Park #17

September 9, 2005: Washington, D.C.
It is blatantly obvious that RFK stadium where the Nationals play was built for football and football alone. The stadium is where the Redskins played for a number of years, but do not play there now. The outside of the stadium just looks like baseball is not welcome there. That being said, the inside of the stadium is still pretty nice; they did a good job at converting it to a baseball field on the inside. I think this shows the differences between the beauty of a baseball stadium and the practicality of a football stadium. I could write a 20 page paper on the differences between the two, but I wont bore you with such drivel.
Anywhoo, so you get into the stadium and all you see is concrete. I mean there is really nothing inside the main concourse to look at, or do, other than get food. There really isn’t much to say about the inside of the stadium at all. However, the field itself was pretty nice. Unlike most other baseball stadiums, RFK had seats that went all the way around; your typical coliseum style. Now, I had seen this at places like McAfee (Oakland) and not been impressed, but RFK (and Toronto as well) really do a much better job. It seemed as though most of the seats in the stadium were a pretty good view of the field. Some of the seats were high up, but it didn’t seem like these high up seats were too far back that you couldn’t see anything. The bullpens for each team were crammed into the corner between both the left field and right field fences, further showing that this field was not built with these things in mind.
One of the advantages of having a baseball field that used to be a football field is that you know that the scoreboard is gonna be nice; RFK’s followed this trend. Also, in right field, they had a giant banner commemorating those have made the “Washington Hall of Fame”, which is Washington players in all the major sports, and even some of the minor ones. This was good because it was the only indicator that showed any remembrance of Washington’s former baseball franchise, the Washington Senators.
As for the game, the Nationals played the Atlanta Braves, who have been on a tear since the All-Star Break. The Braves got out to a quick lead, and after a three-run homer by Andruw Jones, the Braves were up 6-2. Well, seeing the Yankees lose to the Devil Rays was a great thing a few days earlier, but the next best thing after that is seeing the Braves lose. Well, in the 7th inning (I think) the Nationals got a 6-run rally in which I think the Braves used 4 pitchers. It was great to watch, Bobby Cox was pissed. Those Nationals just kept hitting extra-base hits all over the place. The highlight of this rally was seeing Carlos Baerga, who is apparently playing for the Nationals now. Despite the fact that he has put on quite a few pounds (what we in the business call Bartolo Colon Syndrome, or also C.C. Sabathia Disease), Baerga did get the rally started with a walk. Also, in the ninth, the Nationals brought in their closer Chad Cordero. Now, I hadn’t seen this guy pitch live until now, but this guy is good. For some reason I never saw it when I saw the highlights on TV, but this guy throws a ton of gas, and has a lot of movement. After seeing him throw to the first batter, I looked up and saw that his ERA is 1.30, and after seeing him pitch, I was not surprised in the least. So, the Nationals won 8-6, which was great.
As for food, the polish sausage there was amazing. It was clearly the best one I’ve had (excluding Chicago of course). The cooked it on the grill, but they cooked it long enough that it was really crispy and juicy, definitely worth the 20 minutes I waited in line for it. And of course it had peppers and onions, oh man, I can still taste it. Also, I got nachos, for the sole reason that the nacho stand was called “Nacho Revolution”. I thought this was great, I had to restrain myself from the desire of asking for extra “Cheese Guevara”.
Overall, I’m gonna give RFK stadium a C+. I liked the field itself and I thought the coliseum style was nice, and the food was great, but the stadium itself is clearly nothing special. I know that its temporary and stuff, but oh well.
Well, 17 down, 3 to go.
Next stop Philly.
Laz