Grandson Shawn and I had tickets to see the Orioles’ play the A’s Friday night. Thursday he was with me as we headed down the road to Buzzy’s Country Store. We heard the sports talk boys on the radio discussing that evening’s scheduled NFL pre-season games, and when they mentioned the New Orleans Saints being in Baltimore to play the Ravens, Shawn said, “Too bad we couldn’t go to that one too.” I said “Yeah, right.” (Funny isn’t it, how when someone makes a suggestion your initial thoughts are always negative as you immediately start to think of all the reasons why you can or should NOT do something? With me, my initial concern is always Store coverage as in who will watch the Store in my absence? )
However, as I drove along I got to thinking “Hell, why not?” I’ve never been to a Ravens’ game and since we’re going up on Friday anyway, let’s go for it. I checked in with Jennifer to see if she was up for watching the Store for me Thursday afternoon until BJ rolled in later in the evening. I called Pam to invite her to join us, tell her to start packing and obtw find us a hotel room near the Stadiums which she did. Here’s a shot of Shawn looking out our view of the Inner Harbor after we checked into the room later that afternoon.
Pam passed on going to the football game but Shawn and I managed to secure two tickets and made our way into the ball park.
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| Shawn and Me With Ray in Background |
Pre-season NFL games are always messy affairs and this one was no different as the Saints and Ravens played their second and third string players for most of the game. We left after the third quarter and got back to the hotel bar just in time to see the Ravens win the game on the last play. Shawn was excited of course as we high fived folks in the bar and celebrated the Ravens winning.
Next day, we hit Ft. McHenry, ate lunch in Little Italy, visited the Babe Ruth Museum, rode the boat taxi around the inner harbor and then bopped into Camden Yards for the O’s game that evening.
Chris Davis hit one of the best home runs I’ve ever witnessed as the O’s took a 6-4 lead in the 7th inning. We left after the 8th inning but the A’s tied the game in the 9th. We listened to the game on the car radio as we drove home and were just rolling past Leonardtown High School when we heard in the 13th inning Manny Machado hit a home run to win it (click here for recap of game highlights.) I’m glad we left when we did because it was almost midnight when Manny went deep.
Tired from our 24 hour blitz of Baltimore, having attended two games and up way past my bedtime, I would never have made it home had we’d stayed til Manny did his thing. A very nice Baltimore City cop took this photo (left) as we headed out of the ball park.
Only down side to our two day ball game tour, was that back at the Store, Jenn had to contend with the beer cooler freezing up and stop working properly. This prompted the FB post that Kim Wiley documented.
Robbie McKay responded however and got the cooler back in service yesterday.
When I touched base with Shea to see what Shawn had to say about our big adventure, Shea noted “He told me it was great. He said he and Gran J were sitting in a bar watching the game when the Ravens won.” Teaching him the right way to do ballgames aren’t I?