Four teams, three ballparks, two leagues, one month. That pretty much describes the summer thus far. I’ve seen more baseball in the past month than I probably saw in the previous ten years. I haven’t done an actual count but I would be willing to bet green money on that hypothesis.
The game sucked. I knew it would. The big attraction of the day was Camden Yards itself. As I said when I couldn’t choose between rooting for the Phils or the Red Sox some weeks ago, “I’m cheering for the ballpark.”
It’s a nice place. I can definitely see how it was revolutionary at the time but, while it’s not showing its age, it has been surpassed. I really can only make apples to apples comparisons with the Citizens Bank Ballpark but you can clearly tell that the designers of the new-old ballparks took all the ideas that came out of Camden Yards and dramatically improved upon them. It’s a hell of a place, but the ideas have found fuller expression elsewhere.
Nevertheless, it’s a dramatic tribute to a basement ball club in a third-rate city.