The Great Baseball Extravaganza ... Day One ... Baltimore

Wow. 3:15 in the morning is E-A-R-L-Y. I do 3:15 better if I come at it from the other side. You know, staying up until 3:30 is easier than getting up at 3:30. But hey, it's for baseball and it's for Scott. Not in that order. So it's cool.

We walked outside of his condo at 4AM to meet his friend Matt. He was to drive us to the airport. But Scott had other plans. He slipped one in on me. He fired Matt and hired a guy to drive this ...

It was a cool way to start the day. And the guy drove really fast because the flight to Baltimore was leaving totally on time. The weather was a bit rough but Scott and I scored again. We were the only two on the plane to have a 3-seat-span to ourselves. Sweet! But it was bumpy enough that a kid a few rows in front of us went on a barfing spree. Fun.

We took the Baltimore light rail system from the airport to a drop-off about five miles from the hotel. A shuttle picked us up. (side note ... I have no idea what medications the shuttle driver was on. That's all I have to say about that.) We couldn't check in until about 1PM and it was only about 10:30AM so we grabbed our rental, a white Chevy Impala. Not exactly a Mustang but it will do. So we hit a mall where I found a cool Orioles mesh shirt for $9.00 and we grabbed a couple of ball caps so that we would be all prepared for the game tonight. By the time we got back to the hotel our room was ready and it was "nappy time." From there ... BASEBALL!

We drove to Orioles Park at Camden Yards, a very awesome place to watch a ball game. The first thing we came across was something I had promised myself to find. The Orioles old fist baseman from back in the 60's, Boog Powell, runs his own concession stand. And guess what? Boog was there! In person! He's a huge man with a tree trunk sized neck. And best of all ... he signed my new shirt right on the left bicep for me. (I'm sure he was impressed.) When he did he looked exactly like this ...

And then we had a little conversation where I told him that I thought I was older than he is but I enjoyed watching him play. He looked at me funny and said, "Man, I'm going to be 62 years old." I told him that I was going to be 52 tomorrow (which is now today, happy birthday to me.) He said, "When I was 52 I didn't even know how to barbeque yet!" Ahhhh ... that felt better. So it was a good day. Boog Powell signed my left bicep (ok, the shirt ON my left bicep ... still ...) and then we "chatted" and it looke totally like this ...

Then I ate the best turkey sandwich OF MY LIFE. No joke. Totally serious. That bird died for a very good cause!

Then it was time for baseball. We cheered for the home team which, of course, meant that they eventually lost. But it was a lot of fun and it rather looked like this from our way too expensive seats ...

Aubrey Huff actually hit "for the cycle." He is only the 3rd Oriole to do that in team history joining Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken in this tough feat. It was cool to see. But the good guys lost anyway. Bummer

So the game ended and I managed to get the worlds largest policeman who was standing on the field behind home plate to reach around the net, grab my camera, and take this ultra cool "reverse" picture ...

How awesome is that? I thanked him and promised not to speed on the way home. (Yes I really did. And no I really didn't.)

Then we drove back to the hotel and Scott is trying right now to go to sleep before I crank up the snoring machine and begin shaking the 10th floor. What a day. I want to do this one again.

If you want to see more pictures surf over to www.flickr.com/photos/rotola