With the Orioles’ return to the postseason Saturday, superstitious Orioles followers could also be discovering their fortunate playoff shirt doesn’t match the way in which it used to. Of course, with all that’s modified across the sport and the ballpark for the reason that Orioles’ earlier postseason look seven years in the past, simply being a fan has a unique really feel.
While the intervening years weren’t even half so long as the playoff drought the Orioles led to 2012, with a pandemic and three 100-loss seasons folded on this time, it’s simple to overlook the way in which issues had been. Here are seven issues which have modified for the reason that Orioles final performed a playoff recreation in 2016.
Sports betting
That pinstriped-clad fellow cheering loudly for an Adley Rutschman stroll will not be pushed purely by AL East pleasure. This would be the first postseason involving the Orioles on which followers can legally place wagers in Maryland. Legalized in 2020, in-person sports activities betting launched December 2021 and cellular sports activities betting began in November 2022.
A reminder of that’s emblazoned on a three-story-tall signal connected to Camden Yards’ B&O Warehouse. This season was the primary that the Orioles’ ballpark had a sports activities betting-themed restaurant. SuperBook Bar & Restaurant isn’t a conventional sportsbook, however a lounge the place followers could make wagers on telephones. While the state has 12 retail and 12 cellular sportsbooks, most wagers (95% of the deal with from July 1 to Aug. 31) are made on cellular gadgets, in response to knowledge from Maryland Lottery and Gaming. In August alone, professional baseball had over $74.3 million in wagers, making up round 28% of the month’s deal with.
Bag restrictions
To take within the environment of the playoffs and beat (a few of) the crowds, it pays to reach early. And staying late might require just a few extra layers than it did in July — particularly within the Splash Zone. All that may imply packing a bag, which ballpark guidelines restrict to lower than half the utmost measurement allowed in 2016.
Backpack-sized luggage have been prohibited since 2021 until their contents are medically mandatory, similar to medication or diapers. Otherwise, followers are restricted to 1 clear bag no bigger than 12-by-6-by-12 inches, one 1-gallon plastic freezer bag, or one fanny pack or clutch purse no bigger than 5-by-7 inches.
Suspended in 2021, the Orioles’ bring-your-own-food coverage was introduced again in 2022 with new pointers, together with limiting meals and nonalcoholic drinks to be in a single clear, sealable plastic gallon bag. Beverages are restricted to twenty ounces, and frozen water bottles are usually not allowed.
Electric scooters
In 2023 it’s exhausting to stroll close to the ballpark and never encounter at the least one rentable electrical scooter. But the dockless autos hadn’t arrived in Baltimore but when the Orioles final made a postseason look. Bird scooters arrived in 2018, however, regardless of their becoming identify for Baltimore sports activities followers, flew out of city this yr after shedding a allow bid to LINK and S.
LINK scooters price $1 to unlock and $0.40 per minute to trip, whereas Spin scooters are $1.50 to begin and $0.66 per minute, in response to every corresponding app.
TikTookay
For Orioles followers, even the wryest TikTookay video most likely wouldn’t have made the workforce’s walk-off loss in 2016′s win-or-go-home wild-card recreation any simpler to take, however after a tense recreation punctuated by a full beer can being thrown at an Orioles outfielder, it will have been entertaining to see what the platform’s intelligent creators got here up with. The video-sharing app that now boasts 150 million U.S. customers didn’t exist seven years in the past.
This time round followers can prep for the playoffs on the Orioles’ official account with quite a lot of movies from recreation replays to gamers answering the latest burning TikTookay query: How typically do you consider the Roman Empire?
Hot canines
Hot canines and baseball go collectively like Baltimore warmth and humidity. But how a lot cash will it’s a must to separate with to have one from the ballpark? While this season the Orioles have supplied a reduced value of $4.10 (a promotional nod to the native space code) for warm canines and different staples at choose concession spots, the worth was $1.50 — $1.87 adjusted for inflation — in 2016, in response to Statista. If you wish to go for a jumbo canine, be ready to pay $8.25.
Going cashless
The outfield grass is as inexperienced as ever, however a dollar can not purchase you a snack or a memento. Camden Yards grew to become cashless in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The ballpark launched two “reverse” ATMs the identical yr, the place followers may enter money and obtain playing cards to buy gadgets. A reverse ATM nonetheless exists to buy meals and merchandise on the lower-level concourse subsequent to the primary assist by Gate D, in response to the MLB web site.
Another various methodology is O’s Pay. O’s Pay was examined in 2022 and launched in 2023 as a comfort to followers, Orioles public relations director Jackie Harig stated in an e-mail. Birdland members can also apply their membership low cost utilizing O’s Pay.
LED lights and different ‘Go Green’ efforts
Ask any participant. Even after a 162-game common season, within the playoffs, in some way you get extra vitality. The LED bulbs lighting the motion, nevertheless, use considerably lower than the fluorescent ones of seven years in the past — 54% much less, to be precise, in response to Major League Baseball’s web site.
Other Orioles Go Green Initiatives for the reason that 2016 season embody electrical charging stations the Maryland Stadium Authority and Electric Vehicle Institute put in across the Camden Yards complicated, together with eight degree 2 and one degree 3.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com