July 15-17

Friday afternoon: Dick and I decided to go to Wilmington in the evening, the Frederick (Maryland) Keys were the opponent. The Keys are the Orioles' Carolina League affiliate, they've been in the league since 1989. The club got its nickname from Francis Scott Key (of "Star Spangled Banner" fame) who is interred in Frederick. On this night in Wilmington they had post-game fireworks, the crowd of better than 7500 was the second-largest in franchise history (the Blue Rocks have been around since 1993). Unfortunately for our good friends in Delaware the Keys ruined the party with a 6-4 victory. On Saturday Dick joined Marty and me for the trip to Baltimore as the Orioles (major league version) hosted the Cleveland Indians. As an Orioles fan I've been to Baltimore many times but this was the first time for me in several years. The fact is since just about every big league game is televised these days there is little incentive to travel eighty miles to attend in person, Marty wanted to go because he's an Indians fan. We took Interstate 83 south from York to Hunt Valley, parked there and took the train downtown to Camden Yards. We sat in the top level of the upper deck in left field for ten dollars, for a major league game you can't beat that at all. The Orioles won 6-5 before better than 24,000 and broke a nine-game losing streak, the club has struggled mightily in recent years and this season has regrettably been no different. With the travel involved it was past 1:00am before we got back to Lancaster, I slept until past 10:00 on Sunday morning. In the evening Jenny and Helen came into town for the ballgame on North Prince Street, the "BSers" hosted the Bridgeport Bluefish. The "Fish won 8-4 in a game that started at 6:05 and took better than three hours, a typical Atlantic League marathon (although in fairness it should be noted that the game in Wilmington also exceeded the three-hour mark). Over three nights this weekend we saw the Carolina League, the American League and the Atlantic League-that's like entering a building on the fifth floor, taking the elevator to the penthouse and from there to the underground parking garage. That may sound cruel but most baseball people would not argue. Take care, thanks for reading.