Erica and I just got back from the exhibition game at RFK. The Nats fell
4 – 3 (
nationals.com) to the hated Mets, but in the end, it did not count, so who cares? The important thing is that one of the teams has Washington in its name and will be playing there again.
So, what did I take from this first game? Some observations:
The walk to RFK from Stadium-Armory Metro seems shorter when there are lots of people doing it.
The corridors at RFK are pretty narrow — probably about half of as wide as the new place will have
The $7 seats in the 500 section of leftfield aren’t bad for the money. The biggest drawback is you cannot hear the announcements or see the corner.
The food service has lots of room for improvement in the area of efficiency. Lines were long and staff was slow. It does not look like there are any “all-in-one” stands either, so multiple stops are probably required for getting more than one kind of food or beverage. We missed two innings getting hot dogs.
The Dominic’s of New York hot dogs are tasty.
Like MCI Center, the chicken fingers n’ fries basket is probably the best deal. Even better, they are seventy-five cents cheaper at RFK than MCI.
Tony Williams walked about half way to homeplate to throw out the first pitch.
The crowd was kind of quiet — not many cheers
25,000 tickets were sold, but not that many made it.
Ryan Church crushed a home run to right, the only scoring of the day for the home team.
The Nats looked a little sloppy. Vinny Castilla got booed after not running out a ground ball that was fielded poorly. He deserved it.
The TVs on the concourse were not hocked up. I imagine this will be corrected in time for Opening Day. If not, some radios ought to brought in, we had no idea what was going on while on the concourse.
Speaking of TV, the video board did not show any replays. Perhaps this is because the game was not televised.
Ian Desmond got a hit in the ninth to keep a would-be rally going. I wonder how long he will stay at single-A.
Church likely to miss season opener – nationals.com
Today’s star is already hurt. D’oh!
RFK earns initial praise – nationals.com
Nationals give new home high marks
I don’t know if “high marks” was quite what they gave it, but they seem to think it is good enough.
More from nationals.com: Notes: Nationals get first look at RFK
Fans brave elements to see Nationals – nationals.com
It was not terribly pleasant out there, but hey, it was worth it. I wore thermal shirt and was fine, except for my gloveless hands.
This article and the one above it have a pretty familiar byline to Penn State fans.
