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March 31, 2011: Washington Nationals vs Atlanta Braves (Opening Day)

By Maggie on April 1, 2011

Game: #001 – Nationals vs. Braves

Starting Pitchers: Livan Hernandez (#61, 0-1, 2.84) vs. Derek Lowe (#32, 1-0, 0.00)

Final Score: Nationals: 0, Braves: 2

Nats New Record: 0-1

Play of the Game: At top of the fourth inning, Adam LaRoche made a play that made us believe in him as a replacement for Adam Dunn at first base – at least defensively. It was a diving stop to block a grounder by Brian McCann that was making its way to the outfield. As much as we love him, we admit that Dunn would never have been able to make that play. Welcome to Washington, Adam!

Players of the Game: Danny Espinosa. Hear me out – there were no outstanding offensive plays, so you go with the guy who did get on base (twice), and who made some really outstanding defensive plays as well. He’s just a rookie, but this bodes well.

Favorite Non-baseball Moment: It was opening day – it was all great. Granted, the weather was more late February than late March, but it was baseball, and that means a long summer of games is right around the corner.

Who was there: Ashley, Maggie, and their dads.

Our Records: Ashley – 0-1; Maggie – 0-1; Ashley’s dad – 0-1; Maggie’s dad – 0-1

Where did we sit: Because we are now both season ticket holders, we sat in our opening day sections – 306 for Maggie and her dad, and 308 for Ashley and hers. The 300s are a good section, plus, there’s an excellent view of the scoreboard.

What did we eat: Due to opening day kinks, there were a few snafus with food. Maggie’s dad had a couple hot dogs, and Maggie had chicken fingers (it’s hard to be adventurous about new items when it’s that cold), but there was no coffee or hot chocolate. Ashley and her dad each enjoyed a Ben’s Chili Bowl half smoke. They were decent, but, due to a signage snafu, Ashley noticed that the price has gone up from $6.75 to $7.50. Not cool.

Promotional Items: Red and white curly W cap. It’s pretty nice, and it has the new script “Nationals” logo embroidered on the brim. This one is nice enough that it might make it into the rotation.

President’s Race: The year started off with a relay race. George and Abe began by running out of the tunnel, jumping over hurdles, and then meeting up with their teammates, Tom and Teddy respectfully. Tom and Teddy were manning push-carts. T&T hopped on to the carts to “surf” while George and Abe pushed them towards the finish line. George and Tom made it in one piece, Abe and Teddy crashed about 10 feet after they started. In addition to changing things up with the relay, there was a new entrance video – Tom and George spent time in their homes (Charlottesville and Mount Vernon), while Abe and Teddy were a little more symbolic (Abe in a log cabin, and Teddy with a statue of himself).

Other Observations:

- Did we mention it was cold? And that Maggie didn’t wear enough layers, and spent nearly the entire game shivering underneath her fleece curly W blanket? Temperature at game time was 41 F, but rain and a light breeze through the upper decks made it feel colder. Also, you could see little clouds of steam around players (especially the pitchers) when they let out a heavy breath.

- The cold didn’t just make for unpleasant watching weather…it made it unpleasant to do all kinds of blog-related things! Maggie had a difficult time taking notes and didn’t pay much attention to Bingo, and Ashley’s fingers got cold too, which meant she eventually slowed down taking pictures, and couldn’t tweet during the game.

- This year Ashley is going to try to keep score. She used to do this back in high school, but has not kept up with it since. Luckily, it came back quickly, although it got too cold and wet to continue past the 8th inning.

- Even with all this, the opening day game experience was MUCH better than last year’s. The crowd seemed like it was 90% (or higher) people in Nats gear, and there was no unpleasantness. The cheering was still loud (the boos for some of the plays the refs made were booming), even with the smallest opening day crowd in DC-since-2005-baseball history (39,055).

- We loved the military tribute in the opening day festivities. The band was excellent (and well dressed against the cold) and the first pitch lineup was a hoot (quote the announcer, “Well, they’re good at other things, so we’ll cut them some slack on pitching”).

-Something just seems all-American about two girls taking their two dads to Opening Day of baseball. Now that we’re all grown up, it adds a bit of fun to know that we’re all skipping work together!

(full album from this game can be seen here)
(videos from this game and others can be seen here)

March 13, 2011: Washington Nationals at Florida Marlins (Spring Training)

By Maggie on March 13, 2011

Game: Spring Training #15 – Nationals at Marlins
Pitching this Afternoon for the Nationals: Jordan Zimmermann, Henry Rodriguez, Brian Broderick, Collin Balester, Cole Kimball
Final Score: Nationals – 5, Marlins – 1

Play of the Game: Danny Espinosa made an AMAZING grab on a line drive over 2nd base, and turned around to throw the runner out. It was a really fast and stunning play that just showed Espinosa’s promise as a 2nd baseman.
Player of the Game: Rick Ankiel, for driving in 4 of the Nationals 5 runs. He also played well in both left and center field (which helped allay my fears about having a terrible outfield for the regular season).

Where I sat: Section 117, Row 10.
What I ate: Cheeseburger and fries (nothing really special), and dippin dots (which were frosty and delicious on another hot day in the sun).

Other Observations:
- Roger Dean Stadium is a beautiful facility. It plays host to both the Marlins and the Cardinals during Spring Training. There are good views from everywhere, and I felt like I was very close to the players during batting practice. There are even more opportunities for being close to the action with the “Berm” – a grassy seating area that sits right behind the visiting team’s bullpen.
- Others who were there may disagree with me (based on the volume of applause), but I thought the National anthem had too many frills and was too tortured today. You don’t need to sing it straight, but if you’re going to be fancy, make sure you have the vocal chops to back that up.
- Another thing that I loved about Roger Dean Stadium was the multitude of picnicking areas – there were many tables, and even one with a large canopy covering it (highly beneficial for pale people like me who like to stay out of the sun).
- I managed to get a seat behind the Marlin’s bench. This was because I believed that the home team is always on the 1st base side. HOWEVER, because the Cardinals and Marlins share the facility, and because they occasionally play each other, they each have their own designated side, and the Marlins is on the side that I thought was for the visiting team, and the ticket site didn’t indicate which side was home/away. Fortunately, my Nats shirt was gray, and I didn’t really stand out among all the Marlins fans.
- Not once, but twice, I was told that I was the first Nationals fan that someone had ever met. Additionally, when asked about why I was at the game, and where I was from, people seemed surprised that someone would come down to Florida for a long weekend just to watch baseball. I know I’m not the only Nats blogger who is/has been down here this weekend, so maybe most visiting fans aren’t interacting a lot with other teams’ fans?
- Like I mentioned in the player of the game section, the outfield performed MUCH better today, the starters didn’t miss any of the balls hit their way (to the extent that the little Marlins fan near me wondered aloud why his team didn’t catch as many balls as the Nats did). In fact, the entire defense seemed to be playing a charmed game – there was maybe only 1 or 2 missed fielding opportunities.

(the rest of the album from this game can be seen here)

March 12, 2011: Washington Nationals vs. New York Yankees (Spring Training)

By Maggie on March 12, 2011

Game: Spring Training #14 – Nationals vs. Yankees
Pitching this Afternoon for the Nationals: John Lannan, Sean Burnett, Yunesky Maya
Final Score: Nationals – 6, Yankees – 5

Inning of the Game: This was another 9th inning where the game was clinched. Another team effort – Jesus Flores got on base, only to have Nyjer Morgan come in as a pinch runner. Bryce Harper was brought in as a pinch hitter, and ended up drilled on the elbow and took his base. Alberto Gonzalez was intentionally walked to load the bases (for reasons I still don’t quite understand – someone explain what the purpose of that might have been when the game was tied, and there was only one out)? Derek Norris came in as a pinch hitter, and blasted one to center field – it bounced off the outfield and into the warning track. Once Morgan crossed the plate, the rest of the guys on the base-path skipped touching all the bags, and just went home. An excellent end to what was sometimes a nerve-wracking game.
Player of the Game: Michael Morse. A 2-run homer to get the Nats out of the funk of being down by two in the first inning. He had an RBI in the 7th before being taken out, and generally looked like a stud.

Where I sat: Section 209, up towards the top. Not quite as high as last night’s game, and this time truly on the aisle seat. The only bad bit being that this afternoon’s game was in full sun, and there was not a cloud in the sky, meaning that it was hot as heck, despite the temperature hovering around 68 degrees for the entire game. I am glad that I took a break mid-game, went to the shade of the concession area and re-applied my sunscreen.
What I ate: I was very adventurous and got a chicken finger basket and water (to prevent dehydration). The thing that made me sad about the chicken finger basket was that the “basket”, which included fries, had about a handful – not even a “side” of fries really. It made me “homesick” for the baskets at Nationals Park which include more fries for about the same price.

Other Observations:
- There were a ridiculous number of Yankees fans at today’s game. So much so, that as another Nats fan walked past me into the aisle he said, “It’s like walking into enemy territory!”
- The girl who sang the national anthem was amazing. Someone said that she’s 10 years old, and she had a great big voice for such a little girl. I heard many people talking about how good she was.
- There was one inning (maybe the 7th?), where Austin Krum got on base (on balls), and Maya – pitching at that point – decided that he was going to take Krum out. There was a near constant game of cat and mouse where Maya would throw to keep Krum on first, and then after being moved to second base, the throwing continued to keep him on his toes. Combine this with Austin Romine’s extended at bat later on, and it made for a long inning.
- What made this a true “Yankees” game for me was the group of kids sitting in front of me. They were hipster baseball fans, and they were definitely loud drunks. They tried to start cheers for the Yankees players, and were constantly waving to their parents who were sitting 2 sections over. They also kept trying to share the food that they bought that they didn’t like (and had just loudly denounced), like the bag of peanuts (which were “gross”), and the cone of cotton candy (which was “too sticky”).

(the rest of the album from this game can be seen here)

March 11, 2011: Washington Nationals vs Houston Astros (Spring Training)

By Maggie on March 12, 2011

Greetings from Viera, where I’m visiting for a few days taking in my very first Spring Training! I’ll be blogging the games I attend, and hope to have a “What it’s like to be a fan visiting your team at Spring Training” round up when I get home. In the mean time, here’s last night’s game.

Game: Spring Training #13 – Nationals vs the Astros
Pitching tonight for the Nationals: Livian Hernandez, Tim Wood, Ross Detwiler, Jimmy Barthmaier
Final Score: Nationals – 6, Astros – 7.
Inning of the Game: Normally this is where Ashley or I would talk about the play of the game, but last night, there wasn’t one. Sure – you could say that the home runs (which I’ll talk about in a second) were great plays, but those were by one player. Instead, I’m going to talk about the very last inning – the one where it was cold out, and I was hoping that the Nats would just finish up and lose. Instead, we get a couple guys on base, Nyjer Morgan hits an RBI singled, followed quickly by a Bryce Harper RBI single, and on a long at-bat, we get one more run with the tying run standing on third. It was all very exciting – to think that the Nationals could come back at the last second and maybe take this to extra (colder!) innings. Sadly, the last guy at bat, 3rd baseman Brian Bixler couldn’t pull it through and struck out swinging.

Players of the Game: Up until the 5th inning, this was an ugly game for the Nationals. Then, Morse hits a long bomb to center field, and the Nationals aren’t going to be shut out. Two innings later Jesus Flores comes up with a 2-run homer to bring the Nats up to a more respectable 3. These guys and their hits made that stunning last inning possible.
Favorite Non-baseball Moment: Before the game, I made my way over to the Training Complex, where the Minor Leaguers were still getting in their workouts. But because it was towards the end of the day, (and a few of them needed to be over at Space Coast Stadium a little later), there was a steady trickle of guys leaving the field. I really enjoyed seeing these players talking with fans, signing autographs, and being way more accessible than it’s possible to be once the season starts.

Where did I sit: As a season ticket holder, you get a pair of free tickets to a spring training game. I redeemed mine for the very center of the upper section, and ended up sitting in the very last row. This wasn’t a bad spot – it had a great view of the field and I was able to listen to Phil Wood as he announced the game.
What did I eat: Since it was a cold night, I wanted something warm, and settled on a cajun sausage dog from the Grandstand Grill kiosk. The vendor warned me that it would be spicy, but I told him that would be ok. And oh, it was. That sausage was jambalaya in hot dog form. Delicious and spicy in every way. Highly recommended.

Other Observations:
- I loved the ushers. Every single one that I stopped and talked to was super friendly. One guy on the 3rd base side (where the sun was shining, and it was warmer earlier in the game) told me to come back and hang out with him where it was warm. Considering how cold it got…maybe I should have absorbed as much sunshine as possible!
- Yes – it was cold. The game started off around 65 degrees, and by the last strikeout, it was at 46. I wish I had worn another layer under my sweatshirt.
- On one of my early walking circles of the concourse, I nearly walked into GM Mike Rizzo. For a moment, I thought he looked familiar, and then figured out who he was, and made my way back to the area near the Nationals Dugout, where he had been rushing to take part in a ceremony with Potomac Nationals Players.
- The P-Nats players were there to receive their rings from winning the Carolina League Championship. It made me think back to the doubleheader I attended where they clinched first place in their division.
- Nyjer Morgan did not start the game well. There were some very catchable balls hit his way in the 3rd inning, and it was just not fun to watch.

- Lots of families attending the game together, and not surprisingly, most of the kids were boys. Maybe if more parents started bringing their girls to Spring Training too, eventually things would happen, like more parity in the availability of player t-shirts and jerseys for women.
- One of the more quirky things about Space Coast Stadium is it’s proximity to the Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral. Because of this, when a rocket was launched at 6:38, people sitting in the stands were able to see as it shot into space. From my vantage point, by the time it was visible, it looked more like a star shooting the wrong way – but still very cool!
- I have a few videos from this game as well, but considering I should be heading out soon for today’s game, I’ll have to save those for later. Besides – a few are on my fancy new phone (which makes tweeting and saving my game notes easier, and provides a back-up in case both my camera battery and the back-up die).

(the rest of the album from this game can be seen here)

March 5, 2011: George Mason Patriots vs. Niagara Purple Eagles

By Ashley on March 9, 2011

On Saturday, March 5, the First Ladies of Baseball kicked off spring, and the baseball season with a trip to watch George Mason’s team take on Niagara. We arrived 10 minutes later than the start time, but the game was already off to a quick start, with Niagara leading 1-0 at the top of the third. Things turned around fast, and we were privileged to watch as Blaise Fernandez got his first college home run! This milestone was later relayed to a late-arriving father by his small son, who yelled at the top of his lungs, “DADDY! Number 9 hit a HOME RUN!!!”

There was lots of good baseball to be seen – some solid bunting (which is always a pleasure to see well done), solid line drives directly over 2nd base. The game is amazingly close to what you might see in the minor leagues – the players are talented, and only lack a certain slickness that you see in major league players. The game being played is good, but the atmosphere around the game is what makes it special.

What is that atmosphere? Well – to start, the soundscape is different. There is no “crack of the bat” – instead, there’s a solid ping from the aluminum bats the players use. There are parents around: filming, taking pictures, keeping track of their sons and generally worrying in the way that parents do during athletic events. There are scattered friends and other university athletes, for whom the game was either convenient or just something to do for free on a Saturday. The teams are comprised of a mixture of young men and boys – some of whom are less than 5 years removed from their little league days, and still show that eagerness and support for their teammates.

Watching the pitchers was interesting – from the close vantage point behind home plate, you can really see different pitching styles begin to emerge. Mason’s starting pitcher (#20, Ryan Pfaeffle) was a little slower and more deliberate in his delivery. Niagara’s starting pitcher (#2, Kody Kaspar) had a quicker release and seemed more anxious to be rid of the ball. Both patience and impatience are virtues in this game where the players are still trying to figure out what it REALLY means to be a man playing a game.

We had a great time. $5 apiece got us in, though if we were cheaper, there was a hill beyond the outfield that provided great views, and was a lovely spot to eat our concession-truck lunches (italian sausage, chips and a sprite for Maggie for $7; soft pretzel and a soda for Ashley for $5). We enjoyed our lunches on this hill as the game ended, and then got to watch as players, coaches and umpires alike all walked past us to buy snacks from the truck, or use the facilities in the field house up the hill. You can’t get that close in any level of professional baseball, and it made all these participants in the game that had just finished like us. There is not much of a pedestal in college baseball.

A few final thoughts: the game ended in an 11-6 win for the Patriots. The Niagara Purple Eagles (and oh, how the announcer made sure to repeat that team name) were all wearing matching purple stirrup socks – a cool retro look that we both enjoyed. And as a bit of trivia for all the Nats fans who are trying to figure out how this game relates to what they’ll be seeing either in Spring Training or at Nationals Park in a few weeks – Bryce Harper is younger than all these guys. Something to think about.

(the rest of the album from this game can be seen here)

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