BALTIMORE — WMAR-2 News Jamie Costello said he always know it was springtime when Phil Haxel would call him and say, "Jamie, they are going up."
They were the Orioles banners.
Haxel, the kid raised in Parkville, spent his life raising flags and banners.
He pulled the strings the night Cal Ripken Jr., "Baseball's Ironman," broke the record for most consecutive games played at 2,131 on Sept. 6, 1995. It was a magical night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
He worked for his family business Haxel Flags.
Please lower your banner or your flag, for we have lost Phil.
Haxel died last week at the age of 68.
He was such a humble man. Costello told him, “Phil, when you are long gone we will remember the night you pulled the strings for Cal Ripken.”
Family and friends will honor and celebrate Haxel's life at the family owned Evans Life Celebration Home in Forest Hill, MD – 3 Newport Drive with a receiving of friends on Saturday, May 7 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. A Celebration of Life will follow at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to either:
- Wounded Warrior Project at https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/donate
- Mann House Inc, Bel Air at ://mannhouse.org/donate-to-the-mann-house/
- Bel Air Volunteer Fire and EMS at https://www.bavfc.org/support/
