Cubs - Nationals

After working through the Washington Metro System and taking time to swim, we headed to Nationals Park and a game between the Cubs and Nats. On the streets around our hotel we found many Cub fans in town as well as in our hotel elevator where we ran into people from Carlisle and Williamsburg, Iowa.

Our originating spot on the Metro is Metro Center, just steps from the hotel. Colin and Dana take the escalator down to the subway.

As in Chicago, fans head to the ballpark by train. However the city of Washington was not prepared for the mass of people from the midwest. We were at least 8 deep an hour away from first pitch. Once on the Metro, it was impossible to move as people jammed into the cars, whether or not there was room.

Once to the ballpark, it was a three block walk to our entrance.

Screech, the mascot for the Nationals stolls around the warning track throwing out t-shirts.

Trying to copy the popularity of the Racing Sausages in Milwaukee, Washington boast the running of the Presidents in the middle of the fourth inning. This is a weak immitation. The race started from behind the centerfield fence, along the right field corner and ended before reaching the first base bag. It was over before we knew it started.

While Nationals Park is as nice as many of the other newer ballparks, Washington DC doesn't have the fans, staff, team or personnel to have a Major League Team. It was hard to find a beer vendor past the second inning, lines were long at the concession stands, and they ran out of popcorn by the sixth inning. Fans around us thought it was funny a player would be named Milton Bradley, as if this was a new player into the league, not a multi-team veteran. One also thought is was a rarity that a team would have an Asian-born player (Kosuke Fukodome). On today's broadcast, the announcers summed it up as many fans had told him that it didn't matter what the Nationals record was (currently worst in MLB), but they were happy to have baseball in the nationa's capital.

As the sun sets, Colin and Dana sit back and watch the game.

On our way out of the ballpark, Colin and I stopped for one last picture.

Just outside the ballpark is a village set up for entertainment as fans walk to their mode of transportation. This area has plans for restaurants, shops and bars. But after 18 months that the ballpark has been here, there doesn't appear to be much progress towards that.

Although the game featured the worst in MLB, it was an entertaining game with loud ovations for the visiting Cubbies. With this game I have now seen every National League team play in person.