Nationals Park: A Greazy and XL Adventure

After a short stop in Hanover Pennsylvania from some lunch at Famous Hot Wiener, XL headed down to DC for a baseball game. Before meeting up with XL's brother, GSR, we wandered around the stadium to take in all the angles. From the outside the park is very pleasing to the eye, and once the surrounding neighborhood is built up to accommodate after game festivities it should be even nicer. I was impressed with the style of the Park, which blazes it's own trails rather than following in the Camden Yards-Jacobs Field-Coors-Ballpark at Arrlington chain. There's no red brick to be found at Nationals Park, and it all together eschews the throw back feel for a futuristic approach. As soon as you get off the Metro, you get a view down Half St. into the outfield of the park. When the time comes to buy your ticket, you can do so at handy little kiosk's, like the baseball version of fandango.

Once inside, I was a bit let down by some of the sight lines in the outfield. Like Philly's new park, there are many seats in the outfield where you can't see either corner, which makes no sense to me. That is made up for by some of the specialty seating located on the second level of the center field area. There are seats on two levels adjoining the "Red Porch" restaurant in center. Here you can get a sit down meal before or during the game, and many people were crowded around it's bar and TV's all through the game.

Even the seats with the best view's have one problem in Nationals Park: the price. They have seats that they are asking more than $300 each for: per game! Needless to say, many of the people in them came dressed in their best invisible man outfits, and most of the seats behind the plates were vacant. We sat between home and third in the 400 level, and all things considered we had a great view. The nazi who was working the section made things a bit uncomfortable, but we survived none the less, and didn't have to promise our first born for the pleasure.

XL will touch on the food at the ballpark, which has increasingly become an important part of the experience. I enjoyed the overall day at the ballpark, helped by views of the Capitol, Washington Monument and the river. We were also the lucky recipients of a perfect early spring day, where the weather was one notch away form ideal. If you were a person of unlimited means I would tell you to run down to DC the next time one of these days comes along and get a seat between the dugouts.

For the rest of us, I would recommend getting the cheapest ticket you can find and walk around the Park at the game is going on, stopping to take in the view from a few different spots. First, there is the railing under the giant scoreboard (see the view from the picture at the top of this post), where you get a full view of every part of the park, save said scoreboard. There is also the spot between right field and the river, next to the skybox entrance that makes for some damn nice viewing.

All in all I have to give Nationals Park a 4 star rating. This park can never attain a 5 star rating as long as so many of the seats in it are totally out of the reach of the public at large. That said, I'll be back.