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First-Timer's Guide to Camden Yards

First-Timer's Guide to Camden Yards

The quick read

Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992 and started the whole wave of downtown retro ballparks. The B&O Warehouse beyond right field is the image everyone knows, and it is sitting right there when you walk up. The park is open to the sky, so on a day game you are dealing with Baltimore sun and humidity, and you plan around it.

Two things set Camden apart from most parks before you even get through the turnstile. You can bring your own food in. And the beer sells later here than at a lot of other parks. Both are covered below, with the rest of what a first-timer needs: the bag rules, which gate to use, when the gates open, and the handful of things you should actually walk over and look at.

Verify before you go: bag dimensions, the outside-food allowance, gate letters, and gate open times can change season to season, and the detail below is best-available from official snippets and reputable local sources. Confirm specifics against the official Camden Yards A-Z guide on mlb.com/orioles within 30 days of your visit.

What you can bring in

Camden runs a clear-bag policy with a real outside-food allowance, which is a better deal for a first-timer than what most parks let you do.

The bag rules:

  • One clear bag, up to 12 by 6 by 12 inches.
  • Or a one-gallon clear freezer bag.
  • Or a small clutch, non-clear, up to 5 by 7 inches.

The part that surprises people: you can bring your own food in. Pack sandwiches, snacks, whatever you want, in the one approved bag. You can also bring one factory-sealed non-alcoholic drink up to 20 ounces. No cans and no glass, so bring a sealed plastic bottle. For a family trying to keep the day from turning into a hundred-dollar concession run, that is a genuine break, and most parks do not offer it.

The alcohol cutoff

Beer and other alcohol sales stop at the end of the 8th inning, or three and a half hours after first pitch, whichever comes first. That is later than a lot of parks, several of which cut off at the seventh-inning stretch. So you have a little more runway here, but do not bank on it; the three-and-a-half-hour clock can end sales before the 8th on a long game.

A couple of details that catch first-timers:

  • Two per person per transaction, and you will need your ID.
  • The cutoff is not the seventh-inning stretch. Those are two different things. The stretch is when everybody stands up and sings in the middle of the 7th. The alcohol cutoff here is a full inning-plus later.

Which gate, and when it opens

Use whichever gate is closest to your seat or to where you are coming from. That is the whole answer for most people. If you parked in the lots south of the park or you walked up from the Inner Harbor, take the nearest gate and save yourself the lap around the building.

The standard public gates are A, C, D, and H, with others opened as needed for bigger crowds. The one worth knowing by name is Gate A, which sits by the Eutaw Street corridor, the team store, and Boog’s BBQ. If you want to walk Eutaw Street before the game (more on that below) or you are picking up gear, Gate A drops you right into it. But it is a reason to pick Gate A, not a reason to hike across the park to reach it. Closest gate first.

When the gates open depends on the day:

  • Monday through Thursday: 60 minutes before first pitch.
  • Friday: 90 minutes before first pitch.
  • Saturday: 120 minutes before first pitch.
  • Sunday: 90 minutes before first pitch.

The parking lots open roughly an hour before the gates do. If you want to walk Eutaw Street, see the warehouse, and not feel rushed, the weekend windows give you the most room.

What to see on your first trip

You do not need a checklist to enjoy Camden Yards, but a few things are worth getting out of your seat for.

Walk Eutaw Street. This is the public promenade between the field and the B&O Warehouse out behind right field, and it is the part of the park people remember. The warehouse is the long brick building beyond the fence, one of the longest buildings on the East Coast at 1,016 feet. Set into the pavement are brass plaques, one for every home run that has landed out there in a game. No ball has ever hit the warehouse during a game; the only one that reached it was Ken Griffey Jr.’s shot in the 1993 Home Run Derby, marked by a plaque about two-thirds of the way up a white column. Boog’s BBQ, the pit-beef stand Orioles great Boog Powell started on opening day in 1992, is right there on Eutaw Street too.

Find the Babe Ruth statue. Ruth was born two blocks from the park, and there is a statue of him outside the gates worth a photo.

The Oriole Bird. The team mascot since 1979, and a guaranteed hit if you brought kids.

The kids’ area inside the park, with a playground and the usual stuff to burn off energy between innings.

Getting around inside

One concourse cue worth knowing on a day game: the Terrace Level seating under the Club Level overhang gets shade, because the deck above it gives you cover. The park is open to the sky, so on a hot afternoon the difference between a covered seat and a fully exposed one is real. Baltimore summers run hot and humid, July and August especially, so if you are at an afternoon game, plan for sun: hat, sunscreen, water. The full shade breakdown is in the seats guide.

For a night game, none of that matters much by the middle innings.