Bill's Journal Entry #26

Oriole Park at Camden Yard

Date: September 5, 2002

Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Opponent: Texas Rangers

Travel companion: none

Link to my photos

Game Result: When I saw my game in Arlington, Texas, Alex Rodriguez got ejected for arguing a call at second base. Tonight, he made up for it. A-Rod hit two of the Rangers' five home runs, both before the third inning was over. The last one put Alex at 50 for the season. The game turned into a rout in the fifth inning, as Carl Everett hit a solo shot and Todd Hollandsworth hit a three-run job. Jeff Conine did hit a solo homer in the sixth for the home team, but all that did was reduce the lead to single digits. Final: Rangers 11, Orioles 2.

Stadium Summary: Camden Yards, the place where the stadium renaissance truly began. When this gem of a park opened in 1992, two things happened. One was that once again, people around the country re-discovered just how great a day at the ballpark can be. The other was that cities around the country realized just how poor and dilapidated their current parks were, and the construction boom began.

Camden Yards has so many beautiful features that, when it opened, were unique to their park. One is the brick-and-iron design. Nearly all parks built for fifty years prior to Camden were built with concrete being the primary visual feature-even though people already were acknowledging the beauty of the classic brick structures from the turn of the century. The Baltimore designers finally went back and brought that look to modern day. Another thing that the designers really concentrated on was the view of the surrounding area from inside the stadium. The warehouse is classic, and in my walking tour of downtown Baltimore, I could not find a view of the city that tops the one from within Camden Yards.

If you ask nearly anyone who has just built their own home if there is anything they'd do differently if they knew at the time they started what they know now, you usually get a long laundry list of items. In fact, it's said that most people who build more than one of their own homes don't get everything 'right' until about their fifth time through. This also holds true for ballparks. When other cities were designing their new parks, most started with roughly a Camden design, and then improved on the few negative points it has. One of the most prominent is the angle of the seats down the foul lines. In Baltimore, they face straight out into the outfield. To view what's happening in the infield area, you either need to sit at an uncomfortable angle, or really crook your neck. So several newer parks now have these seats angled towards the infield. Another item is the exterior of the home field entrance. While Baltimore's is fine, most parks that are newer than Camden have entrances that are actually stunning in their attractiveness.

In short, Camden has actually been superceded by many of its successors. But it's still a beauty, and still deserves all of the credit for being the first.

Best Baltimore pre-game activity: The Babe Ruth Home and Museum. Yankee Stadium might be "The House That Ruth Built," but Baltimore is home of "The House That Built Ruth". (Actually, I'm dumbfounded that I didn't see or hear that slogan anywhere around the place. It seems like such a logical nickname for it.) Babe was born in a house located just a couple blocks northeast of the Oriole Park-it's within easy walking distance. A couple of rooms have been kept in their original condition as much as possible, including the bedroom where the Babe was born. A couple other rooms have been turned into a museum about the Babe, with many artifacts from all through his life, from his schoolboy days through his whole career. And several other rooms are more of a museum about Baltimore sporting history-there's one room dedicated to Memorial Stadium, one to Cal Ripken Jr., etc. You can easily spend quite a long time there, but most probably don't need to, which means it can easily be done before a game.

Best concession 1-2 punch: Milwaukee's brats are the best stadium food in the Majors. But if you're looking for two items, it's hard to beat the pair of Boog's Barbecue and crab cake sandwiches. Boog's is a stand just outside the right-center field seating area (as well as a smaller stand in the Club level, if you're fortunate enough to have tickets there, which I was). You have a choice of meats; the beef is the most popular, and I can attest to its superbness. Even if you don't normally like it, add a little horseradish-but be careful, even just a little packs quite a wallop. The crab cakes are good, but get them when you can, as they have a tendency to disappear early. I had to go to more than half a dozen stands before I found one that still had some in stock, and I was told that this isn't uncommon. I highly recommend trying both, but if your appetite isn't one that normally would handle both in a one game time period, I suggest having the barbecue. Then, at a different meal, before you leave Baltimore, be sure to get down to the Inner Harbor, and have the "premium" crab cakes at Philip's Seafood. As good as the ones at the stadium were, they paled in comparison to these!

Most noteworthy surprising scoreboard absence: I had heard from several sources that the sign advertising "THE SUN", the primary local newspaper, had extra significance. If there is a close call on the field regarding whether a play is a hit or an error, the ruling of the official scorer would be posted by lighting the "H" in the sign for a hit, or the "E" for an error. However, there were several close scoring calls during the game, and not once did anything happen with the sign. One interesting feature of the auxiliary scoreboards is that instead of showing just the speed of pitches, as scoreboards in most stadiums do, they indicate what kind of pitch it was, with animation. The word "fastball" zips in quickly, the "curve" bends in, the "split finger fastball" comes in as two split pieces, etc.

Cool souvenir to celebrate my visits to all thirty stadiums: An engraved bat by "Stick by Stan". In 1995, Stan Oliver acted on his dream of running a baseball bat manufacturing company. Since then, his bats have been used by several big leaguers, including Ozzie Smith, Brian Jordan, and Scott Rolan. He has also opened stands in five stadiums around the country-Arizona, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Baltimore, and Philadelphia-where fans can buy bats, and have them laser engraved with text or signatures. I actually met Stan himself in Milwaukee at his stand. I considered getting a bat then, but decided not to, as at that time, whether I would actually get to all thirty parks was still in doubt, as a players' strike was looming. But now, that potential was completely gone, and I got my souvenir! It has three lines of engraving-The top line is "One Summer - Thirty Stadiums", the bottom line is "2002 Major League Baseball Season", and the middle line is my autograph. It's really sharp!

Stadium grade: B+  The park that started the tremendous "throwback stadium" building trend has been outdone by a few of its successors -- but not many.

Overall grade of my experience at the game: B  The park was great, the people were great, the food was great, A-Rod was great-but the Orioles weren't.

-- Bill Verkuilen  biggbill@hotmail.com 

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