You can't go nose-to-nose with a shark there, or touch a cannon ball or study the cosmos.
But Oriole Park has become the hot new ticket for school field trips from throughout the state.
More than 20,000 students from nearly 200 schools have toured the stadium this year, without any public-relations push by the team. That's double the 1993 student total.
Yesterday, 180 children from two middle schools, Old Mill and Holabird, stepped up to the plate.
The students scrambled over box seats, paraded past the luxury suites and even tiptoed onto the diamond that has been gathering dust since the strike began.
Some of the children leaned out of the dugout to tip imaginary caps to imaginary crowds. Others scrunched close together on the bench, raised their arms and swayed in a makeshift wave.
Does this provide educational enrichment, as a field trip should? Fort McHenry gave birth to the National Anthem, while Oriole Park merely plays it before games.
No matter, a growing number of schools say. To them, the stadium belongs in the same lineup with heavy hitters like the fort, the Maryland Science Center and other popular destinations downtown.
"The ballpark is as much a Baltimore institution as the National Aquarium," says Phil Taylor, assistant principal at Arbutus Middle School. The stadium is "not necessarily a cultural institution, but it's a worthy field trip," he says.
Kate Belbot, a teacher at Highlandtown Elementary, agrees. And she points out that many families can't afford the price of admission to games. "The children and parents were thrilled," she says of the school trip last month for fourth-and fifth-graders. "For many, it was the first time in the ballpark; 90 percent hadn't been there."
A free tour would have been nicer, says Ms. Belbot. (It costs $4 per person.) "We had to help pay for some of the children -- but, even at $4, that's a better price than going to a game. A hot dog and Coke could put you over $4."
The veteran institutions downtown do not resent the rookie in their midst, but no one is sure how to categorize the stadium. "I'd liken a visit [to Camden Yards] to a trip to an amusement park," says Ann Steele, assistant director of the Museum of Industry. "The ballpark makes a great tour, but it's not something that ties into the curriculum unless somebody is being very, very creative."
Both the Museum of Industry, with its hands-on exhibits, and Fort McHenry, with its unexploded 19th-century British cannon balls, are still more than twice as popular with school groups as Oriole Park.
"We're really not here to build up the numbers," says Vincent Vaise, a ranger at the 204-year-old fort. "But let's be honest: It's difficult to compare Fort McHenry, where people died, with a ballpark." For better or worse, many schoolchildren are as interested in where Cal Ripken Jr. sits -- and spits -- as how Fort McHenry fought off the British.
Just ask the group from Clear Spring High School, which toured both sites last month. "The thrust for the day was the fort, but Camden Yards was the jewel in the crown," says Richard Snyder, a teacher at Clear Spring in Washington County. "Certainly they were interested in the fort, but . . . the ballpark? Do you know how hard it is to get tickets to games?"
Orioles officials insist they are not engaged in a hard sell to schools. But, like waves of tourists, yellow buses just keep rolling in for the one-hour guided tours of the 2 1/2 -year-old, $110 million stadium on 85 acres.
Here comes a high school history club. There goes a 12th grade calculus class. Look at all the chaperones! Parents sign up quickly for this trip, teachers say.
For a physics class from North Caroline High, on the Eastern Shore, the attraction was the $11.5 million communications room -- which controls the sound system and scoreboard -- and the park's state-of-the-art drainage system.
For sixth-graders at Dundalk Middle School, the tour was the culmination of a two-week unit on baseball. To prepare for the field trip, students read biographies of players, mapped major-league cities, sketched pictures of team mascots, calculated batting averages and did experiments to determine whether wood or metal bats would hit a ball farther.
A trip to Camden Yards also capped a two-week project at Holabird Middle School, where eighth-graders tested their entrepreneurial skills by designing their own concession stands.
Some teachers dangle the tour like a carrot in front of their classes, says guide Mark Hromalik. "This trip is a reward for having done well on assignments -- or for having behaved at the Science Center."
There's no question that Camden Yards offers history. "I tell children that Abraham Lincoln passed through that train station on the way to Gettysburg, for a two-minute speech," says guide Steve Freeman, nodding toward the warehouse.
The tour guides occasionally pop questions at the children -- and get peppered in return with queries such as: Why isn't the foul pole called the fair pole? Do people live in the luxury suites? Where does the Oriole Bird change clothes?
The Orioles already are receiving calls from schools wanting tours next spring. And the club is conferring with the Maryland Science Center to create a package deal. Long a favorite of educators, the Science Center drew 131,000 schoolchildren last year.
A few blocks from the stadium is the B&O; Museum, where youngsters can climb aboard century-old locomotives. Nearly 10,000 students have visited the roundhouse this year -- often after touring the stadium, says director John Ott.