Game #7-Oriole Park at Camden Yards

After a two-day drive from Atlanta we have made our way to Baltimore. On Wednesday, April 26 the morning began with a few showers, not to worry we made it to the ballpark. You know the drill we get there early to take in all the aspects of the ballpark and surrounding area. One thing I can say is when they say the parking lot opens two hours before the game they mean it! We arrived 15 minutes before the opening of the parking lot and they made us do a u-turn out of the parking lot and wait. That gave us a little time to circle around the stadium and create a game plan for our visit. Once parked we walked around and saw the beautiful exterior of the ballpark. We saw all the retired number monuments at the main entrance and a very large statue of Babe Ruth called "Babe's Dream." Although Babe Ruth became famous as a New York Yankee, his roots are in Baltimore where he was born and grew up learning to play baseball. It was 11:00am and we were anxious to go in and explore the park but the gates were not open to the public until 12:00. So we decided to do the next best thing and that was to go to the historic "Pickles Pub." This pub is right across the street and as we found out it is where the locals go on game day. We had a little spirit drink and met a few very nice people. One of our encounters was with a gentleman, Brad at the bar who was eating the famous Crab Pretzel which he said was very tasty. We really wanted to try some of the food there but knew we needed to safe room for the hot dog review. Next we met a very nice couple Meridith and Brian who stopped us to ask about our shirts. We found out that they got married in Camden Yard! That's right in the ballpark. See our pics of Meridith and Brian on Instagram @ourfieldofdreams2023. As it inched closer to 12:00 we made our way to the gates because we had so much to see and that first pitch was at 1:05pm. The Orioles are playing the Boston Red Sox and today's game is the third in their series tied at one win each. It was unbelievable how many Red Sox fans were at the game. This ballpark has a very retro feel to it and was designed with that in mind. The seating capacity at Camden Yards is 45,971 and is ranked 9th in capacity of all the MLB stadiums. There is an old warehouse in the right field area that was incorporated into the architecture. It just gives the ballpark an old time feel with this large brick building. One of the first things we did once inside the park was head to see the bronze sculptures of the six Orioles greats whose uniform numbers have been retired. This area is located right behind the bullpens. Now the bullpens are something I have never seen before and are two-tiered. I have pictures of this on Instagram as I am not certain if any other ballparks have this feature. Another facinating detail in this stadium is that every seat is green, except for TWO. Those two seats are orange and one seat in left field represents the spot of Cal Ripken's 278th career home run. The other orange seat in right field marks the spot of Eddie Murray's 500th career home run. There is also a very nice "Oriole Hall of Fame" brick wall with plaques and picture of all those inducted into their hall of fame. Between the old warehouse and stadium is the famous "Eutaw Street." This street is closed to traffic and has many shops and restaurants including the famous Oriole baseball star's Boog Powell's barbecue stand. This is where we met up with our new found friends Allison and Guy who are also on a 30 ballpark tour in 2023. In this area of Eutaw Street, the Orioles have marked spots where home run balls have hit with small baseball-shaped plaques with names of hitters and dates. The record for home runs hitting Eutaw Street is eight in a season. The warehouse wall that is adjacent to Eutaw Street has been hit by several players during batting practice but never in a regular season game. However, Ken Griffey, Jr. during the Home Run Derby in the 1993 MLB All-Star Game hit the wall. We have a picture of that baseball-shaped plaque on the warehouse wall, again see our Instagram. Now on to the food. Jim in his usual fashion began exploring the food area for the hot dog for his review. We found a few seemingly very important people judging from their attire and badges who recommended the "Yard Dog." I could not even begin to imagine what this might look like after the Texas Rangers Boomdog which was two feet long. When we arrived to the counter we were greeted by a very friendly crew. We asked them about this special "Yard Dog" and they proceeded to tell us it was three footlong hot dogs on a bun. These three footlong hot dogs are slathered with crab dip and topped with Old Bay potato sticks. It was absolutely delicious and given a 8.5 rating by Jim Bray the Hot Dog Man. This is his highest rating so far on our trip and I would have to agree because I shared it with him and it was finger-licking good! Now on to the details of the game that was attended by 12,044. Not bad for a Wednesday afternoon. An interesing tradition that surprised us was during the National Anthem was that the fans literally screamed "Oh!" on the line of "Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave." We had to ask someone what that was all about and were told it's tradition. The Orioles came out swinging after a tough loss the previous day. Orioles Anthony Santander hit a sacrifice fly in the 1st inning to bring in a run making it 1-0 Orioles. It did not take long for the Red Sox to answer back with a home run hit by Masataka Yoshida in the top of the 2nd inning. The action really heated up in the bottom of the 4th inning when Adam Frazier, Ryan O-Hearn and Ramon Urias all hit back to back singles bringing in one run making it 2-1 Orioles. Another single by Cedric Mullins brought in another run maing it 3-1. Then Adley Rutschman hit a sacrifice fly making it 4-1 Orioles. In the top of the 6th inning, Jim's favorite former Dodger player Justin Turner now playing for the Red Sox hit a sharp line drive down the right baseline to drive in a run making it 4-2. In the bottom of the 6th inning Red Sox had a pitching change with Richard Bleier replacing starter Tanner Houck. It didn't take long for the Orioles to put runners on base with Ramon Urias and Ryan McKenna having lead off singles. When Cedric Mullins came to the plate the crowd went wild. Mullins hit a sacrifice bunt advancing the runners to 2nd and 3rd. The next batter Adley Rutschman walked which loaded up the bases. Anthony Santander hit a sacrifice fly driving in a run making it 5-2 Orioles. After another Red Sox pitching change in the bottom of the 8th inning Baltimore put another score on the board with a hard hit double by Ryan McKenna to drive in a run. That pretty much sealed the deal for the Orioles with a final score of Orioles 6 and Red Sox 2. What a beautiful stadium with great fans and a "take me out to the ballgame" feel. Tomorrow we are off to Citizens Bank Park to see the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Seattle Mariners. Until next time PLAY BALL!