Another day, another sporting event or concert. It seems like we have been on the go with baseball games in the past two months—this was game number 5. And for the second time in under two months, I was back at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The reason behind this trip was easy: my daughter wanted a road trip away from Springfield and the NY Metro area and my wife needed two MLB team stadiums to complete her odyssey like I recently did mine. Those two were Baltimore and Wrigley Field, the home of the Chicago Cubs.
We were originally going to go two weeks ago to see the Washington-Baltimore which has been dubbed “The Beltway Series,” but the weather scuttled the idea. Then the Orioles came up with a great promotion for July in line with the 250th anniversary of the country: upper deck seats for $17.76. That got my attention—I figured that even if the weather wouldn’t cooperate, spending $53 would be a loss I could suffer if there was a rain out.
I have to say this—the National Weather Service office which covers Baltimore must be severely understaffed or lacking experienced people. During the course of four days, the weather forecast seemed to change more times than a dreidel spins. Rain; heavy thunderstorms; cloudy; sunny and hot. It ran the gamut.
There wasn’t a glaring sun when we drove down, which made my four hour drive with traffic and construction just a little easier. Luckily, the weather was nearly perfect—84 degrees at game time. The sun shone on the seats on the first base side at the time of the first pitch and even when the sun was receding, it was still reflected in the windows of some of the nearby skyscrapers.
This was good because just south of Baltimore, the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals were set to open a three game set when the game was delayed due to storms in the DC area. Baltimore dodged a weather bullet and in fact, so did we. More on that later.
Normally, in my prior trips to Baltimore, we found parking near the stadium or the adjacent M&T Stadium, the home of the NFL Ravens. However, the website wasn’t cooperating when we tried to purchase parking in advance and the lot that Fan X and I had found in May when last there was only open to permit parking.
We ended up parking in a very tiny lot just across from the Horseshoe Casino and near a Top Golf facility. It was nearly a mile schlep to the Eutaw Street entrance to the stadium, which crossed four active railroad tracks; it reminded me of crossing an active runway in Gibraltar when we visited there.
The Orioles hosted the Kansas City Royals. Both the Orioles and Royals were in last place in their respective divisions. Even for a mid-July Friday night, you would think that this non-attraction wouldn’t get anybody’s attention.
Perhaps it was the floppy hat giveaway that did it, for an announced crowd of 26,997 showed up. There were large groups scattered around the stadium. A good number of smaller ones, too.
Our section wasn’t filled, but it was well-populated. That sale price for tickets might have had something to do with the attendance, too.
While we were in the seventeenth row, we sat with an almost perfect view of the first base line to the wall. I could see home plate easily and I was readily able to discern strikes from balls.
Going to Baltimore as much as I have, there are idiosyncrasies which one expects. For instance, during the National Anthem, when the word “O” comes up later in the song, the crowd yells the letter, symbolic of the nickname for their beloved team. And when the seventh inning stretch arrives, after “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” is done, the place becomes electric with John Denver’s legendary hit “Country Roads.” A staple in Baltimore baseball lore.
Baltimore is a solid baseball town. The fans love their team. Nary a person wasn’t wearing something that was either part of a giveaway or that they had purchased with the Orioles insignia or name upon it. Either that is great marketing or it is tradition passed down by families since the team arrived from St. Louis over 70 years ago and established roots in the community.
It is a beautiful, well-kept ballpark. It does not look old. The playing area is immaculate. In every sense, the stadium is big league. And that immense B&O Railroad warehouse looming behind the right field fence is so much a part of the scenery; it even has light stanchions affixed to its roof to include the building within the park.
I have come to expect the Crab Shuffle dance and video game—the latter sponsored by Old Bay Seasoning, a Maryland delicacy. Just as people were wearing mustard, ketchup and relish t shirts emblematic of the race that three hot dog costumed individuals have around the right field bend. (Mustard was the winner this night)
I knew where to look for pitch speed, pitch count and accurate game information. I could track the actual time of day from the old-style clock mounted atop the giant scoreboard. Going to an Orioles game is part entertainment, part tradition and oh, yeah, some baseball is played there, too.
About the game itself—it lasted a very comfortable 2 hours and 18 minutes. Each team hit two home runs. For a 5-3 final score in favor of the home team, there was enough action not to drag out the contest nor did it result in any boring stretches. Although this was a matchup of cellar dwellers you would never have known that from the intensity of the action on the field.
When I last saw Kansas City play in June of 2024, the team played Seattle at Royals Stadium. A younger Daniel Lynch IV started the game for KC and was bombed by the Mariners, surrendering seven runs in the top of the first inning. We thought that was going to be a blowout. Especially when the M’s tacked on a run in the fourth inning against the lefty to go up 8-0. The Royals pitching held Seattle to one more run before mounting a comeback in the last six innings to walk off with an incredible 10-9 victory.
Lynch was one of only three KC players who played in that game against Seattle who were on the field this past Friday versus Baltimore. He fared much better—pitching one inning, throwing 11 pitches, 7 of them for strikes in a scoreless seventh inning.
Bobby Witt, Jr., a hero in the game in 2024, went 1-4 with 2 strikeouts. Witt didn’t look too much like the starting American League shortstop in Tuesday’s All Star Game in Philadelphia.
Salvatore Perez caught the game in 2024; he was at first base for this game. He did also go 1-4 but looked older and is carrying a .209 batting average, way below his lifetime .262 mark that goes with 314 career home runs.
Perez remains in the conversation for enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame when his playing days are over. He has lower end numbers for a catcher but still has won a World Series, an AL M.V.P. and is a 9 time All Star.
Curiously, the Royals had another player on the field who participated in that 2024 game as a Seattle Mariner. Josh Rojas pinch hit and played third base for Seattle and went 0 for 2. At third for KC, he went 2-4 with an RBI.
The amount of roster turnover for Kansas City in two years is shocking and may explain, in part, why the Royals are in last place and are tied with the LA Angels for the worst record in baseball. Yes, three position players and a number of pitchers are on the injured list. Perez is having a down year as he ages. They simply aren’t a good team even with top flight first baseman Jac Caglianone, the sixth pick in the 2024 draft and a collegiate star at the University of Florida as well as a clutch hitter on the Italy national baseball team which finished fourth in the recent World Baseball Classic. Caglianone clubbed a homer on Friday night.
Contrastingly, the Orioles should be better than their 45-51 record. Brandon Young, who has a 7-2 record and a 3.42 E.R.A., pitched into the eighth inning before being lifted after giving up a game-tying home run blast to center field by KC center fielder Isaac Collins. Young was also the pitcher when I saw the Orioles defeat Toronto 6-5 on May 30th via a walk off hit; Young pitched 6.2 innings that day, giving up two runs.
On May 30th, Baltimore improved its record to 27-32. So the team has been playing .500 ball since then. The lineup was nearly the same, changed with Colton Cowser starting in center field on Friday night; he pinch hit and remained in right field in May.
Blaze Alexander was in at third base instead of Colby Mayo; the third year player went 2 for 4 with a RBI and fielded adroitly. His average is the only one over .300 at .306. All Star catcher Adley Rutschmann is at .257, which is where a number of players are.
It is the shortstop-second base duo of Gunner Henderson and Jackson Holliday, two of the rising stars on this Orioles team, who are not hitting well. Both have averages hovering at or below .220.
So it took an eighth inning, two run homer by DH Sam Basallo, which hooked just inside the right field foul pole to give the Orioles the lead. Baltimore relief pitching finished the job, with Andrew Kittredge earning the save.
The fans went home happy, carrying their reversible floppy hats given to them upon entry. We trudged our way back to our parking spot and reversed our trip down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to the Homewood Suites near the Baltimore-Washington International Airport.
My goal was not to repeat the mistakes of the past when Fan X and I first started coming to Orioles games on Saturday nights. The drive back, even without traffic and before MLB implemented rules to speed up the games, would get us back to Springfield no earlier than 1:00 am and would destroy us for Sunday (and into Monday).
Thus we expected to stay over and have a ride back on Saturday morning after a decent night’s sleep. I even met with my college roommate for a while before we went to the game.
When we first went to our room on the fourth floor, the hallway was unusually hot. I took note of that but noticed that while our room was warm, our daughter’s seemed to be cooling off.
When we parked, I noted that a whole row of rooms had window box air conditioners, something I had never seen at a Homewood Suites. I found that odd.
Upon re-entering our room, the temperature was 75 degrees. Turning the thermostat down to 62 degrees didn’t work. The temperature actually went up. Our daughter encountered the same thing. We weren’t going to sleep well overnight.
The front desk gave us no comfort. The place was booked solid and they could not pinpoint the problem nor was there anybody present to fix it. The front desk staff didn’t try to send us elsewhere. The fact that our daughter has Diamond Elite status with Hilton was of no matter.
We did what we didn’t want to do. We repacked our SUV, filled it up and our daughter drove us home in just under three hours. She will talk to her Hilton rep on Monday. It’s not going to be pretty.
Instead of sweltering, we slept in on Saturday in our own beds. We tracked the Yankees-Nationals game on the phone—NYY came from behind to defeat Washington 5-3 in a game which ended just as we left Delaware; NYY came back on Saturday with late inning lightning to once more down the Nats, this time by a 4-2 score. Which we watched in our air conditioned home on a day we also averted showers had we driven back on that Saturday.
Maybe the horrible losing is over and Yankees fans can exhale for a team which is 53-42 and played division leader Tampa Bay to a standstill earlier in the week. Maybe.
I think we are all still a bit tired from the ordeal. My 75 year old body does not react well to this kind of stress anymore.
Despite the back end issues with the hotel provoking a late night drive back to New Jersey, going to Camden Yards was a fun experience for us all. My wife and daughter still rave about the game and stadium. Orioles Park richly deserved its #6 ranking and isn’t about to topple the current Yankee Stadium and take over the #5 spot—at least in my ratings.
Now that Camden Yards is over, Wrigley Field is in our sights in the not-too-distant future to complete my wife’s ballpark adventures. Here’s hoping that the trip to and from Chicago won’t be as excruciating. It certainly won’t be done in under 15 hours.
Meanwhile, someone get Randy Newman’s lyrics to his 1977 hit “Baltimore” out of my head. Please.
Camden Yards redux. Hot l Baltimore?
