Die-hard baseball fans like myself were eagerly awaiting the opening of Oriole Park. It was to be the start of a renaissance, where the ashtray generic stadia were phased out of existence.
We diehards weren't disappointed.
Much of the original charm came from what the park wasn't. It wasn't a multiple-use stadium. It wasn't built to fit every single possible seat into the building. Instead of a park where fans were removed from the action for the above reasons, Oriole Park was built with the philosophy that a nice, fan-friendly park and would bring more fans in. This makes sense, considering how many teams were playing to barely filled venues where it was hard to see the game.
In building the new park, designers did something special. First they found the perfect location for the stadium. Not only is it downtown, but it's also in the area where Babe Ruth was born and spent his early years. A couple of blocks west of the park is the Babe Ruth Museum, where Ruth was supposedly born. A new baseball museum has been in the works right outside the outfield wall, which may now be open. Then there is the old Warehouse in right field. Now it not only adds a touch of class and a target to the game, but also houses many ballpark amenities. Eautaw Street, between the outfield bleachers and the warehouse, gets closed down on game days and is used as a park concourse. Boog's BBQ and other fresh-cooked tents get set up here during game days, offering a large selection of food plates.
The park was built asymmetrical, creating a field as quirky as the older parks still in use. The right-field wall is a large scoreboard, built in "tribute" to the Green Monster of Boston and its manual scoreboard. Ivy grows against the center field wall, a tip o' the cap to Wrigley Field.
As for watching a game, I've sat in the bleachers, the upper deck on the third base line, and a lower deck seat in left field. All seats offered a good view of the field, although it was a little tough sitting in the last rows of the bleachers to look back at the giant scoreboard and replay screen. Although there are different types of food stands over the park, if you want something from Boog's, it's tough sitting in the upper deck, where you have a long walk to and from Eautaw Street.
These days, tickets are easily available. In the first few years, the novelty and well-playing Orioles made tickets a hot commodity. There's plenty of parking, although if they should play on the same day as the Ravens, parking would be nuts. Baltimore mass transit runs trolleys right by the stadium, and the small size of the city means walking is easy, too. Therefore if you're in downtown Baltimore, getting to the park is easy.