The Ravens are the last NFL franchise for whom I haven't yet done a Trip Guide. Unfortunately, if you extend that to "NFL franchises in their current city," there are 2, and they're hosting the other one, the Los Angeles Chargers.
I did one for them in San Diego in 2014, and neither New York team is set to visit them until 2021. Had the Kansas City Chiefs lost yesterday, the victorious Chargers would have won the AFC West title, and they would have a home Playoff game, as the top seed in the AFC, instead of the Chiefs having clinched that. Now, as the 5th seed, the only way the Chargers can have a home game is if they and the 6th seed, the Indianapolis Colts, win out.
There is 1 other team whose status is up in the air: We still don't yet know if Christmas Eve was the last time the Raiders will play in Oakland. They intend to play in Las Vegas in 2020, when their new stadium should be finished. But they haven't decided where to play "home games" in 2019. It could be at the Oakland Coliseum, but other cities have been discussed, including London.
Anyway, I started my "How to Be a Yankee Fan In... " series with the Orioles, because they are actually the Yankees' closest opponents, if you don't count Interleague trips to Flushing and South Philly. They are closer to New York than the Boston Red Sox: Camden Yards is 193 miles from Times Square and 202 miles from Yankee Stadium; Fenway Park, 210 and 203.
It's an easy trip. Or, as Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay once said, seeing a lot of Yankee paraphernalia in the stands, "This is really the South Bronx. About 190 miles south."
I saw 3 Oriole games at the old Memorial Stadium, and I've seen 4 games at Camden Yards, the last 2 involving the Yankees. I won't be going this week, but I highly recommend this trip -- if not now, certainly in the future. Baltimore is a good city and a very good sports town.
Before You Go. Baltimore can get quite hot in the summer, but we're in early January, so cold is more likely to be a problem. Check the Baltimore Sun website for the weather before you go. Afternoon temperatures are expected to be in the low 50s, evenings in the high 30s. You will need a jacket, but neither rain nor snow is being predicted.
Baltimore is, of course, in the Eastern Time Zone, so there's no need to fiddle with your timepieces.
Tickets. Doing this for a Playoff game is always tricky, since the prices will be jacked up, and I can't look at regular-season prices because all those games have already been played. And the game will almost certainly sell out anyway, if it hasn't already. For this just-concluded regular season, the Ravens averaged 70,431 fans per home game, just short of a sellout.
Actually, I caught a break: Their regular-season prices are still listed on the team website. In the lower level, the 100 sections, seats are $175 in midfield, $151 on the sidelines, and $124 in the end zone. The 200, 300 and 400 levels are all club seating, so forget it. In the upper level, the 500 sections, seats are $119 in midfield, $108 on the sidelines, and $97 in the end zone.
Getting There. It is 189 miles from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford to M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore. Getting to the city is fairly easy. However, if you have a car, I recommend using it, and using the parking deck at a hotel near the ballpark. There are several.
If you're not "doing the city," but just going to the game, take the New Jersey Turnpike all the way down to the Delaware Memorial Bridge (a.k.a. the Twin Span), across the Delaware River into the State of, well, Delaware. This should take about 2 hours, not counting a rest stop.
The Delaware Memorial Bridge
Once you get over the Twin Span – the New Jersey-bound span opened in 1951, the Delaware-bound one was added in 1968 – follow the signs carefully, as you'll be faced with multiple ramps signs for Interstates 95, 295 and 495, as well as for U.S. Routes 13 and 40 and State Route 9 (not the U.S. Route 9 with which you may be familiar, although that does terminate in Delaware, but considerably to the south of where you'll be).
You want I-95 South, and its signs will say "Delaware Turnpike" and "Baltimore." You'll pay tolls at both its eastern and western ends, and unless there's a traffic jam, you should only be in Delaware for a maximum of 15 minutes before hitting the Maryland State Line.
At said State Line, I-95 changes from the Delaware Turnpike to the John F. Kennedy Memorial Highway, and you'll be on it for about an hour (unless you want to make another rest stop, at either the Chesapeake House or Maryland House rest area) before reaching the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel and Exit 53, for I-395 which empties onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and the stadium and the ballpark will be right there.
If all goes well (getting out of New York City and into downtown Baltimore okay, reasonable traffic, just the one rest stop, no trouble with your car), the whole trip should take about 4 hours.
Baltimore, whose airport is named for native son Thurgood Marshall, the 1st black Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is too close to fly, just as flying from New York (from JFK, LaGuardia or Newark) to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, once you factor in fooling around with everything you gotta do at each airport, don't really save you much time compared to driving, the bus or the train.
The train is a good option, but not a great one. Baltimore's Penn Station is at 1515 N. Charles Street, bounded on the other side by St. Paul Street, which runs southbound. Get on Charles, and you'll be going northbound, away from downtown, and you'll end up near the Museum of Art, Druid Hill Park ("Droodle Park" in Baltimorese), and the site of Memorial Stadium (now senior-citizens' housing). It's not a good neighborhood (although there are worse ones in Baltimore), and it will be out of your way. In addition, Amtrak is expensive. They figure, "You hate to fly, you don't want to deal with airports, and Greyhound sucks, so we can charge whatever we want."
Baltimore's Penn Station, with that weird sculpture in front
Still, if you have the money – it'll probably be $198 round-trip – Amtrak is a good option. An Acela Express (they don't call it the Metroliner anymore) will be much more expensive, $336, but it will take about 2 hours and 15 minutes; a regular Northeast Regional about 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Bus? The old Greyhound terminal was right downtown, but it was an absolute hole. It looked like a homeless shelter. The new one is a huge improvement in terms of cleanliness, and a round-trip fare would be $108 at most, but dropping to $66 with advanced purchase. The trip is around 4 hours.
The problem is that the terminal is at 2110 Haines Street, south of downtown. On paper, it's not unreasonable to walk from there to the Ravens' stadium. But you'll be walking under the elevated MLK Blvd., and, having done it, I can tell you: You won't like it.
From the Greyhound terminal, the Number 27 bus will take you right to the ballpark. If you want to see the Inner Harbor attractions, change by the ballpark to the Number 7 bus, theoretically in just 3 minutes. (That's what the schedule says, but we're talking night games, therefore rush hour traffic. Expect a longer trip.)
Greyhound also has "Baltimore Travel Plaza." It's at 5625 O'Donnell Street, 3 miles east of downtown, just off Interstate 95, designed to cater to Baltimore and Washington travelers at the same time, while those going to the Haines Street terminal are pretty much only those going to Baltimore. To get from Travel Plaza to downtown (Harborplace or Camden Yards), take the Number 20 bus. A bus from there will leave at 11:00 PM, but it won't get back to Port Authority until 3:45 AM. And do you really want to be at Port Authority at 4 in the morning?
Once In the City. Named for Cecilius Calvert, 2nd Lord Baltimore, founding proprietor of the Maryland Colony, and founded in 1729, Baltimore -- from the Gaelic "Baile an Tí Mhóir," meaning "town of the big house" -- is one of those cities whose interior population shrank from the 1950s onward, due to "white flight," causing its suburbs to boom.
A city of 800,000 in 1970, it has fallen to 622,000, but the metropolitan area has about 2.8 million -- roughly as many as Brooklyn. Counting their entire market -- roughly northern and eastern Maryland, plus Sussex County, southernmost Delaware, including Rehoboth Beach -- and it's about 3.4 million. Combine it with D.C. -- something neither area is fond of doing, as they don't like each other -- and it's almost 9 million.
Keep in mind that Baltimore City and Baltimore County are separate entities. (This is also true of St. Louis -- but not Philadelphia, San Francisco or Denver, where the City and the County have the same borders. And the Counties of Los Angeles, San Diego, Dallas and Milwaukee include the cities with those names, as well as other municipalities.) So if someone tells you that a location in which you're interested is in Baltimore County, you'll know it's not anywhere near downtown. Example: Towson University (the word "State" has been dropped from its name) is 8 miles north of downtown.
The city's centerpoint is Charles & Baltimore Streets. Charles separates east & west addresses, Baltimore separates north & south. Baltimore is way behind the curve when it comes to public transportation. They didn't have a subway (they call it the Metro) until 1983, and it didn't go anywhere near Memorial Stadium. As it is, the Lexington Market and Charles Center stops are each 8 blocks from Camden Yards.
Camden Yards Station light rail stop
As a result of not having a subway or a light rail until a generation ago, old habits die hard, and people overrely on the city's buses, jamming them, sometimes not even during rush hour.
I'll say it again: If you can drive, or if you can get someone to drive you, do it, and park in a downtown hotel's deck. You'll be better off walking around to the various downtown locations.
If you're coming into the city by Amtrak, when you get to Baltimore's Penn Station, pick up copies of the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post. The Post is a great paper with a very good sports section, and as a holdover from the 1972-2004 era when D.C. had no MLB team of its own, it still covers the Orioles well. The Sun is only an okay paper, but its sports section is nearly as good as the Post's, and their coverage of their town's hometown baseball team rivals that of any paper in the country -- including the great coverage that The New York Times and Daily News give to the Yankees.
Once you have your newspapers, walk out to St. Paul Street, and catch either the Number 3 or the Number 64 bus, which will take you to downtown, to the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards areas.
Sales tax for the State of Maryland is 6 percent. That does not rise when you enter Baltimore City, or Baltimore County for that matter. ZIP Codes for Baltimore start with the digits 212 (not to be confused with New York's old Area Code), and the suburbs with 210 and 211. The Area Code for Baltimore, its suburbs, the Northeast, and the Eastern Shore is 410, split off from the old 301 in 1991, with 443 and 667 overlaid. The city's electricity is supplied by Baltimore Gas & Electric (BG&E).
Baltimore became a majority-black city in the 1970s. Today, it is bout 63 percent black, 28 percent white, 4 percent Hispanic and 2 percent Asian. Ethnic groups that have placed a notable stamp on Baltimore include the Germans (including the Ruth family), the Irish, the Italians (Little Italy is east of downtown), the Greeks (Greektown is east of downtown and Fell's Point), and the Poles (southeast Baltimore has a neighborhood called Little Poland).
But its status on the edge of North vs. South, and its status as majority-black, has kept Baltimore walking the tightrope of race relations. There was a riot in nearby Cambridge, Maryland in 1963, and there were riots responding to the assassination of Martin Luther King in Memphis in 1968 and the Baltimore police's murder of Freddie Gray in 2015.
Baltimore's major beach destination is Ocean City, Maryland, 138 miles to the southeast. Rehoboth Beach, Delaware is actually closer, 112 miles southeast, but has more people from Philadelphia, so Baltimoreans prefer OCMD, not to be confused with Ocean City, New Jersey.
Going In. Contingent on Baltimore getting a new team to replace the Colts after their 1984 move was getting a new stadium. It wasn't going to be ready by the 1995 season, so they didn't get a 1993 expansion team. But with a plan in place by 1995, Art Modell moved the original Cleveland Browns there.
They played at Memorial Stadium in 1996 and 1997, and then, in 1998, Ravens Stadium at Camden Yards opened. It became PSINet Stadium in 1999, but PSINet, an Internet service provider, went bust in 2002. It became Ravens Stadium again until M&T Bank (originally Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company, and based in Buffalo) bought the naming rights in 2003, and the current contract runs through 2027.
Like a few other bank-sponsored venues, such as Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, it's nicknamed "The Bank," But, with Baltimore's particular food tradition, it's also known as "The Big Crabcake."
It could also be called "The Purple Palace," but isn't.
The official address for the stadium is 1101 Russell Street, a mile south of downtown. It is bounded by Russell Street on the west, Hamburg Street on the north, the Light Rail system on the east (and you would use the Hamburg Street station on it), and West Street on the south. There are over 20,000 within a short walk of it. Parking at the stadium is $25.
It is separated from Oriole Park at Camden Yards by the elevated Martin Luther King Boulevard. The ballpark's address is 333 W. Camden Street. In the 1970s, the site, next to Camden Station and the former B&O (Baltimore & Ohio) Railroad Warehouse was chosen as the site for a stadium for all of Baltimore's teams at the time: The Orioles, the Colts, the NBA's Bullets, and, it was hoped, a team in either the NHL or the WHA.
It was called the Baltodome, but neither the City nor the State government was willing to fund it, so the site lay dormant. Finally, in 1987, the Maryland Stadium Authority was created, and it began work on the ballpark, which opened in 1992. The stadium took a little longer; hence, getting a team took a little longer.
As had Memorial Stadium before it, it hosts the State high school championships. Once, Memorial Stadium hosted Thanksgiving Day doubleheaders, with Loyola Blakefield and Calvert Hall being followed by City College and Polytechnic. But when "City" and "Poly" decided being ineligible for the Playoffs was a bad thing, and joined the the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) in 1994, the doubleheader was moved back a couple of weeks, to accommodate the Playoffs. The games are now played at Camden Yards.
M&T Bank Stadium is also Baltimore's major soccer venue. There's no team in Major League Soccer closer than D.C. United, but the U.S. national team has played there twice, in each case in a CONCACAF Gold Cup Quarterfinal: Beating El Salvador 5-1 on July 21, 2013, and beating Cuba on July 18, 2015. The 2013 Quarterfinal was a doubleheader, with Honduras beating Costa Rica 1-0 in the other game.
Chelsea beat A.C. Milan there on July 24, 2009; and Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur played to a 0-0 draw there on July 28, 2012. It hosted 2 games of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2013, and again in 2015. And the stadium has been selected by the U.S. Soccer Federation as a finalist to be one of the host venues for the 2026 World Cup.
On
September 12, 2017, Thrillist had an
article ranking all 31 NFL stadiums. The Ravens' stadium came in 10th:
Locals consider M&T Bank Stadium was a big middle finger to the NFL and Bob Irsay for depriving Baltimore of a football team for 13 years. Bawlmer lured the old Browns to town with a purple palace it continues to deck out. (Not that the NFL minds one bit having fantastic venues in its portfolio.)
The Ravens constantly invest in the place, updating scoreboards, lighting, and even adding a natural grass playing surface this past offseason. And though games here can get bitterly cold, the football-obsessed fans of Baltimore still show up in passionate droves. There are two statues outside the stadium -- Johnny Unitas and Ray Lewis -- but it's Johnny's foot that everyone rubs for good luck before the game.
Tailgating here can get exceptionally rowdy, and the area around the stadium draws Bawlmer denizens there as much for the party as for the game. With bars like Pickles Pub and dives in Ridgely's Delight, the stadium feels like a centerpiece to a citywide party. The concessions are distinctly Maryland, with Old Bay everything and the must-have crab pretzel. And if you don't like Natty Boh, well, you just haven't had enough of them yet.
(UPDATE: But on November 4, 2020, MoneyWise published an article ranking the Worst NFL Stadiums. M&T Bank Stadium came in 12th, in other words 19th-best out of 30: "M&T Bank Stadium is starting to show its age, and the design doesn’t exactly help draw fans. But the experience is overall positive.")
Locals consider M&T Bank Stadium was a big middle finger to the NFL and Bob Irsay for depriving Baltimore of a football team for 13 years. Bawlmer lured the old Browns to town with a purple palace it continues to deck out. (Not that the NFL minds one bit having fantastic venues in its portfolio.)
The Ravens constantly invest in the place, updating scoreboards, lighting, and even adding a natural grass playing surface this past offseason. And though games here can get bitterly cold, the football-obsessed fans of Baltimore still show up in passionate droves. There are two statues outside the stadium -- Johnny Unitas and Ray Lewis -- but it's Johnny's foot that everyone rubs for good luck before the game.
Tailgating here can get exceptionally rowdy, and the area around the stadium draws Bawlmer denizens there as much for the party as for the game. With bars like Pickles Pub and dives in Ridgely's Delight, the stadium feels like a centerpiece to a citywide party. The concessions are distinctly Maryland, with Old Bay everything and the must-have crab pretzel. And if you don't like Natty Boh, well, you just haven't had enough of them yet.
(UPDATE: But on November 4, 2020, MoneyWise published an article ranking the Worst NFL Stadiums. M&T Bank Stadium came in 12th, in other words 19th-best out of 30: "M&T Bank Stadium is starting to show its age, and the design doesn’t exactly help draw fans. But the experience is overall positive.")
"Natty Boh" is National Bohemian, the surviving beer brand in what was once a great brewing town. That last paragraph leads us into...
They put a Baltimore (or, at least, a Maryland) twist on 2 regional items: Chesapeake tacos (at $12, that better be plural) include crab dip, pulled chicken dusted in Old Bay seasoning, corn salsa and cheddar jack cheese inside Ravens Purple tortillas; and the kielbasa cheesesteak, with sliced kielbasa, peppers, onions, sauerkraut and cheese on a roll -- Polish sausage on an Italian roll. Not a bad way to make a "mixed marriage."
Kielbasa Cheesesteak. This magnificent bastard actually exists.
Sadly, Oriole legend Boog Powell's famed barbecued meats do not have a stand. You'll have to wait until baseball season and go across the street.
But M&T Bank Stadium does sell that most Maryland of foods, crab cakes. I don't like crabmeat, but if you do, this is as good as it gets without actually going to Ocean City, Maryland.
Note the Raven with 2 Vince Lombardi Trophies,
but the Oriole doesn't have his 3 Commissioner's Trophies.
The Ravens do not have a notation for the Colts' titles in Baltimore. The NFL has denied them the right to do that, letting the Indianapolis franchise keep the rights to them, even though the Colts' last Baltimore title, their win in Super Bowl V, was 13 years before the move. But the Ravens do have a banner honoring the Baltimore Colts' members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, in their Ravens Ring of Honor:
* From the 1958 and 1959 NFL Championships: 19, quarterback Johnny Unitas; 24, running back Lenny Moore; 70, defensive tackle Art Donovan; 77, guard Jim Parker; 82, receiver Raymond Berry; and 89, defensive end Gino Marchetti.
* From the 1970 NFL Championship: Unitas; 83, linebacker Ted Hendricks; and 88, tight end John Mackey.
Ravens players in the Ring of Honor include:
* From before the 2000 title: 21, running back Earnest Byner.
* From the 2000 NFL Champions who won Super Bowl XXXV, beating the Giants: Owner Art Modell; Byner as an assistant coach; 52, linebacker Ray Lewis; 3, kicker Matt Stover; 75, offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden; 58, linebacker Peter Boulware; 99, defensive end Michael McCrary; 31, running back Jamal Lewis.
* From between the titles: Lewis; 86, tight end Todd Heap.
* From the 2012 NFL Champions won won Super Bowl XLVII, beating the San Francisco 49ers: Ray Lewis; and 20, safety Ed Reed. Presumably, quarterback Joe Flacco, Number 5, will be named after his retirement.
The Ravens do not officially retire numbers. However, they do not give out Stover's 3, Unitas' 19 (even though he never played for the Ravens), Reed's 20, Ray Lewis' 52 (but they do give out Jamal Lewis' 31), and Ogden's 75.
Ray Lewis and Ogden are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. So are Rod Woodson, the longtime Pittsburgh Steeler safety; and Shannon Sharpe, the longtime Denver Bronco receiver, both of whom played on the Ravens' Super Bowl XXXV winners. Deion Sanders played 2 seasons for the Ravens between the titles, at the end of his career, and is also in the Hall.
So is Ozzie Newsome, the longtime general manager who built the 2 Super Bowl winners, although he's in for what he did as a Cleveland Browns tight end. He and Byner -- and, of course, the execrable Modell -- were among the only significant figures to make the move from Cleveland to Baltimore.
Woodson was named to The Sporting News' 100 Greatest Players in 1999. He and Ray Lewis were named to the NFL Network's 100 Greatest Players in 2010.
The Unitas statue. The base reads, "The Golden Arm."
The Lewis statue, in his familiar field-entering pose.
The Ravens have had 5 Heisman Trophy winners, including 2 currently: Quarterbacks Lamar Jackson (2016 and, like Unitas, from the University of Louisville) and Robert Griffin III (2011 at Baylor University). Their 1st starting quarterback in the 1996 and '97 seasons, was Vinny Testaverde (1986 at the University of Miami). From 2007 to 2009, they had quarterback Troy Smith (2006 at Ohio State). And in 2011, they had Ricky Williams (1998 at the University of Texas). (UPDATE: In the 2019 and '20 seasons, they had running back Mark Ingram, 2009 Heisman winner at the University of Alabama.)
During their Baltimore tenure, the Colts had 3 Heisman winners, all running backs. Frank Sinkwich (1942 Georgia) was only there in 1947, and Billy Vessels (1952 Oklahoma) was only there in 1956. But Alan "The Horse" Ameche (1953 Wisconsin) played for them from 1955 to 1960, and scored the winning touchdown in overtime in the 1958 NFL Championship Game.
As you might guess, Baltimore fans very badly want to beat the Indianapolis team. But the Colts have beaten the Ravens 10 times, while the Ravens have won only 5. The Colts won Playoff games in the 2006 and 2009 seasons, while the Ravens won a Playoff game in the 2012 season -- and, each time, the winning team reached the Super Bowl.
And, since Baltimore and Washington don't like each other, and Baltimoreans really resented Washingtonians coming up to take seats at Oriole games, and probably blamed the Redskins' success of the early 1980s for taking some Southern Maryland fans away from the Colts, thus possibly hastening the move, Baltimoreans never made the reverse move and adopted the Redskins as their team. (It hasn't stopped them from following the Bullets down the Parkway, or adopting the Capitals and D.C. United.) The Ravens and Redskins are tied all-time, 3-3.
John Steadman, the great sportswriter who wrote for the Baltimore News-American from 1945 to its 1986 folding, and for The Sun from then until 2001, spanned the life of pro football in the city. He was there for the original Baltimore Colts of the All-America Football Conference, started in 1947, but failed after 1 season in the NFL in 1950. He broke the story that a new Colts team would be started in Baltimore in 1953.
He became their color commentator on radio, and, early in 1959, after their defeat of the Giants in the 1958 NFL Championship Game, published a quickie book, and, with its title, may have been the 1st man to call it The Greatest Game Ever Played. Early in the Ravens' tenure, he published From Colts to Ravens: A Behind-The-Scenes Look at Baltimore Professional Football. He died in 2001, mere days before another Baltimore team beat the Giants in an NFL championship game, Super Bowl XXXV.
The Sun's sports department told the story of that game in Storybook Season: The 2000 Baltimore Ravens' Run to the Super Bowl; and of their next title in Purple Majesty: Baltimore Ravens, Super Bowl Champions. There are also DVD collectors' sets for both titles.
During the Game. Being Baltimoreans, Ravens fans don't like the Washington Redskins. Being fans of an AFC North team, they don't like the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cleveland Browns, or the Cincinnati Bengals. Being human beings, they don't like the New England Patriots. Being caretakers of the Baltimore Colts' legacy, they don't like the Indianapolis Football Team.
And, being Orioles fans, they don't like the Yankees, so they don't particularly like the Giants or the Jets. However, neither New York team has done much to harm them. After all, the Jets' Super Bowl win over Baltimore was half a century -- and one team -- ago. And the Colts did win the Super Bowl 2 years later. So, if that tremendous upset ever bothered them, they've long since gotten over it.
So you do not need to fear wearing your Giant or Jet gear to "Charm City." Although Baltimore is an old, tough, gritty Northeastern city, home to 2 tough, gritty, much-honored TV crime dramas (Homicide: Life On the Street and The Wire), their fans will not fight you or provoke you into a fight.
UPDATE: A recent Thrillist article on the NFL's most obnoxious fans ranked Ravens fans 13th, in the top half:
Essentially, you
put purple makeup on a pig that grew up in Cleveland and renamed it after a
poem. And you brag about it. Not that your average Ravens fans could tell Edgar
Allan Poe from Edgar Martinez, but the purple-shaded glasses through which you
see the world could make even an SEC superfan seem rational. At least the
collective delusion of the Joe Flacco era appears to have ended, so the
collective delusion of the Lamar Jackson era can begin in earnest. You seem to
forget that despite two Super Bowls, you’re still basically rooting for the
Browns. THE BROWNS. But, hey, at least you’ve got great crab cakes.
From September 1
to 7, 2017, at the height of the NFL National Anthem protest controversy, FiveThirtyEight.com polled fans of the 32 NFL teams, to see
where they leaned politically. Not surprisingly, Baltimore, a multicultural Northeastern city, ranked 4th among the most liberal NFL fanbases, 18.0 percent more liberal than conservative.Joey Odoms, who formerly served in the Maryland National Guard, sang the Anthem for the Ravens from 2014 to 2017, but resigned, saying, "Fans who attack players for protesting, a right which I fought to defend, but are simply not interested in understanding why, is the reason I am resigning." So, now, the Ravens hold auditions for the role on a game-by-game basis.
One more thing about the Anthem, which may end up bothering you: "The Star-Spangled Banner," played at baseball games since at least 1918 and our official National Anthem since 1931, was written in Baltimore, by city resident Francis Scott Key, following the Battle of Fort McHenry on September 14, 1814. The city's connection with the song remains strong, and since the 1979 Pennant season, it has been a tradition at Orioles games for fans to yell out the "Oh" in the line, "Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave." In this case, "O" is short for "Oriole."
It was started in the upper deck of Section 34, on the 1st base side of Memorial Stadium, by a woman named Mary Powers. Nearby was Wild Bill Hagy, the cabdriver known for his body-spelling "O-R-I-O-L-E-S" cheer. He picked it up, and soon the entire section, and by the postseason the entire stadium, was doing it.
In theory, this is cute. In actual practice, I find it grossly offensive. It trivializes the event the song commemorates. My 1st visit for a Yanks-O's game was on September 11, 2004. As Baltimore was still (for 3 more weeks, anyway) the closest MLB team to D.C., they had Pentagon rescue workers throw out the ceremonial first ball to some Yankees, representing New York and the World Trade Center. But when they sang the "O!" I said, "Not today, people!" They still do it.
To make matters worse, this is done at other sporting events. I heard it in September 2009 when Rutgers went down to the University of Maryland to play football. I understand: While the College Park campus is inside the Capital Beltway, UM wouldn't be the athletic powerhouse it's become without kids from Baltimore City and Baltimore County. I heard it in the summer of 2006 when the Yankees played the Washington Nationals in an Interleague game at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, and I heard it again that Autumn when I went to see the New Jersey Devils play the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center.
Baltimore doesn't have an NHL team, and never has, although they briefly had the Baltimore Blades in the World Hockey Association. And a lot of Nats fans grew up with the O's as their MLB team, and old habits die hard. But the D.C.-area natives booed the hell out of the "O!" shouters at both the Nats game and the Caps game. (At the former, the Nats trailed the Yankees 8-2 but came back to win, 9-8, oy; at the latter, the Devils embarrassed the Caps, 4-1.)
I've never been to a basketball game in the D.C. area -- Washington Bullets/Wizards, University of Maryland, Georgetown University or George Mason University -- but I have it on good authority that the "O!" is done at games of the Ravens, the minor-league Aberdeen Ironbirds (owned by the Ripken brothers, adjacent to their Havre de Grace hometown), and the minor-league Norfolk Tides, even before it became the Orioles' top farm club in 2007. From 1969 to 2006, the team, previously known as the Tidewater Tides, was a Met farm club. That's 240 miles from Camden Yards, but apparently they still do the "O!" I don't know if they do it on at Delmarva Shorebirds games in Salisbury on the Eastern Shore. (They're in the Lakewood BlueClaws' league, and not far from Ocean City, Maryland. Maybe I'll check them out someday.)
The Ravens actually have 3 mascots. Edgar Allan Poe, the father of modern horror literature and modern detective literature, lived in Baltimore at various points in his life, and died there under mysterious circumstances on October 7, 1849, and was buried there shortly thereafter. He had published his most famous work, the poem "The Raven," in 1845.
So, unable to regain the rights to the name "Baltimore Colts" from Indianapolis Colts owner Bob Irsay, the team held a contest through the town's newspaper, The Baltimore Sun. "Ravens" was chosen more than any other name. A Sun writer said, "Fans liked the tie-in with the other birds in town, the Orioles, and found it easy to visualize a tough, menacing black bird."
It's time to face the music. It's time to light the lights.
There are also live mascots, a pair of real ravens, named Rise and Conquer. They do not, however, perform flying tricks like Challenger the Eagle.
The Baltimore Colts' Marching Band was founded on September 7, 1947, and outlasted 2 versions of the Colts, the 1947-50 team that began in the AAFC, and the NFL team of 1953-83. The reason they survived is because, when Bob Irsay loaded up all the Colts' property into those Mayflower moving fans in the middle of the snowy night, he didn't have the Band's instruments, because they belonged to the musicians, not the team; or their uniforms, which were at the drycleaners.
Irsay, not quite the complete bastard that Colt fans said he was -- he had tried for years to get a new stadium built -- decided to give up ownership of the uniforms, and the Colts' Marching Band became "The Band That Wouldn't Die," appearing at nearby college games and marching in parades.
With retroactive irony, their 1st appearance at an NFL game after the move was an invitation from Art Modell, owner of the Cleveland Browns. But no one will be surprised at Modell's reason for inviting them: "They were cheap." (No, Art, they were inexpensive. You were cheap.)
The Baltimore Colts' Marching Band, at a Buffalo Bills game
So when Modell moved the Browns to Baltimore, he happily welcomed them as the Ravens' official band. They kept their Colts name during the 1996 and 1997 seasons, closing down Memorial Stadium. But when M&T Bank Stadium opened, they decided it was time to finally lay the Baltimore Colts to rest, and they became "Baltimore's Marching Ravens."
They begin their activities for the year with a parade on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland, along with fans groups from all over Maryland, formerly "Colts Corrals," now "Ravens Roosts." Before every Ravens home game, they play a short concert on Eutaw Street outside the ballpark, then march to the stadium. They play on the field before the game, and then play the National Anthem. They also play at halftime.
Baltimore Ravens, lets go
And put that ball across the line
So fly on with talons spread wide
Go in and strike with Ravens pride.
(Fight! Fight! Fight!)
Ravens dark wings, take to flight
Dive in and show them your might
For Baltimore and Maryland
you will fly on to victory!
After the Game. Don't worry about Ravens fans talking trash to you if they manage to beat you. A few might, but most won't. This isn't New England: You (and, if you drove in, your car) should be safe.
If you want to get a drink before or after the game, there are plenty of choices near the stadiums, including Slider's Bar & Grill (504 Washington Blvd.), Pickles' Pub (520 Washington Blvd.), and the Goddess (38 S. Eutaw Street -- I realize that the last one's name makes it sound like a strip club, or maybe a lesbian bar, but it's neither). Going to Harborplace for a late meal/snack/drink only works for day games, as they close at 9:00 at night.
Smaltimore is a bar known as a hangout for Yankees and football Giants fans. 2522 Fait Avenue, in the neighborhood of Canton, east of downtown. Bus 7 from downtown. No Idea Tavern is known to cater to Jets fans. 1649 S. Hanover Street, in Federal Hill, south of downtown. Bus 1, 3 or 64 from downtown.
Royal Farms, a.k.a. RoFo, a convenience store chain similar to 7-Eleven, has stores throughout Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and Pennsylvania. The closest one to the stadium is at 36 Light Street, at Lombard Street. Actually, the Royal Farms Arena is closer. (Someone told me they're Baltimore's answer to Wawa, but they're really not, because they don't have the range of specialty sandwiches, bowls and drinks that Wawa has.)
If you're trying the Light Rail back to Baltimore's Penn Station, make sure you go to Convention Center station (not Camden Yards), on Howard Street between Conway & Pratt Streets, and get on a train marked "PENN STATION," so you'll be taken directly into the station. Do not get on a train marked "MT. WASHINGTON" or "HUNT VALLEY," or you'll end up in the suburbs of Baltimore County. They might be a nice place to visit, but not now.
If your visit to Baltimore is during the European soccer season, which is now approaching its climax, the best bar in town to watch your team is probably Slainte Irish Pub and Restaurant. (The name is the Gaelic toast, meaning "health," roughly equivalent to "Salud," "L'chaim," "Na zdrowie," and so on.) 1700 Thames Street, in Fell's Point. Bus 10 or 11.
Sidelights. On February 3, 2017, Thrillist made a list ranking the 30 NFL cities (New York and Los Angeles each having 2 teams), and Baltimore came in 23rd, in the bottom 1/3rd. They did, however, praise "the food/drink scene and the energy in Washington, DC's cooler, poorer, more Old Bay-encrusted cousin."
Despite currently having only 2 major league sports teams -- the metro area could probably support another -- Baltimore is a city with a rich sports history.
Just to the east of the ballpark is Camden Station, the former terminal of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. (If you play Monopoly, this was the B&O Railroad.) From 2005 to 2015, it was home to the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards. However, the Museum's lease ran out, and it closed.
* Babe Ruth Birthplace and Museum. Three blocks from the ballpark, to the west, at 216 Emory Street, is the rowhouse where the Great Bambino was born on February 6, 1895. It, and the rowhouse next door, are now the Babe Ruth Birthplace and Baltimore Orioles Museum.
The Museum features exhibits on the Babe, and on the history of baseball in the City of Baltimore and the State of Maryland. It's open 10 AM to 5 PM, Tuesday through Sunday -- but not at all on Mondays -- meaning you can visit before Orioles home games, even on Sundays (but not Mondays).
This arena, built in 1962, hosted the NBA's Baltimore Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) from 1963 to 1973; the Beatles on September 13, 1964; Elvis Presley on November 9, 1971 and May 29, 1977; and Martin Luther King's "Race and the Church" speech in 1966.
They never did play in Baltimore, or in a regular-season game: Financially, the team was a disaster, and the Civic Center's management padlocked their offices. They folded right before the season began, and that's the last time Baltimore had a basketball team that even pretended to be major league.
The Baltimore area appears not to have forgiven the Bullets/Wizards for heading down the Baltimore-Washington Parkway over 40 years ago: According to recent polls, NBA fandom in Baltimore seems to be divided between the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat.
Indeed, even in D.C. itself, the Wizards only have plurality support, as most of the people working for the federal government and living in the D.C. metro area have kept their hometown fandom, often rooting against the Wizards at the Verizon Center. (This is also a problem for the Nationals and Capitals, and used to be one for the Washington Senators. Not so much for the Redskins: They own the town, far more than any politician ever has.) Nevertheless, the Wizards, playing 37 miles from the Inner Harbor, remain the closest NBA team.
The closest that Charm City has ever had to having a major league hockey team was in 1975, when the Michigan Stags of the World Hockey Association folded, and the WHA sold the team to Baltimore buyers, and they played out of the Civic Center, winning only 3 out of 17 games before folding for good after the season.
According to an article in the January 8, 2016 edition of Business Insider, the Capitals are the most popular NHL team in the State of Maryland, despite the success of the nearby Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins.
If Baltimore ever did get a new NBA team, the metro area would rank 22nd in population among NBA markets, and 20th among NHL teams. It does not appear that the Washington teams would claim territorial rights and block such a team being placed in Charm City.
The problem with the arena isn't its condition: Despite its age, it's in good shape. The problem is the cramped conditions, with narrow concourses, not enough concession stands and restrooms, and the installation of wider seats has reduced the capacity to 11,271. (To put that in perspective: The smallest current NBA arena in New Orleans, 16,867; in the NHL, Winnipeg with 15,294.) Several plans to replace it have been floated, but none has been approved.
* Site of Memorial Stadium. "The Insane Asylum on 33rd Street" (1954-2002), and its predecessor Municipal Stadium (1922-1953), were at 900 E. 33rd Street, at Ellerslie Avenue. It hosted the minor-league Orioles from 1944 to 1953, the major-league Orioles from 1954 to 1991, the Colts from 1947 to 1950 and again from 1953 to 1983, the Canadian Football League's Baltimore Stallions in 1994 and 1995, and the NFL's Ravens in 1996 and 1997.
Memorial Stadium, 1954-2002
It hosted the home leg of the Baltimore Bays' 1967 National Professional Soccer League Final against the Oakland Clippers, but the Clippers won the title in the Oakland leg. It hosted 2 U.S. soccer games, a 1972 draw with Canada and, in one of its last events, a 1997 loss to Ecuador.
Set up for a Ravens game
Baltimore Municipal Stadium,
a.k.a. Babe Ruth Stadium, 1922-1953
* Previous Baltimore Ballparks. Before Camden Yards, before Memorial Stadium, and before Municipal Stadium on the same site as the preceding, teams named the Baltimore Orioles played at several other locations:
* 1872 to 1890, Newington Park: 2301 Pennsylvania Avenue, in the Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood in West Baltimore. Metro to Penn North, or Bus 7.
* 1891 to 1899, Union Park: 2500 Guilford Avenue. The National League Orioles won 3 Pennants here, and nearly 2 others.
* 1901 to 1915, Oriole Park: 400 Ilchester Avenue. The 1st American League Orioles played their desultory 1901 and '02 seasons here. Then the International League Orioles were founded. This was Babe Ruth's 1st professional home field.
* 1914 to 1944, also called Oriole Park: 2900 Barclay Street. The Federal League's Baltimore Terrapins played here in 1914 and '15, and when the FL folded, the IL Orioles made the short move in. But they had to leave after a fire on July 4, 1944, and played at Municipal Stadium until its conversion to Memorial Stadium, allowing the St. Louis Browns to restore the city to the majors.
These last 3 locations are in the Venable Park neighborhood north of downtown, not far from the site of Municipal and Memorial Stadiums. They can be reached from downtown by Bus 3, and are about a 10-minute walk apart. Worth visiting in daylight, but I wouldn't do it at night.
* Hughes Memorial Stadium. This 10,000-seat stadium has been the home field of Morgan State University since 1937. 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane, at Morgan State Campus Road. CityLink Silver Line to Cold Spring & Fenwick.
The Bears have won black college football's National Championship 7 times: 1933, 1937, 1943, 1944, 1946, 1949 and 1967. They were frequently participants in the Whitney M. Young Jr. Urban League Classic, an annual game between historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), which was held between 1971 and 2015, first at Yankee Stadium, then at Shea during Yankee Stadium's renovation, then at Yankee Stadium again, and from 1986 onward at the Meadowlands, first at Giants Stadium, and finally at MetLife Stadium.
* Pimlico Race Course. This track opened in 1870, with a race won by a horse named Preakness. In 1873, the Preakness Stakes began to be run there. It became the 2nd leg of U.S. thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown. It was the site of the 1938 match race between 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral and underdog-turned-folk hero Seabiscuit; the latter won.
* Site of Baltimore Coliseum. This 4,500-seat arena opened in 1930. The original Baltimore Bullets began playing there in 1944, won the American Basketball League title in 1946, joined the Basketball Association of America in 1947, won the title in 1948 under player-coach Buddy Jeannette, became part of the NBA after the merger of the BAA with the National Basketball League in 1949, and folded in 1954.
The Coliseum closed after the Civic Center opened in 1962, and was torn down in 2008. An auto parts store is on the site now. 1750 Windsor Avenue, in the Penn-North neighborhood. Metro to Penn-North.
* Soccer. Baltimore does not currently have a professional outdoor soccer team, at any level. From 2011 to 2016, the Baltimore Bohemians played in the USL Premier Development League, the 4th tier of American soccer, but announced in January that they wouldn't play the 2017 season.
It was a development club -- or a "farm team," as we would say in baseball -- of Washington's MLS team, D.C. United. When DCU couldn't get a new stadium built in the District, Baltimore's Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, made them an offer, and it looked like they might move. They did, however, get a new stadium site in the District, which is scheduled to open next year. Still, New York Red Bulls fans continue to taunt them as "Baltimore United."
(UPDATE: In 2019, FC Baltimore Cristos was created, through a merger between smaller teams FC Baltimore 1729 and Christos FC. They play in the National Professional Soccer League, now the 4th tier of American soccer, at Essex Stadium on the campus of Community College of Baltimore County. 7201 Rossville Blvd., in Essex, about 9 miles northeast of downtown. Bus 56.)
When Washington's MLS team, D.C. United, was having trouble getting a new stadium built in the District, Baltimore's Mayor at the time, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, made them an offer, and it looked like they might move. They did, however, get a new stadium site in the District. Still, New York Red Bulls fans continue to taunt them as "Baltimore United."
As I said, the Royal Farms Arena is home to the Baltimore Blast. The Baltimore Bays played in the old North American Soccer League, but couldn't come close to filling Memorial Stadium. That's the last time the city had a "top flight" outdoor soccer team.
* Site of St. Mary's Industrial School. If the old Yankee Stadium was "The House That Ruth Built," St. Mary's Industrial School was "The House That Built Ruth." From 1866 to 1950, including Ruth's residence from 1902 to 1914, it was a combination orphange, vo-tech school, and reform school. After a fire burned down all but one building on the campus in 1919, the Babe took the school's band on tour to raise funds for new buildings.
The Babe continued to donate to the only school he ever knew, until his death in 1948. But declining enrollment, and the Babe's no longer being available to raise money for it, led to its closing in 1950. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, recognizing its place in the local Catholic community, bought the campus, and in 1962 opened Cardinal Gibbons High School on the site.
But "CG," too, faced declining enrollment, and closed in 2010. Adjacent St. Agnes Hospital bought the site, and is planning to expand on the land, while keeping the athletic facilities, including Babe Ruth Field, the spot where little George Herman Ruth Jr. learned to play that game for which his legend still does more than it even did for him. 3225 Wilkens Avenue, in the Morrell Park neighborhood in West Baltimore. Bus 35.
* New Cathedral Cemetery. Several of the 1890s Orioles are buried here, including John McGraw, who went on to become the legendary manager of the New York Giants. (Willie Keeler, who played for all 3 of the old New York teams as well as the "Old Orioles," and was the Yankees' 1st superstar from 1903 to 1909, is not: He's buried at Calvary Cemetery in Queens.) 4300 Old Frederick Road, west of downtown. Bus 20 from downtown.
* Dulaney Valley Memorial Gardens. Colts legend Johnny Unitas is buried here. So is Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon's 1st Vice President, who had served as Governor of Maryland and Chief Executive of Baltimore County, and had to resign the Vice Presidency in 1973 (during the baseball Playoffs) because of crimes committed while serving in each of those offices.
200 E. Padonia Road, in the northern suburb of Timonium, Baltimore County. Metro to Fairgrounds Station, then transfer to Bus 9 to York Road, then a 1-mile walk east on Padonia.
* Edgar Allan Poe. Poe lived at a few different places in Baltimore. The official Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum is at 203 N. Amity Street, about half a mile west of Charles Center. CityLink Orange to Fayette & Schroeder. He is buried a few blocks away, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 515 W. Fayette Street. CityLink Orange to Fayette & Greene.
When he was found, 4 days before his death, incoherent, he was taken to Washington Medical College, where he died. The original structure, now Church Home and Hospital, still stands at 100 N. Broadway. CityLink Orange to Fayette & Broadway.
* Inner Harbor. No visit to Baltimore is complete without a trip to the Inner Harbor, home to the Harborplace mall. James Rouse, who revitalized New York's South Street Seaport and Boston's Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market, and designed Philadelphia's Gallery at Market East Station (now Jefferson Station), was from Baltimore, and he wanted to give his hometown the best one of all.
He may have succeeded. Aside from the Orioles team store, the highlight may be The Fudgery, where the people making and serving the fudge sing all day. Harborplace is at the intersection of Light & Pratt Streets, and there's a Light Street Pavilion (with mostly food and tourist trinkets) and a Pratt Street Pavilion (with mostly clothes).
To the east of Harborplace is the USS Constellation museum, a pentagonal skyscraper named the World Trade Center (Boston, Montreal and San Francisco also have buildings with that name we so often associated with New York from 1973 onward), the National Aquarium, a Hard Rock Café, the Pier Six concert Pavilion, and the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House at 844 E. Pratt Street.
The Flag House is where the 15-star, 15-stripe Fort McHenry flag that "was still there" was sewn, not where it is now (it's at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington), and it's also a museum dedicated to the War of 1812 and Baltimore's pivotal role in that conflict, for which 200th Anniversary commemorations were held from 2012 to 2015.
Beyond that is Fell's Point, which is Baltimore's Little Italy, and is loaded with kitschy stores and bars. To the south of Harborplace is the Maryland Science Center, the American Visionary Art Museum (not to be confused with the Baltimore Museum of Art), and Federal Hill, a neighborhood which is the closest thing Baltimore has to a Greenwich Village, a neat (as in both "tidy" and "cool") place to walk around when you've got an hour or two with nothing to do until it's time to go to the game.
Federal Hill includes the South Street Seaport-ish Cross Street Market, and my favorite Baltimore watering hole, the Abbey Burger Bistro. Officially, it's at 1041 Marshall Street, but don't let that fool you: It's actually in a short alley off Cross Street between Light and Patapsco Streets, giving it the allure of an English-style pub. This is one of the reasons it's the home of the Charm City Gooners, the local supporters club of my favorite English soccer team, London's Arsenal FC. Like such new-to-New York chains as The Counter and Five Napkin Burger, you can build your own burger, and it caters to fans of the Orioles and Ravens; but they will put up with Yankee Fans if they're also Arsenal fans. And (assuming you have time either before or after the game), it's a reasonable walk from both the ballpark and the Greyhound terminal on Haines Street.
* Museums. I mentioned the USS Constellation, the Flag House, the National Aquarium and the Maryland Science Center. The Baltimore Museum of Art is one of the most renowned in the country. 10 Art Museum Drive, in the Wyman Park neighborhood, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University. Their Archaeological Museum may also be worth a visit. Bus 3.
But if there's one thing people know about Baltimore, aside from its sports history, it's Fort McHenry National Monument, where the U.S. Army held off the British fleet on September 13, 1814, inspiring Francis Scott Key -- on one of the British ships, as he had gone, as a lawyer, to negotiate for the release of a prisoner of war -- to write "The Defence of Fort M'Henry," which was given the tune of an old English drinking song, "To Anacreon in Heaven," and became known as "The Star-Spangled Banner."
It was named for James McHenry, a physician, a member of the Continental Congress, a signer of the Constitution of the United States, and Secretary of War under Presidents George Washington and John Adams. This Yankees-Orioles series will begin on the 200th Anniversary of his death: May 3, 1816.
The Fort was established in 1800, and continued as a U.S. Army base during the American Civil War. In World War I, in a move that Dr. McHenry would have appreciated, it became an Army hospital, treating returning veterans from the fields of France and Flanders. It was proclaimed a National Monument in 1939. It was where the 1st official 50-star U.S. flag was flown on July 4, 1960, and that flag is still on the grounds, as is the "storm flag" that actually flew during the battle, replaced by the "garrison flag" when the battle ended -- the flag that Key saw and is at the Smithsonian now. 2400 E. Fort Avenue. Bus 1.
The closest college sports programs are the University of Maryland in College Park, 28 miles to the southwest; and the U.S. Naval Academy in the State capital of Annapolis, 25 miles to the southeast.
UMd's Cole Field House hosted the 1966 and 1970 NCAA Final Fours. The 1966 Final featured Texas-El Paso (then Texas Western), a Southern school with an all-black starting lineup, beating Kentucky, a Southern school with an all-white starting five, one of the landmark games in basketball. The 1970 Final had UCLA beating Jacksonville University. UMd played there from 1955 to 2002, when they moved to the XFINITY Center (formerly the Comcast Center).
UMd's Capital One Field at Maryland Stadium, known as Byrd Stadium from 1950 to 2015, was where the Baltimore Stars played their 1985 USFL Championship season, because, as a condition of the settlement between the city and Colts owner Bob Irsay for moving the team to Indianapolis, no pro football team could play at Memorial Stadium until 1986. However, to get to UMd's campus without a car, you'd be better off taking Greyhound or Amtrak from Baltimore to Washington, and then taking D.C.'s Metro up to College Park; or you could take MARC from Camden Station to College Park.
The Naval Academy is a military base, so you should go to their website to check for visitor information. There is a museum on the campus. For those of you who are New Jersey Devils fans, the team's founding owner, Dr. John McMullen, was a graduate, and a naval engineer, and the school's hockey arena is named for him.
Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium seats 34,000, and has hosted Navy football and Academy graduation ceremonies since 1959. It hosted an NHL Stadium Series game on March 3, 2018, with the host Washington Capitals beating the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-2.
550 Taylor Avenue. Bus 64 to Patapsco Avenue & Potee Street, then transfer to Bus 14. The trip takes a little over 2 hours, even though it's only 33 road miles, so you might be better off driving if you can.
Maryland has never produced a President (although Jimmy Carter was an Annapolis graduate), so there's no Presidential Birthplace or Presidential Library. The closest they've come, sadly, is the aforementioned Spiro Agnew. Martin O'Malley, Mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, and Governor of Maryland from 2007 to 2015, ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 2016, but dropped out after finishing a distant 3rd behind Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in both Iowa and New Hampshire.
Baltimore does, however, have its own Washington Monument, the 1st monument to the 1st President, completed in 1829, just 30 years after George Washington's death. It's 178 feet tall, and is the centerpiece of Mount Vernon Place, itself the centerpiece of the Mount Vernon neighborhood, named for Washington's home, north of downtown Baltimore. 699 Washington Place, at Charles & Monument Streets. Any bus that goes up Charles.
The Democratic Party made its 2nd attempt at an 1860 Convention, after a disastrous 1st one in Charleston, South Carolina, at the Front Street Theatre. It nominated Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. He lost to the man he beat in his last Senate run in 1858, Abraham Lincoln, the 1st President elected as a member of the Republican Party. The Republicans held their 1864 Convention at the same theater, renominating Lincoln. Built in 1829, it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1904. A hotel now stands on the site. Southwest corner of Front & Low Streets.
That was the only time the Republicans have had their Convention in Baltimore, but the Democrats frequently held theirs in Baltimore in the early days. They held the 1st-ever national nominating convention in 1832, renominating President Andrew Jackson, at the Athenaeum, at 110 St. Paul Street, where the Quality Inn now stands. Their 1840 Convention, renominating President Martin Van Buren, was held at Odd Fellows Hall, where the current City Hall stands at 100 Holliday Street.
Their 1852 Convention, nominating Franklin Pierce, was at the Maryland Institute, at Howard & Dolphin Streets, at the southern edge of the current MI campus, near that of the University of Baltimore and Penn Station. Mount Royal Station is on the site.
Their 1872 Convention, nominating Horace Greeley, was at Ford's Grand Opera House (run by John T. Ford, who also ran Ford's Theatre in Washington, where Lincoln was killed), at 300 W. Fayette Street. Retail space is on the site now.
Their 1912 Convention, nominating Woodrow Wilson, was at the Fifth Regiment Armory, the only one of these buildings that still stands. 219 29th Division Street, on the opposite corner of Howard & Dolphin from the 1852 Convention site. Light Rail to Cultural Center.
Baltimore doesn't have a lot of tall buildings. The tallest is the Transamerica Tower, built in 1973 as the USF&G Building and later the Legg Mason Building, at 100 Light Street at Lombard Street, 528 feet high. It succeeded the old Baltimore Trust Company Building, now the Bank of America Building, built in 1924 at 509 feet, at 10 Light Street at Baltimore Street.
Don't look for TV locations from Baltimore. The best-known series set there are Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire, and they were mainly set in bad neighborhoods. In particular, stay away from the West Side, and the neighborhoods to the north, east and south of the Memorial Stadium site. (This includes between downtown and the old Stadium site.)
Because the Orioles were the closest team to the nation's capital from 1972 to 2004, and Ronald Reagan revived the tradition of Presidents throwing out the first ball to start the season at Memorial Stadium in 1984, and especially after Camden Yards opened in 1992, giving closer access to D.C.,
TV shows and movies that want to show government officials at a ballgame have used Baltimore. The films Dave and Head of State, and the TV shows The West Wing, Commander in Chief, and House of Cards have shown fictional Presidents throwing out first balls. Camden Yards was used as the Cleveland Indians' ballpark in Major League II, and it was also shown on The Wire and
Eastbound & Down.
The movie version of Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears shows the Super Bowl taking place in Baltimore, at M&T Bank Stadium, with the city being destroyed by a nuclear blast, but the stadium scenes were filmed at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. In the book, the Super Bowl was set at Mile High Stadium in Denver. Neither Baltimore nor Denver has yet hosted a Super Bowl in real life, probably due to weather concerns, although with the Meadowlands having pulled it off in decent weather, and with both Baltimore and Denver having new stadiums, maybe the NFL should them a try.
*
The Ravens are not an old football team, but Baltimore is an old football city, with more passion for that sport than for baseball. It's a bit early to say that the Ravens are an iconic team, but a Ravens game can be a great experience.
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