14. Nationals Park
Way back in 2011, I made my initial baseball game stats post. Based on the data, I quickly saw that I could knock off a lot of parks on one big road trip. Thus was sparked the idea that began the fourth period of my baseball road trips, the big baseball vacation trip.
My first big baseball road trip in 2012 was a bit of throwback in that I was joined for four parks by my friend Mike who had accompanied me to seven parks in 2004 and 2005. I kicked off this tour by driving to Philadelphia and picking him up in at his new location. Then we headed south to Washington, D.C.. We met our fraternity brothers Rick, Rob and Rob's wife Liz at Ray's Hell Burger. Then the five of us (I think, maybe Rick didn't join us) headed out to Nationals Park to watch them beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 in interleague play.
Nationals Park was only four years old at that point, having been built to host the Nationals after they were stolen from Montreal moved to DC. It's on the Anacostia River near the Navy Yard, and if you walk to various gaps in stadium you can see various famous monuments in the far distance. In June, at least, the Washington DC humidity was omnipresent. Between that, the large amount of driving I'd done in the previous two days, and the larger burger I'd eaten, I nearly lapsed into a coma. Very little of the game was exciting enough to reverse that, not even the presence of rookie uberkid Bryce Harper.
The park itself is nice enough, in the "We're trying desperately hard to be unique" architecture of some of the more recent parks. I didn't have any complaints, but it also didn't leave a strong impression on me. There was an interesting clock/scoreboard thing in the plaza outside left field that I spent a bunch of time looking at from my vantage point in the third base line upper deck. I no longer remember what was interesting about it, but I remember that I spent a lot of time looking at it and thinking it was interesting.
While the park is sort of meh, it does have absolutely the best mascot race ever. They sent ten foot tall foam headed caricatures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosvelt acing around in The President's Race. When we were there Teddy was mired in the midst of a 525 race losing streak, during which he lost through increasingly comically forms of sabotage. He finally won on the last day of the the 2012 regular season when the Nationals knew they were going to the playoffs for the first time. On our trip it was a relatively straightforward race without much in the way of hijinks, but this was still the park highlight. That's sort of appropriate for a "ok, but nothing special" park.
Afterwards, Mike & I jumped in the car and headed north to Baltimore...
Park Rankings
RankParkTeamFirst Visit# Visits
1 Wrigley FieldChicago CubsApril 23, 20042
2 PNC ParkPittsburgh PiratesSeptember 25, 20042
3 Jacobs FieldCleveland IndiansApril 17, 199963
4 Miller ParkMilwaukee BrewersApril 24, 20041
5 Yankee Stadium (original)New York YankeesJuly 28, 20061
6 Comerica ParkDetroit TigersJuly 31, 20041
7 Turner FieldAtlanta BravesSaturday, May 5, 20071
8Nationals ParkWashington NationalsThursday, June 21, 20121
9 Rogers CentreToronto Blue JaysMay 21, 20051
10 Cinergy FieldCincinnati RedsAugust 8, 19984
11 The MetrodomeMinnesota TwinsJune 22, 19923
12 Shea StadiumNew York MetsJuly 24, 20061
13 Great American Ball ParkCincinnati RedsMay 9, 20041
14 U.S. Cellular FieldChicago White SoxApril 25, 20041
Background: Prologue Memory Interlude
My first big baseball road trip in 2012 was a bit of throwback in that I was joined for four parks by my friend Mike who had accompanied me to seven parks in 2004 and 2005. I kicked off this tour by driving to Philadelphia and picking him up in at his new location. Then we headed south to Washington, D.C.. We met our fraternity brothers Rick, Rob and Rob's wife Liz at Ray's Hell Burger. Then the five of us (I think, maybe Rick didn't join us) headed out to Nationals Park to watch them beat the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 in interleague play.
Nationals Park was only four years old at that point, having been built to host the Nationals after they were stolen from Montreal moved to DC. It's on the Anacostia River near the Navy Yard, and if you walk to various gaps in stadium you can see various famous monuments in the far distance. In June, at least, the Washington DC humidity was omnipresent. Between that, the large amount of driving I'd done in the previous two days, and the larger burger I'd eaten, I nearly lapsed into a coma. Very little of the game was exciting enough to reverse that, not even the presence of rookie uberkid Bryce Harper.
The park itself is nice enough, in the "We're trying desperately hard to be unique" architecture of some of the more recent parks. I didn't have any complaints, but it also didn't leave a strong impression on me. There was an interesting clock/scoreboard thing in the plaza outside left field that I spent a bunch of time looking at from my vantage point in the third base line upper deck. I no longer remember what was interesting about it, but I remember that I spent a lot of time looking at it and thinking it was interesting.
While the park is sort of meh, it does have absolutely the best mascot race ever. They sent ten foot tall foam headed caricatures of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosvelt acing around in The President's Race. When we were there Teddy was mired in the midst of a 525 race losing streak, during which he lost through increasingly comically forms of sabotage. He finally won on the last day of the the 2012 regular season when the Nationals knew they were going to the playoffs for the first time. On our trip it was a relatively straightforward race without much in the way of hijinks, but this was still the park highlight. That's sort of appropriate for a "ok, but nothing special" park.
Afterwards, Mike & I jumped in the car and headed north to Baltimore...
Park Rankings
RankParkTeamFirst Visit# Visits
1 Wrigley FieldChicago CubsApril 23, 20042
2 PNC ParkPittsburgh PiratesSeptember 25, 20042
3 Jacobs FieldCleveland IndiansApril 17, 199963
4 Miller ParkMilwaukee BrewersApril 24, 20041
5 Yankee Stadium (original)New York YankeesJuly 28, 20061
6 Comerica ParkDetroit TigersJuly 31, 20041
7 Turner FieldAtlanta BravesSaturday, May 5, 20071
8Nationals ParkWashington NationalsThursday, June 21, 20121
9 Rogers CentreToronto Blue JaysMay 21, 20051
10 Cinergy FieldCincinnati RedsAugust 8, 19984
11 The MetrodomeMinnesota TwinsJune 22, 19923
12 Shea StadiumNew York MetsJuly 24, 20061
13 Great American Ball ParkCincinnati RedsMay 9, 20041
14 U.S. Cellular FieldChicago White SoxApril 25, 20041
Background: Prologue Memory Interlude