Camden Yards

Again, we are hitting the road for Phillies game tonight as they play the Dodgers. I would wait and write after that since I am betting it will be a Phillies victory to write about, but I'm not especially up to writing at midnight. So, that will be tomorrow. However, today we are going to talk about baseball in Baltimore.

I have been to Camden Yards three times before. There is a certain charm with the warehouse in right field that I remember something about Ken Griffey Junior busting a very high window in the Home Run Derby. Too bad I don't remember more than that, but it was nevertheless a giant homerun. The rest of the ballpark bears a striking resemblance to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Also, if my memory serves me, some of the people in the design process worked on both ballparks. If there is a bad seat, I was unable to find it as most seats have excellent sight lines to all areas of the field. Of course there are certain blind spots present at certain seats, but really they're very good most of the time. So, I guess I would say that if you're in Baltimore, you might as well stop by. It's one of the nicer parks I have ever been to.
Photo by Shoshanah on Flickr

End of an ESPN Era

I was very upset to discover that the ESPN Zone in Baltimore is no longer with us. We rounded the corner, and I found a bunch of boarded up doors and windows. What's up with that? Luckily, I'm trying to kick in all that researching knowledge I learned in college to find out what happened to this restaurant.

I am Googling...

Okay, okay, I know that you are all desperately wondering what happened to this landmark in the Inner Harbor. According to an article in the Baltimore Sun in June, Walt Disney Co. made the decision in June to shut down five ESPN Zones including the one in Baltimore. However, what made this one special was the fact that it was the original ESPN Zone. According to this article, this ESPN Zone had been open for 12 years. It was started more as an experiment by Disney, but it ended up eventually falling apart due to increased competition and the fact that the restaurant became more of a tourist attraction as opposed to a regular everyday restaurant. Personally, being a tourist, I enjoyed it, and I thought the food was very good. However, apparently Baltimore didn't worry about it enough, and it is the end of an era.