Return to Oriole Park

September 11, 2015

We chose to return to Oriole Park as Orioles fans this time. This trip also marked our 60th game together. Consider it our Traveling Baseball Baberversary. We left for Baltimore after work. Made pretty good time until the BQE. There, we died. We died for a long time. On the plus side, we drove alongside a sexy beast in an Acura. He waved to us. We swooned.

We posted photos and videos of our drive down to Baltimore on Instagram/Twatter (@TravelingBBabes). If you haven't checked them out/"liked" all of our photos yet, you should really get on that. We don't know what you're waiting for.

Serena photographed our arrival:

 

 

We parked in a nearby garage for $20, which sounds steep, but after being on the road for over four hours, we probably would've paid a lot more. We just wanted out of the car. We approached the stadium from the same angle that we approached it in 2008.

The first thing we noticed is that there were the new additions to the area (at least the additions were new for us). The numbers of retired Orioles. And also, Babe Ruth. With a lot of people hanging around him.

 

 

 

 

 

Once inside, we received our free giveaway - an Orioles hoodie sweatshirt.We also got our TrapperKeepers stamped and ran around the Kids' Zone.

 

 

Before heading to our seats, we bought an O's pretzel and a bacon on a stick.

 

Lisa had an incident while standing on line waiting for her stick of bacon. When Serena found her at the stand, Lisa had dry heave face on. Serena almost asked why when she smelled it. The scent of diaper shit. And something special. Extra special. According to Lisa's sources (and by "sources," we mean that Lisa eavesdropped on a couple's conversation), the Orioles' ballpark staff neglected to take the garbage out during the last homestead. We cannot confirm or deny if this is true. It seems unlikely that this is what transpired, but the smell was unlike any other. It was worse than the Bog of Eternal Stench. And death. Decaying death. And poop. Decaying poop.

On a more positive, both food items were delicious. Thank god the poop smell couldn't curb our appetite.

Here are some photos taken from our seats:

 

 This photo is why we're probably not looking any sexier from our half-marathon training:

We look so much nicer in low lighting...

There are 79 bronze baseball-shaped plaques scattered across the concourse on Eutaw Street representing each home run hit beyond the outfield walls to Eutaw Street. Since there are so many, we agreed to document the first Yankee player we found. Unfortunately, that Yankee was Johnny Damon. Since Serena refused to allow that man to be commemorated on our blog, we settled for the second Yankee. That player was Curtis Granderson, now playing for the Mets. So it was a win-win.

We also found the plaque for Ken Griffey's home run during the 1993 Home Run Derby in which he hit the wall of the warehouse.

We found out that Papa Schwall was in the house, so we met him by Boog's BBQ to say hello. He kind of reminds us of Papa L., only he's not bitter. Or angry. We failed and didn't take a photo of him for the blog. Doom on us. He wore a spiffy Orioles polo shirt whereas we looked like greasy white trash.

Since Serena has been to Oriole Park several times before her visit with Lisa in 2008, she's already sampled the savory tastes of Boog's BBQ. Therefore, Serena purchased a crab cake ("crab cakes and football. That's what Maryland's made of.") for us to split. At the the BBQ stand, Lisa ordered the pork sandwich and added BBQ sauce and horseradish. Since we didn't feel like climbing all the way back to our seats, we sat on the floor of Eutaw Street and ate. Like classy beasts. Sitting around the African watering hole, swatting the flies were our smelly tails.

 

 

Again, our food choices were on point this evening. This made up for the horrendous sausage sandwich we had at the ballpark in 2008. Serena's phone began dying in the top of the 8th inning, so before it officially died, we ran to the area behind left centerfield to photograph the bronze statues of the retired players.

 

 

 

 

We knew that we had to get back to New York for our Yankees' double header the following afternoon. Therefore, instead of spending the night, we chose to head back to Long Island that night. We initially planned on staying for the entire game, but to be frank, the game wasn't pretty. Kansas City rolled all night. At the bottom of the 8th, we felt it best to hit the road. It was already after 11, we had at least four hours to drive, and we knew that we had a long day coming our way. So we left. As we departed, we re-took the photo of the Babe Ruth statue without anyone using him as a jungle gym.

 

As Serena snapped these last photos, her phone died. We returned to the car and turned the air conditioner on as high as possible so that we could continue wearing our comfy cozy sweatshirts.

Lisa turned onto the parkway. Serena plugged her phone into the mobile charger. A few things happened. For starters, we missed Papa Schwall finding awesome field level seats for us to sit in. More importantly, we missed the grand slam home run and solo home run that gave Baltimore the come from behind victory. Awesome.

You're welcome, Baltimore. If we'd stayed until the end, you would've lost.