Baseball X 4

Baltimore

Adrian arrived on Saturday after a very long red-eye flight. By Tuesday, we were ready for our first baseball game. This was Baltimore Orioles v The Los Angeles Angeles of Anaheim. I wanted to be a good visitor and cheer on the home team, but I was very happy that the Angels won. We had gone to the wharf area and got caught up in traffic that was horrendous due to a burst water main. These cities are very old. Their infrastructure is crumbling, since some of it is 200 years old. Their streets are all one way, since they were made for walking or horses. You can imagine my joy when we drove into our hotel before the game and it was directly across the street from the stadium.

We had wonderful seats, too. This is the view from the clubhouse level. The city looks pretty from this view. Actually, it's a nice looking city. We know from The Wire that not all parts are nice. Adrian

 and I had talked about taking a Wire tour that I found on the Internet. The trial with the water main knocked that off the agenda. Most of the downtown was re-routed for the day.

This is Adrian, wondering why his silly mother wants to take his picture. I wasn't the only silly one. Adrian wanted to try a trout sandwich. I guess the kids on The Wire were always eating those things and he said he thought it would be interesting to try something that was unique to the city. I asked around and was told we could find them at Lexington Market. Seems this is a pretty famous market.

 It's sort of like the Central Market by The Times building in LA. Lots of stalls for meat and produce and lots of little food stalls. Adrian wasn't sure his trout sandwich was authentic. My crab cake was. We ate these as we drove to Philadelphia for the next game.

Philadelphia

This time our hotel was way across town from the ball park. We drove past the stadium on our way to our hotel in the historical district. AAA maps told me to go down a narrow one way street. It was fascinating. It passed the two most famous cheese steak stand in the city. We weren't hungry andevery ingredient in the sandwich is off my diet, so we drove on to the hotel. The neighborhoods were very inviting. Old friends used to live here and missed it a lot. I can see why. No broken water mains.

We watched the Nationals of D.C. beat the Phillies. Once again I was torn between being a good visitor and cheering for a team more local to where I currently live. So I cheered all good plays. The Nationals won.  That is a rare occurance.  Or it was. They seem to be doing better now. Our seats were in the seats just above first base. People were in the aisles the whole game. Our seats were on the aisle. We saw very little of the hitting and pitching part of the game. It was freezing so we left early and saw the end of the game on TV. We had much better seats there. Or, we saw more of the pitching/hitting part of the game.

Washington, D.C. 

We went to the Nationals game against Cleveland on Sunday.  See the tarp covered field above. See the hugely bored people below. They do have the best food of any ballpark. We should know because we sampled it all as we waited for them to call the game.

Adrian, Eric and Cindy watching the Atlanta game on the TV in the clubhouse.  Oh well.

Adrian and I went back for the game on Tuesday. Hum, I can't remember who they were playing. No tarp on the field meant that the running president's could race each other. You can see them nearing the finish line. Abe won, Teddy was in last place. And no wonder. Look at the commemorative tee-shirt they handed out. It was May 5. Poor Teddy. Actually, he looks a bit like my friend, John. We were too late to get one. So sad. 

This game was called in the 10th due to rain. The score was tied 10-10. The Nationals scored 3 runs on walks when the bases were loaded. A batter was hit, scoring one of those runs. Lots of excitement and very good seats. We may do this again when Adrian returns.