Nationals Opening Week Game 2021

Thanks to the school Easter holiday, we could go to one of the opening week games for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Since just my oldest son and I went, we took the Metro, which is cheaper than paying for parking for only two of us. We hadn't been to a game in over a year. Some new construction went up, but not a lot. The trapeze school is gone, which is a bummer.

View from the Metro exit

With Covid restrictions, only 5000 fans can attend any one game. The upside of that restriction is that any giveaways won't run out, so there's no need to rush early to the stadium. This particular game (the first of a doubleheader to make up for an earlier missed game) offered special radios.

The giveaway

The radio is pre-tuned to FM 106.7, which is the local station that broadcasts the Nats games. The radio is untuneable, so it's only good for the sports channel. The package also claims it only works at the stadium during game days. But it offers bonus audio content not available on the regular broadcast. Hmm....

The downside of the Covid restriction is that the stadium is fairly empty (the stadium has 41,313 seats). We had a well-shaded view of the field from our seats.

View of the field just before the game begins

To prevent people from "upgrading" their seats, the unused seats are zip-tied closed.

Not a comfortable way to sit

View during the game

Not all the concessions were open. Since the game started at 12:05, we ate lunch in the park. I had chicken tenders with fries. Yummy!

Lunch at the park

The game was fairly exciting at the start. The Nationals took a 4-1 lead in the first inning. Then they gave up five runs in the second, though the Nationals scored another. The game slowed down as the next several innings were scoreless. Then, in the fifth inning, we had the seventh inning stretch. Yes, you read that right, dear reader. Since the game was part of a doubleheader, each game was only seven innings.

This guy on the other team had some amazing stats:

.222 twice, then .444 and .666?!? Is this some sort of math problem?

The game ended with the Nats failing to tie the game on a double play at the bottom of the seventh. The second game was to start forty-five minutes later, so we decided to head home rather than hang around (the Nats lost again). In the metro station, we saw some strange ads.

Uh, maybe we should have gone to the Orioles game?

It was fun to go and we may try again if the situation turns out favorable.