San Francisco 9, Baltimore 6

Am back from Baltimore, which was very beautiful this clear, cool, sunny day...or was until the bottom of the ninth inning, when the Orioles had the bases loaded with no outs and could have won with a long sacrifice fly, but choked instead and allowed the Giants an overtime triumph that can only be described as really unpleasant to watch. Until then it had been an exciting, fun game: the O's pitched to Bonds, who hit into the stands, which Palmiero then answered with two of his own long shots, putting him ahead of Mickey Mantle in career home runs.

Things proceeded apace and the teams were tied 5-5 going into the bottom of the ninth, when Bigbie singled to center, stole second, went to third during Hairston's at bat, then the Giants walked Roberts to load the bases and changed pitchers...and the Orioles promtly hit a mediocre fly that did not allow the runners to advance, then into a double play. Two innings later Pierzynski homered for the Giants, Perez and Linden singled, Mohr walked, Cruz got Perez and Linden home and then Bonds singled, scoring Mohr. We left before the Orioles pulled off a last run in the bottom of the 11th (which did not change the end result) because it was so depressing.

The atrocious official game report can be found here. (Hey , what happened to the Sox? The scoreboard kept flashing up that score at the stadium as it went into double-digits!) We did eat crab cakes and peanuts in the stadium after walking around the harbor before the game, and it was Spiderman 2 Day which meant the kids got foam spider-hands and paper masks, and other than being able to see four separate sets of flags at half-mast around and beyond the stadium -- a reminder of Reagan that I really did not want -- it was a perfectly nice afternoon, though I do wish I did not have a nagging headache from having had the sun in my eyes for too long.


Baltimore from our seats in the upper deck of Oriole Park at Camden Yards. This is one of my favorite stadiums, though it doesn't have the nostalgia factor of Fenway or Wrigley (we were White Sox fans when we lived in Chicago but New Comiskey sucks compared to Old Comiskey). See the above-ground bullpens and the warehouse that gets hit by particularly well-targeted home runs?


And here's the view inside the stadium from our seats, which were pretty much a direct vertical line above home plate...way above home plate, three rows from the back of the stadium (the Ravens stadium could be seen out the mesh at the back). The orange creature on the first base line is the dude in the Oriole suit. I have no idea why the lights are on, given that it was gorgeous and clear and there were no shadows this early in the game. Because of rain last night, they played a double-header today, and because this game didn't start till after 3 p.m. and went into extra innings, I imagine they had very little time to get the stadium into any sort of shape for the later game.


Barry Bonds. I wasn't sorry to see him hit the home run; it was early in the game and I was glad they were pitching to him instead of walking him. And there were several other home runs. It was a fun game, and if the Orioles hadn't tanked so badly in the ninth I would be remembering it as one of the best I ever saw!


You didn't really think you were going to hear that I was at the harbor without getting to see pictures of ships, did you? This is for , who promised me pictures of the tall ships in her branch of the creek in exchange...


And here's the Constellation, decked out for her 150th birthday, with the World Trade Center on the far right and the Port Discovery hot air balloon floating in the background.

And, my personality cocktail, gacked from :

How to make a cruisedirector

Ingredients: 3 parts mercy 5 parts courage 3 parts intelligence

Method: Stir together in a glass tumbler with a salted rim. Add a little sadness if desired!

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Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com