John Kidde Writes

With the World Series in full swing and my Dodgers participating again this year, I figured it was time to add another stadium visit to my series.

Enter, Nationals Park.

I am going to start this piece by saying that Washington, D.C., should not have this team. This team was stolen from the good people of Montreal. This relocation to the Nation’s Capital is on par with moving the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City and becoming the Thunder, the Baltimore Colts to Indianapolis, and the Raiders leaving Oakland for Las Vegas. While we’re at it, FJF and the Athletics as well, for good measure.

Was anyone in the D.C. metro area really clamoring for a baseball team? The Orioles still exist. I went there in 1999 with my dad and remember seeing Cal Ripken Jr. and Mike Mussina. I remember that because they had an animated moose on the scoreboard when he was pitching.

Relocation blows for professional North American sports.

Back to actual baseball!

My work had me staying at a hotel near the National Mall. If you have never been to the National Mall, it is a must-see. Numerous monuments and museums nearby can satisfy any intellectual itch you may have. You can avoid the White House, though.

Looking at my route to the stadium, I had a couple of options. I could take the metro, a cab, a rideshare, or scoot there. I was not confident riding a scooter around D.C. drivers, so I opted to take the metro. I do love trains.

After purchasing my transit pass, I found the correct line and began my journey in earnest. There were transit police stationed at the stop, guiding guests to the ballpark. The Phillies were in town, so numerous people were wearing Harper and Turner jerseys from both teams. If you are unaware, Bryce Harper played for the Nationals (even won an MVP in 2015) and then left them to play for the Phillies in 2019. The Nationals would win the 2019 World Series without him. Trea Turner overlapped with Harper, but he won a World Series and was then traded to my Dodgers a few years later. Trea would rejoin Harper after the 2022 season in Philadelphia, where the two have been since. There were a few boos and jeers mixed with claps and cheers for both players throughout the game.

First impressions were that it is a nice stadium, albeit a little bland. The views from the stadium are nice, but it doesn’t feel particularly unique.

I took a walk around the whole place and found my favorite thing: bobbleheads. They have a little museum of Nationals bobbleheads throughout the years. I liked it. It’s a cute feature for the park.

If there’s one thing I have heard my entire life as a baseball fan, it’s that Dodgers fans show up late. People will make jokes about the traffic (which is true!) and how people will always show up late to games. After attending this one Nats game, I don’t want to hear any more about my team’s fans showing up late. I won’t stand for it!

The above photo was taken during the National Anthem. There are many empty seats yet to be filled. Now, granted, the Nats were bad this year. OK, bad might be too nice. They were awful. They would finish the season at 66-96 and last in their division. At this point in the season, they were 49-72 while the Phillies were 69-52. So, the sparsely populated game could be excused to some degree. Then I was told that this is commonplace for D.C. fans.

My partner used to live in The District and told me that Nats fans are notorious for this.

Here I am at First Pitch with nearly the entire section to myself. People would trickle in as the game went on, but I found it alarming that I was the only person in my row and one of three in my section. I guess I am spoiled by having a team that fields a decent product. This is another case of an owner not doing enough to field a competitive team.

But back to the game at hand!

It was a fun back-and-forth affair with the Nats eventually holding on for the win. The highlight of the game was the Racing Presidents. I have mentioned before how much I love mascots, and this ballpark experience had a different kind of mascot race. They trot out past Presidents of the United States of America (not the band), and they race along the perimeter of the field.

The participants are: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. I was able to snag a photo of Teddy during my initial walk around the stadium (see above). During this race, Martha Washington appeared like it was a WWE event, swung a folding chair at the other President’s face, knocking them out, and finished hand in hand with her husband. The stadium erupted in cheers, and so did I.

It was an overall decent experience. It’s an easy stadium to get to, so I could see myself coming back in the future. The real headache came as everyone was leaving, and the line to enter the metro station was so backed up and overcrowded that I wasn’t sure I’d ever make it through.

Spoiler alert, I did.