20 down, 10 to go. (Camden Yards)

The grand tour of the northeast continues! After Philadelphia and its wonderful history and myriad cheesesteaks, I got in the rental and headed south to Baltimore and the birthplace of Babe Ruth and the land of the crab cakes. I had the best crab cake I've ever had in my life from Faidley's, if you are ever in town and don't go there you are seriously short changing yourself.

Oh right, ballpark blog, right? Camden Yards kind of kicked off the whole rebuilding trend, away from the cookie cutter stadiums and back to the retro themed ballparks. In retrospect, I am glad that I'm not doing this tour in the 70s, because as historical as they were, I would think it would be pretty boring to go to Riverfront, the Vet, Three Rivers, and see pretty much the same thing over and over. (I'm not old enough to have seen those parks). One great thing about that rebuilding trend is that there's a different style and different architectural statements going on in pretty much every city.

It was awesome to sit in the ballpark and see the warehouse that Ken Griffey Jr. hit, and that they hung the 2131 sign from when Cal Ripken passed Lou Gehrig. Even though it's barely 20 years old, there is still history here. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. Crab cakes!

19 down, 11 to go. (Citizens Bank Park)

Back and better than ever! Welcome to another year of ballpark touring fun, i.e. eating my way across the country and seeing ball games. Rough life, right? Earlier this summer I did a grand tour of the Northeast which I am excited about sharing with the internets. It started in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park. I had my fill of cheesesteaks by the time of the game so no food pics, sadly. The park is really cool, it has that old timey feel and it pays homage to the Phillies of old with statues and history of the franchise. And who can forget, the best mascot in sports, the Phanatic.