Take me out to the Nats game

James Clements
Published: July 13, 2008

It appears the bloom is off the rose for the Washington Nationals.

Midway through the worst of four seasons in the nation’s capital, the team is struggling to find enough uninjured players to fill out the lineup, is feuding with the city over unpaid bills, and has the lowest TV ratings of any team in baseball. On the bright side, they do have a beautiful new stadium.

I’m about three months late in writing a column about a first trip to Nationals Park, but it took me that long to get up to a game. Last week, I watched the Nationals play the Arizona Diamondbacks in what might turn out to be the most exciting game of the season. But in the end, it was just another loss and fans were left to groan as they headed for the exits.

The stadium is a treat; it seems designers took elements of Camden Yards (including a one-level-wide concourse, devoid of RFK-style ramps) and other parks around the league and put them together in a shiny new package. The 4,500-square-foot, high-definition scoreboard in center field alone is worth seeing.

I walked around before the game and noticed there was something for all ages: from the youngest toddlers who’ll find a giant playground and a “Build-a-Bear” store, to the tweens who filled a video game area (where they played baseball on Playstations — most of the kids chose to play as the Mets or Yankees), to walls of old photos and news clippings for those who remember Washington baseball before it left town more than 30 years ago.

The concessions are miles ahead of where they were at RFK, and include all the D.C. favorites including Ben’s Chili Bowl, Five Guys and others. And the stadium stores are clean, comfortable and filled with natural light.

In other words, there’s a lot more action around the stadium than in it. But even with all the amenities, when a friend who had been to a few games already asked for my first impression of Nationals Park, one word came to mind: Antiseptic.

Maybe it’s too clean, or it just doesn’t look “lived in” yet, but it felt like the park was designed to be completely sterile — you could be certain when you left that there’d be nothing stuck to your shoe, for example.

Unfortunately, part of that design means the baseball’s not sticking either. With so much designed to keep you out of your seat, it’s hard to watch the game. And even when you make it to the field, the scoreboards and LED light displays seem more geared toward having a party than describing the action on the field. At one point, I said out loud that I felt like I was on my back porch or at a picnic, instead of at a game.

This “Attention Deficit Disorder” problem is not new to Nationals Park. It seems to fill most of our venues these days, where stadium operators are convinced we can’t stare at something for more than a few seconds without losing focus.

The result is that, unlike when I was young, a trip to a ballgame doesn’t seem to be about a chance to learn to keep score or learn the nuances of the game anymore.

Instead, fathers and sons are more likely to discuss the economics of $4.50 sodas, or worse, not see each other at all, having parted ways as soon as they got through the gate.

In the end, Nationals Park is going to be great for Washington. The grumbles between team and city will resolve themselves, the surrounding neighborhood will continue its facelift (the most pleasant part of my evening was possibly seeing all of the potential in that area), and the team will get better. And by then, who knows, maybe there will be some character (or chewing gum) to stick the fans in their seats.

James Clements is a Culpeper resident and independent columnist who appears each Monday. E-mail