Welcome to the New Home of the Washington Nationals
Written: May 07 '05
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Pros: Baseball returns to DC, Lax (or non existent) ushers, the Expos live
Cons: Bland food, obstructed seats, a stadium better suited for football, Where's Youppi!?
The Bottom Line: Baseball returns to DC after a 34 year absence; however, while the Nationals have been competitive in the early part of 2005, RFK is best described as mediocre at best.
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| card05's Full Review: RFK Memorial Stadium |
Having recently returned from an East Coast adventure during which I attended games in Boston, the Bronx, and the District of Columbia, here is my report on the state of baseball in DC.
For those of you keeping score at home, the Washington Nationals are the team formerly known as the Montreal Expos. 34 years after the Washington Senators left DC for the greener pastures of Arlington, Texas, the Expos left Montreal (and their quasi-home of Puerto Rico) and returned to Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium (RFK)for the start of the 2005 season. Located at the corner of Independence Avenue and 22nd Street in Southeast Washington D.C. RFK is easily reachable by Metro.
First, a few random notes I gleaned from time at RFK Stadium: Carlos Baerga and, much more amazingly, Julio Franco still play baseball. Did anybody else get this memo? I had pretty much assumed that Franco (who finished third in the Rookie of the Year Voting . . . IN 1983!) had long since retired.
So how is the baseball experience in D.C.?
Simply, after watching a game in a stadium better suited for football and ill-prepared for the return of baseball after a 34-year absence, I can say the experience is sub-par. For example, at both games the concessions ran out of food. Even when food is available, it is a)overpriced, and b)bland ballpark fare. My recommendation would be to either bring food from home or purchase food from the vendors immediately outside of the stadium (who sell the same food as inside the stadium at at cheaper cost). Expect hotdogs, pizza, and french fries.
Next, there are no radios in the bathrooms nor are there TVs by the concessions. Thus, if you choose to purchase a deliciously salted food product from one of the concession stands, you also choose to miss the game. If RFK is going to sell super-sized souvenir cups, they also need to provide fans with a way of following games during trips to the bathroom.
Other quibbles include a scoreboard that is only viewable from roughly 2/3 of the seats (and some seats are physically behind the scoreboard), and completely baffling to me, a running total of strikeouts by Nationals’ pitchers for the season in lieu of a pitch count or other far more meaningful stats.
Minor problems? Certainly. Improvements that could make the baseball experience better? Absolutely.
Tickets range from $7 for Outfield Upper Reserve tickets to $45 for Infield Box Seats. 5 tiers of seats exist. Luckily, with the inclement DC weather, 60% of the seats are under an overhang. Should it rain, there is ample opportunity to remain dry.
Next complaint: What happened to Youppi!? (Yopupi! the beloved orange mascot during the Expo's days in Montreal is no longer associated with baseball. However, there is a rumor that the Montreal Canadiens might purchase his rights).
Apparently D.C. has some sort of creative impediment, as the Nationals are now the third team in D.C. that has an eagle (although honestly, Screech the “eagle” is really a pigeon in disguise) as a mascot. Despite my constant calls to bring back Youppi! I was largely ignored by the RFK crowd which apparently would rather take photos with a mascot born out of an egg on Opening Day than lobby for the return of the beloved Youppi! (Note: the ! in Youppi! is a necessary part of the mascot’s name and exhibits his excitable nature.)
Finally, much like every other MLB park (or at least the parks that I’ve been to), RFK prominently features ear-splitting music during every possible downtime. Granted, this is really a complaint that I could lobby against every Major League team, and I love appropriate music for player introductions (like Tejada and his Salsa music), but it’s certainly not necessary to inundate fans with music between innings.
So what does D.C. do right?
While some might complain that the lack of ushers around RFK demonstrates a city unprepared for the return of baseball, I definitely viewed the lack of personnel as positive. Instead of being forced to remain in my allotted seats by Gestapo like ushers (Oakland), the lack of ushers meant that any seat that remained unoccupied by the third inning was a seat for the taking. The bottom line is this: if you’re going to miss the first two innings of the game, you don’t deserve your seat.
Thus, come the bottom of the third, my $7 tickets (situated behind the scoreboard in the upper deck of RFK) magically transformed into $50 box seats tickets. Did I care that Cristian Guzman was committing two-run throwing errors in the top of the 9th to lose games for the Nationals? No. Somehow I had reached baseball equilibrium — grossly overpaying for the Nationals’ overtly bland ballpark food, while grossly underpaying for box seats.
For those traveling to RFK, a metro station is conveniently located about 1/2 mile from the stadium. Public transportation remains the best travel option, although it also appeared that ample parking (10,000 sports) directly on stadium grounds is available.
In 2009 (roughly) a new 41,000 seat ballpark is to be completed along the Anacostia River.
Recommended:
Yes
Parking Availability: Busy But Manageable
Seat Location: Lower Level
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Epinions.com ID:
card05
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Member: Neil Davis
Location: Los Altos, CA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
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