As mentioned previously, I head to DC for training several times each year. This session was rather rough compared to the ones I had attended previously. I was rather burnt out by Thursday. Since I wasn’t heading on my mileage run till midday Saturday, I looked for something to do on Friday night. Of course there are the old standbys of Georgetown or Addams-Morgan, but I wasn’t keen on flying 8+ hours hungover. It’s bad enough doing that just flying back to Dallas. Then a friend reminded me the Nationals were in town taking on the Phillies. While not a great matchup, it looked like it would be a perfect night for baseball weather wise, and a baseball game would a great way to kickback with a few brews and just relax. I played around Stub Hub for awhile and found tickets for field level seats right behind third base for just $35 per ticket.
The weather was as amazing as advertised, with temperatures in the mid 70s, a light breeze, and crystal clear skies. Luckily I got out of class a little early at just after 4, which gave my friends and Ijust enough time to knock back a few pre-game bulls on the roof top terrace of our hotel and enjoy the weather. It took us just over 30 minutes to take the Metro rail from Arlington to the station nearest to National Ballpark, which is Navy Yards. With a little time to kill before the game, we hit up the Miller Lite fan zone located just outside of the center field entrance.
Other than the live music, there wasn’t a whole lot in terms of entertainment. The only beer they served was of course, Miller Lite. While I do enjoy crappy beers now and then, I absolutely detest Miller for some reason. But the presence of food trucks more than made up for the shortfalls. Instead of munching on some generic bland ballpark food, we were chowing down on delicious lobster rolls, served with a corn and black bean salad.
Classy.
We headed out of the fan zone after we ate, and took a lap around the exterior of the stadium for exercise before heading into the stadium.
Stadium entrance
A little while later, we took our seats which were just 10 rows from the field right on third base. None too shabby for the price we paid.
Pregame Conference
Nats flag
Phillies lead off
Although we didn’t have a dog in the fight, we were looking forward to watching the Nationals’ ace Pitcher, Stephen Strasburg, in person as he is one of the up and coming stars of the Major League Baseball. But he ended being a last minute scratch due to injury. However, the game had the potential to be rather good as the Nationals were still in the hunt for a playoff berth at the time, and had just strung together a nice 6 game win streak coming into this game. The Phillies, on the other hand, were already eliminated from playoff contention but are still a scrappy team, a trait I witness firsthand in a 25 inning rain delayed double header a month earlier in Philadelphia.
The Phillies got off to a good start scoring a run in the top of the 1st inning when Carlos Ruiz hit a single to score Cesar Hernandez.
Ross Ohlendorf starting in place of Strasburg
Cesar Hernandez headed to 3rd base before scoring.
Unfortunately for the Phillies, that was their sole highlight of the game. The Nationals then scored 6 unanswered runs, including home runs from Wilson Ramos and Ryan Zimmerman.
Jimmy Rollins
Ryan Zimmerman swinging at the dish
As you probably noticed, I am an avid sports fan. The aspect of sports I find most interesting are the fans. Every team’s fan base has unique personality, which is just as fun to observe as the sporting event at hand. Of course this is much easier to do when you’re not emotionally invested in the game. In this case, Nationals fans are generally proud, passionate, and knowledgeable bunch that make the atmosphere in their home stadium quite fun. At the same time, the crowd seemed a bit subdued despite how well the Nats played that night compared to what you would hear at a Chicago Cubs’ game even on bad night.
I moved to Dallas in 2009, and have since adopted the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex based Texas Rangers as “my” baseball team. I swear that I’m not a band wagoner…I mean it did help that they did make a couple of World Series after I moved there. It’s kind of hard not to get swept up in the excitement… Anyways, in the 2012 season the Rangers ended up swooning at the end of season and had their season only go one extra game. This year was essentially the same story as the Rangers began stinking it up again after Labor Day dropping something like 15 out of 20 games. The scoreboard in right center field reminded my buddies and I what we were “missing out” on back home.
Rangers stinking it up again.
Baseball purists would argue the “timelessness” of the game is what makes baseball so beautiful. I love baseball, and have since I was kid. But there points in the game when it’s just plain boring. Case in point: after the Nationals scored their last runs in the 5th inning the game was sloppy, with mistakes being made by both sides. Nationals management must have sensed our boredom, and saw it fit to grace our section with the presence of the “Nat Pack” promotion team during the 7th inning stretch. They were actually a fun bunch to talk to.
Nats win!!!
After the game, we walked down to Bull Feathers, a bar a few blocks away from Capital Hill, to hang out with my one of my buddies’ cousin and his wife. We had a good time swapping stories and knocking back a (un)healthy amount of Yuenglings before closing down the bar at half past midnight.