Will Rast of Funk Art
@ Fort Reno
Q:What's your song for summer?
A:"'I Ain't Nobody's Baby' by Sharon Jones."
ALL OF A SUDDEN, our Washington Nationals are major players in the Hot Stove League.
According to The Washington Post, the Nats did their best New York Yankees impersonation by offering first baseman Mark Teixeira an eight-year, $160 million contract. If the one-time All-Star accepts, he'd make more money than the rest of the team combined.
Apparently, the empty seats in that beautiful new stadium sent a message. The Nats are the aggressors in a free-agent market thrown into flux by the sour economy.
Free agents who could command huge paychecks would typically ignore a team like the last-place Nationals. But with traditional winners feeling the pinch, the Nats have stepped up.
All that said, I'm fairly certain Teixeira will bypass Washington. His ties to Severna Park, Md., would show a local allegiance to Baltimore. That would be the best for the Nats, since Teixeira is not a player you build a championship team around.
The sportswriter in me is cheering for Manny Ramirez, whose big bat and quirky personality are always entertaining. Baseball sense points to someone like Orlando Hudson and another player.
At least the Nationals are acting like a team eager to start winning. Intentions only go so far, though. The team can ill afford to come out of this offseason empty-handed.
Photo by Lisa Blumfeld/Getty Images
THE ARGUMENT AGAINST writing the column you are about to read is that no 
one cares about the Nationals, but that is precisely the point.
After four years, baseball in Washington is an unqualified flop.
Since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992, no stadium has drawn fewer fans in its inaugural season than Nationals Park. For the record, 17 parks have debuted in that time span.
Baseball's magic formula says the last-place Nationals were averaging 29,077 fans per game — the 20th best in the majors — as of Wednesday. (Thursday was to be the home finale, weather permitting.) Anyone who's actually been to a game or watched one on TV — we'll get back to that subject — knows that far less than that fill the seats.
Any report you hear about TV ratings shows greater disinterest than the previous bleak news. Just this month, only 6,000 people tuned into the Nationals game on the same day as the Redskins opener. More people probably watched C-SPAN.
The Washington Post even reported that the radio audience is so small that the ratings aren't statistically valid.
A dreadful team is to blame for most of this, and the Tampa Bay Rays' success offers hope that D.C. can one day drum up support for a winning team.
Let's be realistic, though. The Nationals are going to stink next year and probably the year after that. Attendance will only drop, and fewer people will bother searching for MASN to watch the games on TV.
It took 33 years to bring baseball back to D.C. It took four to get bored by it.
Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post
HAVE YOU EVER lost touch with a friend for a while — not because you had a fight, but because there just wasn't a whole lot of news to report?
This, I think, is similar to the problem facing the Washington Nationals.
According to a study released this week, an average of 9,000 fans tune in to the Nats' televised games each night. Not only is this by far the lowest number in major league markets, but it is also significantly less than the number of fans who watch D.C. United play that other football.
Some will say D.C. is showing why it lost two baseball teams already. Others may argue this city is full of fair-weather fans just waiting for a winner.
There may be some truth to both explanations, especially the latter, yet I don't think either gets at the real heart of the matter.
This current team is lousy and, worse yet, boring. It was boring last year and two seasons ago, too. Only the remarkable first half of the inaugural year brought any real excitement.
Fans have settled into a routine of not watching the Nationals, whose games were not even televised regularly until the second season, when the going got tough.
Baseball fans exist here, as Washington draws three times its TV audience at home games. The new park is nice, and taking in a live game is always fun.
Sitting on a couch trying to figure out which MASN channel the hometown team is losing on isn't nearly as fun.
"Same old Nats" should be the team's motto. When the team changes its fortune, fans will change the channel and catch up with their friends.
Photo by John McDonell/TWP
RIDING THE METRO home Saturday night, I was washed away in a sea of orange.
Orioles fans were everywhere in a city that's supposed to be a Nationals town.
I don't know where they've been the past few years — perhaps creating Peter Angelos voodoo dolls — but it appears the Washingtonians who cheered for the Birds when D.C. had no baseball team still exist.
And, more importantly, their team is better and more interesting to watch than the Nationals.
The enormous crowds at Nationals Park over the weekend hinted at the potential of a real rivalry.
But let's not kid ourselves. The Orioles fans were not showing up at the new stadium hoping to see the home team beaten to a pulp.
They were taking advantage of the chance to see their team without having to drive up Interstate 95.
I admire the Orioles fans' loyalty. There really is no reason they should stop cheering for the team they favored growing up even though another team has moved closer to home. And if you stick with a team as painfully pathetic as the Orioles have been, more power to you.
Once the O's and Nats start fielding good teams, some passion might emerge from both sides about the outcomes of their interleague series.
This weekend, though, it was nice to see that park completely full of baseball fans — even if orange was mixed in with the red.
Photo by John McDonnell/TWP
LADIES, BEFORE SITTING smack-dab in the middle of a Nationals Park center field row — between two big bubbas downing their fifth Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke — at tonight's game, be smart. Spring 30 bucks and head to the Rooftop Party Zone at Nationals Park Garage B at 5 p.m. There you'll find the Ladies Night Out and Home Run Happy Hour.
Aside from game admission, you'll score comped manicures, massages and yummy eats. Happy hour specials accompany live music. And the best part is you'll have a chance to drool, er, meet Nats players. No word yet whether Ryan Zimmerman will give pedicures. Hey, a girl can dream!
IS IT POSSIBLE that the Washington Nationals have already had their highlight of the year?
Willie Harris' thrilling game-saving catch in left field last Thursday against the Mets was about as good as it gets. For at least that split second, the monotony that defines this year's Nationals was gone.
Reality returned up north in Baltimore, where taking one of three from another rebuilding team was considered an accomplishment.
And you wonder why the Nats struggle to draw fans to a new stadium.
Yes, few franchises have had this sort of trouble achieving sellouts in the first year of a new ballpark. Yet, few teams made as little an effort to field a winning team as the Nationals, who are back at their new home this week to face the Phillies and Brewers.
The future is most certainly not now, so forgive fans for being patient about buying tickets — they are waiting for a competitive squad.
This city has shown it will cheer for a winner. The Capitals, who became the talk of the town in April, were among the NHL's worst in attendance until they turned around their fortune in January.
There is plenty more to do in the nation's capital than watch a boring team.
Harris' catch drew our attention for a brief moment. The Nats will have to do the same for an entire season to fill their beautiful stadium.
Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post
WHILE THE CITY IS BUZZING about the new Nationals ballpark -- and the nightmares of parking and Metroing there -- food fans should divert their attention to the array of D.C.-centric stadium snacks.
The Ben's Chili Bowl outpost will offer, among other items, the iconic half-smoke and vegetarian chili. A new startup from Gaithersburg, Noah's Pretzels, will serve hand-rolled pretzels and offer gluten- and casein-free versions.
To spice things up -- and cool things down -- enjoy Cajun food and frozen drinks from Cantina Marina. And, should you start falling asleep during the fifth inning of a pitcher's duel, stop by Mayorga Coffee for an espresso to wake yourself up through the ninth.
» Nationals Park, 1500 South Capitol St. SE; (South Capitol).
Written by Express contributor Stefanie Gans
Photo by Marge Ely/Express
WHEN HELMUTH, OBATA & KASSABAUM (HOK) was commissioned to work on Nationals Park, there was no such thing as the Washington Nationals. Jim Chibnall, the lead architect, was working with the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, but he didn't know who his ultimate boss would be or what that eventual boss would want.
But he and the rest of the HOK team fell in love with city's historic monuments and wanted to translate their shapes to the stadium.
"The Washington monument is a line; the Jefferson memorial is a sphere; the Lincoln memorial is a cube — so those kinds of explorations, really helped us," says Chibnall, who has worked on more than a dozen stadiums for HOK, most recently the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis. "We started drawing circles and triangles, and out of that came the result of the building. The seating bowl is really a circle in plan. The elevation along south capital, we looked at a series of rectangles and squares and certainly triangles there."
Continue Reading "Monumental Achievement: Designing Nationals Park" »
AT THE CORNER OF GEORGIA AVENUE and W Street in Northwest Washington, an important piece of the city's baseball history is easy to miss.
On that spot, now the location of Howard University Hospital, once stood Griffith Stadium, the home of the Washington Senators from 1911 to 1961.
Built quickly after a fire destroyed an earlier wood park on the site, Griffith stadium hosted some of the game's greats — Ruth, Mantle, Aaron, Musial and Mays — and was the part-time home of the legendary Homestead Grays of the Negro League.
Continue Reading "A Lot To Live Up To: D.C.'s Baseball History" »
ALTHOUGH THE NEIGHBORHOOD directly around Nationals Park isn't quite Wrigleyville yet, the surrounding area provides quite a few food and drink options within a reasonable walk. With Capitol Hill and the vibrant 8th Street corridor just blocks away, we highlight some hangouts to consider if you're looking for something to do before or after a ballgame.
HAWK 'N' DOVE
» This popular political bar attracts Hill interns and staffers most nights, yet appeals locals and tourists alike. The small outoor seating section is perfect for summertime pre-or-post game drinking and socializing. (329 Pennsylvania Avenue SE — 202.543.3300)
BANANA CAFE
» Banana Cafe doubles a Cuban, Mexican and Puerto Rican cafe by day, and a fantastic piano bar by night. Buffet brunch will appeal to those looking to grab a bite before weekend day games. (500 8th Street SE — 202.543.5906)
Continue Reading "Hardball Hangouts: Where to Go After a Game" »
Addison Road
