I swear, Baltimore, it was nothing personal. You didn’t have baseball that day, that’s all. I wasn’t cheating on you, Orioles. Or you, Camden Yards. You see, there was baseball to be seen in the area, and it was just in D.C. Forgive me?
With Grant driving, he, Kelly and I went to the Metro station in Greenbelt and boarded yet another dreadful method of public transportation. At about 4, we arrived outside the ugly Nationals Park.
Maybe I’m just spoiled by Camden Yards, but Nats Park is really bland. NFL stadium-like. It has no quirks, no homey feeling. It’s just there, concrete and steel. Yuck.
But one good thing about the stadium is that it opens 2.5 hours before game time, not two hours like in Baltimore. Also nice: the person who checks bags outside the gates. She had a conversation with us. Imagine that. One weird thing, though: they check under your hat before letting you in.
Anyway, we went on in when it was 4:30, and there was nothing going on.
At about quarter of, the Nationals started to take batting practice. For the most part, it sucked. It took a good 20 minutes before any ball was hit into the seats.
In all honesty, batting practice was BORING. Must be a National League thing.
I did have a ball hit to me in the left field seats that I moved to my left for. I cut through an open row and leaped to try to make the catch. Unfortunately, I mistimed my jump and the ball tipped off my glove and went underneath the feet of a girl sitting in the row behind me.
It was a while before I even had another opportunity. But, I was trying to do what I could to get at least one ball on the day. To Kelly’s dismay, I kept shifting over from the left field seats, to the red seats in center and also to right field. I had an opportunity in the red seats when Jayson Werth was batting, but I ended up running into a railing and not being able to get to it. Why can’t you have the exact same dimensions as Camden Yards, Nat’s Park?
Also while in the red seats, I saw this in the gap in front of the first row.
Man, I wish they allowed ball retrievers there.
With the Cardinals batting, I settled in left field for the majority of their hitters.
Since the outfield seating areas are so compact at Nat’s Park, they fill up quickly. Look what I had to deal with in left:
See Grant in the orange hat, perfectly aligned in the center of those two guys? At that point he had already grabbed two baseballs.
Mid-way through a round, a ball was hit deep and was clearly going to make out (one of the few that did on the day). Initially, I was not going to make a move for it, but I changed my mind when I realized I had yet to catch a ball on the day.
I navigated through that open row behind that guy in the Yankees jacket and went across into the other section. The ball landed over my head, but took a ricochet right to me as I was running up the stairs.
A little while after that, Yadier Molina was in the cage for the Cardinals, and he was taking some promising swings.
Check out this photo:
You see those kids in the front row right in front me? They ended up leaving, opening up the wall. Not even a minute after they walked by, Molina sent a liner right to the front row. Since I was standing on the steps, I quickly ran down them, got to the wall, and reached forward to make the clean catch.
When I made the grab, the guy in the red hat and black North Face in the photo above tried to do the same thing with his non-glove hand. Instead of catching the ball (obviously) he grabbed my wrist.
To be fair, I did kind of reach in front of him to make that grab, but he wasn’t going to catch it anyway. And who knows if someone would have gotten hurt by it?
When I realized I had reached in front of him, I looked next to him to see if he had a kid there with him. He did, and before even returning to my spot on the stairs, I gave the kid the ball.
Not long after that, BP ended, and the three of us went to our seats in section 222, the upper deck down the first base line. Here was our view:
And here is our view with the lone baseball I kept from the day:
It was kinda chilly up that high, and also because the Potomac was to our back:
Ugly, isn’t it?
With the chilliness getting to Grant, he decided the top of the section was a good place for him to put on his sweatpants over top of his shorts.
Kelly sniped him. You’re welcome, Grant.
My favorite part about Nationals Park? I can see the field while I wait for Kelly to come out of the bathroom:
Kelly also kept partial-score for the first time. She was really excited about it and sent me the photo when I asked her to send the other game pictures from the game. I guess that means I should put it in here:
Of course, I refused to cheer for the Nationals, because why would anyone want do that? But, I did cheer for Nate McLouth, because why would anyone not do that?
Admittedly, I cheered when the Nats broke the tie in the 7th inning, because no one wants to be stuck in D.C. for extra innings.
How many days until the Orioles come home?
Season Stats:
9 Games
30 balls
– 16 hit
– 7 ball retrieved
– 5 thrown
– 2 found
2014 Game Home Runs: 1
Colby Rasmus – #101 in career – 4/13/14
