Next stop: Charm City
Posted on September 12th, 2008 – 9:48 AMBy Joe Christensen
My flight to Baltimore leaves shortly, and I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends while covering this weekend’s series.
When I worked at the Baltimore Sun, I lived near Johns Hopkins University, not far from old Memorial Stadium. It’s different going back for work, staying on the Inner Harbor, with all the modern shops and restaurants and tourists.
Camden Yards is magnificent, of course. Lots of the new parks have impressive bells and whistles, but Baltimore pioneered the modern-retro baseball concept and got it right, building a ballpark that feels like it’s been there as long as the adjacent B & O Warehouse, which was built in 1899.
My years covering the Orioles, 2002-2004, were the beginning of the Post-Ripken era, and attendance kept dropping. That was depressing because there are great baseball fans in Baltimore, and it had only been a couple years since the O’s sold out every game.
Anyway, lots of memories stirring as I head back there. I covered a lot of meaningless September games for The Sun. (In ‘02, the O’s finished on a 4-32 free fall.) After times like that, it’s easy to enjoy every minute while covering a pennant race.
I’ll have the lineups for you this afternoon. The Twins will face Daniel Cabrera, who continues to struggle with his control and has showed diminished velocity in recent starts.
Consider this: Cabrera has issued 85 walks this season. You can combine three Twins starters — Kevin Slowey (19), Nick Blackburn (31) and either Scott Baker (36) or Glen Perkins (36) — and only get 86.
36 Responses to "Next stop: Charm City"
I like food. Camden Yard is the place for me
Last time I was in Baltimore, my car was stolen from the Hilton parking ramp.
Great city….if you like drugs and whores.
Whats wrong with drugs and whores?
Danny,
“Great city…..if you like drugs and whores.”
Where in that statement was “wrong” mentioned?
Beautiful ballpark and its great walking the Inner Harbor. Wish I was there this weekend. The Rays have a chance to do the same thing, if they can get their new park in St. Pete’s or even better in the Tampa harbor near the Ice Palace.
Joe
I grew up in DC and Baltimore is a great town especially the Harbor. The best crab cakes in the world. It also has some of the best fans in baseball.
I remember they’re fomer pa guy. Every fan that caught a foul ball would received the same comment. “Get that fan a contract”.
Have a crab cake and a cold beer for me.
Some buddies and I road tripped to Baltimore last year. As the Friday night game was winding down, we were more than a little boozed up and engaging in some entertaining dialog with O’s fans out in CF. The line of the evening was delivered by a guy at least half a dozen rows behind us and had the entire section in stitches.
“Welcome to Baltimore! Enjoy the syphilis!”
[…] JoeC points out a nice little tidbit about the starter the Twins are facing today: The Twins will face Daniel Cabrera, who continues to […]
As far as away stadiums go… I’ve been to Miller Park, Safeco, and Kauffman. As great as the new ones go, I think I liked Kauffman the best. You actually feel like your outside instead of a big warehouse with no roof over you.
Steve says:
September 12th, 2008 at 10:03 am
Last time I was in Baltimore, my car was stolen from the Hilton parking ramp.
Great city….if you like drugs and whores.
Have you ever been to Chicago White Sox stadium or Dodgers stadium. You can buy crack and be shot too all in 1 day
Gardenporker,
What is the common denominator with your comparison?
I am just trying to say the 2 I named off are far worse. Sorry to hear about the vehicle loss. I have heard that the stadium in Baltimore is wonderfull though.
They don’t build stadiums in Dyersville, Iowa.
Just a little baseball “field of dreams” where there’s no car theft, drugs, whores, crack and shootings.
At least not as many as near big city ballparks.
[…] Originally published by Around the Majors […]
sane I wonder what Washington’s stadium is like. I always hear such possitive feedback regarding our capitals city
Gardenporker,
DC is part bright - part blight, but I think the ballpark is in a good area.
That’s hearsay.
I have never been to the stadium.
sane what do you think of the idea of catchers wearing neck guards. With all of the new bats being made of such weak wood and breaking upon impact. I am thinking that one day a catcher or an umpire will catch one in the neck ala Steve Yeager?
How about Phillies ballpark area being rough. I know that the old stadium was a tough crowd and area to please. They would throw batteries at the players. I once heard of a Highwire act over the stadium where the tightrope walker fell and died and the fans booed him. Could just be hear say
I would rather walk around Camden Yards then Hollywood Park at night.
jimmy,
Either neck guards or improved quality bats would be better than a catcher getting impaled or killed.
sane I just can’t see why the neck guard is not required till the bats stop breaking. There is a chance of a serious injury happening in the future. I know a catcher out there that the fans would be very sad to lose if a flying piece of bat struck him. Either fix the bat problem or require the neck guard to be worn. Do you make your players wear the neck guard or do you use metal bats?
We use metal bats except for one wood-bat tournament in late summer.
Struggled with his control and has had decreased velocity? So what you’re saying is he’s going to dominate our lineup.
no idea why they keep trotting Cabrera out there….. I’ll take the W though. Hey Joe C, has there ever been any discussion of bringing back another season of the wire, except this time is could be all about the BSUN sports dept? I mean, drugs and guns and money and bling and all of that make for good entertainment, but I’d like to see how David Simon does baseball… nice and gritty. Steel cletes and such…
Yeah, I just can’t see the harm in going back to the neck guards at this point in time do to defective splintering bats. Here is my next prediction, that the Twins will play Manny and the Dodgers in the WS. Imagine how Boston and New York would be devestated over Manny and Torre’s in the WS.
Not a good prediction.
Yes I know. But I can dream. What do you think of the Hollywood Park area at night?
“What do you think of the Hollywood Park area at night?”
Not good.
The same as innercity Anycity.
Even Mpls/St.Paul.
I used to attend racing events there (Hollywood Park) then I just thought that Santa Anita was a much nicer track. Oh well. Hey I love these 6:05 games against teams I don’t get to see that often. GOOOOOO USC THIS WEEKEND. Whoooooo hoooooooooooo!!!!!!!
USC now there is a campus I just can’t understand. A student pays large amounts of $$$ and they put the campus in such a shotty area. I will still root for them though to beat up on those Ohio’ans.
sane says:
September 12th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
“What do you think of the Hollywood Park area at night?”
Not good.
The same as innercity Anycity.
Even Mpls/St.Paul.
What?
I was told by R.T that crime is down. That’s why he’s able to focus on the “tough” issues….like drinking fountains.
I wonder if there is a Continental Diamond in the Inner Harbor?
Some of the players can dive right in!
Steve if you want to see a rough area you should see the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Baltimore–Setting for “The Wire”, perhaps the best television that not enough people saw.
The Orioles look like they are going in the right direction. Hopefully, they don’t have a good series this weekend.
I used to go to Baltimore regularly for work but not much any more. I love Camden Yards. Joe’s correct, they absolutely “got it right”. It just fits so well in the surrounding neighborhood and in all the time I spent there, I never once felt unsafe walking (or crawling, on occasion) from one bar/restaurant to the next either before or after games. Just don’t wander far from the ballpark/Inner Harbor area… things can change in a hurry.
I’ll take Baltimore over Chicago or LA for a ballgame any day. I’ve got a quick trip to DC later in Sept. but I haven’t checked to see if the Nats are in town. Should do that.
Joe C-
as Flathead pointed out the Wire takes place in B-More, and the last season is centered around the Baltimore Sun. have you seen the show? and having worked for the sun, what did you think?
