Baltimora

I was working in Maryland for most of this week and got a chance to check out the ballpark that established the "retro" trend for every ballpark that has been built in the past 20 years, including Safeco Field.  My visit to Orioles Park at Camden Yards was excellent.  Hurricane Irene had battered the area just days before but you'd never have known it.  The temperature for the entire game was perfect and the often oppressive east coast humidity was nowhere to be found.

Having watched games on television, I always thought the giant warehouse that is the signature of this park was across the street but it is actually the boundary to the center-right field concourse which is very cool.  On that concourse (Eutaw Street) is where I located the marker commemorating the titanic home run that Ken Griffey Jr. hit during the 1993 All-Star Home Run Derby.  It was a little hard to find because there is now an awning over the doorway beside it.  It appears as though every home run that reaches the concourse gets a similar marker, but Junior's is the only one on the wall of the warehouse (he has one on the ground from the beginning of the 1994 season, too).

Across the concourse from Junior's marker is where I found Boog's Barbecue and Boog Powell himself actually signing autographs—I didn't see a need to get one for myself.  I did, however, buy one of his barbecue sandwiches which was really tasty but nothing I couldn't live without (remember, I'm no foodie).  I walked the perimeter of the stadium and chose to climb stairs to the upper deck rather than ride the longest escalators I've ever seen.  Below the press box hung the number 46 in remembrance of Oriole pitching great Mike Flanagan who had passed less than a week earlier.

The ticket I bought for the game was in the first row of center field and there ended up only being about ten thousand people in attendance.  Everyone else missed a pretty good game.  There were early home runs from Brett Lawrie of the Blue Jays and Matt Wieters of the Orioles.  The Orioles blew a one run lead in the top of the 9th and allowed the Blue Jays to score the go ahead run in the top of the 10th.  But they came back and won it in the bottom of the 10th on a walk off single from Ryan Adams.  The final score was 6-5 and with that, Oriole Park at Camden Yards was officially my 12th away ballpark.