It’s baseball season! If you’re planning a trip to Baltimore for an Orioles game, you’re probably interested in the Camden Yards food menu. At the very least, you would want to know what Baltimore local favorites are represented in the concession stands.

I’m here to help…below I’ve listed ten of my favorite Oriole Park at Camden Yards food choices, including some new food offerings. And of course, I’ve included some tasty pictures!

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We’ll start with five picks that can arguably be “only in Baltimore” (well, almost…I think they have Boardwalk Fries in Washington too):

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Boog Powell for single-handedly making ballpark food spectacular.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #1) Boog’s BBQ. Topping the list, of course, is Boog’s BBQ, named for the star first baseman of the early 1970s teams. Boog Powell still occasionally meets and greets with fans, although he’s not there as often as he used to be.

Given that it’s survived for 30+ seasons, and that the lines still get long, I’d say Orioles fans still think that Boog’s BBQ sandwiches and platters are the best of the Oriole Park food options. It’s not technically a regional food, but it doesn’t get more Baltimore than a plate of Boog’s BBQ at Camden Yards.

Boog told me he liked my tie.

It’s truly amazing grub…pit beef, turkey or brisket sandwiches, or platters that include beans and Old Bay chips, with an above average station of condiment choices nearby.

It’s easy to find Boog’s; it’s the central attraction of Eutaw Street and you can sometimes see smoke wafting from the place. Again, lines get long early on game day, so if you want to try it without missing the rest of the ballpark, get there when the gates open if you can.

I had an Orioles employee share a great pro tip with me…bring your own roll, and ask for your sandwich “naked” to get more meat on your plate. I love people who baseball fan right.

If this is making your mouth water, I am succeeding in my mission.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #2) Stuggy’s Crab Mac and Cheese Dogs. This is one local joint that thankfully the Orioles kept around. Stuggy’s is your place to get unusual hot dogs Baltimore-style. The restaurant itself is a Fells Point institution in the city, and they’re known for hot dogs with wacky toppings. You could take a trip there and try some of their fancier offerings; Fells Point isn’t far from the Yard.

At Camden Yards though their signature Maryland thing stands out…the crab mac and cheese dog. Check out the pic; enough said. Pretty much all of the food stuffs you need for a Baltimore baseball meal, including Old Bay seasoning.

Incidentally, Stuggy’s dogs are a challenge to keep on a plate; I would sit down with a fork and napkins to eat one.

I’ll take them all, please. My family can get something else.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #3) Jimmy’s Famous Seafood Sandwiches. Jimmy’s Famous Seafood is a Baltimore restaurant whose Maryland-style crab cakes (is there any other style?) have been featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” and “Beat Bobby Flay”, so a TV network dedicated to food likes their stuff.

Their stand in the left field corner features crab cake sandwiches, shrimp rolls, Mo Gabba’s fried shrimp and a crab cake egg roll. All with bay sauce of course. Oh, and crabby fries to go with.

April through November is peak Maryland blue crab season, so your Jimmy’s sandwich will rock even if in the unlikely event that the Orioles make the World Series. You can try Jimmy’s food outside of the ballpark, even if you don’t live in the area; just order it on their website.

The Harris Creek Oyster stand appears to be gone unfortunately, so Jimmy’s appears to be the spot for seafood.

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Tacos + margaritas + Orioles baseball = Living at its best.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #4) Vida Taco Bar. The Vida Taco Bar, near home plate on the first base side of the lower concourse, is another local establishment with a few locations in the region, although they’ve closed their outpost at the Inner Harbor.

At Oriole Park they have chicken, beef or pork tacos…and for vegetarian sorts, they have a sweet potato hash vegetarian taco. You can get chicken or beef loaded nachos and street corn dipped in queso dip here too. It’s the best place here to get your Mexican food fix on.

Vida sources their ingredients locally and fresh squeezes their juices daily, as any taco provider should. So it’s above average tacos. They claim their soup of the day is always Tequila – and you can get a margarita here.

Chesapeake fries? Works for any Baltimore baseball fan.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #5) Boardwalk Fries. Boardwalk Fries has been a staple of Camden Yards grub for as long as I can remember, and I remember when the place opened. They originated in White Marsh, Maryland and are all over the Ocean City boardwalk, they’ve even expanded to places like Qatar. (Sorry if you didn’t read that in time for your World Cup visit.)

They’re on the first base side in the lower concourse; top your amazing crispy fries with Old Bay, crab queso and green onions (ask for “Chesapeake fries”). Or get Buffalo or hibachi fries. Again, these get messy and I would sit down with them, but I can personally testify that Boardwalk Fries are all that.

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More Camden Yards sustenance not to be missed. Do you see the necessity of blogs like this one?

For hot dogs and sausages, sadly they’re not Esskay anymore, but the Orioles didn’t venture too far from Baltimore:

Camden Yards Food, Tip #6) Camden Franks. It’s never hard to find a hot dog at a ballpark, but Camden Franks stands feature your jumbo dogs, and the dogs are made by Hoffman’s Meats in Hagerstown. So even with hot dogs you’re getting authentic regional eats.

If you’re in Baltimore for baseball and crab stuff, Camden Franks has a Maryland Dog, which is a quarter pound hot dog with crab dip and Old Bay potato sticks piled on. Again, bring fork and napkins…

Camden Franks stands are scattered around the upper and main concourse, and they’re easy to find.

No doubt, ballpark sausages were a key part of Uncle Charley’s vision.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #7) Ballpark Sausage. “Ballpark Sausage” doesn’t sound terribly unique. Most of us probably could have thought of that name without much effort. But I thought I’d at least give a mention to the sausages at Oriole Park being made by Uncle Charley’s.

Uncle Charley Armitage was a seasoning and spice man, so he undoubtedly knew a bit about making a great sausage. All natural casings and no additives too. He was from western PA, so not entirely local, but a good ballpark sausage is worth a few hundred miles.

In addition to the spice blends, there’s also (more Maryland flavor coming!) the Uncle Charley’s Chesapeake sausage here, with caramelized onions, orange peppers (get it?), and Old Bay queso on a hoagie roll.

Whew! There is a jerk chicken sandwich at Camden Yards. Was starting to get a little worried.

My next two aren’t actually Baltimore institutions, but there is a small link to being so with each:

Camden Yards Food, Tip #8) Butcher’s Hill Deli. If you’d like to eat slightly healthier, the Butcher’s Hill Deli might be a good spot…they have deli-style sandwiches, of which the “Kingston” looked most appealing to me: a jerk chicken sandwich with pineapple chutney, spicy slaw, greens and garlic mayo on a toasted potato bun. If you like Cuban sandwiches, they have a “Havana” here too.

There isn’t an actual Butcher’s Hill Deli to my knowledge…Butcher’s Hill is a neighborhood in East Baltimore, and I presume that if here was a deli there sandwiches would be much like this. Or whatever.

Whether it’s pretzel nuggets or tater tots, this is a winner.

Camden Yards Food, Tip #9) The Hot Corner. In case you’re not a big baseball fan, the “Hot Corner” is another name for third base, which is where this stand is located. Kind of a pun since this stand offers spicy stuff.

They add local flavor here too…there are boneless wings with Capital City Hot Mambo hot sauce, and crab pretzel bites (so they say; is it me or do they look like tots in the picture?) covered with house crab dip, cheddar and green onions. I was mighty mad at myself for eating before I got to this stand…save some room.

Just keep reading, check out what’s in the Rutsch Sundae!

Finally, while there are several dessert options at Camden Yards, including Dippin’ Dots and Rita’s water ice, I chose a local spot to include here:

Camden Yards Food, Tip #10) South Mountain Creamery. The South Mountain Creamery is a family-owned farm in Middletown, MD. Their website states that their milk is processed by the same family that milks the cows. They say you can taste the difference, but I expect you’d have to be a true milk aficionado. Their ice cream is available at Nationals Park too, so maybe there’s something to that. Those folks must wake up stupid early.

Anyway, their menu at Camden Yards is fairly limited, but they do have a “Rutsch Sundae”, named for the Orioles star catcher: it’s orange dreamsicle ice cream with vanilla pound cake, dark chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles, whip cream and a baseball cake pop. Whew! That’s a lotta lotta sugar but hey, at ballpark prices you’ve earned it.

Okay, just so you know, they have funnel cakes. The Orioles have got your back.

So there you go; ten fan favorites for food at the home of the Baltimore Orioles that should make you happy to have gone to a baseball game.

I left out a few things of course, like the impressive funnel cakes, the 1729 pizza, the Buffalo Bird Dog, and the Charm City chicken tenders. There’s nothing wrong with any of them, but I didn’t think they were essential Baltimore enough to include here (although the O-shaped soft pretzel might be an exception). Baseline Burgers are okay, but there are better burgers at a more reasonable price across the street at Pickles Pub.

I hope you found this helpful…if you haven’t bought your Orioles game ticket yet, be sure to read this helpful guide to landing a great seat at Camden Yards, and check this page for many more great Orioles game pro tips!

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Planning a visit to Oriole Park this summer? I’m here to help my friend! This complete Oriole Park at Camden Yards seating guide offers a bunch of valuable tips and advice you need to know about every seating section in the Baltimore Orioles ballpark. I’ll help you get the best seats at Camden Yards, both for your taste and your budget.

I’m covering it all here…including the cheap seats at Camden Yards, your standing room options, and how to best find shade. Whether you’re a first timer at the Yard or a regular, there’s info here that you can use.

If you need more Camden Yards help, be sure to check out my complete guide to the Baltimore Orioles’ ballpark here, and I’ve also added some tips about my favorite way to get there and a few things to know about your food options. (More coming, stay tuned!)

I’ve broken all of this down for easy access:

Camden Yards Layout
Luxury Suites
Camden Club Level
Field Level Seating
Upper Level Seating
Eutaw Street Bleachers
Oriole Park Standing Room
A Few More Camden Yards Seating Tips

Plenty of seats left, so choose one now!

Okay, there’s a lot here, so after this quick word from our sponsor, we’ll get started. (Thank you for supporting our sponsors!)

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It’s not as complicated as it looks, I promise.

Camden Yards Seating, Part 1: Ballpark Seating Chart + Basic Layout

There are three levels of seating at Oriole Park. The lower level includes Field and Terrace seating (the Bleachers are also field level); the Club Level circles the entire seating bowl on the mezzanine; and the upper level includes Upper Box and Reserve seating. Here is the Orioles’ map of the seating.

There are two separate levels of seating in the lower and upper levels. Field and Box seating is in front of Terrace and Reserved on the lower level; Upper Box is in front of Upper Reserved in the upper level. In the lower level, a walkway divides the front and rear sections. Facing the field, Seat 1 is always on your right.

There aren’t a lot of bad seats in Camden Yards, but some are definitely better than others, and there are a few you should avoid, so read on.

I think the stool here is free, but there isn’t much of a view.

Camden Yards Seating, Part 2: Luxury Suites

Believe it or not, some of the suites at Camden Yards might be even within my price range…

The suites are on the Club Level (mezzanine), and have glass doors, refrigerators, a bar and hi-def TVs, and they open out to some very comfortable and mobile black leather chairs to view the game in. The suites are climate controlled, which can be very nice in Baltimore in August.

From the seats you can watch replays on TVs placed above you. People who book a suite for a group get extras like parking passes and opportunities to buy seats in the first two rows.

Padded seats in the shade? Sweet!

There are also party suites that can accommodate up to 75 people in left field, where sliding glass doors lead out onto a two-tiered porch; the Orioles website lists them and their capacities. Several are named for Orioles greats like Brooks Robinson and decorated accordingly; the O’s redesigned suites for use as party facilities, giving them apt names like the Hot Corner at third base, or the Legacy at Suite 54 (1954 being the current team’s first year in Baltimore).

The O’s offer a five game suite package; you can rent a suite for five games including two games against the Yankees or Red Sox. The price works out to about $200+ per person per game, but hey, you can’t take it with you.

No free drinks, but there’s a nice lounge.

If you want to get a single game suite, it can actually be fairly affordable for low demand games, but you’d have to pay extra for food and booze, so I don’t know if all that is worth it just to have heat in April. You can’t bring your own food or drink into the suites.

The Orioles have joined many other teams in providing a suite for fans allergic to peanuts for some games; it’s the cheapest you’ll ever see a suite seat (and honestly, if you’re allergic to peanuts, you deserve a suite at a baseball game). Parents have to sign a release form.

The umpire won’t hear you from the barstool tables, but it’s a good leaning spot.

Then there’s the Miller Lite Flite Deck, a triple-decked party area recently added to the Club Level down the right field line. The Flite Deck has drink rails and bar-style tables and seating. Groups can reserve the area and get a food voucher for the game, and there are three 30-person spaces that can be combined into one big Orioles party.

The Flite Deck is about as far away as foul territory seats get, but they’re not expensive at all as party areas at ballparks go. You’ll need to get there early for the best seating. And you can do some great people-watching with a killer view from above Eutaw Street.

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How many ballparks let you heckle the camera guy for just a few extra bucks?

Camden Yards Seating, Part 3: The Camden Club Level

The club level at Oriole Park has climate controlled concourses (again, that’s a very nice perk in Baltimore) with glass windows to watch the game from, some outdoor concourse areas with a sweet view of the city, six bar/lounges that serve fancy drinks that chicks dig and local microbrews like Flying Dog. You even get waiter service with club level seats, and can order food on a touch pad from your seat.

A special escalator takes you to the club area, with ushers showing the way and blocking everyone else.

Closer to the field than the suites, at half the price!

Some fans complain about the legroom (I’m tall and have had worse), but otherwise the club level gets rave reviews. Anyone with a club seat ticket has access to all of the lounges. It’s a sweet place to duck out of the elements.

Club level seats at Camden Yards are relatively inexpensive compared to most ballparks; if you can swing it, give them a try, especially in hot Baltimore summer months. If nothing else, the food and bathroom lines are shorter. You can very often find a good deal on TickPick for a low demand game.

I’ll take this view if you throw in some hot dogs and club access.

The club seats in straightaway left field are called the “Pepsi All-Inclusive Picnic Perch” and are “all you can eat” seats; where for a slightly inflated ticket price you can get your hand stamped and gorge on all the hot dogs, peanuts, popcorn, nachos, ice cream and soda (no free alcohol) you can handle until the seventh inning. Lines can get long at food stations.

The ticket also includes club level access, which again is great on sweltering Baltimore summer days, but these aren’t the best seats in Camden Yards view-wise…they’re fairly far away from the action. Still, it’s a fun time and complimentary food at a ballgame is a nice plus.

These fans decided to make “under the WGL Energy sign” their meeting spot, since no one could pronounce “Nyquist”.

The O’s added two party areas to the Club Level in a recent renovation (I’ve already talked about the Flite Deck)…

On the left field side of the Club Level is the Drink Rail area; the Orioles added stools with backs to the left field club area, adding to the festive atmosphere, and there are now “Bistro Tables” in straightaway left field. If you can get a ticket early enough you can land a swivel chair with a counter next to you making you feel right at home with a beer.

It’s time for a serious baseball discussion about whether a counter is better than being close to the field.

For the Bistro Tables, you must buy all four seats, but it’s not terribly expensive.

With only a few sections in front of you and no crowd behind you, it might be a little quieter than usual here…not with people cheering but with people talking. With a rail in front of you to rest your scorecard, the Drink Rail section is a nice spot to stay into the action on the field, although like the Picnic Perch it’s fairly far away from it.

More about the seats for the rest of us, when we come back after this:

Just feel those cushions. You have arrived.

Camden Yards Seating, Part 4: Field Level Seating

The premium seating at Camden Yards…lower level seats between the bases…have comfortable padding added; they aren’t the huge airplane seats you find at many premium seats in ballparks, but they aren’t nearly as expensive either. These are, in my opinion, the best seats at Camden Yards even for the price. If you want to splurge on great seats for your ballpark trip, this is the place to do it.

Should you cough up the cash for lower level seats, in most cases the lower box seats are better on the third base side than the first base side. You have a better view of the scoreboard and warehouse (a key feature of the Oriole Park backdrop) for one, and the right field seats also miss a portion of the foul line.

Note the angled section in the left field corner. That’s a good thing.

In the lower level as you get down the third base line, seats are angled towards the infield. It’s not quite perfect, though. On the lower level, the worst sections for seat angles are past the bases just before the angling, i.e. Sections 60-71 past third base and Sections 9-11 past first base. Better to take Section 1-8 over 9-13, or 72-75 over 67-71 if you don’t want to crane your neck all night. (Have a look at the seating chart again to see what I mean here.)

In the lower level, remember that the first three rows are AAA-CCC, and then the next row is AA, so if you’re in Row A you’re not quite near the field. Kind of a rip, but that’s baseball.

There are a couple of Field Box sections beyond the bases that cost a few bucks less than Field Box; beyond these are Lower Box sections that are a few bucks less than that. Section 14 is a better deal than Section 16, and Section 66 is a better deal than Section 64.

There’s a lot of people sitting in the back here for a good reason…

The Terrace Box seats past the bases, particularly in Sections 17 at first base and 55 at third, may be the best seats at Camden Yards for tightwads…IF you get a low enough row. These are near field level seats that are slightly more expensive than upper box, and most rows shouldn’t have an overhang problem. It’s also a good spot for shade in most cases.

These sections are raised so that there is no walkway traffic obstruction in front of them. If you can land these in a low enough row (like Row 5 or lower), score.

It’s just not as fun.

The drawback of the Terrace seats is the upper level overhang. If your row is high enough, you will be covered by the upper tier, good on rainy or hot days but not if you want to see the scoreboard and skyline. There are TVs to catch anything you missed and to see the score, but not being able to view the nice scoreboard (or the city and warehouse) is a bummer.

The Orioles charge significantly less for the upper rows of Terrace sections just past the bases,  here the overhang blocks the view, so you should be okay if you get a Terrace Box seat. You could still have an overhang problem in the Lower Reserved seats in the infield, but it’s not likely to be as pronounced there.

You would expect people who wear blue shirts to an Orioles game to not choose the best section.

The seats ranging from well past third base out to the bullpens are okay if you don’t mind sitting at or near the outfield. I personally like left field corner seats here for the angle reasons I’ve just explained. These seats cost significantly less than those in the infield, but they’re still about twice as much as seats in the upper deck.

The Orioles recently moved the left field fence back to avoid paying more for pitchers who don’t give up dingers, and the rows behind the fence is elevated more, which I think is a better for views.

Your chance to chat with a real-life Orioles pitcher!

Section 86 is next to the bullpens, and if you’re close enough you can watch pitchers warm up, which is actually pretty neat if you’ve never been so close to a 95 MPH fastball. (The placement of the bullpens is an underrated feature of Oriole Park, in my opinion.) You can even  talk to the pitchers, if they’re friendly enough.

“Maybe I don’t WANT to know how the Yankees and Red Sox are doing tonight!”

In the right field corner, again, seats are better angled towards the field, but right field corner seats are elevated and fairly far away. This spot is close to Eutaw Street, but there’s the drawback of not seeing the pretty cool out of town scoreboard. These seats also get the most sun; bring a hat and sunglasses.
 

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Looks like a Tuesday night.

Camden Yards Seating, Part 5: Upper Level Seating

Most fans (including me) will tell you that there is nothing wrong at all with an upper deck seat at Camden Yards. Not only are the seats steep (but not terribly high) and thus closer to the field, but there is a fine view of the Baltimore skyline (and the Hilton that blocks the view of the Bromo-Seltzer tower, much to locals’ chagrin), except for seats that are past third base and into left field.

If you can get a low row Upper Reserved seat, don’t shell out twice as much for an Upper Box seat that won’t be that much better. Similarly, since most games don’t sell out (although that could change as the Orioles improve), you might as well buy an Upper Reserved ticket at the box office when you arrive, which will be cheaper than buying from the team website. Or shop around with third party sites like TickPick.

Get Row 25 for that nice breeze action!

Because the concourses aren’t open like at most new ballparks (and this was deliberate), the view from these seats is better than most, placing you almost on top of the action for a nice price. There are about 25 rows in most of the upper level sections, and even from the top the view is acceptable, with a roof for the rain.

It’s easier to get to the upper deck here than in most parks; there is a convenient escalator in the concourse, right off the south end of Eutaw Street. The stairwells offer fine views of downtown Baltimore on each landing, and the view of the city from the concourse is pretty nice too.

You do get to sit near retired numbers. That probably counts for something.

No seat here is totally horrible, but upper deck seats in left field are probably the worst seats in Oriole Park (the Orioles sell standing room at a similar price). Seats in the corners on the upper level are the biggest problem; they’re angled such that you will have to turn your head to watch the game, and someone getting up in your section may block your view. The right field corner is better for its views of Eutaw, but neither side is much better for viewing the game.

Plus it’s dark up here.

The worst sections for this are sections that end in 64-72 in left field and 04-12 in right. The problem is at its worst in Section 372 down the left field line; just get outfield seats if you have a choice.

Again, remember that Row A is not in the front; the first row is AA. Rows from about D and up are underneath the roof overhang at the top of the park and have the advantage of more shade. There is also a nice breeze up here at times, good on a hot day.

They’re not true bleachers unless you can’t see the scoreboard!

Camden Yards Seating, Part 6: Eutaw Street Bleachers

The center field bleacher seats at Camden Yards are among the cheapest in the park and known for loud, boisterous fans of both teams that are playing. The bleachers are underneath the scoreboard, so you cannot see the Jumbotron unless you sit in Section 98 and crane your neck. You won’t see the out-of-town scoreboard from here either.

Another slight issue is that if you’re about halfway up or higher in Section 98, you may lose some of right field to the out-of-town scoreboard. Not a big deal, but it can be somewhat irritating.

You look just as far away to them, and you can see what time it is.

The bleachers are close to Eutaw and its food selection and entertainments, but deep in center field, you’re pretty far from the action on the field. It can get very hot here in the summertime and this is the last section of seats to be in the shade for night games, so you’d do well to bring sunscreen, a hat and sunglasses. You also won’t enjoy the splendid view of downtown Baltimore here.

One nice thing is that these are actual seats as opposed to the hard benches in Wrigley Field or Yankee Stadium, so you’re less likely to want a cushion. The bleachers are also a staircase away from the soon-to-be-discussed Roof Deck, a popular spot for ballgame socializing.

I’d rather be able to see Eutaw Street than be close to it!

I’ve sat in the bleachers at Oriole Park and it’s my least favorite spot; a big part of the charm here is the view of the Baltimore skyline and B&O warehouse, and feeling how the ballpark blends in with its surroundings. It’s fine if you just want to see a ballgame and grab a bite at Boog’s whenever you want, but if you’re going cheap, go for the upper level.

Be smart and stand in front of the poles!

Camden Yards Seating, Part 7: Standing Room

The Orioles sell standing room tickets on sold out game days, which aren’t all that common, but you can also just buy a cheap ticket and find a better view than from your seat. If you don’t mind standing and love Orioles baseball, check and see if the O’s are offering an unlimited ballpark pass…it’s a fantastic deal if you go to enough games.

Standing room at Camden Yards is decent; the left field area is behind the bullpens (which offers a nice view of pitchers warming up in the bullpens and a picnic area) and right field is the flag court behind the out-of-town scoreboard that occasionally sees home run balls and is right there at Boog’s when you get hungry.

Don’t lean too far to see the out of town scores. We have phones for that now.

The high wall in right field has been replaced with a railing, which has greatly improved the view, but left field is still an adequate option if there’s a large crowd on the patio in right. The MASN pregame show is held in the left field area.

Remember that there aren’t open concourses at Oriole Park, so you won’t be able to watch from behind home plate.

These people standing are missing a perfectly good opportunity to sit just steps away.

By most accounts, the Orioles are not hard on seat poaching, and for the low attendance games there are probably quite a few better seats available than where you are. Your best bet is to wait until after the third inning and stay outside the baselines, where the ushers aren’t quite as strict.

In addition to the club seating party areas, you can rent out the picnic areas beyond center field or on the upper level, and enjoy a pre-game party with unlimited food and beer for a group price that is reasonable by ballpark standards.

Even the cameraman doesn’t get a counter for his drink!

The latest cool standing room hangout spot in the recent upgrade of Oriole Park is the Roof Deck, a new covered full bar with craft beers and a seating section raised above the batter’s eye in center field. There are two rows of barstool seating with counters in the front with a terrific view of the field, at least for a seat with a place to rest a drink. You can also sit at the bar or in comfortable lounge seats, although neither have a view of the game.

The Roof Deck originally was open to everyone with a ticket and seats were first come first serve, but with its instant popularity the Orioles began selling the seats in the front rows, so you’ll need to get them in advance. For the moment you can get tickets at the box office on game day. Tickets aren’t as cheap as you might think they should be, but the price isn’t awful and it’s a fun spot.

Lots of premium seats still available!

Camden Yards Seating, Part 8: A Few More Tips

If you’re bringing the kids to an O’s game, go for the first base/right field side. The bouncy houses, play stuff and photo ops for the kids are almost all in the concourse in the right field corner. The play areas are mostly shaded, but the first base side does get less shade, so you should still have sunscreen and hats for the little ones, and try for seats in a higher row under the overhang if you’re concerned about it.

Here’s where the shade is. You’ll thank me.

The sun sets on the third base side at Oriole Park, so the first base and right field side sees shade last, including the bleachers. In the upper level, the roof offers significant shade, and you may decide to move up a few rows to get under it on a Baltimore July afternoon. Most games don’t sell out, so this isn’t difficult, but you may want to consider getting seats in a higher row (D or higher) if you’re seeing the O’s play the Yankees on a weekend.

“Dang it! I forgot to get my Old Bay egg roll!”

Eutaw Street is where many of the best food items and attractions are, including Dempsey’s craft brews and Boog’s Barbecue, and the seats on the third base side are farthest from it. If you’re in the upper level especially, it’s a lot of walking to Eutaw and the escalator only goes up until the end of the game. I highly recommend partaking of any grub and souvenirs before going to your seat.

Featuring the helpful classic Orioles logo for those who recognize it…

The Orioles dugout is on the third base side, if such things matter to you.

Finally, as I’ve said earlier, Oriole Park at Camden Yards offers among the best deals in baseball, especially for premium seating. If you’re on a baseball trip that includes, say, Baltimore, Washington, and Philadelphia, Baltimore is the place to try for the best seats.

Wow…what a deliberate snub to all the visiting team fans!

Get all that? I hope that you’ve found some useful Oriole Park at Camden Yards seating info here, and can better plan your next trip…or ten trips!…to Camden Yards for Orioles games. Be sure to check out more Camden Yards tips here.

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When it comes to the best way to get to Camden Yards, you have enough options. Driving and parking generally isn’t too bad, at least by downtown ballpark standards, and if you book ahead of time.

But for most Orioles games, I prefer to use the MTA Light Rail, for several reasons:

(Pssst…interested in knowing everything about Oriole Park? Check out my complete guide to Camden Yards here!)

Don’t be intimidated. It’s very nice.

1) MTA Light Rail is cheap. It’s less than four bucks as of this writing round trip to use the streetcar, and parking at most stations outside of the city is free.

You won’t likely find decent parking at the ballpark that cheap…and on top of that, driving to the ballpark in that notorious Baltimore congestion can use up a lot of gas.

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With a helpful photo of the ballpark!

2) MTA Light Rail is convenient. Park for free, hop on the streetcar, and get dropped off right there just a few steps from the gate. You can even use nearby stops to get on or off; the Convention Center and Hamburg stations are still closer than most ballpark parking.

The Light Rail runs frequently enough that you won’t have to wait long before or after the game; for big attendance games you might have a to wait a car or two. Try using the nearby stations in the opposite direction of where you’re headed…your chances of having a seat are better that way.

Sure…how slow could an Interstate highway be?

3) MTA Light Rail avoids traffic. Maybe I should have ranked this higher. If you’re driving in from I-83, traffic north of the ballpark in the city is brutal, especially in the evening when the Inner Harbor gets hopping. The streetcar may take some time trudging through the red lights, but at least you know it will get there. Sometimes when you’re sitting in that downtown Charm City gridlock, you’re not sure.

For the best way to get to Camden Yards, you can’t beat the convenience and price of the Light Rail system. But there are lots of other ways, including by boat or bicycle, and you do have some cheap parking options if you do decide to drive your car.

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What you pay for Camden Yards parking at Orioles games generally depends on where you’re coming from…spots north of the ballpark tend to command a higher price, being closer to the nightlife and more ritzy hotels.

(Pssst…interested in knowing everything about Oriole Park? Check out my complete guide to Camden Yards here!)

So if you’d like to go cheap parking at Camden Yards, and go for an easier out too, here are a few spots south of the ballpark that may work better for you (after this quick word from our sponsor):

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Don’t be confused by the alphabet soup. Use F, G, or H.

Cheap Parking at Camden Yards, Spot #1) Orioles Lots F, G, and H. You can actually book spots ahead of time in Orioles Lots B and C close to the ballpark fairly cheaply, if you do it well enough ahead of time on the Orioles website…do that if you can.

But Lots F, G, and H near the Ravens’ stadium tend to be the cheapest choices, and they’re not too far away. You can even use the Light Rail one stop to the ballpark if you want to shorten the walk.

No, the valet parking isn’t any closer to the ballpark.

Cheap Parking at Camden Yards, Spot #2) The Horseshoe Casino. The Horseshoe is about a mile walk from Camden Yards, and you probably wouldn’t want to walk it at night. The neighborhood isn’t all that bad, just industrial and desolate in the dark.

But for day games, a free parking spot in an attended garage works well, and the walk isn’t too bad…Google calls it at about 18 minutes. No light rail near the casino yet, unfortunately, but maybe in the future…

My friends at TickPick have Orioles tickets…they offer a best price guarantee, a buyer’s trust guarantee, and NO service fees. Sounds like a no-brainer to me!

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Mexican food and Orioles baseball. Your day is complete.

Cheap Parking at Camden Yards, Spot #3) Banditos Bar. Banditos is a Federal Hill institution that recently started offering rides to patrons going to Orioles and Ravens games, and you can park on the street nearby free of charge, or in an inexpensive garage nearby.

It’s actually about as long a walk as the Horseshoe if you don’t want to get a meal beforehand, but Banditos gets pretty good reviews, they have daily food and drink specials, and you get a free ride (although you probably should tip the driver).

There’s three Camden Yards parking options that won’t break your bank at your next O’s game. Try one and let me know how it worked out.

Photo of Bandito’s shuttle courtesy of Bandito’s Bar.

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In his excellent book “Ballpark: Camden Yards and the Building of an American Dream”, author Peter Richmond briefly discusses the emotional passing of Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. He sums up the attachment Orioles fans had to 33rd Street by saying “it was what happened on the field that made Memorial Stadium special”.

I’ve seen this sentiment echoed in other places, and in remembrance of a great ballpark, I respectfully disagree.

(Pssst…interested in knowing everything about Oriole Park? Check out my complete guide to Camden Yards here!)

Without being critical of Richmond, he somewhat implies that Memorial Stadium wasn’t a great place to see a ballgame. And while his statement about the events on the field was true to an extent, as any O’s fan would acknowledge, it wasn’t the whole truth. A true Memorial Stadium tribute deservedly praises what was a great place for a night of baseball.

To fully appreciate how great Memorial was, consider the period that it lived in.

Are you SURE we’re going to a baseball game?

The Orioles played on 33rd Street from 1954 through 1991. 30 miles south, the Washington Senators began playing in cavernous D.C. Stadium (now RFK) in 1962, and played there through 1971 before moving to Texas and becoming the Rangers. Meanwhile, about 90 miles north in Philadelphia, the Phillies moved into Veterans Stadium in 1971—another venue designed more for football than baseball.

The multipurpose donuts that baseball fans sneered at for years were actually fairly popular when they first burst on the scene. With Busch in St. Louis, Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Riverfront in Cincinnati, and many others, cities and teams went the route of football stadiums that could be tweaked for baseball, with easy to maintain carpeted fields and locations near an airport.

Nowadays, ask most baseball fans what the worst venues are, and two names pop up frequently: Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay with its carpet and roof, and O.Co Coliseum in Oakland with its “Mount Davis” grandstand tactlessly tacked on for Raiders fans. During its tenure as home of the Florida Marlins, Sun Life Stadium usually ranked pretty high too.

Memorial Stadium, on the other hand, seemed to be designed more as a venue for baseball than football. Fans would tell you it wasn’t great for football, even as it earned the nickname “The World’s Largest Outdoor Insane Asylum” during the Colts’ glory years. This became even more pronounced when the Colts moved out of town, and the Memorial Stadium baseball field was no longer stained by the yard lines of a lesser sport in Septembers.

The “water fountain” dedication.

As a young baseball fan growing up in the Philadelphia area, the two-hour trip to Baltimore and an Orioles game was light years ahead of seeing a game at the concrete donut in Philly on the happiness meter. From top to bottom, everything seemed more special in Memorial.

It was smaller and humbler. It had a much more attractive brick façade on the outside, with a stunning and poignant dedication to World War II soldiers that I never neglected to read as we waited in line to get in.

It was in a residential neighborhood, which made parking difficult but was much easier to look at. The light towers stood majestically over the field, the first element of the ballpark to come into view after a seemingly endless ride on Loch Raven Boulevard.

Inside, the field was smellable grass, the seating almost everywhere featuring a pleasant background of the houses beyond center field. The hot dogs weren’t just hot dogs—they were Esskay Superdogs…what happened to them? (I’ll put the Esskay Superdog up against the Fenway Frank or Dodger Dog any day of the week, but that’s a biased O’s fan talking.)

The classic cartoon Oriole.

Sure, what happened there was baseball greatness. Part of what made being an Orioles fan special was a great team full of lovable characters. Of course Birds fans loved Brooks Robinson’s superhuman reflexes at third base, Jim Palmer’s perfectly graceful windup, and Earl Weaver’s manic fury with umpires.

The team was full of unsung heroes too in my youth—like steady outfielder Al Bumbry, the classic platoon of Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein, goaltender and team leader Rick Dempsey, and solid relief pitchers like Tippy Martinez and Don “Fullpack” Stanhouse (so nicknamed for the amount of cigarettes Weaver would smoke when he was on the mound).

There was nothing like Orioles Magic and teams that won so frequently with late-inning heroics. Being an Orioles fan was special, something you felt no other team’s fans had, not even Yankees fans.

But all of that was a huge bonus. Memorial Stadium was distinguished as a venue too, and just as much so when the Orioles faltered in the 1980s. It sat on 33rd Street, not being flashy, not going along with all of the modern, economically friendly and equally sterile venues of the 70s and 80s that treated baseball as a secondary sport. Had it lasted as long as Tiger Stadium or Comiskey Park, it may have been just as revered.

It was grass. It was open. It was bricks. It was all of the things teams eventually realized that they had forgotten in their concrete and plastic new homes. For a ballgame, few places were better than Memorial Stadium in its day. Of all of the stadiums back then, it was one of the few that actually didn’t need replacing, at least on baseball-friendliness grounds.

When Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, it was a spectacular triumph and instantly won over baseball fans everywhere. It is still today one of baseball’s best venues.

But it had to be. Orioles fans my age remember the shoes it had to fill.

Rick Dempsey’s poem dedicated to the pile of bricks on 33rd Street.

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Still the best Orioles manager ever.

On June 23, 1979, at the age of 11, I experienced what is still today my most memorable night at a ballpark.

It was a time when teams still held two games in a day for the price of one on occasion, and a time when the Orioles drew just over a million fans in good seasons—about 15,000 a game. That day, or more correctly that afternoon and night, the Orioles were taking on the Tigers in a twi-nighter.

My father had a connection at Memorial Stadium, who often would have great seats for us, but this night we weren’t so lucky, and we ended up in the upper level seats in left field. But it turned out to be a great spot to watch the flight of Eddie Murray’s walk-off home run ball in the first game, to the earthshaking delight of the crowd of 45,814 – a record for a Baltimore night doubleheader at the time. I still remember that announcement on the scoreboard, and enough beer splashing on me after Murray’s swing that I thought it started raining.

The Orioles had been down 6-2 in that first game and won 8-6. In the second game, the O’s would again overcome a 5-3 deficit with two runs in the seventh and one in the eighth to win 6-5. You can imagine the impression two dramatic come-from-behind wins made on an 11-year-old. My first game at the Vet in Philly was a great one, but it didn’t top this.

The 1979 Orioles especially were known for dramatic comeback wins, with a disproportionately large number of their 102 wins coming in the 8th inning or later. “Orioles Magic”, it was called, and it was attributed to both a dedicated fan base and the mood lift caused by “Thank God I’m A Country Boy” being played during the 7th-inning stretch at Memorial Stadium. With all due respect to O’s fans and John Denver, the Orioles late-inning heroics were probably more attributable to the amazing tactician in the dugout.

Earl Weaver certainly had the best overall talent in baseball from 1969-1971, when the Orioles went to three straight World Series with Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Paul Blair and the pitching tandem of Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Mike Cuellar. The team won over 100 games in each of those seasons, winning 217 in 1969 and 1970.

But name some of the players in the later 1970s and early 1980s teams that were always in the thick of a pennant race in the toughest division in baseball. There was Jim Palmer and Eddie Murray, and…who? Longtime O’s fans remember the likes of Dempsey, MacGregor, Flanagan, Bumbry and Dauer, and possibly the best outfield platoon in history of Lowenstein and Roenicke, but if you weren’t an O’s fan, you likely wouldn’t know all their first names.

The Orioles challenged the Yankees and Red Sox, and the Tigers and Brewers, for the AL East crown every year with players that were never among the league leaders in any stat. But Weaver knew exactly when and how to use them. He kept records on everything, batting averages against certain pitchers, pitching success against certain batters. AL umpire Ron Luciano, with whom Earl had classic feuds, once said that “in a late inning situation, Earl would send up the batboy to hit. Everyone in the ballpark knew it was a ridiculous move. And the batboy would get a hit.”

I have a friend who understood me enough to get me tickets for a game at Camden Yards for my birthday in 1996. In the second row. As what I now consider great fortune would have it, that was the day the Orioles were celebrating Earl Weaver’s induction into the Hall of Fame. Part of the ceremony was Earl being driven around the field in a convertible sitting on the back of the car.

So Earl Weaver passed right by me, just a few feet away. I cheered extra enthusiastically as he went by, and he smiled and shook his fist a little for me.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the car was driven by Marty Springstead, another umpire with whom Earl frequently feuded. Presumably his appearance would suggest that their spats were behind them, but Springstead later said he was tempted to slam on the brakes and send Weaver flying.

No, umpires did not like Weaver. It was one of the funnier themes that ran through Luciano’s hilarious books. Luciano not only shared his own classic stories about Weaver, like ejecting Weaver in both ends of a doubleheader in the minors, but several other umpires’ stories as well.

In his book “Strike Two”, Luciano wrote about how managers get ejected and said that Weaver “can be used as an example of everything a manager should not do, except manage. For someone who spent much of his career in the clubhouse, he won a lot of ballgames.”

With baseball’s new replay system, the current generation of fans may never appreciate what an entertaining part of the game arguing with umpires could be. Weaver was one of the best.

And he had a reason for his fury with umpires. He was fully aware that his own ejection would not hurt the team. He could manage from the runway. But if Eddie Murray or Frank Robinson got ejected over a bad call, it would hurt the team. Luciano even admitted that Earl had his own way of making an umpire forget his problems with an Oriole player.

His players—like Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, who wrote the hilarious book “Together We Were Eleven Foot Nine” about his often stormy relationship with Weaver—were also well aware of Weaver’s almost psychotic dedication to winning. Once he pulled Rick Dempsey from a game after a fundamental mistake, and then hounded him all the way into the shower screaming at him, until Dempsey turned on the water—and then turned on the cold water until a soaked Earl finally left.

And there was Don Stanhouse, a pitcher O’s fans my age remember well, whose style was unheard of even to this day: he would simply walk guys until he got to someone he could get out. It worked. And you can imagine how Earl would handle it. One time he walked the bases loaded with the Orioles ahead in the ninth; Earl screamed at pitching coach Ray Miller to “get out there and tell him to throw strikes!” Miller went out to the mound to a grinning Stanhouse and told him his fly was open. Stanhouse told him to tell Earl not to worry. On the next pitch the batter grounded into a double play to end the game.

Stanhouse’s nickname was “Fullpack”, as in the number of cigarettes Earl would smoke when he was on the mound.

Mike Flanagan once got into a jam with the bases loaded. Earl came out to the mound and told him: “Don’t let them hit it on the ground or in the air.” Great advice. The next batter hit a line drive double play to end the inning. Flanagan returned to the dugout, greeted by Weaver: “Am I a f***in’ genius, or what?”

Yes, in the dugout, he was.

For all of the legendary bouts with umpires and the fiery berating of players, Earl Weaver was unquestionably one of the best managers in the history of the game. I remember reading baseball publications when he managed, and in his era it was rarely disputed that he was the best in the game…an era of Billy Martin, Sparky Anderson, Whitey Herzog and Tommy Lasorda.

My favorite story of Weaver’s skill came from Elrod Hendricks. It’s in the book “From 33rd Street to Camden Yards”, an excellent collection of quotes from key figures in Orioles history. It was Weaver vs. Tony LaRussa, when LaRussa was a new manager.

“When I’d just started coaching and Tony LaRussa was the hot new thing managing, he’d come in and make all sorts of moves, and Earl would just sit back with his arms crossed. And LaRussa is looking over at Earl like he’s getting him, you know. And then it’s the eighth inning, and LaRussa is out of bullets, and here comes Earl with Jim Dwyer and Terry Crowley and that bullpen. Earl just hammers him. And you go ‘Boy, that’s good. That’s as good as it gets, right there.’”

I share this Earl Weaver tribute because the Orioles were part of my life, and they are so because Orioles games at Memorial Stadium are my fondest memory of childhood. And they were fond memories because the Orioles won, often in an unforgettably thrilling way. And that, very often, was because of Earl Weaver.

So although the closest I ever got to meeting him was cheering him while he rode by me in a car, I still feel today the impact Earl Weaver had, on millions, and on me as an Orioles fan who reaped in excitement the reward of his excellence.

You will be missed, Earl, but you will be fondly remembered.

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