As I get older, I'm increasingly reminded of my past by the deaths of celebrities. A very special memory came with the
news this morning of "Wild Bill" Hagy's passing at the age of 68.
If you were a
Baltimore Orioles fan in the 1970s and early '80s, you knew Wild Bill, or at least who he was. He gained notoriety in 1979, in a pennant-winning season that saw the beginnings of "Oriole Magic," with his famous O-R-I-O-L-E-S body spelling cheer in Section 34 of the old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. I was born six blocks from Memorial Stadium, and I'm an Orioles lifer. As he was to
a lot of people, Wild Bill was special to me, even though I never met him ... but I wish I had.
My favorite example of what kind of guy Wild Bill was involves his reaction to a stadium beer ban in 1985:
In 1985, Mr. Hagy began a boycott of Memorial Stadium because he was no longer allowed to bring his own beer in a cooler. The night before the ban went into effect, he downed nine or 10 beers by his count and then launched his empty cooler from the upper deck onto the field.
He was also distressed at the declining state of the team.
The Orioles tried to bring him back to lead a last cheer during the final game at Memorial Stadium in 1991. But he turned down the request, continuing the boycott.
Yet, although Wild Bill was a man of admirable principle, he also understood Oriole Magic:
He returned, far more quietly, a few years after the team moved to Camden Yards.
He was there Sept. 6, 1995, when Cal Ripken Jr. played in his 2,131st consecutive game. After Mr. Ripken took his lap along the outfield wall, Mr. Hagy led his signature O-R-I-O-L-E-S chant. "This is probably the most amazing love-in you'll ever see in Major League Baseball," he said that night.
Last month, Mr. Hagy traveled to Cooperstown, N.Y., on a bus to watch Mr. Ripken's induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. There, he led one last cheer for the fans sitting on the hillside with him.
Mr. Hagy continued to attend Orioles games at Camden Yards until this year. "I don't think most of the people around me know who I am," he told The Sun in 2004, "and that's OK; I kind of like it that way."
I'm actually welling up a bit as I type this. I was 13 during the 1979 season, and I'll never forget the heartbreak of the seven-game Series loss to the "We-Are-Family" Pirates that year, after the O's were up three games to one. I remember as a freshman in
college when I ran through the halls of my dorm when the Birds beat the Phillies in Game 5 to wrap up their 1983 World Series title. I had tears pouring down my cheeks on that memorable night in '95 when Cal broke the consecutive games record. Wild Bill punctuated those memories and many more, and I can still mimic the Wild Bill cheer to this day.
Thanks for the memories, Wild Bill.
Labels: obituary, Orioles, personal, Wild Bill Hagy
