We rolled into Baltimore’s Penn Station about 1:30 on Thursday to be greeted by our hottest temperatures of the trip (not by much though), a very oppressive 93 and higher.  We went straight to Oriole Park at Camden Yards and nailed three seats four rows behind the visiting Minnesota Twins dugout.  We had decided to be at the park when it opened so that the boys could participate in the entire batting practice in their quest for more major league baseballs.  So there was no time to do anything other than grab lunch, swing by the hotel and return to the stadium.  They spent 90 minutes in the right field bleachers chasing balls and trying to snag them from the air against much taller and aged competitors.  Unfortunately, they came up dry.

One would not expect to say that a 5-0 five hit victory by the visiting Twins against a team 30 games out of first place was packed with excitement but the boys got a variety of action.  While the game was well played and enjoyable, they saw three Oriole ejections on a horribly blown call by the first place umpire (what a great job…you get to screw up and then send away anyone who disagrees with you even though the world can see it was you who was dead wrong (oh my, yet another reminder of my experiences with investment managers)), an idiot who ran onto the field and taunted the Baltimore police officers for probably five minutes and an up close performance by the Oriole mascot.  Let’s see, even I can think of trespassing, resisting arrest, not obeying a police officer and probably more.  During the field invasion incident the boys were hoping to witness their first tasing.

The Orioles too have a great history as exhibited by the retired numbers of the likes of Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripkin Jr. and Jim Palmer among others.  And while Yankee Stadium is an incredible venue, it is so over the top that it can be a distraction from the game and, as mentioned earlier, the costs are absurd.  Oriole Park, much like our Coors Field, is just a beautiful and relaxing place to enjoy a game.  And while still overpriced as are all professional sports, our seats at less than a third the price of comparable seats at Yankee Stadium seemed like a steal.

Tomorrow, Philadelphia and the sixth game of our journey.  Go Rockies.