I rode my motorcycle through the rain Saturday morning, to visit with a high school (and elementary school and junior high school) friend now living in Northern Virginia outside of DC. We connected Saturday afternoon with a college buddy and a friend of his, and the four of us attended the Yankees-Orioles game at Camden Yards.

I would estimate the crowd at 60-40, Orioles fans to Yankees fans. The Yankee fans were much more vocal, though, and had no trouble overwhelming the O's fans. Let's go Yankees! rang through the ballpark all afternoon. I noticed that O's fans seem much more interested in hanging around eating crab cakes and gourmet barbecue than they are in watching a ballgame. I wonder if that is because the O's aren't playing well or because all the fine food and distractions at Oriole Park attract a fan with less inherent interest in baseball. At any rate, you don't hear them talking much baseball. I didn't see anybody with scorebook and a fistfull of sharp pencils

The contrast with Yankee fans is startling. Yankee fans don't just like baseball, they understand baseball. A batter hitting behind a runner is applauded for doing his job, even if he makes an out. The conversation in the stands is about whether 2-0 is a good count to send Jeter, or if they should wait for a breaking ball count. And Yankee fans keep score.

While I was able to talk some baseball with my friends, you didn't hear much of it from the other orange and black faithful. Yankees won, 6-5 in ten innings. The Orioles fan behind me declared it a "classic" game, in spite of the O's committing three errors and the Yankees leaving a dozen men on base.