All’s Well That Ends Well in Baltimore

It was a day for antagonists, for fractionalism, yet somehow all that was put aside.

President Clinton was there, but so was Pat Buchanan.

Baseball’s acting commissioner Bud Selig was there, but so was baseball players’ union chief Donald Fehr.

There were plenty of people to boo, but the people at Baltimore’s Camden Yards had no problems finding people to cheer.

They were in uniform.

Clinton threw the first pitch, a change-up for a strike, and Buchanan watched enviously, taking a day off from his campaign to attain the Republican presidential nomination.

Clinton was booed, though not by Buchanan, and then the rest of the day there were cheers, many for Oriole starter Mike Mussina and even more for shortstop Cal Ripken, who drove in three runs in Baltimore’s 4-2 victory.

“It’s always good to get off to a good start,” said Ripken, who victimized Royal starter Kevin Appier for a two-run single in the first inning and an RBI single in the third on two softly struck loopers that dropped in front of Johnny Damon in center field. “We won today where we got contributions from a lot of people. We played good defense. Our closer [Randy Myers] came in and closed the game. A lot of things went right.”

Mussina gave up two runs and five hits over seven innings in beating Kevin Appier before 46,818 at Oriole Park.

Jesse Orosco worked the eighth inning and newcomer Myers pitched a perfect ninth for his first AL save.

New York 7, Cleveland 1--David Cone held the Indians to two hits in seven scoreless innings in Cleveland.

Cone held the Indians without a hit until Julio Franco led off the sixth with a single, but fought with his control all afternoon. He walked six and frequently worked from behind in the count against the team that led the majors in runs, home runs and batting average a year ago.

Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams homered for the Yankees, winners of five consecutive season openers and 10 of their last 11.

Detroit 10, Minnesota 6--Cecil Fielder had the first stolen base of his big league career and Buddy Bell earned his first victory as a manager in the majors for the Tigers in Minneapolis.

Pat Meares homered, tripled, doubled and drove in a career-high four runs for Minnesota. With a chance to hit for the cycle, he grounded into a double play to end the game.

Fielder stole second base in the ninth inning and later scored on Meares’ throwing error from shortstop. The Tiger slugger has played 1,097 games.

Seattle 3, Chicago 2--Sterling Hitchcock pitched seven strong innings in his Mariner debut and Luis Sojo added a three-run double in Seattle.

Hitchcock, who came to the Mariners in an off-season trade with the New York Yankees, gave up two runs and four hits. He walked three and struck out two.

Norm Charlton survived a rocky ninth inning for the save. He retired Chris Snopek on a groundout with the tying and go-ahead runs on base to seal the victory.

Wilson Alvarez took the loss for Chicago, surrendering three runs and three hits in seven innings.