CLEVELAND -- Still looking a bit out of place wearing Baltimore's black and orange, Mike Hargrove grabbed a seat in the visitors' dugout at Jacobs Field and took in the view.

"It's a little different," said Hargrove before the Cleveland Indians spoiled his return with a 5-2 win over the Orioles. "But it's good to be home."

Hargrove was back at Jacobs Field for the first time since being fired last October after the Indians blew a 2-0 lead in the AL playoffs against the Boston Red Sox.

And just like he did for seven years as an Indians player, and nine more as their manager, Hargrove drove into downtown Cleveland on Friday to get ready for a baseball game.

As Hargrove made his way to the ballpark, he was flooded with memories of his days in Cleveland.

There was the game in 1995 against Toronto when the Indians overcame an eight-run deficit to beat Toronto. And the '97 playoffs against New York when Sandy Alomar's homer beat the Yankees and propelled the Indians to the World Series.

"I got a little funny feeling in the pit of my stomach driving to the ballpark today," he said. "But it's good to be back."

Hargrove said his homecoming felt strange for another reasons.

"It's the first time in my baseball career that I've ever come as part of a visiting ballclub to a city and stayed at home," Hargrove said. "That was different walking into my house, opening my suitcase and living out of it."

Hargrove, or "Grover" as he is still known to Indians fans, finished as the second winningest manager in club history with 721 wins, seven shy of Lou Boudreau's club record.

During the second inning Friday night, a plane circled Jacobs Field trailing a banner that read: "WELCOME BACK, GROVER! WE MISS YOU!"

Hargrove's firing is still the subject of great debate in Cleveland. Many fans felt he had gotten a raw deal. After all, how do you fire a manager who has won five straight AL Central titles and helped resurrect a dying franchise?

Others felt Hargrove had worn out his welcome and had become so comfortable in his job that he wasn't motivated, and subsequently, neither was his team.

Hargrove said he isn't bitter about the way it ended with the Indians.

"I've got no regrets of anything to do with Cleveland," he said. "I enjoyed it here. I was a Cleveland Indian for a long, long time and was part of the bad times and more a part of the good times. I feel very good about what I was able to accomplish while I was here. But I'm an Oriole now, so it's a new chapter."

Hargrove's critics in Cleveland loved to knock the way he handled his pitching staff. They also said the only reason he was so successful was because of the Indians' All-Star lineup.

"I certainly wasn't perfect while I was here," he said. "There were some things that I did that I should have done better. And there's a lot of things that I did that I would do exactly the same way. The one thing that my time here proved to me, that given the opportunity, I could make good things happen, along with other people."

Hargrove wasn't sure what he might hear when he takes out the lineup card or makes a pitching change Friday night.

"I'm sure there are people in the stands who just assume I'd crawl in a hole and pull the sod over me," he said. "But I think there are going to be a lot of people in here who'll be glad to see me and I appreciate it.

"Just so long as they don't throw anything at me. Unless it's edible."

Hargrove got a warm ovation when he brought out the lineup card before the game.