First Ladies of Baseball

After the Nat’s exhibition game against the Red Sox, the outfield was turned into a softball field to showcase the Wounded Warrior Amputee team. They played against an assortment of DC celebrities (a mix of radio and tv personalities, former pro athletes, and politicians).

The game was set up like any other Nats game – the color guard brought out the flag, First Ladies favorite DC Washington sang the national anthem, the Nats pack threw t-shirts into the crowd, Clint interviewed players, and the Presidents even got in a race (Teddy still couldn’t win).

The biggest difference (other than the odd angle of the field and the giant yellow balls) was that the crowd was NOT cheering for the hometown team. There was a lot of good-natured heckling of the DC celebs, and everyone was supporting the amputees. Overall, everyone was having a great time – on and off the field. Whether diving for balls, sliding into bases, or making a fool of themselves, there was a smile on everyone’s faces.

And don’t think that being an amputee slowed any of these guys down. In fact, they were probably in better shape than half of the team they were playing against. It was really cool to see the variety of prosthetic limbs available too. Technology is amazing, and these guys are taking as much advantage of it as they can.

If the team comes to your area (they travel around the country), I highly recommend going out to watch them play. Details on upcoming events and the players themselves can be found on their website.

More pictures from this game are here.

Hi loyal Nats fans! Your First Ladies are both returning from out-of-time-zone trips and looking forward to the return of baseball to DC.

What’s not to love about spring in the South? The flowers are blooming, the breezes are soft, and soon (tomorrow!) the wonderful sounds of bats connecting with balls will fill the air.

We’re both looking forward to renewing old acquaintances and starting up new friendships this year. Ashley will be at the game tomorrow, and both Maggie and Ashley will be at the home opener next week. In between we’ll let you know what our preseason predictions are and get back into the swing of blogging too.

We can’t wait to see you at the ballpark!

Finally, a perfect night of baseball. The weather was actually pleasant (a nice breeze kept things from getting too sticky), the game was quick, and the Nats’ bats woke up. Since I’ll be at another game tomorrow with Maggie, I thought I would share a few of the best pictures from tonight’s game with you right now:

Morse and Lannan are ready to play.

So are Desmond and Espinosa.

Desmond watches from the on-deck circle.

Werth breaks for 3rd after the ball is overthrown trying to stop him from stealing 2nd (he goes on to score the first run).

Hey, beer man!

3 runners on base…

… and Ankiel hits a grand slam!

These guys were really into the game.

Finally, one last picture of Werth (because I think it will make you smile).

It really was a fabulous game. Drew took even more pictures, so hopefully I can convince him to upload the best ones tomorrow. The rest of mine are here.

With the Nats out of town, you would think Half Street would be fairly empty on a Friday night, right? Well, for one Friday each month, you would be wrong. Both of the First Ladies ventured downtown this evening to check out Truckeroo.

The basic premise is simple – the lot next to Das Bullpen is opened up to a selection of DC’s finest food trucks. We all show up to eat, drink beer, and enjoy a summer evening with friends. Since neither Maggie nor Ashley works in the District, we don’t often have a chance to try any of the food trucks. We were excited to give them a taste!

Ashley can’t say no to grilled cheese, so she grabbed dinner here. Maggie decided to go for some goat cheese mac & cheese at CapMac. Both were quite delicious.

We got there around 5 and encountered almost no lines. However, by the time we were heading out a few hours later, folks were waiting at the entrance and two or three of the trucks. Considering how many people were there, we all agreed that this wasn’t bad at all.

Bottom line? Come early, bring cash, and bring friends to share your food with. We both had a great evening and will definitely try to come back next month.

See more pictures of food trucks here.

This was not one of the better games of the year. The weather was hot & humid and the Nats were definitely not on their A-game.

Ashley & Drew decided to use one of their Stars & Stripes club passes, so they watched the game from the air-conditioned bar in the club level. As you can see, there was a rail in between them and the game, but being out of the sun trumped everything else. Having an obstructed view of the infield was interesting, because it made everything going on in the outfield more visible. The only real downside was not being able to see the batters.

We could show you a picture of Jason Marquis pitching, but he didn’t do much of that during the 1.5 inning he was on the mound. After giving up 6 runs, he was yanked in favor of Colin Balester.

And really, there’s not much else game-worthy to talk about. Ashley & Drew actually headed home at the top of the 6th because it was so hard to watch. Some other items of interest:

- The National Anthem was played by Jim Doepke, a trumpeter who is on a mission to play at every MLB stadium. Due to location, Ashley didn’t get any good pictures, but you can read more about Mr. Doepke here: http://www.anthemacrossamerica.org/AnthemAcrossAmerica.htm

- Tyler Clippard was announced as the Nats All-Star player. Congrats!

- There’s still a chance to get one more National to the All-Star game – click here to vote Michael Morse in.

- Finally, Abe dug deep to sweep past the Racing Pierogies and take another victory in the President’s Race.

(full album from this game can be seen here)

Ahh, spring… that glorious time of year when our thoughts turn to cherry trees and balmy breezes. Wait? High of 45 and 50% change of rain on Opening Day?

If you’re anything like the First Ladies, the thrill of baseball outweighs the wintry weather, but we’d still like to sweeten the pot and give you an extra incentive to have fun at the game tomorrow. We put our heads together and came up with Opening Day Bingo! We’ve provided a link below to four .pdf files, which contain five bingo cards each. Pick a random card and bring it with you to the game. We’ll all play along and hope to win! If you’re on Twitter, use #natsbingo to let us know if you’ve crossed off any squares. Non-twitter folks can bring extra cards and share with their neighbors. If you’re not able to make it to the park tomorrow, feel free to play along on TV!

http://www.box.net/shared/hph31e4b5g

See you at the ballgame!