6/14/2011- National's Stadium (Nat's)

Cardinals vs. Nationals, 7:05pm start

There's something I need to say before I start the post about the stadium.  If you ever feel the desire to drive to the National's Stadium, don't.  I say again, DO NOT.  The only way to get there is to charter a helicopter and drop in.  We started our day at the National Zoo (which is gorgeous, but there's very little parking- it was the theme of the day).  We then hopped over to the stadium, giving ourselves 2 hours to do the 6.5 mile drive.  Our first mistake was driving, our second mistake was leaving the zoo around 5pm and heading straight for downtown DC.  Yeah, the worst drivers in the world+ rush hour+ DC+ not knowing exactly where we were going meant it took us an hour and a half to get to the stadium.  Then it was time to find parking.  If you decide to not heed my warning, then bring cash!  Parking isn't *too* expensive, but all lots are cash only.  We had no cash.  When we finally found a card lot, grabbed our stuff and ran to the stadium, we had just missed the 2-run home run by Pujols, still hadn't eaten, had had our first real snapping fight of our marriage and were just plain pissed off.

I'm going to try to not let that color our experience of the stadium, because it's actually a really gorgeous place:

(Note Dan in my Matheny jersey- this is why I love him)

(You can see the Capital Building under the lights)

As you can see, it's a newer stadium, but their "park mall" seems to have more large restaurants than places to raffle off cars or entertain your kids for hours.  We didn't have a lot of time to see it, since we got there at the bottom of the 1st (see above), but what I saw, I liked.  Because it's a newer stadium, park prices were a little outrageous.  Our seats, up just shy of nose bleed, were originally $28 (and that was about the cheapest you could get).  Thankfully, Dan found tickets on Stub Hub for way cheaper (side note, if you go to events a lot and haven't heard of Stub Hub, hear of it!  It's where people sell their season tickets for games they can't go to.  It's cheap and safe.).  The great thing is that the stadium designers realized that tickets were going to be expensive, and made sure that even the nose bleed seats were great.  Dan and I commented several times about just how good our seats were.

My only real complaint about the stadium (aside from it's location...) was the jumbotron.  Now, I love having all the info about everything, but I also kind of like having to search for it.  Most stadiums have a separate screen for things like pitch speed, or pitcher stats.  Not here- everything was on one screen:

If you can't read that, it has (from the bottom up): the game score (with inning breakdowns, hits, runs, and errors), pitch count, pitch speed, the scoring of each play, the pitcher stats, the batter stats, the full lineup of each team (with a red line to show you who is up), a picture of the batter and his in-game stats. All of this, surrounded by 4 ads, lights, and a clock.  Whew.  It was a LOT to look through to find what you wanted.  But if my only real complaint is that they needed more than 1 jumbotron, well, you're doing pretty well.

And how were the fans, you might ask?  I for sure repeat my statement that Cards fans are some of the best in baseball.  They were there in force!  The stadium was probably 75% full, and Cards fans took up almost half of that.  We even had people saying "Go Cards" at the zoo in the morning!  Now to the Nats fans.  I'm so conflicted about this!  During the whole game, we noted how much we liked the fans- they cheered after every out, every strike, every decent at-bat, every everything.  The guy in front of us was loud and obnoxious, but not to us- that was just how he was.  The only real comment that we got directed at us was a lady kind of tipping her hat to something I said (they decided to walk Pujols in his 2nd at-bat, to much boo-ing of the Cards fans.  I commented with sarcasm that it's not like he'd done anything to warrant them walking him.  haha).  They were very into their team and very supportive, but were just great sports about it.  That is, until we left the stadium.  The Cardinals, one of the best teams in baseball at this point, lost.  And they lost to a team that is one of the worst in baseball at this point.  Understandably, the Nats fans were thrilled.  But as we walked back down from the stratosphere, we had the misfortune of walking right in front of 4 very drunk frat-type boys who decided they'd talk to each other about us.  I did pretty well about holding my tongue... until about half way down.  It's a shame that 4 drunk idiots who weren't even wearing Nats gear and had clearly come straight form working at Douchebag, Inc. completely tainted our view of Nats fans.  *sigh*  Oh well.

Overall, it was a very nice park.  It wasn't quite a great of an experience as Camden Yards, but I for sure enjoyed it more than Wrigley and US Cellular (which we've been to, but before this project started, so I'm not counting it).

Here's the sign for foul balls.  Not nearly as adorable or creative as the one at Camden Yards.

Here's the current pennant collection!  You may be wondering why the Nationals one is different.  Well, they didn't sell anything but this at the stand that was open after the game, and you apparently can't get these online!  So that's what we have.  It was only $3 and I can color on it if I feel so inclined, so maybe not such a loss.  Just would have been nice to find a matching one that had a pic of the ballpark on it.