As I'd mentioned to anyone who'd listen in the days leading up to this trip, I was very, very excited about it.  I had it all planned out before I went to bed on Saturday, my outfit was laid out, my bag was packed extra-light -- nothing worse than hauling around lots of crap at a ball game! -- and I went to bed early.  Left extra food for the cats, made sure I had my ticket, and my single-eye binocular thingy, and a radio to listen to the game, and extra batteries for the radio just in case, and my Mets visor to wear all day lest I be mistaken for a Yuckee fan, and I was alll ready.

So I left on time, feeling all good, and then things took a bit of a turn.  I don't want to sully this review of road-trip awesomeness by ranting about the travel problems, but suffice it to say that I wrote a page in my notebook later that morning titled "How the MTA is Trying to Ruin My Life, by Melissa."  Hopefully that can give you an idea of what the problem was.  At one point, I actually wanted to cry.  Nice going, MTA!

But then I met up with Baseball Buddy in Hoboken, and he was all cool, as always, and we just got on our way all good in his groovy, air-conditioned, fancy car.  Yay, road trip!!!!#!1!

We drove through some heavy rainstorms, but it wasn't raining when we got to the ball park, and never rained all day although it sure seemed like it would for pretty much the whole day.  We arrived just as the game should have started, but the start was delayed for fear of the rain, so we had time to grab a snack, and a beer for me, and wander around a bit and eventually find our seats.

Everyone was polite and lovely, what a departure from New York baseball!  the funny thing about it was that even though there seemed to be more Yankee fans than Orioles fans, the Yankee fans were REMARKABLY well-behaved, it was amazing!!  I think it had to do with being in a nice, clean ball park, with neatly-dressed people and a whole lot less advertising on the field, barely any hip-hop music and just lots of good, clean baseball fun, all of which together seemed to make the Yucks fans act right, for once.  This alone practically made the whole journey worthwhile for me.

I already liked the Orioles, and now I like them even more.  Good players, great team spirit from their fans, and an elegant, refreshing baseball culture that made me a bit envious, I must say.  I love my team culture, the Mets, of course, but it is still quite a bit, yano, rough around the edges.  I'll always love my team, for better or worse, but did have a couple of moments where I found myself glancing the stadium with envy at how nice everyone was, and how nice they were to be around.  I like the Orioles even more now, and again speculate that they are going to be my AL team of choice when I have the time for such things, someday.

T'was a great game, the Yanks had a decisive win, and I had a real good time. 

Side-note 1: At Camden Yards, you can buy a $1 scorecard OR a $5 program magazine.  Why do we not have this in New York??  Am I really supposed to buy a $5 program every time I go to a game and want to score it?  I go to about 40-50 games a year... what the hell???  NOT COOL.  I bet Selig has something to do with this too, dammit.  Grr...

Side-note 2: Those are some attractive players on the O's, I might add.  :bat bat:

After the game they played all of Cal Ripkin's HOF acceptance speach, and I was crying like a baby, I don't mind telling you.  What a guy... And I took a cool photo of myself with his picture on the big scoreboard behind me, which I will attach forthwith.

Thanks for the hospitality, Camden Yards, great ball park you got there, and a real nice team.