The night before the biggest game of his life, Bruce Zimmermann walked on to a quiet, empty, mostly dark Camden Yards field to imagine how things might go the next day—and take in the setting.

In a scene from a baseball fairytale, a little after 9 p.m. on Sunday, with no one else around, the 27-year-old that grew up a 20-minute drive away near Ellicott City stepped on the pitcher’s mound at Oriole Park and gazed at the sights.

There was the Opening Day logo spray-painted in white in the grass behind home plate. The new deeper, and higher left field wall, reconstructed in the offseason, to help pitchers just like him. And, of course, his eyes drifted to the iconic brick warehouse in right field, gently lit in the black sky.

“It was storybook, in a way,” Zimmermann said.

So was what happened the next day.

In the 30th Opening Day in Camden Yards on Monday afternoon—and the first home opener in two years where most of the stadium’s seats were filled—Zimmermann’s performance compelled thousands of fans to chant his first name, as if he were the New Jersey-born lead singer of the E Street Band.

Bruuuce!

On a warm spring afternoon, the 6-foot-1, 220-pound leftie buttoned-up his No. 50 Orioles jersey and threw four scoreless innings. He tossed 66 pitches in all, and allowed only three hits to power the Orioles to their first win of the year, a 2-0 victory over the visiting Milwaukee Brewers. (If you’re a fan of symmetry, it was the exact same score the Orioles won their first-ever game at Camden Yards, 30 years ago.)

For a guy only beginning his second full big-league season, who grew up in the Baltimore suburbs, went to high school at Loyola-Blakefield, and then had a mostly unremarkable stint pitching at Towson University, it was as magical a day as they come.

“This one will always be up there for sure,” Zimmermann said afterward, standing near his locker. “I have to put it right there with my debut, maybe a little bit more, with everything and the environment. The first time seeing Oriole Park like that, as a player, was incredibly special.”

It was for those of us in the crowd, too. For one thing, the noise was back, along with the sense of a freewheeling, communal experience that, even with limited crowds last year, has been largely missing from Camden Yards since 2019 because of the pandemic.

On Monday, when Orioles outfielder Cedric Mullins smacked a go-ahead, two-run single in the second inning, scoring lightning-fast shortstop Jorge Mateo all the way from second base, the cathartic sound of celebration was reminiscent of a big playoff moment.

“Oh yeah,” Mullins said. “That was awesome. It was an exciting moment. And we’re going to have a lot more.”

Frankly, Opening Day 2022 felt almost normal, as if we had we not lived through the past two years.

I was one of the rare few to attend the last two home openers. In 2020, I sat with a few dozen onlookers in the press box for an eerie July game against the Yankees played in front of no fans and in near silence with hand sanitizer use strongly encouraged.

Last year, a limited capacity of roughly 10,000 fans took in the O’s more traditional early April opener against the Boston Red Sox. We wrote then that it was a step toward life as we used to know it.

This year’s Opening Day marked another, and perhaps the biggest—in a baseball context. It was a crisply played game in which health protocols and COVID-19 worries finally seemed secondary to what happened on the field.

Before Zimmermann’s first pitch, fans strolled down Eutaw Street in orange-and-black gear, without masks, some in pursuit of a fresh Boog’s Barbecue sandwich, others in search of a table at Dempsey’s Brew Pub on the first level of the warehouse.

Yet a few other architecturally-inclined minds—and some kids in search of baseballs from the Brewers warming up on the field—headed straight to something new: the remade left-field stands.

In the offseason, the O’s removed roughly 1,000 seats from the short porch in left, making the field larger and home run wall a little higher, a design intended to reduce the number of home runs that fly out of the park, some that would be routine flyouts in other pro stadiums.

If it looks like someone—or specifically, construction workers—carved a slice out of what used to be there, that’s exactly what happened. There’s also now an awkward sharp corner in deep left field that we hope no one runs into full speed.

One game into the season: So far, so good.

Eventually, everyone (the crowd was announced as a sellout of 44,461 but there were obvious empties to the contrary) found their seats, and the lower bowl filled beneath a clear blue sky and gentle sun, as the orange carpet was rolled out in center field to cap off orchestrated pregame ceremonies.

As part of the festivities, Mullins received a giant Silver Slugger trophy—marking his peers voting him the best hitter in all of baseball at his position in 2021, following a breakout season in which he became the first Oriole ever to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season.

Fan favorite, cancer-beater and longest-tenured O Trey Mancini, who started at designated hitter, received the loudest ovation. First baseman Ryan Mountcastle, who set a team record for home runs by a rookie last year, beating a mark previously held by Cal Ripken Jr., enjoyed a loud welcome back too.

After the game, Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, who, like the rest of us, didn’t sign up for the circumstances of the past two years, said, “It was fun to hear Orioles fans cheering, and a lot of them. Our guys fed off the energy.”

Also during pregame, on the scoreboard in center field, Baltimore-based poet and author Kondwani Fidel delivered a video tribute to Camden Yards’ 30-year anniversary that gave us chills.

The Morgan State University choir, which performed the national anthem at Oriole Park on April 6, 1992, did the same this year (more symmetry!), while a giant flag from Fort McHenry was draped behind the green facade.

And, for the ceremonial first pitch, Kortez Baker, the son of slain Baltimore City police officer Keona Holley, as well as relatives of the three city firefighters who died in action in January, and the one who survived, John McMaster, took positions near the mound.

Then there was Zimmermann, who became the first Maryland-born pitcher to start a home opener for the Orioles since 1990, and first to ever do it at Camden Yards. And it happened nearly four years after he first joined the Orioles organization as a minor-leaguer via a trade that sent pitchers Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day to the Atlanta Braves.

Before the game, Hyde said he hoped Zimmermann could handle the obvious butterflies in anticipation of the moment. He started 13 games last year after being called up late in 2020, but had never started Opening Day in his hometown ballpark. (Thus the night-before walkthrough, perhaps.)

After the game, Hyde said, “Zim pitched extremely well,” and highlighted his effective mix of fastballs, changeups and curveballs.

So how was Bruuuce’s anxiety level? “Pretty manageable,” Zimmermann told us. “It was high, but I knew it was going to be high. It was another start, with a lot of added adrenaline. I was more concerned about just getting through a clean first inning and setting up the rest of my outing.”

After a 1-2-3 first inning, we heard his first name being chanted a little bit in appreciation from O’s die-hards. And, after the second inning, when he struck out a batter with an off-speed pitch and a runner on second, it felt like we were at Springsteen concert. Same at the end of the third, when he got out of a bases-loaded jam following a brief mound visit from pitching coach Chris Holt.

“Walking off and hearing the Bruuuce chant and everything,” Zimmermann said, “that really hit and fired me up a little bit more.”

So did the knowledge that a large crew of longtime supporters, including his parents, aunts and uncles, and former college coaches were in attendance behind home plate.

Admittedly, though, Zimmermann tried not to look at them. He feared even a momentary distraction in the loud, jumpy environment could veer him from the vision of success he’d had on the mound in the quiet moments at Camden Yards the night before.

“Internally, there was a lot going on,” he said. “Usually, I do try to peek up, but [with] the magnitude of the day today, it was just kind of, ‘Stay focused as long as possible.’”

That was about four innings. On the surface, a performance of that length might not seem like something worth much glory, but it was the most that was expected of him. Given an abbreviated spring training stemming from labor negotiations between Major League Baseball owners and players that delayed the start of preseason and Opening Day, Zimmermann’s pitch count on Monday was predetermined to be 70.

He finished four just shy of his maximum, and he looked sharp, striking out four and allowing two walks. Two-thirds of his pitches were strikes, a very good sign of things to come.

“It’s a long season ahead,” Zimmermann said, “but getting this win and everything about today was the perfect way to set off a hopefully long, healthy, successful season.”

EDITOR’S NOTE 3/16: Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has ordered the closing of all bars, movie theaters, restaurants and gyms across the state until further notice, effective 5 p.m. Monday. Drive-thru, takeout, and food deliveries will be available. Additionally, in keeping with the latest Center for Disease Control guidelines, he has also prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people.

“We have never seen anything like this before,” Hogan said in a press conference announcing the changes. “By these actions, we’re going to stop the spread and we’re going to save lives.”

The butterfly effect surrounding the rising cases of coronavirus across the state of Maryland and the United States has been far-reaching. Among the first public institutions that made the decisions to close earlier this week were local colleges and universities. At the University of Baltimore, students are being prepped to take online classes from their instructors, as they will not return to campus after spring break as a precaution—a measure that will likely be in place for all universities in the Maryland state system.

“It’s become a new reality,” says Darlene Smith, the executive vice president and provost of the University of Baltimore. “We’re planning for an extended period of this, and we’re reaching out to students to make sure that they’re prepared. Our teams come into work every day, even before we get to the office, wondering what’s next and what’s changing.”

Indeed, the developments and updates surrounding COVID-19 are coming minute by minute, prompting many of the city’s public institutions to act in an effort to inhibit patrons’ exposure. In some cases, spaces around the city are closed altogether. Here is a running list of gathering spaces whose operations have been impacted by the virus:

MUSEUMS

Earlier this week, member organizations of the Greater Baltimore Historical Alliance met to discuss best practices in the wake of the coronavirus. Many museums in the city are remaining open, instituting double cleaning measures to ensure a safe environment for guests. However, large events and public exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, and the JHU Museums have been cancelled until April 12.

On its website, the Baltimore Museum of Industry posted a statement detailing its close-monitoring of the situation, reiterating its commitment to hygiene.

Port Discovery Children’s Museum is temporarily closed to the public. A reopen date has not been announced.

The Walters Art Museum has announced its closure from March 14 through March 31.

The Baltimore Museum of Art will be closed until April 12.

The National Aquarium announced in a statement that will be closed from March 14 through at least March 27. All employees will be paid during this closure.

“The aquarium believes it is their ethical responsibility to adhere to the scientific community’s recommendation to limit large social gatherings at this time,” the statement reads.

SPORTS

March marks what is supposed to be the beginning of the Orioles season, as spring training nears its end and Opening Day approaches. But Major League Baseball has cancelled the remainder of spring training games, as well as the first two weeks of its regular season. At this point, it is unclear when the season will begin. The news also means the cancellation of the Orioles’ planned exhibition game against the New York Mets at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.

“The Orioles organization is fully supportive of Major League Baseball’s decision to suspend Spring Training games and to delay the start of the 2020 regular season by at least two weeks,” the team said in a statement. “The health and safety of our players, fans, staff, and partners will always be our top priority.”

The Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum will remain open. According to executive director Shawn Herne, the museum is also instituting double cleaning measures and being vigilant about maintenance. The museum has an outdoor event planned around Orioles Opening Day, which will be postponed until the season officially begins.

RECREATION AND PARKS

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski announced Thursday that while Baltimore County parks will remain open, events managed by the county’s Recreation and Parks Department will be cancelled.

Baltimore Recreation and Parks has suspended all recreational programs, rentals, permitted events, and recreational facility services from March 16 through March 27. Additionally, with the exception of the Frederick, Dorothy I. Height, Cahill at Edgewood Elementary, Walter P. Carter at Guilford Elementary, and Ft. Worthington centers, food will be served from 2-7 p.m.

SCHOOLS

At a press conference Thursday afternoon, Maryland Superintendent Karen B. Salmon announced that all public schools will be closed for two weeks starting Monday, March 16th until March 27.

PUBLIC GATHERINGS

On Friday, The Guinness Open Gate Brewery announced that it will be closed until further notice. The Baltimore St. Patrick’s Day Parade has also been postponed, as has the Under Armour Kelly St. Patrick’s Day Shamrock 5K. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced at the same Thursday press conference that all gatherings of 250 people or more are banned until further notice.

Additionally, the Sole of the City originally set for April 11 has been postponed until July 25.

The Theater at MGM National Harbor has cancelled its scheduled shows through March, and a Michael Ray and Carly Pearce Show at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races has been postponed until October 17. Tickets will be valid for this rescheduled date.

Fells Point spots Max’s Taphouse, Kooper’s Tavern, Slainte Irish Pub and Restaurant, Woody’s Cantina, Poppy & Stella, The Admiral’s Cup, The Horse You Came In On Saloon, and DogWatch Tavern have all voluntarily closed until further notice. The Admiral’s Cup’s sister property, Bookmaker’s Cocktail Club in Federal Hill will also be closed.

A number of Little Italy restaurants are also voluntarily closing, but are offering curbside and delivery options.

Hersh’s in Federal Hill has closed temporarily, and Golden West Cafe in Hampden is switching to delivery and pick-up only until further notice.

Governor Hogan has ordered the closing of all casinos, racetracks and off-track betting facilities for a to-be-determined timeframe.

Metro Gallery has postponed its weekend shows as well as a scheduled show next Friday.

The Parkway Theatre is closing from March 13 through March 26.

VOLO Baltimore, which hosts recreational sporting and bar leagues, has postponed all scheduled events through March 30.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore announced all public Masses are cancelled until further notice.

The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has cancelled public worship services beginning March 15 until at least March 27.

The Maryland Zoo is closed until further notice.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES AND BOOKSTORES

In a message posted to Facebook, Enoch Pratt Free Library CEO Heidi Daniel announced the cancellation of all public programs until March 31. City libraries will remain open in the meantime. Daniel added that cleaning materials and hand sanitizer have been provided to Pratt staff to have on hand.

“We feel this is in the best interest of keeping both our staff and customers safe,” Daniel said.

Elsewhere, local bookstore Greedy Reeds announced on Instagram that it is temporarily closing its stores. The shops are offering same-day delivery orders of $25 or more for those within 10 miles of its Fells Point store. Staff from both shops will be on call during business hours to answer questions and accept orders by phone or email.

Hampden’s Atomic Books is taking a similar approach, closing to the public until the end of March and shutting down all events until mid-April. Employees will still be at the store for those with any questions or requests and to fulfill online orders. The shop is also offering deliveries for those living within two miles.

The Ivy Bookshop and Bird in Hand will remain open, and are taking a fluid approach to upcoming events, urging those interested to check their calendar.

PERFORMANCE SPACES

The Hippodrome Theatre at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center has responded to questions surrounding coronavirus with a statement as of March 12: “We intend to stay the course with our programming schedule. Extra precautions like sanitation stations, extensive cleaning and disinfecting protocols are in place. We will remain vigilant and are prepared to make decisions based on current needs, as well as in response to changing conditions.”

The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) announced that it is calling off all public events until March 21. Its ticket office will contact patrons who planned to attend these events for further instructions: “Given the seriousness of this evolving situation and concern for the health and well-being of our audiences, musicians and staff, the organization has cancelled these public events as the best course of action for our local and global community, as the institution does its part to minimize the spread of this virus,” the statement reads.

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Baltimore Improv Group, The Strand, Arena Players, Vagabond Players, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Rams Head Live!, Fells Point Corner Theatre, and Creative Alliance have issued similar statements.

Additionally, Creative Alliance has put a new full refund/exchange policy in place during the month of March, delayed the Baltimore Old Time Music Festival—likely until the summer—and fully cancelled the March 21 performance by the Marja Mortensson Trio. Everyman Theatre has waived ticket exchange fees and upgrade charges for the remainder of its New Voices Festival. Charm City Players has halted pre-show activities, but performances will continue as scheduled.

In a Facebook post, Ottobar announced that all events until April have been postponed.

“This was not an easy decision but felt to be the correct one,” the post reads. “The threat that COVID-19 poses is much greater than anticipated, we cannot in good conscience put the public, bands, and our staff in harm’s way.”

This post will be updated with further developments.

It has been a long, strange, and often unfortunate season full of anomalies for the Baltimore Orioles, so perhaps it makes sense for this team to be the ones to break a crack in baseball’s history books. Prior to Thursday night’s 10-8, 16-inning win, no position player had ever recorded a save in Major League Baseball history. But when outfielder Stevie Wilkerson took the mound early Friday morning, he became the first position player to do so since the save became an official baseball statistic in 1969.

“I don’t think I’ve wrapped my head around it yet,” Wilkerson said after the game, according to the Baltimore Sun. “What a wild game. That was just crazy. I’m glad I could go out there and be part of getting us a win.”

This was the third time Wilkerson has pitched in relief for the team this season. Position players taking the mound is one of baseball’s delightful quirks—rare enough to be notable when it does happen, raising social media sirens on accounts devoted to cataloguing the eccentricities of baseball.

Here was someone being tasked to do something they don’t normally do. In Wilkerson’s case Thursday night, that meant tossing 50-plus mph pitches, and doing it well enough to get his team a win. And if that wasn’t enough, he also made an impact with his bat, knocking in a tying run with an RBI double in the eighth inning. It was, of course, his only hit in seven at-bats.

The events that led to Wilkerson’s save were just as unique. After five scoreless extra innings, the Orioles sprung for three runs in the top of the 15th, but the Angels fired back and tied the game back up in the bottom of the inning. The Orioles scored two more in the top of the 16th, setting the stage for Wilkerson, who etched his name in the history books. It’s only fitting, too, that the win was the Orioles’ first trailing after seven innings in 63 tries.

“I think that was the best day of the year for all of us,” summed up shortstop Jonathan Villar.