Everything you need to know ahead of your visit to Camden Yards
On the day that Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, one thing that was said about it has always stuck with me: “It’s like it’s always been here.” It was brand new yet still felt imbued in some way with part of baseball’s unique history. More than 30 years later, Camden Yards is simply part of the history now. It’s the eighth-oldest stadium in use in MLB this season.
Visiting from out of town? Or maybe you’re local but you haven’t actually been to a game in a while so you’re wondering what’s worth doing around the stadium? I’ve got a few tips and recommendations for you to hopefully have the best time you can. Whether the team you’re rooting for brings you joy along with the experience is out of my control.
Food
It is mostly not cheap to eat at this baseball stadium or pretty much any entertainment attraction. One good thing about Camden Yards is that you are allowed to bring in food from the outside: One gallon-sized plastic bag permitted per person, with no real limits on that except for your own creativity. There was a meme a couple of years ago around a pair of people who brought plastic bags full of spaghetti, which they ate with plastic forks. More recently, some guys found a way to import their own crab feast.
Any drinks must be in unopened plastic bottles.
- The basics
Hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken tenders, Italian sausages, soft pretzels, French fries, and other things you’d probably expect to find are at a variety of locations around the stadium. Lines are better at some games than others, not always connected to how big of a crowd there is. I will not stake my honor on a guarantee that whatever hot food you choose to purchase will be both hot and vaguely fresh. I have personally experienced excellence, cromulence, and disappointment at multiple price levels in buying food in 2025.
There are also a number of “value” stands through the stadium, where you can get some basic food and drink items, including hot dogs, pretzel bites, peanuts, none of which costs more than $5. Starting in 2025, soda cups from these stands are refillable at soda stations around the park. The press release about this value menu initiative even said there are $5 12 oz. beers, though in practice finding these in the wild seems to be difficult.
- The local legend
One favorite item in the Baltimore area that you won’t find anywhere else is the pit beef sandwich. When the stadium opened, one of the signature stands was Boog’s BBQ, named after longtime Orioles slugger and 1970 AL MVP Boog Powell. Watching Orioles games in the 90s, the smoke from cooking the meats was visible out beyond center field, where Boog’s stand still sits, and it was always mouth-watering if you walked by.
Here’s a little hot take from me: Boog’s ain’t it any more. They haven’t had the smoke going out there for years. There are better-tasting premium-priced food items that you could get in the stadium.
- New local favorites
There is a nice variety of local area restaurants with stands inside of Camden Yards now. This lineup was shuffled for the 2025 season. I can’t vouch for them all personally, but here are three good ones that my wife and I have had in 2025:
Ekiben is a local Asian restaurant, from which you can get the Neighborhood Bird Bun, a fried chicken thigh sandwich on a bao bun that comes with a delicious spicy mayo and is also toppled with pickles and herbs. I ate one of these the other day and I’m still thinking about it, honestly. This stand is on the lower concourse behind home plate.
The Local Fry serves, as you might expect, French fry-based items. If you want to get something crab-related in your trip to the stadium, this stand’s crab dip-topped fries could be your tastiest bet out there. There’s one location down the third base line on the lower level, and another in the upper deck in left field.
Deddle’s Mini Donuts is dropping made-to-order mini donuts all game long every Saturday and Sunday home game. Unless you’ve made donuts yourself, you’ve probably never had one this fresh. Don’t forget the napkins because the deliciousness is going to stick to your fingers. We talk about these donuts every time we are at the stadium.
History
- Eutaw Street plaques
The area in front of the B&O Warehouse is Eutaw Street, an open part of the stadium concourse. One of the cool features of this area is that the team has been placing baseball plaques out in this area ever since the stadium opened to mark places where home runs have landed out there.
As of this writing, dating back to 1992, there have been 133 home runs to land in this area. Each plaque notes the player’s name, the team he played for, the date the home run was hit, and its estimated distance from home plate. The names are a nice mix of recognizable stars – five of them are Hall of Famers – plus guys who you might only know if you’ve been an Orioles fan for a long time, and guys you might have forgotten or never knew in the first place.
This is a busy thoroughfare in the stadium, so if you want to be able to linger and check out these plaques, you should plan to do so at a time where there is less foot traffic around, such as an hour or so before first pitch on a weeknight game.
- Hall of Fame statues
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of Oriole Park at Camden Yards in the 2012 season, the Orioles commissioned a series of statues of the five players and one manager who have been elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame as Orioles. The statues were unveiled throughout the season on giveaway nights where fans received replicas of the statues, which remain sought-after collector’s items to this day.
The guys are the titans of the franchise’s history: Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr., and the manager who at different times led them all, Earl Weaver. All of their jersey numbers are retired by the team. (Mike Mussina should be on this list, too, but we don’t need to open up that can of worms any further just now.) You can find these statues within the stadium in a plaza out beyond left-center field.
- Random memorabilia
On the lower level concourse behind home plate, the team displays a rotating set of memorabilia from notable Orioles players or particular moments in the history of Camden Yards. There was a variety of Ripken memorabilia on my most recent visit to the stadium, but at different times I’ve seen Baltimore Negro Leagues memorabilia and all manner of random Orioles things.
One level higher, on the club level (200 level), you can find the two World Series trophies that the Orioles have earned. Trophies honoring the 1970 and 1983 champions are displayed behind a glass case. The Orioles’ 1966 World Series title predates the first Commissioner’s Trophy, which came one year later.
Note that this area does technically require a ticket for a seat in the 200 level to access it, but if you enter behind home plate and smile and ask really nicely if you can just look at the trophies, you can probably get to check out these pieces of history.
Once you’ve talked your way into the club level, take advantage of the opportunity to stroll all the way around this closed, temperature-controlled concourse area, as the walls are a trip through Orioles history from 1954 up to the present. It is a great place to go to Remember Some Guys.
For Kids
- Playground
If you are visiting the stadium with kids who are small enough to have not developed much of a consciousness that baseball is a cool thing that they can enjoy on its own merits, you might like to let them run wild in a little playground that has been set up on the lower level of the concourse in the corner down the right field line. This space is fenced off to keep it separate from the foot traffic walking through the concourse.
- Left field standing room
New for 2025 is an area where kids and their adults can stand right up against the fence for a few innings. This space, adjacent to the left field foul pole, is open on a first-come, first-serve basis and the ushers in the area try to cycle through people every so often. There’s a yellow line on top of the standing room and, from what I’ve seen, they keep the adults behind the yellow line while the kids are allowed to stand right up in front of the field. From a distance, this area looks really cool.