Dave’s Midlife Blog

A week ago, March 30, it was cold and cloudy in Washington, DC. Nevertheless, Barbara and I dressed warmly and went down to Nationals Park for the official opening game of the Nationals’ 2008 season. Although it was around 49 degrees all day long, we got to the park at 3:30 for an 8:15 game, because the President of the United States would be throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. Security lines would be forbidding, we were told, so it was a smart idea to get there early.

Many other bloggers and journalists have covered the game. I did not photograph any of the game because I wanted to see it and keep score. But I did photograph my first real experience being inside the stadium.

It was thrilling to walk around the ballpark whose construction I have followed since the spring of 2006. As we emerged from the Metro, Half Street greeted us as festively as a major construction site can do.

Right now Half Street is bounded on one side by a recently-vacated Metro bus garage on the right and a construction site for two high-rise buildings on the left. It’s rather ugly now, but in a couple of years it ought to look magnificent.

The tone of the opening-day festivities resembled in many ways the “Grand Re-Opening” of RFK Stadium two years ago, when the Lerner family took over the team and did some remodeling. There was a red carpet leading to the centerfield plaza, musicians played, the Racing Presidents greeted fans. But once we got inside the stadium, we knew we were in something special and new.

The field looks magnificent from the stairs up to the Red Loft Bar in center field. When we arrived, the Atlanta Braves were starting batting practice.

When we went into the Red Porch restaurant to explore, they were not yet open for business. They were, however, happy for us to come in and look. One of the most surprisingly emotional moments for us was seeing the ceiling of the Red Porch. It is decorated with pennants from the old Washington Senators teams–the teams that were taken away from Washington baseball fans twice. We are not even native Washingtonians, but seeing these pennants brought feelings of nostalgia we did not expect.

Our season seats are just below the pressbox in section 311. That is at the right of this picture. They’re in the fourth row from the bottom, four seats in from the right in this picture. I take a tiny bit of pleasure in the fact that we are closer to the field than the reporters and TV announcers.

Our view of the field is as good as we could have wanted for what our tickets cost. These seats are very similar to the great seats we had in RFK Stadium for two years.

We did not, of course, sit in our seats for two hours until the game started. Instead, we explored the park in the cold wind as we strolled around. Most people arrive at the stadium through the centerfield gates. By about 6:00 PM the crowds were starting to build on the centerfield plaza.

The stadium is a wonderful addition to a formerly run-down neighborhood in Southeast Washington. However, a lot of critics have expressed the misguided complaint that the monuments of the Nation’s Capital are not properly visible from the seats. I don’t get this. My own friends and family who come to DC tend to go to the National Mall to see the monuments. I will go to Nationals Park to see baseball. In any event, I’m here to report that our seats in section 311 do have a view of the Capitol dome–albeit somewhat obscured by a lighting tower.

At a few minutes before 8:00, our television color analyst, Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton, took the field dressed in his finest to lead the on-field opening ceremonies. (Because the game was carried on ESPN, Don was not working on the air on the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network that night.)

Reflecting the opening day of the Nats’ first season at RFK Stadium in 2005, the DC Air National Guard spread two large American flags on the outfield. The RFK opening featured one gigantic flag. I wondered about this until the Nationals’ starting lineup ran onto the field through the centerfield gate between the flags.

Despite published reports, the stadium was full. The announced paid attendance was 39,389–a couple thousand less than the stadium’s capacity of 41,888. However, as you can see from this photo taken at about 8:10 PM, the house was full. Approximately 2,500 tickets were given away to dignitaries, team guests, DC politicians, and so on.

President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch. He got on the field quickly, threw the ball (rather well, high and outside), and got off quickly to a chorus of boos. No, I did not boo. I think very little of Bush as a president, but the tradition of the presidential first pitch is one that needs to be established in Washington, DC. I found the booing of the president to be rude and out of place.

The game? Well, it could not have gone much better. The Nats got out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Atlanta’s Chipper Jones hit a solo homer in the fourth inning and there it sat for most of the game. It was a pitcher’s duel between the Nats’ Odalis Perez and the Braves’ Tim Hudson–meaning it was a short game. (Remember, it was cold!) In the top of the ninth the Braves tied it up at 2. Then in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and nobody on–and with two strikes–our star third baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off solo homer into the Red Porch to win the game. It was as if the game were being played according to a movie script.

We went home happy. The team headed to Philadelphia for their second game on Monday. The Nats would get out to a good start by winning three in a row. Then they dropped the next four games. They’ll play their second game in Nationals Park against the Florida Marlins on Monday, April 7. They bring a 3-4 record into their first real homestand. We hope they have a home-field advantage in their fantastic new stadium.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 6th, 2008 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Washington DC, baseball.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.