Orioles Park at Camden Yard

Camden Yard
Originally uploaded by bdinphoenix

Orioles Park at Camden Yard, built in 1992 at a taxpayer cost of $110 million, gives you the feel of what a baseball stadium should be like. I don’t know whether it is the warehouse look behind right field, or the signs on the ramps that warn “Watch Out for batted balls” but you get the feeling that this is going to be a great place to watch a baseball game.

I went with family and friends to watch Baltimore’s Orioles play a match with the World Series Champion Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox, as usual, are in the thick of the early season fight for first place in the American League east division. The Orioles are in the unaccustomed position of also being in the hunt for the division lead. It had all the markings of a great game and it was.

After we settled into our seats I immediately realized there was not a bad view in the stadium. There were views from a distance but like Great America Park and Nationals Park, a spectator can clearly see the field from any location. The seats however, were not very comfortable and whoever designed the interior of Oriole Park neglected to add cup holders, a small but convenient feature that permits you to set your drink down and applaud the Orioles with both hands. The Oriole Park management also neglected to train its concession staff in the art of friendly service. Almost all of the concession workers were surly to the point of making me wonder why they worked at Camden Yard if they hated their job as much as it appeared they did.

The game was a doozy. We arrived late and the Orioles were already down 0-3, having helped the Red Sox along with two first inning errors. In years past that would have been enough to ensure that the Orioles had safely secured another loss. But not these Orioles. They battled back and were only down 2-3 when Luke Scott hit a three run homer to put them ahead, 5-3. He hit that homer off Boston ace Josh Beckett, last year’s top pitcher no less.

But these were the Red Sox and they battled back. Perhaps the key moment in the contest came in the seventh inning when the Sox loaded the bases with no outs. Manny Ramirez was batting against Oriole’s pitcher Jim Johnson. Manny worked Johnson for ten pitches before hitting the ball back to the mound, where Johnson started a rally killing double play; pitcher to catcher, to first base. Even this early in the year that might become a defining moment in the Orioles’ season. The next batter flied out to left and Baltimore’s lead was preserved.

The Red Sox later added another run but they went out meekly in the ninth inning. Boston slugger David Ortiz provided some comic relief in the ninth when he uttered some magic words to the umpire after a called third strike, and was ejected. Ortiz then returned to the dugout, where he pretended not to know he had been ejected. The umpire of course, held up the game until David left the bench area.

All in all, an exciting game at a very nice park. Now it is back to Phoenix and Chase Field.

Click on the photograph to see a photographic set of Camden Yard