A Fresh Look (Part II)

So I mentioned yesterday that I would take a new look at Nationals Park on my second trip there. J & I went there last night and got pretty good seats, although even the discounted StubHub season-ticket holder seats for $55 a piece weren't all that good (up the third-base line, 50 feet past the bag and in the double-letters -- FF), so there's a strike against the park.

The night did start off well. The park is 100 yards from the Metro station, which is nice in that we didn't have to pay for parking (although, if we did want to park there, there's only 2,000-some spots in the garage -- can't blame the Nats for that, though, it's the city's fault). Also, the entrance is wide with a bunch of gates, so getting in is quick, and the entrance opens up into a nice concourse in center field that displays the park well. Also, the Nats give out free (small) programs, which is really nice.

Unfortunately, later on we got poured on in the sixth or seventh inning, which resulted in a 63-minute rain delay. J&I didn't feel like waiting out the delay (it was raining ridiculously hard), so we jetted. The Os (notice I didn't use an apostrophe there) were up 9-0 at the time. The Birds ended up winning, 9-1. The complete game recap can be found here.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to check out the out-of-town scoreboard. Well, that was a HUGE disappointment. First off, once we got to our seats, there was no out-of-town scoreboard to be seen. The Nats use a videoboard as the out-of-town scoreboard (first mistake), so the scores aren't shown until the game started. Now, maybe it's because the Nats are in dead last, so the other games don't matter to them, but as a fan of an out-of-town team, I want to see the scores. The Yankees were playing the Mets in a 4 p.m. start, so the final few outs of the game were coming up, and it ended up being a tight game. I want to know the score. I don't want to see advertisements for the "Battle of the Beltways." I KNOW that I'm at the Battle of the Beltways -- I bought the darn tickets. Huge strike one.

Even worse, the scores would go away between innings. Isn't that when the scores should be up? If I'm watching the game, wouldn't it make sense that in between innings I would pay attention to the out-of-town scores? Not to the Nationals. They would put up lame ads and random flashes of Nationals logos. I hate you, Nats.

The second strike was the view. Rather, the lack of a view. We're in one of the most beautiful and powerful cities in the world, and the view in centerfield is of some lame future apartment buildings? C'mon! Supposedly, there are two or three sections in the park in which people can see the Capitol and the Washington Monument. I wasn't in any of those sections. The designers of the park would've been better off turning the park around and giving us a view of the dirty Anacostia River and the "developing" shoreline. Either way, all you can see from the park is "development." Strike two.

One of the most annoying things about the stadium was the vantage point. As you can see from the photo to the right, the majority of the game we saw people. People walking down the aisle to their seats or vendors, mind you. Now, I don't mind people walking to their seats, as long as they don't STOP and STAND RIGHT IN YOUR VIEW OF THE GAME. What's worse, the VENDORS were doing it, too. Now, I know that those guys lug around those heavy containers of beer, but please don't take your break in my sightline of the game. Take it up on the concourse, where you're not in the way of the game. It really ruined the view, because the angle we were at was right in line with home plate & the batter. Shouldn't the ushers be telling people to wait until between play for people to go to their seats? Shouldn't vendors know better than to stop in the aisles right in front of people? Keep in mind that these seats are $75 if you walk up and buy them on game day. Strike three.

The Nats did make an effort to introduce a bit of history to the ballpark. On the concourse on the third-base side, near our seats, they had several wall postings with the history of baseball in DC. Big props to the Nats for including Negro League teams in these histories, particularly of Josh Gibson (arguably the greatest ballplayer of all time, and not arguably the greatest player to never have played in MLB). The Nats also put up odes to Hall-of-Famers on the cylindrical posts around the concourse. I'm torn about these -- while it's a nice thing for history (especially the Ty Cobb one), they weren't DC players. Kind of reminds you that baseball in Washington has sucked for a really long time. In addition, the wall posters up were kinda like something a high school kid would make for a science fair project. Hopefully the Nats will expand this section. Also, hopefully someday the Nats will have a player worthy of a statue out front of the park (maybe Walter Johnson? He's gotta be worthy of it, right?)

All in all, FAIL. Fail for the designers and the park. I still feel the same way about the stadium, only stronger now. The Nats had a big chance to make this an awesome ballpark, and they didn't do it. What a waste.

An aside: You'll notice in the photo to the left. First off, dude's wearing a t-shirt with fake jewels on it. And I'm not even the one that noticed this. Second, guy was about 25-30, and as you can see from the pic, he's sporting a glove. No, no, no, no, no, no, no!!!!!! Tooooooo old! Any male over the age of 13 -- unless they have their children with them -- should NOT, under any circumstance, bring a glove to the game. These are the rules -- if you're reading this, please follow them. (Credit to E for delineating these rules)