Take me out to the ball game (again)...

E e-mailed me yesterday afternoon with a crisis. 4 free tickets to the last Os game of the season and her friends had bailed. Was I interested?

After traveling with her to Owings Mills to pick up our Race For The Cure T-shirts for Saturday's race, we made our way back down to Camden Yards to see our beloved birds play the Yankees. As was the case with the Red Sox game last Friday night, there were more New Yorkers (or at least New York fans) than Baltimoreans. The section I sat in was easily 90% Blue and White (as opposed to Orange and Black)...

sidebar: These days, of course, you can get your team's isignia on hats and shirts of any colour or design, so you can't always take the colour-recogntion at face value.

I had been fairly warned that Yankees fans are, by and large, a problematic, unpleasant group. I'm happy to say that the people around me were good-natured. In no way obnoxious. It was beautiful, people, to see Os fans and Yankees supporters engaging in light banter. Up to the right of me, there was a truly obnoxious baltimoron all decked out in Os paraphenalia that was suffered gladly by the enclave Yankee fans near him.

Which is not to say that there weren't problems. At one point about 12 cops came into the stands (to the far left of where I was) and escorted some less than exemplary stadium goers out of the place.

All things considered, I preferred this crowd to the Bostonians from last week. It's all about where you sit, though. The toxic, rabid nature of the fans near me last Friday night produced some nasty vibes, even though nothing unpleasant happened, I was keenly aware of that.

The highlight for me:

Getting a pink Os cap on my way into the ballpark for 5 bucks!