Official Road Trip Stop #19: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD

9/19/2009
Red Sox 11 @ Orioles 5

It seems like a good 75% of the stadiums that I have visited try to, at least in some way, capture a part of Camden Yards. Camden Yards is the original "new-retro" stadium, and opened in 1993. The park helped to revitalize the franchise and the surrounding neighborhood in Baltimore. Other teams and cities have taken notes on the benefits of building a new stadium, and by 2012, more than 20 teams will have built a new stadium since Camden Yards was built.

Many of these stadiums try to capture a part of it, and some of them do a pretty nice job, but I can now tell you that the original is the best.

The thing that I like most about Camden Yards is that it remains understated and simple. It has a lot of really neat features about it, like the B&O Warehouse hovering above right field, and the view of Downtown Baltimore's skyline, but the baseball game remains the sole focus and attraction, unlike several places that I have seen.

The Orioles are a pretty sad-sack franchise these days, but they do have great tradition, and several great players have worn the orange and black. There is some pretty good talent emerging from the Orioles' minor league system, but when you're in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox, its kind of hard to compete. This was greatly emphasized by the amount of Red Sox fans that made the trek to Baltimore for this game. The stadium had to be 75% full of Sox fans, to the point where the Orioles merchandise stands were actually selling Red Sox caps and t-shirts. Talk about low.

The food at Camden Yards is fantastic. There are a ton of great grilled options on the Eutaw Street concourse in front of the warehouse. This is where most of the fans enter the park, and the great smells from here waft throughout the stadium during the game.

There is a simple scoreboard with an modest HD screen. It mostly provides stats and scores, and not much else. And really, who needs more?

What sets Camden Yards apart is the simplicity. It uses its elements well, and doesn't try to do too much or try to be something that it isn't. There are a lot of places that simply try too hard and almost lose focus on the fact that you paid $20 to see a baseball game.

You can see all the Camden Yards photos here, and a special thanks to TJ, who was kind enough to let me tag along with free tickets that he was able to get from work!