A Night at the Yards

I got to spend a cold evening at Camden Yards the other night. I love going to baseball games--I an convinced that is one the reasons why I enjoy living the the Baltimore region.

The Orioles, of course, are in the American League East--which by most accounts is the toughest division in baseball. The defensing World Series Champs, the NY Yankees were in town Wednesday night--and although the Orioles are off to the second worst start in franchise history, it is always fun to see the Yankees lose.

OK--so that didn't happen on Wednesday night. The O's lost 8-3. But even on this cold 50-some degree night, I enjoyed being at the park for a couple of hours seeing the O's battle the Yankees.

Saturday night--we are off to see the Boston Red Sox--I like watching them lose at the Yards, too. But the Boston fans are, frankly, terrible. They epitomize everything that is wrong with visiting teams fans. I truly would not want to be considered part of the Red Sox nation--because they are downright unruly.

I remember days when the O's won more than they lost (like 13 season ago) and when the Yards were sold out every night and just getting a ticket to see the O's play with almost 48,000 of your closest friends was a big deal.

Ah, those were the days. Now I get upset when I have to wait in a concession line--and some nights there are less than 10,000 people in the Yards watching the game. Not so on Saturday--the buses and trains will be full of screaming, mean Red Sox fans--and I am convinced I will be sitting in the middle of these same fans in my seats.

But for the other night--it was baseball, beer, and a nice evening. Even though we lost--it was still a treat to see the team play.

And the pictures--they are taken from my seat--which gives me an awesome view of the field and after about an inning, I can even start calling balls and strikes fairly accurately.

Hey--meet me at the Yards.