We took advantage of our "not working" status this week to take a little two night jaunt to Baltimore, MD. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Inner Harbor, which, as the name implies, is a short walk to Baltimore's Inner Harbor area/ More importantly, it is even a shorter walk to Orioles Park at Camden Yards.
The trip did not start promisingly, as we arrived on Tuesday to pouring rain, winds, and temperatures in the low 40's. Definitely NOT a night to go to a baseball game. We did make it down to the Inner Harbor for dinner, however.
Wednesday was a nice day and we took the water taxi through the harbor to an area of the city called Fell's Point. As I understand it, this was a particularly rowdy district back in the 19th century. Lots of sailors and tradesmen and, ahem, bawdy houses. Today, it is a really cool area - art galleries and lots and lots of neat bars and restaurants, as well as restored and gentrified (i.e., very expensive) homes. We found a place called Riptide by the Bay and had a great lunch.
We also walked through the ball park in the morning. Not the ball park itself, but the area between the stadium and the brick warehouse that stands beyond the outfield walls. This a great area (much like PNC Park's River Walk). Later in the day, when it came time to head out to the ball yard, the rains came. We entered Orioles Park and saw a tarp covered field and rain pouring down. However, the rains slowed down enough - it never actually stopped - and the game got underway at 7:25.
During the rain delay, the Orioles showed the World Series highlight film from 1970, Orioles defeat the Reds. I was hoping they'd have showed the Orioles in the '71 or '79 Series, but what the heck. Interestingly, the '70 Series highlight movie mentioned how the Series was being played in the newly opened, state-of-the-art Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Hearing this while sitting in Camden Yards, the ballpark that was in the vanguard of ball park architecture that eventually led to the demise of stadiums such as Riverfront and Three Rivers Stadium was, I thought, very ironic.
Anyway, our seats were under cover so we we enjoyed watching the Orioles storm to their tenth victory of the season, a 5-2 trouncing of the Seattle Mariners. We were disappointed to learn that the Mariners had just placed Jack Wilson on the DL, so we didn't get to see him play, but we did get to see Ian Snell pitch a couple of innings in long relief. Perhaps more significantly, it was neat to see the great Ichiro play.
Camden Yards is a great ball park, worthy of all the accolades, I believe. The Orioles have fallen on hard times, and the ball park is fairly empty for most games these days (sound familiar?), and the crummy weather didn't help the atmosphere on Wednesday, but you can picture what a fun place it would be on a nice warm summer night with 30,000+ people in attendance.
I have included some pictures of our night at Orioles Park at Camden Yards.
In case you are wondering, the statue that I am standing next to is of Babe Ruth, native of Baltimore. Obviously, the statue depicts a younger, slimmer George Ruth.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos and write up. Sounds like you stayed at the same hotel I did when I went there. You had similiar weather - though you did get to see a game (mine was a rain out).
ReplyDeleteBaltimore is a great city to tour.
Thanks for sharing.