I got back last night from a weekend in Baltimore, a city I had never before spent much time in but instantly fell in love with.
Now, most of what I know about Balmer comes from "The Wire" and "Homicide: Life on the Street," two shows that, while among my all-time favorites, tend to depict Baltimore as a cesspool of corruption, crime, and murder. But it's actually a very beautiful, idiosyncratic city, and I'm not only talking about the Inner Harbor and Fells Point. Although, we did take a wrong turn off the highway, and I'm pretty sure we drove by Marlo Stanfield's rim shop...
We caught the end of the first game and almost of the second of the Twins' doubleheader sweep of the Orioles at Camden Yards on Saturday, in which the Twinkies scored 12 runs in each game and briefly took over a share of first place in the Central. Unlike most cities in which people actually go to games, the Orioles let anyone with tickets to either game stay for both. In fact, there were so many Twins fans in the house that it felt like a home game- I even saw "Circle Me Bert" signs.
It was doubleheader-mania in baseball this weekend, leading to such oddities as the Phillies erasing a four-game deficit in the wild card standings by sweeping Milwaukee- just as Carlos Zambrano was finishing a no-hitter- in the Brewers' stadium. Just two more weeks of the season; I just hope everyone gets to play all their games.
Another highlight of the trip? We got to see the headquarters building from "Homicide"- as well as the bar the cops used to go to.