Stadium Opened: 1992
Team: Baltimore Orioles
1st Visit: 4/6/04
Last Visit: 6/30/10
# Games: 5
Food: 8/10
Stadium: 9/10
Important Games Seen:
Staci's & my 1st game together (9/11/04), Opening Day '04 against Red Sox, best catch I've ever seen (Coco Crisp- 6/30/10)
Camden Yards should be know as the stadium that saved baseball stadiums- every stadium for the 3 decades from 1963-1991(after Dodger Stadium, before Camden Yards) was cookie-cutter, bland, concrete, and/or domed. Camden should also be given credit for creating traveling baseball freaks like me. As much as I love seeing all these cities and parks, it is hard to envision a road trip just to see Riverfront, Three Rivers, Memorial Stadium, etc. They all looked and felt the same. Camden Yards changed all that.
Known as a retro-park, Camden was the first modern park to incorporate a large plaza (with high-end restaurants and food stands, almost separate from the ballpark). Eutaw Street is a great place to find Boog's BBQ and to see the warehouse that is a big part of the view here (and can be remembered for "2131" hanging on the windows during Cal Ripken's streak). Babe Ruth's birthplace is right around the corner as well.
The inside of the stadium is fantastic as well. A sea of dark-green seats awaits you (a part of the new trend that Camden can take credit for as well- what WAS up with all the multi-colored seating in cookie-cutters?), and there really isn't a bad seat in the place. A new video board installed in 2006 has only made the view better.
The other food here besides Boog's is very good- Crabcakes are a local staple, an above-average sandwich shop is out on Eutaw, plus all the normal ballpark food.
Camden is worth seeing, a top-10 MLB stadium for me. It will always hold a little special place for me since it was mine and Staci's first game together back in 2004.
No comments:
Post a Comment