My family and I spent a few days in Washington D.C. and Baltimore and it was my first time truly visiting the Baltimore Inner Harbor. I’m embarrassed to say that in my three years of law school in D.C. when the Washington Nationals were the Montreal Expos, I never got to go to Oriole Park at Camden Yards. What’s even more embarrassing is that I had a game ticket during my law school graduation week and I was still too lazy to go. So last week, I fixed 20+ years of errors and finally made the trek to Camden Yards. As far as I’m concerned, it’s like baseball heaven.
I’ve been to Fenway multiple times especially the year I went to Boston University for my tax LLM and I think Camden Yards comes close to matching that game experience. Camden Yards is the stadium that forever changed baseball because it adopted the retro style that pretty much every stadium from Camden Yards until Nationals Park adopted. My beloved Citi Field with its nod to Ebbets Field only was born because of the design and work of Camden Yards.
What is so great about Camden Yards? I think it starts with the fact that it incorporated the existing B&O Warehouse into the stadium design. It’s also amazing that Eutaw Street while closed to vehicular traffic is part of the stadium design and one could walk Eutaw Street freely when the stadium isn’t open. It’s way more intimate than Citi Field is. You feel like you’re at Wrigley Field or Fenway, yet the stadium has the amenities of suites and great views that the older stadiums don’t have. Camden Yards also creates a great fan experience. As part of my first visit, I received a certificate in honor of that first visit. As part of their Monday and Tuesday home games, you can get an autograph from an Orioles alum. The fact that I was able to get seats behind the Seattle Mariners dugout 18 rows up for $25 a ticket on StubHub was great too.
If you love watching baseball games and can make you way to Baltimore, you need to visit Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
