Yes, this afternoon Your Host and his family made our first visit to Nationals’ Park, there to see our Nats beat Cincinnati 4-2 in the third game of their series, thereby sweeping the Reds and extending the Nats’ winning streak for the month of August to 3-0. Not too shabby, especially after the dismal July we just finished.
When I say “there to see our Nats beat Cincinnati,” I, of course, am generalizing pretty freely. Only the eldest gel and I sat through the whole game and could be said to have paid close attention. My darling wife and the other two gels decided to take a tour of the stadium fairly early in the game (which tour wound up lasting at least two innings). Later, after the Presidents’ Race in the 4th Inning (Let Teddy Win! and if you don’t know what that means, go here), they scurried off to get their pics taken with Abe, Ol’ George, Tom and Teddy. And finally, during the 8th Inning, they ditched us in order to get in line to run the bases after the game was over.
The eldest gel and I, on the other hand, endured a blistering (albeit dry) sunbath in the lower box halfway down the right field line and thoroughly enjoyed watching our Nats play as if they meant it and loved it.
As for the new stadium itself, I don’t have that much to say. Certainly there is that intimacy that one looks for in a ballpark – it appeared from our strolls about that one could see reasonably well from just about anywhere and it was certainly better than the old RKF days. On the other hand, well frankly there was no real flair to the place, nothing that really stood out architecturally. Eh, so long as we can enjoy the game, I suppose I don’t really mind that much.
Oh, btw, the pic above was taken with our digital camera. I also snapped a couple on my brand new (R) cell phone, but can’t figure out how to translate them from it to, well, wherever. What does one do? What is this “bluetooth” of which the kids seem to speak so much?
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August 4, 2008 at 2:27 pm
MCNS
Great picture! And I hope the Webkinz enjoyed the game.
August 4, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Your Host
Sigh…. It was “Webkinz” day with some kind of tie-in going to the National Zoo panda research. My suggestion that, as the gels already have so many Webkinz already, it would be nice to give these up to somebody else who might like them fell on utterly deaf ears.
August 4, 2008 at 8:59 pm
GroovyVic
I hope you, at least, didn’t wreck your vehicle on the way to the game.
Nice looking gang.
August 5, 2008 at 9:04 pm
The Gels Of Summah « The Port Stands At Your Elbow
[...] from Christian Schneider at Atomic Trousers that I thought worth sharing, especially in light of my own gels’ burgeoning baseball fanaticism: Okay, real quick story from this weekend that demonstrates what a [...]
August 6, 2008 at 2:11 am
ChrisN
I am the proud owner of a 1/8 share of season tickets (sec 217) at the new park. I happen to like it a lot. I agree that it is not archetecturally distinctive in any way. However, the sight lines are excellent, the concessions and restrooms are convenient to the stands, and within a few years the neighborhood will provide excellent outside-the-stadium dining and entertainment options.
I have two minor quibbles. (1) There isn’t a view of the Capitol from the lower and club levels. Many of my friends like to blame the Lerners for putting up the parking decks, but the fact is that the (inevitable) office buildings on Half St. have an even more significant effect on the view. (2) The concourses in the club level are too narrow (admittedly, this is an issue on which few average fans will have any sympathy with me).
Of course, I wish the stadium had been built in one of the two Arlington sites that were proposed (Pentagon City, or across Route 50 from the Marine Corps War Memorial, where the view of the Mall would have been spectacular). But I knew all along that the People’s Republic of Arlington would never permit such a thing.