New Minor League Team Is a Major Draw

Concerts, fireworks and parachute jumpers feted the Washington region's newest baseball team yesterday as the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs took the field for their inaugural home game.

What started well ended well. The Crustaceans, as they are sometimes known, scored three times in the late innings to record a come-from-behind victory, 3-2, and send the sellout crowd home happy.

Before the first inning against the Lancaster Barnstormers, an Atlantic League rival, cheering fans filled the stadium just south of Waldorf. The rock band the Smithereens played, Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D) threw out the first ball and the more than 70 people who worked for 23 years to bring minor league baseball to Charles County were acknowledged.

"This ballpark belongs to the citizens of Charles County, whose quiet words of encouragement kept the fires of this vision burning on this project for more than 20 years," said County Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D-St. Charles), who first proposed a stadium in 1985.

Hodge spoke at a ceremony in which Brown and team co-owner Brooks Robinson, the Baltimore Orioles Hall of Famer, cut the ribbon to open the gate to the fans.

The festivities and full house reflected widespread excitement in Southern Maryland about the home opener for a team whose creation was derailed once in the 1980s and nearly thrown off track again at least twice in the past few years. Originally scheduled for a year ago, the Blue Crabs' debut was delayed by community opposition to the original stadium site in Hughesville and first-round construction bids that were more than 30 percent above budget. The stadium was built in the planned community of St. Charles.

Many fans grinned as they took their first look at the design of Regency Furniture Stadium, with its red sloping roof that pays homage to the tobacco farms that once dominated Southern Maryland.

Other features at the $25.6 million, 4,500-seat facility are a tall green outfield wall modeled after the Green Monster at Boston's Fenway Park, minor league baseball's largest video screen and luxury boxes on the field level.

"I just think it's beautiful," said Bonnie Moore, a Waldorf resident and the mother of three Little League players. "This is a dream come true for Waldorf."

Before the game, children flocked to the playground beyond the outfield, while many families with children picnicked on the lawn that serves as outfield seating instead of traditional bleachers.

The park has been touted as a major addition to quality-of-life offerings for families in Charles County, which has struggled to keep pace with the area's rapid population growth.

Ryan Slater, 9, who was one of dozens of children who came to the game dressed in Little League uniforms, said he has picked a favorite Blue Crab player: shortstop George Sandel, who was batting a blistering .381 through the Blue Crabs' first six away games.

"I'm going to come all the time because I like seeing the pros play," said Ryan, of Waldorf. "Maybe someday I'm going to play for the Blue Crabs and then play for the Orioles."