The archived ramblings of my time as a world traveler up to my current life in Washington, D.C.(Oriole Park at) Camden Yards
The Orioles may have one of the most repugnant owners in baseball (the Washington Post used the great phrase "locally loathed") and a team destined to always fall well behind the Yankees-Red Sox spending war, but their home park is still pretty sweet.
I headed to Camden Yards (officially Oriole Park at Camden Yards) this week to watch the Seattle Mariners, who are geographically much closer to my heart than these East Coast teams. I'd heard people rave about Camden Yards, but to be honest, I expected to be underwhelmed. Camden was the first in the new breed of parks, the stadium to end the ugly concrete era, but 15 years later half the teams in the league play in a stadium designed to rip off Camden's once-unique architecture. I figured this meant it would now inevitably feel somewhat diminished, its unique character absorbed and diluted by too many imitators.
A friend told me, just before I started the drive north, to be sure to get right-field bleacher seats, which he termed "the best seats in baseball." I'm not sure I can completely agree (bleacher seats in Fenway win for atmosphere, behind-home-plate seats just about anywhere win for immediacy, San Francisco's bay view seats win for scenery) but they are pretty damn good. Not only for themselves, but for the area just behind them.
The portion of Eutaw Street adjacent to Camden Yards isn't technically part of the stadium, although it's inside the stadium gates. It has become a pedestrian walkway (open to all when there's not a game going on) bordered on one side by the stadium and on the other by the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Warehouse. For games, the street is lined with food and drink stands and merchandise vendors.
The most celebrated of the drink stands is Boog's Barbecue, run by former Oriole Boog Powell. Boog himself was on hand to greet a line of customers and sign autographs. The food proved to be somewhat of a disappointment; $7.25 for a barbecue sandwich is a bit steep (I chose not to shell out an extra 75¢ for the beans and coleslaw sides) especially when the meat is pretty dry. However, it was well within tolerable limits for ballpark food.
Our seats were well above tolerable limits. We walked up and got second-row seats in center field for $15. Unlike some stadiums, the seats ran right up to the outfield wall, putting us right on top of the fielders (an excellent vantage point to watch Ichiro hang out).
The weather walking up to Camden Yards was the same as in a blast furnace; the Orioles announced a gametime temperature of 101 degrees, which was certainly a cheap ploy for sympathy (I'll believe the temperature was that high an hour before first pitch, when we were walking in, but a breeze and the sun going down actually cooled the air off considerable by the time the game started.
The game was marred by some sloppy play early, but the good guys ended up on top (just another disappointment for the home fans). I noticed the Orioles haven't shelled out the money to update the video board or changed the small scoreboards on the facades of the upper deck from lightboards to video screens, as have most other parks. I think that's more a case of cheap ownership rather than hanging onto tradition.
Somehow, Camden Yards manages to capture more of the pure baseball feel than most of the other new stadiums. Perhaps it's the fact it has had a chance to age, but it just feels like there's more character here than in most of the newer ballparks. In Philly and St. Louis, the stadiums are nice, but there's also the feeling that everything is too nice, too shiny, too packaged to really tap into the retro baseball feel the styling is aiming for. Camden Yards, with its warehouse, harsh lines and angles defining the outfield wall and brick-and-steel faces just seems to capture something many stadiums miss.
I headed to Camden Yards (officially Oriole Park at Camden Yards) this week to watch the Seattle Mariners, who are geographically much closer to my heart than these East Coast teams. I'd heard people rave about Camden Yards, but to be honest, I expected to be underwhelmed. Camden was the first in the new breed of parks, the stadium to end the ugly concrete era, but 15 years later half the teams in the league play in a stadium designed to rip off Camden's once-unique architecture. I figured this meant it would now inevitably feel somewhat diminished, its unique character absorbed and diluted by too many imitators.
A friend told me, just before I started the drive north, to be sure to get right-field bleacher seats, which he termed "the best seats in baseball." I'm not sure I can completely agree (bleacher seats in Fenway win for atmosphere, behind-home-plate seats just about anywhere win for immediacy, San Francisco's bay view seats win for scenery) but they are pretty damn good. Not only for themselves, but for the area just behind them.
The portion of Eutaw Street adjacent to Camden Yards isn't technically part of the stadium, although it's inside the stadium gates. It has become a pedestrian walkway (open to all when there's not a game going on) bordered on one side by the stadium and on the other by the old Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Warehouse. For games, the street is lined with food and drink stands and merchandise vendors.
The most celebrated of the drink stands is Boog's Barbecue, run by former Oriole Boog Powell. Boog himself was on hand to greet a line of customers and sign autographs. The food proved to be somewhat of a disappointment; $7.25 for a barbecue sandwich is a bit steep (I chose not to shell out an extra 75¢ for the beans and coleslaw sides) especially when the meat is pretty dry. However, it was well within tolerable limits for ballpark food.
Our seats were well above tolerable limits. We walked up and got second-row seats in center field for $15. Unlike some stadiums, the seats ran right up to the outfield wall, putting us right on top of the fielders (an excellent vantage point to watch Ichiro hang out).
The weather walking up to Camden Yards was the same as in a blast furnace; the Orioles announced a gametime temperature of 101 degrees, which was certainly a cheap ploy for sympathy (I'll believe the temperature was that high an hour before first pitch, when we were walking in, but a breeze and the sun going down actually cooled the air off considerable by the time the game started.
The game was marred by some sloppy play early, but the good guys ended up on top (just another disappointment for the home fans). I noticed the Orioles haven't shelled out the money to update the video board or changed the small scoreboards on the facades of the upper deck from lightboards to video screens, as have most other parks. I think that's more a case of cheap ownership rather than hanging onto tradition.
Somehow, Camden Yards manages to capture more of the pure baseball feel than most of the other new stadiums. Perhaps it's the fact it has had a chance to age, but it just feels like there's more character here than in most of the newer ballparks. In Philly and St. Louis, the stadiums are nice, but there's also the feeling that everything is too nice, too shiny, too packaged to really tap into the retro baseball feel the styling is aiming for. Camden Yards, with its warehouse, harsh lines and angles defining the outfield wall and brick-and-steel faces just seems to capture something many stadiums miss.
2 comments:
You know that i am not a huge fan, but this is still my favorite place to see a game, it reminds me most of Wrigley in the sense of being able to walk out of the stadium into actual neighborhoods with real neighborhood culture that exists apart from the stadium. Walk past the waterfront into Little Italy and the surrounding for yummy cannolis and great used-music shopping.
great article. I would love to follow you on twitter.
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