One Field For Battle, One Field For Baseball

As Colin and Miles gazed out onto the field where countless lives were lost, I was reminded of a classic song ("Freedom Isn't Free") from an epic movie about life, love and patriotism: Team America. As we all know, freedom is certainly not free. In fact, it costs a buck-oh-five.


OK, so freedom is costly. But, then again, so are baseball tickets. If you don't throw in your buck-oh-five, who will?

Colin then took this opportunity to stand at the front of the Dunker Church near the battlefield. I don't think this will do much to quiet those at his home church who ask him if he plans on "entering the ministry like his father."


Miles got curious about this giant hole we saw on the battlefield. I think he was hoping to find treasure. All he found was a snake bite. Just kidding, Mrs. Janssen!


This is where several battalions of Union soldiers looked out over a small creek. The problem is, that hill was occupied by hordes of Georgian soldiers with lots of cannons. The view probably looked something like this, except a lot scarier.


Now, to the real point of business. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is truly a thing of beauty.


Apparently there was a lot of controversy over what to name the park, so they split the difference and gave it two titles. It's hard to believe that this place was finished in 1992. Lots of other parks have imitated its brick-and-mortar throwback to the stadium designs of old, but I don't know if any do it better than this.


The inside, as you can see, is just as gorgeous as the outside. A giant warehouse in right field gives the park a lot of character. There's a fantastic walkway between the right field stands and the warehouse with lots of cool restaurants and shops -- all inside the stadium.


We had, in our opinion, the perfect seats at any park. Upper level, right behind home plate. Relatively inexpensive, a great view of the whole field and a perfect angle to see how terrible the umpire is. O's manager Dave Trembly didn't like the home plate "blue" tonight -- the skipper got tossed in the third inning for arguing balls and strikes.


Here's something you don't see everyday: bullpens on top of each other. A unique feature at Camden. I'd insert a clever joke here, but I'm really tired.


After the O's vanquished the evil Red Sox, the most incredible video and song we've ever seen played on the HD Jumbotron in center field:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r06YKq8Emn8

It's a little quiet on that link, but you'll get the idea of the hilarious dancing. Here's the original version from the 1970s:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8BMYo3Z7mc

We've got Oriole Magic. Do you?

David Hillhouse, my college roommate for two years, has been a big lifesaver on the early stages of the trip. Staying at his house for three nights has been great and he knows the area well. He usually looks a lot cooler than he does in this picture, I swear.


Note my Ted Drewes Frozen Custard shirt. It's the greatest custard place west of the Mississippi. Two people at the stadium made comments about it and told me how awesome I was for knowing about Ted Drewes (I didn't mention that I actually know the man himself). But one of them was a very attractive female. Score.

Oh, and did I mention that Dave has Rock Band and a PlayStation 3 at his house?