Cal Ripken Jr. at Wednesday’s ceremony honoring the 1983 Orioles

From today’s b, the paper

Seeing the Orioles reach out to the community in new and old ways this season with nostalgia and Hall of Famers has been a nice surprise, although it’s no doubt a ploy to make money, not just to shower true love upon the franchise’s past.

And seeing the first era of the Ravens — Brian Billick’s ambush firing and Jon Ogden’s ho-hum retirement — pass before our very eyes has made me wonder. How much do you care about nostalgia when it comes to sports? Is it all about what are you going to do for me more than what you did, in some cases, many years ago?

I’m about to cross that barrier of being an old guy when it comes to Baltimore sports, having been involved in the media for 25 years this January. And the past, the heroes, the accomplishments and the memories still matter to me, but not as much as they used to. It seems to me that a 30-year-old (or younger) might have very little interest in the 1983 Baltimore Orioles. And care even less about the 1971 Baltimore Colts. Or the concept of the Colts outside of Indianapolis in general. It’s as if history class was back in the eighth grade: boring! Like it or not, it’s hard for a sports team in the 21st century to pimp its athletes as being “larger than life” heroes.

Part of my fascination with sports as a child was hearing my Pop tell stories about Johnny Unitas and Lenny Moore. And about the 1966 Orioles championship. And the Colts losing to the Jets in 1969. These athletes and teams were mythical in my household. If you doubt the way this city felt about sports over the past half-century, just rent the movie “Diner” tonight.

When I’m around younger people these days, they ask or know very little about the sports eras from yesteryear. Maybe I collected too many baseball cards as a kid or had too much time on my hands, but Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle and Bart Starr and Wilt Chamberlain were names I knew, and their stories were interesting to me in a way that the history I was taught in school wasn’t.

Hey, I’m a sucker for the “classic” laundry most of the time. Just seeing the O’s bust out those sweet white-paneled hats Wednesday night makes me swoon for the old days. But I get a feeling the younger generation has better things to do than genuflect toward the stars of the past or legendary Orioles on their summer nights. Am I right?

Nestor Aparicio, owner of WNST-AM 1570, writes about sports and more. His column appears Mondays and Fridays.

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