On Tuesday I took the last half of the afternoon off and hopped in a car with some friends from church, Ryan, Paul & Ben. (Apparently I didn’t get the memo that it was orange shirt day.) We went down to Baltimore to go to the baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and Baltimore Orioles. This was my 4th game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, 
and I absolutely love the stadium experience there. It was the first of the new “retro” ballparks, opening back in 1992, and they sure did a great job. As Ryan said, it’s retro, but doesn’t try too hard to be retro. (Trivia question: What are the only MLB teams *not* to have built (or be building) a new stadium since Camden Yards opened in 1992? Leave a comment with your guesses!)
Upon getting our bargain night $8 upper deck tickets (and our George Sherrill Orioles t-shirt jerseys, free to the first 10,000 fans), it was of course time for some Boog’s Bar-B-Q. Mmmm, seasoned pit beef, slathered in BBQ sauce, onions and horseradish. If there’s better ballpark food anywhere, I’d like to know. Boog’s is definitely a highlight of any trip to Camden Yards.
As for the game itself, the Royals hit a solo home run in the top of the 1st, which bounced on the Eutaw Street plaza in right field, and hit a warehouse window on one bounce. Very impressive. It had to have been hit longer than 410 feet, a bomb. The O’s came back and took a 6-1 lead with a 5-run 3rd inning. After the Royals got a couple back to make it 6-3, Ben & I decided to be photo geeks, and wandered around the stadium to take tons of pictures.
Then I went out behind the bullpen in left-center as well.
 |
 |
 |
 |
After that I kept wandering around over to the right field plaza.
 |
 |
While I was in right field, Brian Roberts of the Orioles hit a homer to left field, putting the O’s up 7-3. I made my way back to our seats for the last inning-plus of the game. In the top of the 9th, the O’s put in one of their other relievers (because it wasn’t a save situation). But after two walks accompanied one out, the fans grew restless and began chanting “We want Sherrill! 
We want Sherrill!” I attribute that more to the fact that it was George Sherrill t-shirt night, because Sherrill had blown two saves in the last two days. The manager brought him in, because it was now a save situation (2 on, one out, up by 4). Sherrill promptly allowed a 2-RBI base hit, eliciting groans from the Orioles faithful. But then he slammed the door shut and got the final two outs, giving the Orioles a 7-5 win over the Royals.
After the game the four of us drove up to a park on Federal Hill, which has a beautiful view of the Baltimore skyline and Inner Harbor.
By the time we got back to State College it was a bit after 2am, but it was a really fun evening. I’m especially glad I went, because as it turns out it’s the last time I’ll get to see Paul or Ryan before they move away to Atlanta and Louisville, respectively, since I’m gonna be out of town for two weeks starting on Monday.
Saying goodbye to friends is never fun, and this is definitely the time of year for that. Anke & Dave moved out to Fort Collins, Colorado a month or two ago, Stephanie left on Friday to move to Monterey, California, Vic is moving to Grand Forks, North Dakota on Monday, Meaghan’s moving back to Dallas on Tuesday, and Lindsay’s moving to Grand Rapids, Minnesota soon thereafter too. And then in August Daniel van N. will be moving back to South Africa. I guess that’s the nature of academia though, with friends coming and going every year. On the plus side, with having friends moving all over the country, there’s a greater chance of seeing at least some of them, almost no matter where I travel. 🙂
To get all of you in the mood for the 4th of July, here’s a video I took during the Grand Finale at last year’s Central PA 4th Fest here in State College.
I’m definitely gonna be taking a bunch of pictures and videos at tonight’s fireworks with my new camera and gorillapod! Hopefully the rain holds off until after the show is done. Happy Independence Day!