The Excellent
Most excellent was being at Camden Yards. It doesn’t matter if we win or lose (well, okay, it does matter some), just being there live and in person is the perfect way to spend a few hours (with one exception noted under, “The Ugly”). Some things make the experience even better than even one’s very active imagination could conjure up (and that’s coming from someone who dreams of one day having a private dinner with the Orioles Hall of Famers in honor of my exceedingly excellent fanness). Monday night, I arrived at the Yard an hour early but spent half of it in line at the Will Call. Though I had pre-ordered my ticket, a mix-up left me ticketless. Finally, just when I was losing patience, I was handed a ticket and an apology so that I could finally be on my merry way. Once inside the park, I noted my seat section - 22. I was sorely disappointed, “How could they downgrade me from my original Section 12?” So I thought. I could not have been more wrong. Section 22 is directly behind the Orioles dugout and my seat in row CC was THREE rows back! It was the best seat I have ever had at an Orioles game - better than my parents box seat season tickets during the 70s and 80s. I was so elated the entire game that I barely noticed the shut-out.

Excellent: Yesterday’s game. An afternoon game on a sunny day is just a perfect place to be. Bergeson pitched eight full innings surrendering only one run. Meanwhile the Os scored five runs against Beckett (HAHA!) in the first three innings. It was glorious baseball and glorious to watch such great Orioles pitching.

Excellent: The Orioles fans. Yesterday I had the pleasure of sitting next to Brian, a fan as dedicated to the team as we are. His parents and brother were there also and were equally delightful. It may not seem like much to ask when you attend at game in your home team’s stadium, but being surrounded by other Orioles fans is a real treat when so much of Camden Yards is filled with obnoxious Red Sox fans (see “The Ugly” for more on this subject).

The Not So Good
Tuesday night the Orioles made history, winning the game after the biggest come back in the team’s history. Why isn’t this excellent? A heavy downpour stopped the game in the sixth inning. Soaked through, my friends and I hung out in the concession area for a bit. Eventually, we decided that it was unlikely that play would resume so we would find a bar to hang out in outside of the Yard. I politely agreed since my friends attended the game to socialize with me, not to watch baseball. From a bar on the other side of the Inner Harbor, I watched the rest of the game, which had restarted promptly after we left the stadium. With a mixture of dismay and delight, I watched as the Orioles scored one run after another, turning a Red Sox 9-1 game into an Orioles 11-10 game. Yea, the Orioles beat the stinking Sox and yea they made history. Boo I was watching from a bar when I should have been inside the stadium enjoying the shutty on the Sox fans mouths.

The Not So Good: Also a bit disappointing was the surrendering of an Orioles assured victory in yesterday’s game to the Sox. Johnson. Johnson. Triple Shot. Baez. Let’s not revisit it.

The Ugly
Some of you may have seen my post immediately after Tuesday’s game. I pulled it until I could calm down a little bit and be more rational. While I love being at the Orioles games, I do not love the Red Sox fans. Unfortunately, my seats on Tuesday night happened to be in the middle of some of the rudest fans I’ve met yet. There were repeated derogatory comments about Camden Yards and the Orioles, in addition to the usual Red Sox fan attitude of entitlement to ruin the home town fan’s experience. Whenever we cheered for the Os, they would give a retaliatory cheer - which of course is reasonable — I mean how dare we cheer for our own team in our own stadium. When the game went in the Red Sox favor - which it was with every play — this was the 9-1 Red Sox game — the fans sitting behind us would clap in our ears. I was fantasizing about throwing my beer on them and one of my friends was ready for a “discussion.” Happily the most hateful fans left or moved seats before my friends and I cut them.

Yesterday, the Sox fans sitting nearby were mostly respectful. However, I was treated to a conversation directly behind me between a Sox fan and his son as the father taught his son important lessons about being a bad visitor. It reminded me of a bumper sticker I’ve seen, “Mean people breed little mean people.” Sox fans breed little obnoxious Sox fans.

Red Sox fans are officially the worst in baseball. During my long drive back to Charlotte, I contemplated a few bumper stickers I’d like to have made: “Red Sox Nation: alienating baseball fans in the rest of the nation.” “Red Sox fans: ruining the baseball experience for home team fans all across America.” I also mentally drafted a few letters that I would like to address to Red Sox Nation. I think it’s important that in all their self-centeredness, someone help them realize that they are not the only fans who pay for their tickets and perhaps the home team fans would like the pleasure of enjoying baseball in their own stadium. Perhaps a lesson in etiquette and respect might assist them in understanding the difference between cheering for one’s own team and being utterly obnoxious and disrespectful to the home town fans. One day the tables will turn, the bandwagon fans will disappear and I hope that they get a bitter taste of their own medicine. At that point, there will be no one anywhere who will feel sympathy for them and a lot of fans looking for revenge.

I really didn’t think I could hate them more than I do already, but I do. Red Sox fans are worse, far worse than Yankees fans. I may even start cheering for the Yankees when they play the Sox. That’s how much I hate them. I don’t like being a hater but I think hating Sox fans will be my new past time. May they plummet to last place and stay there for the rest of the century!

Ugly: Another exceedingly ugly thing is that Red Sox gear is sold in Camden Yards (I complained to a store employee who totally rationalized it, but I stuck to my guns). Before the game, an announcement is made to the effect that Orioles fans have a reputation as polite and courteous fans and we should uphold this reputation by being polite to visitors. After thinking about that, how DARE they! How dare the Orioles management encourage Orioles fans to be polite. We are, but this is our stadium. The announcement instead should encourage the visitors to be polite and respectful to US in OUR stadium. If anything the announcement should suggest some guidelines for courteous behavior so that the HOME TEAM fans might enjoy their experience, after having paid for their tickets too!

My rational mind says that it’s silly to get worked up about all of this. It’s just a game and it doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things. Baseball isn’t solving world peace, it’s not ending world hunger or poverty. Who cares, really? But the thing is, of course we’re emotional about it because if emotions didn’t figure into it, we wouldn’t spend countless hours sitting on a sofa watching someone else exercise, we wouldn’t pay exorbitant prices for little team logo cotton shirts, keychains and cute little Orioles birds to figure in vacation pictures. Yes, I understand Red Sox fans spend money in our stadium. I understand that selling Red Sox gear in Camden Yards generates revenue. That isn’t the point. There has to be a line drawn somewhere and that line is activities that alienate the home team fans. So much has been done to make Sox fans feel welcome that it’s difficult for an Orioles fan to enjoy his or her experience. The Orioles fan should take priority over visiting fans. Maybe I’m wrong and we should soak the Sox fans for all the cash they have. If you ask me though, in the world of baseball morality, it’s totally immoral to cater to the Sox fans so much. If I were capable of being rational about the Os, I would have quit baseball during the last players strike, I would have quit them after any one of the steroid scandals, and I would absolutely quit them now. Sure we’re going through lean times. However, one thing we can learn, say from Cubs fans, is that it doesn’t take a winning team to have fan support. The Orioles management needs to realize that and do whatever possible to make sure that every time an Orioles fan comes to the game, that fan feels important to the organization and has an enjoyable experience. It’s impossible to tell both Sox fans and Orioles fans that they’re welcome unless boundaries are established about acceptable behavior once inside our stadium. Let me reiterate that it is OUR stadium. OURS.

That ends my soap box about Sox fans. I would like to just reiterate one last time that I really, really hate Boston fans and wish that they would all simultaneously burst into flames.

I also want to reiterate how much I love watching the Os and how I wish it could be my full time job. I have several hundred pictures and I will try to post them shortly.

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