Welcome to Birdland

Another day, another ballgame. I could get used to this lifestyle. Maybe I should have worked a bit harder during my little league days ...

Baltimore won 6 to 3 tonight against the Boston Red Sox making the home team 2 - 0 during our trip. We're all hoping that streak continues tomorrow when the Nationals host the Cardinals. Well, at least the Cubs fans in our crew hope to keep the streak alive.

As a stadium, Camden Yards was everything we hoped for. The place has a great retro ballpark feel with the classic brick warehouse in left field and a big grandstand all around the park. But for whatever reason, the Orioles marketing people insisted on the cheesy name of "Birdland."


Not exactly the greatest marketing slogan in baseball. Nor does it seem to be helping the team as the Orioles are currently enjoying last place in the American League East.

Here's a view of this fine ballpark before the game started ...


And here's a view later on at night.
If it wasn't for the fact that we were going to Yankee Stadium and Fenway later this week, I would crown Camden Yards as the best ball park of the trip. But I have a feeling it will have some serious competition.

But with all the positives of Camden Yards, we all felt the atmosphere was lacking. If it wasn't for the fact that about half the crowd were Red Sox fans, the stadium would have been dead. Fortunately, the Red Sox fans were very vocal and that got the Orioles fans into a constant back and forth cheering battle. Also helping to get the Baltimore fans pumped was a giant, goofy Oriole mascot.
But this giant orange and black bird was not on the same level as yesterday's mascot, "Mr. Redlegs."
He's hard to see in this picture, but any mascot with a baseball as a head, plus a big, loopy mustache is tough to beat.

But on to more important matters: the food. I was looking forward to enjoying my first crab cake, but the $13 price tag on one crab cake sandwich deterred me. Fortunately, there was a cheaper option - crab soup. I have never had soup at a baseball game, and while it doesn't exactly have the baseball feel of a hot dog or peanuts, crab soup seemed to fit Camden Yards.


As you can see, crab soup brought no complaints on my end. I still don't think I could go for sushi at ballgames like they have in San Diego, but crab soup is a keeper.

One final note on the day's activities. In the morning we visited Antietam battlefield since Miles is a regular Civil War buff and couldn't pass up the opportunity. While I'll let him write about the history, he did get a get a farming lesson from Josh.

They later figured out that this field was not growing corn as Josh originally thought. It's a good thing neither is responsible for maintaining America's breadbasket.

Enough from me for the night. Tomorrow it's on to Washington D.C. when we will attempt to pay a visit to President W. followed by Cards. vs. Nationals.