Ashley’s down in Atlanta for the week, so she took her brother to Turner Field to watch the Nats take out the Braves. It was a brutal summer day (official game temp was 101), but with lots of water, ice cream, and a win, the day turned out to be fun.

It’s hard to come into another stadium and be the lone fan cheering for your team. Ashley’s done it before in college, but it’s different when you grew up with the home team and have become a traitor (according to the brother). The tomahawk chop was still going strong, and the Braves uniforms haven’t changed in years. However, Ashley stuck to her guns and cheered when the rest of the crowd booed.

There were a lot of things that made this game great, but what really stuck out to me was how the overall game experience was so much better than going to a game at Nationals Park. Let’s go through a few of them:

1) Parking – it took us less than 30 minutes to get door to door. The Braves stadium is about 3 miles further away from home than Nats Park, but parking is available right at the stadium and there wasn’t crazy traffic. Yes, we went on a Sunday afternoon during a holiday week, but traffic has been so bad in DC on a weekend that we’ve turned around before. Parking was $10 in advance (plus fees) or $15 in cash.

2) Seating – the seats at Turner Field are slightly steeper, which means that you’re closer to the field. We sat in the 200s, which would be like an upper 100s seat. However, because of the way the seats were situated, I felt like we had a better angle on the field. Turner field holds about 49,000 (vs 41,000 for the Nats), but it didn’t feel like the stadium was bigger. Also, our seats were in the shade the entire game (for a 1:35 start).

3) Concessions – the food seemed of better quality (including a lot of local restaurants) and was cheaper. My brother got basic chicken tenders, which were delicious (even on a HOT day) and only cost $7. I grabbed a small cup of ice cream – $3. And my small had two scoops crammed into it. It was also Mayfield, which elevates it to a whole other level.

4) Season Ticket Holder (STH) Perks – wow, this really showed a difference in the two parks. The Braves had a lounge area set aside for STHs, and all STHs get 33% off concessions all year. It made me want to snap up a season pack.

5) Music – when visiting batters step up to the plate, the Braves organist tries to play something special for them. On Sunday we got “Send in the Clowns” for Harper, OUT spelled out in morse code for Morse, and “Never Gonna Give you Up” (by Rick Astley) for Ankiel. If you ever make it to a game in Atlanta (or are watching on TV), you can follow @bravesorganist on Twitter to give suggestions or find out what he’s thinking for our boys.

6) The Big Screen – in between innings, the music and videos definitely had a Southern flare. I had forgotten just how much I like country music in fact. The best thing they did though was show a montage of clips from a game last year where the Braves rallied back from 4 under to tie, and ultimately win, the game. “We did it before, and we can do it again…” was the basic theme, and then led into the tomahawk chop. I think that’s a great way to motivate the fans.

Overall, the game was one of the more fun, relaxed baseball outings I’ve had in a while. I didn’t realize how much Nats games actually stress me out. Dear Nationals, please take a look at this and try to find ways to make your game experience better. I felt like I was there to watch baseball, not there to make money for the owners. Even if the Braves had won, I still would have had a great day.

(Just to be fair, the one thing the Nats do better is cameras. I can bring an 8 inch lens to Nationals Park, but only a 5 inch lens to Turner Field. Hence, no awesome telephoto pics this time.)

Full album is here.

vs Braves

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 1-1

Unfortunately, the Nats had to deal with another rain out, but we’ll get to see this game played on July 21st (and Ashley and I may be there)!  So we’ll just say for now that the Nats are living up to expectations.  A half point each…since we don’t know if we would have been right or not.

vs Mets

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 2-1

What can we say?  Psychics-R-Us.  And the Nats?  Kicking butts and taking names. 1 point apiece!

@ Red Sox

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 3-0

This was a turning point.  The Nationals showed that they could really hold their own and thrive against a team that has been quite strong in the recent past.  And it didn’t hurt to give a little payback for the final pre-season game in April.  0 points…not that we’re sad about being wrong.

@ Blue Jays

Drew: 1-2
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 3-0

If you don’t believe that Boston was the turning point, look to this set of games.  Are the Nats for real?  That’s a clown question, bro.  Another 0 points apiece, for being wrong in the best way possible.

vs Yankees

Drew: 1-2
Maggie: 2-1
Actual: 0-3

We’d said earlier in our predictions that the Nats were going to lose sometime…it just happened to be in the form of being swept by the Bronx Bombers after sweeping two other AL East opponents.  0 points.  It could be worse though.

vs Rays

Drew: 1-2
Maggie: 1-2
Actual: 2-1

After a tough series against the Yanks, the Nats could have folded.  Instead they came back tough against the Rays to prove that they still had IT and could run with the big boys.  0 points for flipped standings.

@ Orioles

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 0-3
Actual: 1-2

We were both wrong.  Drew was optimistic, I was pessimistic.  The Nats gave us halfway in between.  Not being swept against a surging team?  Pretty good.    0 points awarded.

@ Rockies

Drew: 4-0
Maggie: 3-1
Actual: 2-2

This was a close one.  For the two games they lost, things were close – especially the last game.  So while Drew wasn’t going to be right, it looks like I was a lot closer than I thought.  0 points for the split decision.

@ Braves

Drew: 2-1
Maggie: 1-2
Actual: 2-1

Gotta hand this one to Drew.  The Nats seem to have the Braves’ number this season.  Good stuff.  1 point to Drew!

Total Record

Drew: 17-11
Maggie: 15-13
Actual: 16-11

Drew was a bit closer on this one thanks to the missing game, which gave him the correct losing record.  And he wins this month overall, with a score of 2.5 points to my 1.5.  We were both fairly wrong about this month…but in the best way possible!

Look back tomorrow for the first part of our July prediction post, and then keep checking back through the rest of the week when Ashley and I go through a backlog of old games we haven’t posted about!

I didn’t think I was going to make it to the Yankees series.  But I had a little luck on my side – Ashley and her husband were out of town for a wedding, and my brother was their dog sitter.  As part of his payment, he received baseball tickets, so I obviously begged to be his date for the game.  Being a generous young man, my brother acquiesced.  How nice!

Of course, after that game, maybe I didn’t want to see the Yankees.  And no – it wasn’t because I was going to see Gio again.  It was because the Nationals played some piss-poor baseball defense.  They’d played so well in Boston and Toronto, sweeping both of those teams, but the team that showed up in Washington this past Friday was not the same team.  Maybe it was the toll of playing hard to close things out for 6 games, or maybe they’d had too good a time at the ZiMS benefit the night before.  Whatever the reason this past weekend was not great.

Things were decently close for 6 innings.  But then after allowing 1 runner to reach at the top of the 7th, Gio was pulled in favor of the recently-returned-from-the-DL Brad Lidge.  Lidge did very little of use – he walked 2, and allowed a single that put the Yanks up by 2.  In 1/3 of an inning, he allowed as many earned runs as Gonzalez did in the previous 6 innings.  CRAZY.  Everyone sitting around me complained, and when I heard later in the weekend that Lidge had been DFA’d, I was not surprised.

I wish that this post were the kind where you know that our team won the next game, so there was no reason to be sad.  But as of the writing, the Nats have not won since.  They’re still more than 10 games over 500, but considering how well they’ve been doing, and how they’ve got guys back in the lineup, you’d hope they’d do better.  How many times can I use the word “they” or a contraction thereof in a sentence?  Apparently 4.

ANYWAYS.  Nationals.  Baseball.  It’s June 20.  It’s officially summer.  Enjoy the good baseball times, be sure to drink lots of water, and put on your sunscreen, or you might end up like this lobster which tackled Teddy!

Full photo set here.

Last Friday night was a rainout.  Stephen Strasburg was supposed to pitch, so for whatever reason, they decided to just shift his start to Saturday instead of skipping him in the lineup and having Gio Gonzalez pitch like he was supposed to.  This was VERY exciting for me.  I’ve had the “luck” this year of so far only seeing two of the Nationals – Gio and Edwin Jackson.  They’re both fantastic pitchers, and I’ve really enjoyed the games I’ve been to, but there have been 4 other guys taking the mound in the first inning, and I wanted to see someone else.  Seeing Strasburg would be a cherry on that cake.  I called Ashley, invited her to come with me, and said I’d pick her up at 2:30, with the expectation that we’d park my car at 3 or 3:15, get to the ballpark by 3:30, and buy ourselves some $5 beers before heading up to my seats.  This was not to be.  Traffic along the 270-spur and the beltway delayed my arrival to Ashley’s house until 3:10.  We got on US-50 (because every other route into the city was clogged) and made our way towards 395…only to be greeted with standstill traffic when we reached that on-ramp.  We looked at traffic on Google Maps, listened to WTOP, and tried to make a detour through Arlington.  We called my mother, and it was at that time (4:00pm) that I made the executive decision that I wasn’t going to sit in traffic for potentially hours to miss the game, and not even see Strassy pitch.  We would make alternate plans.

And so, it was with a heavy heart that Ashley and I drove back towards her apartment, but along the way, Ashley had a great idea.  If we couldn’t watch the game in person with cheap beer, we’d watch it on tv at a bar with GREAT beer.  So that’s how we ended up at Mad Fox Brewing Company in Falls Church.  If we couldn’t be at the game, this is where we wanted to be.  We enjoyed fantastic brews, amazing bartenders (who were sympathetic to our plight), and great people surrounding us at the bar who were interested in talking about the Nats.  Ashley was as happy as it was possible to be in our situation.

I was not.  In fact, I was so sulky, that as I drank my Diabolik Belgian Strong Ale, I kept a list of all the things that made me sad that I wasn’t at the game.  Here is that list:

• Michael Morse returns (along with the return of a-ha’s Take on Me as his fantastic at bat music)
• Strasburg (we’ve already discussed this)
• Beautiful day (probably the most obnoxious part of listening to the radio broadcasters was how many times they reiterated that it was beautiful, perfect baseball weather)
• Zim in tall socks (we are suckers for this particular uniform choice)
• Harper crazy eyeblack (from the TV it looked like it was worthy of high-school Harper)
• Flores home run (I love to jump up and high five everyone around me)
• Game time 2.5 hours for a win!!! (because 1) it’s a win, and 2) it’s short enough where you can still do stuff in the evening)

So that’s our excuse for not having a gamer for the June 2 game.  Do you think we made the right choice?  Has anyone around here ever sat in crazy traffic for hours for a Nats game?  Are there situations where I would have waited?  Sure – if it were a playoff game.  But it wasn’t.  Speaking of the traffic – does anyone know what caused the city-wide standstill on Saturday?

PS (top photo is honor of today – the 2 year Strasiversary!  Photos from that game here)