Baltimore edges Washington 2-1 on May 22, 2011

Camden Yards 33,626 fans on Sunday 5.22.2011

Before the Game visit with Jimmy the security supervisor in the right field walkway – Jimmy said, “This area is called the Flag Court’ (because of all of the major league baseball team-flags located there and waving in the wind). A baseball hit here would travel over 330 feet and over a wall about 30 feet high - a home run.

The dimensions of Camden Yards are shorter than a lot of parks, but also bigger than some. And, the area around Camden is more humid than most major league cities, so maybe the ball does not carry as well when the weather heats up. 333 feet in left field, 364 in left center, 410 in center, 373 in right center, and 318 in right field. The ballpark opened on April 6, 1992. The area had previously been a railroad yard and warehouse district.

Jimmy said, ‘See those round iron baseball plagues on the ground on Eutaw Street? They signify where balls were hit.’ Baseball Historian would guess at least a 400-500 foot wallop. We seen plagues where Jim Thome, Adam Dunn, Nick Markakis, among about 20 others, landed and noted Ken Griffey Jr. had two.

Eutaw Street is loaded with shops selling souvenirs, hot dogs, cold drinks, and other good eating and drinking stuff.

Jimmy said, ‘I grew up in New Jersey and my favorite baseball players as a kid were Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra.” Now he favors all O’s.

The Ball Game

Baltimore starter Chris Tillman and Washington’s Jordan Zimmerman were locked in an old fashioned pitching duel for 5 innings. O’s manager Buck Showalter removed Chris Tillman (6 hits, 1 R, 4 so, 2 bb in 5 IP) after the right-hander was behind 1-0 in the score. In the bottom of the 7^th DH Vladimir rocked Camden Yards with a two run homer off Nats starter Jordan Zimmerman, 2-5 w/l 3.98 ERA (4 hits, 2 R, 5 so, 1 bb in 6.1 IP).

We sat in right field outfield stands in Section 12, Row 4. We asked fans in the stands and below waiting to buy goodies ‘who are your favorite baseball players who are playing now’, and also and took note of sweatshirts with players names on them. Here’s Baseball Historian’s results -12 liked Nick Markakis … 4 chose Luke Scott … 2 stated Adam Jones … 1 for Matt Wieters … and 1 for young pitcher Zach Britton (and the beer drinking guy behind us talked a lot about how popular Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson was because the guy next to us was wearing a Cubs sweatshirt honoring Hall of Famer Billy Williams). We noted the guy next to us was a lawyer and was pleasant to us but kept his silence to the guy behind. Take Me Out To The Baseball Game!