It was a great day for a ballgame. I took Wednesday off and wandered down I-95 to Baltimore to watch my second-favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles take on the (stinking) Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards, one of the few ballparks yet to succumb to the lure of big money naming rights.The place was swarming with (stinking) Red Sox fans. Probably because they can't get a ticket for a game at Fenway, so they come to places like Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia and infest otherwise decent places with their (stinking) World Champions t-shirts and goofy accents. I try to act politely when I'm around them, because I realize that baseball was invented in Boston in 1996 and I owe them their due.
Prior to the game, I was able to find some quality time with my friend Beer in the centerfield picnic area, where I didn't exactly have a picnic, just some fries and a Harp. In the foreground, you can make out the giveaway item of the day. It's a seat cushion. When I arrived, I was asked how old I was. 50, I said sheepishly, expecting to be refused from whatever they were giving out. As it turns out, it was an AARP sponsored Orioles seat cushion, available to fans 50 and older. Lucky me. I guess they figure that us old folks need padded seats for our fragile backsides. I carried it around for a while. After the game, I gave it to a homeless woman who was sitting on the sidewalk without a cushion. She wasn't 50, but she looked like she needed it more than me.
I had a nice seat directly down the left field line. To my left was Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, who seemed more interested in the fans chanting his name than in actually playing the game. Later, he made a great catch against the wall and, I swear, took a second to acknowledge the fans screaming for him by giving the fan in the first row a high-five just before he turned and threw to first base to double-off the Orioles base runner.
Oriole Park is a nice place. It was the first of the new ballparks that were modeled after the old ballparks. For a while, every new park that was built was compared to it. Now that it's "old" I don't hear those comparisons much. Partly because the Orioles aren't very good and partly because almost every team has a new park, so it isn't such a big deal anymore. 
Prior to the game, I was able to find some quality time with my friend Beer in the centerfield picnic area, where I didn't exactly have a picnic, just some fries and a Harp. In the foreground, you can make out the giveaway item of the day. It's a seat cushion. When I arrived, I was asked how old I was. 50, I said sheepishly, expecting to be refused from whatever they were giving out. As it turns out, it was an AARP sponsored Orioles seat cushion, available to fans 50 and older. Lucky me. I guess they figure that us old folks need padded seats for our fragile backsides. I carried it around for a while. After the game, I gave it to a homeless woman who was sitting on the sidewalk without a cushion. She wasn't 50, but she looked like she needed it more than me.
I had a nice seat directly down the left field line. To my left was Red Sox left fielder Manny Ramirez, who seemed more interested in the fans chanting his name than in actually playing the game. Later, he made a great catch against the wall and, I swear, took a second to acknowledge the fans screaming for him by giving the fan in the first row a high-five just before he turned and threw to first base to double-off the Orioles base runner.
Oriole Park is a nice place. It was the first of the new ballparks that were modeled after the old ballparks. For a while, every new park that was built was compared to it. Now that it's "old" I don't hear those comparisons much. Partly because the Orioles aren't very good and partly because almost every team has a new park, so it isn't such a big deal anymore. The O's fell behind quickly, 3-0 and the "Let's Go Red Sox" chants were starting to annoy me. There were almost 29,000 people at the game, and at least half of them were Sox fans. I asked a cop if there was a city ordinance limiting the number of Red Sox fans in a building. None. They need to work on that.
That was just before Orioles left fielder Jay Payton brought a nasty end to the Sox fans fun. He hit a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving the Orioles a come from behind 6-3 lead that they would hold and send the Sox and their (stinking) fans home disenchanted.
I spotted this nice sign at a place called the Wharf Rat, a block from the ballpark. A perfect end to a nearly perfect day.
6 comments:
your account of the day was about the best ball game i've ever been to..anyone who wipes the sox is ok by me..living in the northern northeast, i am in a major minority when it comes to the sox thing..and of course, even hated worse because i occasionally root for the yankees...you probably dont have much niceties to say about them either, which is ok , because im not a diehard fan and knew them when they were 'the team"... but im originally from NY state and i grew up on them. the mickey mantle poster still hangs in the homestead garage...
id like to drink beer and go to a ballgame at a nice park..
what a great day for you...
I noticed that a neutron star passed overhead when you took those pictures. The tidal effects were most pronounced.
I can't believe you didn't invite me! Where was your head at Anthony?
but are they stinky?
FISHEYE!
Love it!
OK, so cactus tree and anna are invited to Philly for a ballgame at Citizens Bank Ballpark - even nicer than Baltimore's. Who else?
forty-two: The tidal effect is enhanced by the beer effect. A scientific principle developed by Professor Coors at the Weyerbacher Institute of Technology.
you look good in red.
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