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O R I O L E P A R K A T
C A M D E N Y A R D S
September 1, 2011
Toronto Blue Jays v. Baltimore Orioles
12:35pm
Toronto 8, Baltimore 6
WP: Camp (2-3, 2.71 ERA)
LP: Eyre (1-1, 5.40 ERA)
S: Francisco (12)
Attendance: 11,617
Time: 3:01
84 degrees, partly cloudy
Camden Yards was the first of the new retro-style parks. It opened in 1992 and saw Cal Ripken, Jr. become the new “Iron Man” of baseball three years later. It’s capacity was close to 50,000 until renovations this past offseason brought it down to be more compatible with other parks. Since 1992, they have hosted the third-most number of MLB fans. Attendance has been off over the last couple years, even setting an attendance-low back in a 2010 game with just over 9,100 fans.
This was the “Battle of the Birds”. Jays and O’s. The Jays entered right at the .500 mark, while the Orioles have struggled mightily this season. This was the rubber game of a 3-game set, and the O’s had only won two home series all season. Two! The Jays had a good lead early but the O’s fought back, helped by back-to-back dead center homeruns. The Jays, however, got a couple runs in the eighth and held on. There was a blown save, and that guy also picked up the win. I think that should somehow be outlawed. Either give the win to the guy who had the lead or don’t give it to anyone at all.
The Atmosphere: This is clearly a great place for baseball. It’s a nice stadium. Good location. Easy to get around the park. Inviting. Right now, though, it’s just too quiet. At one point, a guy down the row sneezed, and a guy in the next section over shouted, “God bless you!” It got a chuckle. That reminded me of, “The island is so small...you sneeze and the guy on the radio says, ‘God bless you.’”
The Scorecard: Bifold card. The scoring is kept on a single page, and I think the layout is spot-on. Empty boxes! Yea! The card was just a little flimsy. It needs to be a little thicker. If it were, it’d have a shot at making the top 5. Also, something different...the scoring takes places on what would be considered the back cover, not “inside” as you’d usually find.
The Hot Dog: Mine was known simply as “Jumbo Dog”. Grilled out in the outfield, I thought it was pretty good. It’s not a top 5, but it did have good taste. Reminded me of eating a dog off the charcoal grill at home. They are Esskay brand, a Baltimore company.
The Broadcasters: Their main guy is Joe Angel. I liked his voice. It reminds me of another voice, but I can’t think of who. He’s been in broadcasting since the 1970s and was even with Jon Miller and the Giants for a season. I thought he and the other guys called a good game, and I just liked Joe’s voice, so they’ll take over the #5 spot.
Entertainment: They don’t go crazy here. There are racing hot dogs, but it’s just a few seconds on the big board. Their version of the cap dance is the “Crab Shuffle”. They play Jon Denver’s “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” after the 7th inning stretch. I have no idea why they do that here, but apparently they’ve been doing it since the 1970s! They also play it in Atlanta, which makes a little more sense. Their mascot is “The Oriole Bird”, one of the few out their that makes sense, although he’s not as funny as some of the others.
Scorecard.
They offer some game-used items at the park. They are sold by Hunt Auctions, which to me spells dollar signs. I think the teams that use places like that (ie Steiner used by the Red Sox and Yankees) would make a lot more money if they just did it themselves. I’m sure these companies take a good chunk. I’ll have to look on their website at some point in the future to see if I can get a ball from this game. I doubt I’ll be able to as it sounded like they only get random balls from time-to-time.
Views from Around the Park:
Other words: Another one to go back and see when the team is a bit stronger.
Gripes: Scorecard is close, just make it stronger. No ballpark gripes.
O R I O L E P A R K
B A L T I M O R E , M A R Y L A N D
H O M E O F T H E O R I O L E S
The Eutaw Street gate opens 2 hours before game time. I know this gets you access to the area in front of the warehouse and into the outfield, but I’m not sure about the rest of the stadium. I do know the entire stadium is open to roam at least 1-1/2 hours before the game. There was no batting practice today. This game was originally scheduled as a night game. I assume it was moved before Baltimore is hosting a Grand Prix starting tomorrow and the streets are being shutdown. Due to that change and the traffic, attendance was low. Even some players arrived later than they should have. That may have been part of the reason for no BP.
The Crowd: Small crowd, and from what I’ve read smaller crowds are becoming the norm here. It’s going to take them a few years to get the club beefed up again. They’ll have to get it going down on the farm and bring them up. I didn’t see any scorecards. I did see a couple radios.
The Stadium: It is considered to be in a “sports complex”, but it doesn’t feel that way. It’s in downtown Baltimore so it’s not like you have to drive out to the edge of town to get to it. There’s plenty of places around it in terms of restaurants, bars, and hotels, so the location is a winner. The most unique aspect of the park is the view of the B&O Warehouse, which also serves as part of the stadium. Of note, the outfield wall is the first in MLB to be made up of straight wall segments since Ebbets Field. Also, the playing surface is 16 feet below sea level.
S T A T I S T I C S U P D A T E
MLB Games Seen
24 of 31
Days
62 of 86
Driving Miles
12,680 of an estimated 18,735
Estimated Gallons of Gas
667 of an estimated 1,102
States
30
Hot Dogs Eaten
Too Many
Border Crossings
0 of 2
P R E D I C T I O N S U P D A T E
(AFTER 23 OF 30 GAMES)
Runs
209 of 249
Hits
413 of 512
Errors
31 of 36
Home Runs
55 of 65
Doubles
94 of 101
(9 today, I think my prediction will be short.)
Triples
9 of 10
Sacrifices (Hits & Flies)
23 of 31
Strikeouts
355 of 415
Walks
137 of 189
Home Team Wins
15 of 17
Complete Games
1 of 1
Shutouts
1 of 2
Saves
14 of 15
Blown Saves
6 of 7
Balks
1 of 2
Wild Pitches
7 of 19
Hit Batters
10 of 18
Walk-offs
2 of 2
Stolen Bases
24 of 40
Caught Stealing
9 of 15
Ejections
3 of 4
Smallest Crowd
11,617
Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
September 1st, Toronto v. Baltimore
Largest Crowd
45,633
Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
August 18th, Arizona v. Philadelphia
B A L L P A R K R A N K I N G S
The Stadium
1. PETCO Park, San Diego
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco
3. Fenway Park, Boston
4. Target Field, Minneapolis
5. Comerica Park, Detroit
6. Wrigley Field, Chicago
7. Safeco Field, Seattle
8. PNC Park, Pittsburgh
9. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
10. Minute Maid Park, Houston
11. Chase Field, Phoenix
12. Progressive Field, Cleveland
13. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
14. Citi Field, New York
15. Miller Park, Milwaukee
16. Coors Field, Denver
17. Great American Ball Park, Cincinnati
18. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
19. U.S. Cellular Field, Chicago
20. Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City
21. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
22. Angel Stadium of Anaheim, Anaheim
23. The Coliseum, Oakland
The Atmosphere
1. AT&T Park, San Francisco
2. Fenway Park, Boston
3. Target Field, Minneapolis
4. PETCO Park, San Diego
5. Wrigley Field, Chicago
The Crowd
1. AT&T Park, San Francisco
2. Fenway Park, Boston
3. Target Field, Minneapolis
4. Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
5. Miller Park, Milwaukee
The Scorecard
1. Target Field, Minneapolis
2. Comerica Park, Detroit
3. AT&T Park, San Francisco
4. Citizens Bank Ballpark, Philadelphia
5. Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, Arlington
The Hot Dog
1. Coors Field, Denver
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco
3. Progressive Field, Cleveland
4. Citi Field, New York
5. Wrigley Field, Chicago
The Broadcasters
1. Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles
2. AT&T Park, San Francisco
3. Miller Park, Milwaukee
4. Target Field, Minneapolis
5. Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore
Jumbo Dog. The picture makes it look old and stale, but it wasn’t.
The first thing that caught my eye walking around was this foul pole. It looks old. I assumed it came from the old stadium. From what I gathered in my search, the right field foul pole is from old Memorial Stadium. Alas, my picture is of the left field foul pole...
A lone fan in this outfield section.
Out-of-town scores go in right.
Retired numbers...20, 5, 4, 22, 33, 8, 42. First time I’ve noticed the numbers are in the order in which they were retired, not in numerical order. It is probably done this way in a number of places, but I just haven’t noticed it.
The Babe Ruth Birthplace is just a couple blocks away. Worth running by.
In the Babe Ruth Museum. I forget what the bat and ball were from, but the chair was an old Yankee Stadium box seat. I’d pay $2500 to sit in that and watch Ruth and Gehrig any day.
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