One of Baltimore’s great photographers was Leroy Merriken, a street shooter near the end of a career that had begun in the Roaring ‘20s, when I landed on the Sunpapers sports desk in 1978, the year the Orioles won 90 games yet couldn’t rise above fourth place in the AL east.

Photo by Bruce Goldfarb

Until he retired after more than six decades at the paper, Merriken–best known for a 1930 photo of Babe Ruth in which the Bambino stares into the sky at a foul tip–was the guy who took the opening day shot each spring.

In a 1983 Sports Illustrated story by former City Paper reporter Franz Lidz, Merriken was said not to have missed taking an opening day photograph for 67 years in a row.

[The much reprinted Ruth photo was made on May 1, 1930 at the old Oriole Park on 29th Street in Waverly. It was an exhibition game--the last ball George Herman would play in his hometown--the hated Yankees against the International League Orioles a quarter-century before the major leagues returned to Crabtown.]

“I thought his name was ‘American’ for the longest time,” said former Sun photographer Edwin Remsberg, an infrequent visitor to Friday lunch with the Aging Newspapermen’s Club at Enrico’s. “When he got real old, I think they propped him up in a box with a camera and left him there for the game. People said he liked to shoot from the overhangs [catwalks] at Memorial Stadium with massive 4×5 lenses.”

In the spirit of Mr. Merriken, Welcome To Baltimore, Hon! is launching a season-long baseball project in which a different photograph of Oriole Park at Camden Yards will be taken every day–rain or shine, game or no game, home or away–and posted on its Web site.

The key to the idea’s success is getting as many people involved as possible: kids, amateurs, apprentices, professionals (Kristine Buls and Jennifer Bishop are already on board); heck, even my mother, a bleeding orange O’s fan still getting over the release of Melvin “Smiley” Mora.

We are aiming for six months of pictures of Camden Yards, one a day from April 1 through as deep into October as the Birds are able to go. Different shooters, different perspectives, same pile of bricks. Each morning, the photo from the day before will be on view at Welcome To Baltimore, Hon!

Photo by Bruce Goldfarb

Every photo will be a hotlink to the Web site of the photographer’s choice. Thus, if you are a professional chef who happens to love photography, baseball, or both, double-clicking on your Camden pic will take a reader to your restaurant’s web site. And so on.

In the end, we will have a true “Baltimore family album” of more than 180 sequential photographs of one of the most cherished dots on the Baltimore map: inside the stadium, outside, and around. From hot dogs to the homeless; players to party girls.

If you are a true student of the game, take a shot of someone coming in high to break up a double play. If architecture is your bag, the green girders may wind up in print. We are sure to get portraits of more than a few babies–cute and not-so cute–in Oriole onesies.

Beyond this, the project is sure to take on a life of its own.

All contributors must sign a release to allow Welcome To Baltimore, Hon! to use their work, and two or three high resolution shots must be emailed the same day they are taken to camden@welcometobaltimorehon.com.

The month of April is already spoken for and May is filling up fast.

So say cheese, hon, and play ball…

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• Participating in the Baltimore Kitchen Project
• Crabtown Observed No. 14: Looking Out the Window on Eastern Avenue
• Crabtown Observed No. 13: Wire Actor Waxes Poetic on Indie Film
• Crabtown Observed #11: Remembering the Deluxe Theatre
• Crabtown Observed #10: Wishful Thinking on Falls Road