When the Panasonic Open gets under way at the Camden Yards Sports Complex on June 21st, two-time Dew Tour champ known for wearing a Baltimore Orioles baseball cap everywhere he goes will be throwing the first pitch of the 2007 AST Dew Tour with a home-field advantage.

Practically all of my family is still there, so Ill have drama for sure, says Bucky Lasek, the favorite son of the Bmore skate scene. Lasek won the Dew Cup for overall Tour performance in Skate Vert in both 2005 and 2006, and couldnt be happier about bringing the tour home as he swings for the fences once again. I finally get a chance to skate in front of my hometown, and Im pretty stoked.

During Spring Training out in California, Laseks been warming up a few new curveballs: Watch for nollie flip Madonnas, a nollie flip mute 360, and the McEgg an inverted backside handplant 540. Well try to ditch the baseball analogies from here on out, but one innovation the AST Dew Tour has brought to action sports has been the introduction of a season-long points system and the ability to track each athletes performance stats. Suffice to say: When it comes to Vert Skate, Lasek has the best batting average in the game.

As we were making our own travel plans to the big ballgame, we caught up with the hometown hero to ask for Bucky Laseks Top 5 Things To Do In Baltimore:

Number one: Eat some Maryland crabs, or if youre not a good crab picker then at least go for the Maryland crab cakes. Number two: Eat another crab cake. You wont regret it. Number three: Enjoy a snowball. Find a good snowball stand. [Editors Note: The Snowball is Baltimores signature sno-cone. Well bring you more in Bmore slang translation later, as necessary, in case you havent been watching The Wire.] Number four: Go out to the bars and clubs downtown. Baltimore is crazy, and youre guaranteed to see something crazy go down if you go out in Baltimore. Its great. And number five: Basically just eating is the main thing. You cant go wrong. Can you tell Im looking forward to heading home?