I’ve never been one that was too keen on the city of Baltimore, this despite only having been through the city once before for a few hours on a bus layover. However, while Baltimore will never make my top 5 list, Oriole Park at Camden Yards (a ballpark I’d been excited to visit for a long time), was so great it elevated my entire opinion of Baltimore and its people (just gotta remember they’re also Ravens fans… ok fine, shoutout Nat Connor).
My day in Baltimore began when I again left Pittsburgh following a good friend’s birthday (shoutout Ali). The usual suspects all went (Jill, Joe, Clare, Nick, Charlie etc.) to a restaurant for lunch which (obviously) kicked onto the night before I had to hit the hay before the 4 hour drive East from Pittsburgh to Baltimore early the next morning.
The drive was one that reminded me a lot of back home, with sprawling hills in West Virginia and Maryland running along side the highway from start to finish.
Finally arriving at about 12, I checked into my hotel (another beauty – shoutout Kimpton Hotel), showered and got ready for game 25/30 with the Orioles taking on their division rival Tampa Bay Rays.
Given Camden yards was only four blocks from my hotel, I decided to walk down and take in the atmosphere of the streets before the big game.
Despite this emptiness, once I arrived at the stadium I was truly taken aback by this modern classic.
Opening in 1992, Camden Yards was perhaps the pioneer of the modern “take” on the classic ballparks of yesteryear (think previously visited ballparks in Chicago and Boston), with exposed brick throughout, and using elements of the “B&O Warehouse” next door have created an awesome open space (only accessible with your game ticket) that makes it feel like a street party is going on next to an open deck with views of the diamond.
Then there’s the Orioles logo. Much like our friends up in Cleveland, the Orioles logo is up there with one of the best in all of baseball, and you bet that the organization reminds you of this, plastering it all around the stadium wherever you look – not that I’m complaining.
Lastly, it would be remiss of me not to mention another cool feature within the walkway between “B&O Warehouse” and the field. I noticed there were a lot of brass circles on the ground in random spots. When inspected, these are actually markings of home runs that were hit that went way out of the park and onto the walkway, and not just for Orioles players – for everyone who’s ever hit one that big (it might be hard to make it out from the pictures). Truly a cool and unique feature!
The game itself was another exciting affair (I swear I’m never this lucky with the hot streak I’m on), with the hometown Orioles giving their fans plenty to smile about early on with three runs in the first inning (including a two-run homer).
Both teams would exchange runs in both the second and fourth innings which made the score 5-2 headed into fifth.
The hometown birds would then add another run and then blow up even further in the seventh with three more runs and in the eighth with another two. Despite Tampa Bay also tacking on runs throughout in the later innings, the game was ultimately a blowout 11-5 win for the home team sending everyone on their way happy on “Garden Gnome” giveaway day (you bet your ass I got mine too).
Following the game it was time to check out some of what Baltimore had to offer so I made my way down to “Inner Harbor” which is considered the main attraction of the city (after of course Camden Yards).
I guess the best way to describe it (for those reading from Sydney), would be a smaller less congested version of Darling Harbour except with more homeless people and less street performers. It wasn’t the worst experience by a long shot, however it certainly wasn’t the best.
I finished my evening by further walking around the city taking photos of random buildings and statues, then retiring to my hotel for a solid nights sleep before taking on the treacherous 1-hour drive down to the nation’s capital Washington DC the next day.
Washington is a city I visited years ago and with so much history and culture, I cannot wait to go see it all again.
Thirty before 30 