Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Today I went to my first-ever Baltimore Orioles baseball game, and it was at Camden Yards in ... Baltimore. I drove. I got lost looking for the parking lots, but then I got un-lost. I'm good that way. It's all about the adventure, and I saw some unplanned sections of the city I'd rather not discuss right now.

I am not a sports fan, but I decided I need to be able to say I've been, so I went. I later found out the Orioles are in the basement of their league, and maybe the basement of all professional baseball at the moment, which probably explains the parking lot:

I thought since I'd been too dim to order a parking pass with my ticket that I'd have to walk 12 miles from available parking to the ball park, but when I asked about General Parking, they waved me into this lot. This lot is next to the ball park.

The gate I went through was this one:

Um, okay. There is really a street with this name in Baltimore. I just looked it up and I see it's also a city name in AL. I learn so much when I blog.

Please keep in mind that I am not a sports follower, and since (in my opinion) baseball is more of a business than a game any more, I stopped trying to keep track of who plays for which team. I think back in the late 70s when the Reds were in the World Series I had a clue, but not since then.

So the few pictures I took today have nothing really to do with the actual game itself. For example, this one:

I love the way they cut this grass to make it such a nice checkerboard pattern, don't you? And look! The checks are smaller in the infield than in the outfield! How do they do that?!?!?!? Is there a reason for it? Like would the infield players lose all focus if the checks were too big?

This is the score board:

Oooh, let's zoom in a little ...

Mmmmm, eye candy:

(Sorry Mrs. Ripkin, but I cannot tell a lie. I also cannot figure out how to make this picture any larger, or I would have.)

Another observation: look at this guy's sox:

He looks like a baseball player, am I right? But look at the rest of the guys:

Long pants - every last one of them, on both teams. What's up with that? Too cold for them? Or did the other guy not get the memo?

Some other non-photographed moments of the day:

1. Everyone was really nice.
2. You can grab a beer when you enter the property and walk around drinking it.
3. Nice bathrooms. Clean and plentiful.
4. Great food options. I had a Corned Beef sammie as big as my head.
5. Everything costs a bazillion dollars.
6. LOTS of kids, and I'd say every last one of them (near me, anyway) was well-behaved.
7. No drunks. I liked that.
8. Guy next to me put his peanut shells in his empty beer cup instead of tossing them on the floor. Nice!
9. You can get pretzel bites, like 2"-long pieces of soft pretzel. OMGSOGOOD!
10. There was a guy taking orders for food so you didn't even need to get out of your seat to be fed, and constantly if you wanted! The guy would enter your order into his "phone" and then someone from inside would bring you your food. SHUT UP! I KNOW!
11. I need to get out more.

All in all, it was a great day! Drove home with the top down on the Miata, got bugs in my teeth, came home and made some cards. I DID! So let's move on to the shameless commerce portion of our show.

I made a pack of these for someone I visited in KY last month:

... so I took the opportunity to photograph them and post them as a customizable item in my etsy store. Finally. If I make them 5 or 10 at a time, it's not such a big effort, so I decided to go for it.

I have the rest of this week off - partly to play tourist in my own town, and I hope to also get caught up on a few "life" things. If I do anything fun, or make a card (crazy, but it could happen) I'll be sure to let you know!

Thanks for stopping by!