters as
everyone chanted the letters then getting everyone up and yelling with a wave of his tattered cowboy hat.

For many Baltimoreans of a certain age to invoke the name of Wild Bill Hagy
is to produce an instant smile. For those of us who smile at those memories Wild Bill was the embodiment of Oriole magic, something which has been missing for close to 20 years now.

When the O's made the switch to the new stadium Wild Bill didn't follow. Something was lost in
the translation and Camden Yards was just a different place in a different time with a different type of fan.

But he did make the occasional curtain call. He led Camden Yards in a cheer when Cal Ripken broke
the record. But the vibe was different and the old energy just wasn't there. It's easy to imagine the yuppie Washingtonian fan telling the person that he was talking to on his cell phone to hold on as this big, burly, bearded guy did his thing and looking on at this alien dance with confusion then returning to his call without even leaving his seat.

Just recently he went to Cooperstown to witness the induction of Ripken into the Hall of Fame and
stood one last time and did the chant for those sitting around him.

The memory of him leading the entire stadium in his famous O-R-I-O-L-E chant atop the dugout may start to fade but he will never
be forgotten. Wild Bill Hagy was the greatest Orioles fan that ever lived and there will never be another like him.

A little bit of old Baltimore died yesterday.