Day 8 - Baltimore - #6 Camden Yards - Back below the Mason-Dixon

(Wednesday July 30) - As we left New Jersey, we were thinking about not making the trip to Washington to watch the Nationals.  We had been going hard for a week now and we were getting tired and missing our own more comfortable beds.  Tammy and I had decided that Baltimore would be our last stop on this trip and surprisingly, the boys were okay with that.  We had rationalized the decision by saying that Washington would be a whole other trip and we could just include a visit to Nationals Park when we come back to see the Nation's capital.
Trey had been looking forward to this stop as the Orioles are probably his second favorite team (after the Braves).  His favorite player is third baseman Manny Machado who plays for the Orioles.  As an added bonus, the O's were playing the Los Angeles Angels who have one of the most exciting teams in baseball with players like Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and Josh Hamilton.

Tate waiting for the gates to open, sitting in the shade on the Cal Ripken commemorative monument.

We arrive in Baltimore around 3 in the afternoon and we check in at our hotel and then order our tickets over the phone.  Since it was a weekday game, good seats were readily available.  Our hotel was within walking distance to Camden Yards so we got there around 4:30 and did a little souvenir shopping.  The gates opened at 5:05 and we wanted to get inside to watch batting practice and hopefully catch a ball or get an autograph.
When the gates opened we entered Eutaw Way and headed for the outfield bleachers where we saw the Orioles taking batting practice.  We went down to the front row and admired all of the hits and begged the Oriole players for a ball like everyone else.  Trey's favorite player just happened to be taking BP and I was hoping he could hit one our way.  Wouldn't you know it, we were not there long when he hits a shot to deep center field where we were standing.  It didn't make it over the fence but hit the warning track and bounced right over Trey and Tate's heads and right into my hand.  Score!!  I had snagged a ball for the boys that was hit by Trey's favorite player.  My ticket to be "Dad of the Year"!  Trey has been enamored with that ball ever since.
After batting practice we headed to our seats which were down the third base line about 10 rows back.  Really good seats for $30.  Tammy and Trey went and got us something to eat from Boog's BBQ named for Baltimore icon Boog Powell.  It was pretty tasty.
The game was very entertaining.  Baltimore started the scoring early in the first inning when a Manny Machado single was followed by an Adam Jones home run.  Baltimore's starting pitcher, Kevin Gausman had a perfect game through 5 innings.  The Angels' big three went 1-12 in the game and did not have much of an impact.  The Orioles won the game 4-3.

 

Orioles' Park at Camden Yards.

Orioles Park at Camden Yards is a beautiful stadium.  The atmosphere and the fans are very friendly.  Outside of Fenway Park, I think that Orioles Park was probably my second favorite ballpark (Sorry NY).  It was kind of a depressing feeling to think that this would be it for baseball games for a while, but we were excited to get home.  After the game, we walked back to the hotel which was about 2 blocks away.  The next day we were going home.

Trey and Crazy Hair Tate on Eutaw Way at Camden Yards.