Saturday Baseball

The Fan Blog was part of the all-time largest crowd at Nationals Park last night. It never really had the feeling of a big crowd, a nice crowd yes, but not a big crowd. Ok, I take that back, waiting in line for my dinner it had the feeling of a big crowd. But I'd probably just pin that on some poor execution by the concession stands.

The Park itself is nice, but it doesn't have that great feel, that I've gotten elsewhere. The left field plaza seems to be the best attribute. The general sense was that it was a big park, but obviously its not real big.

There seemed to be lots of wasted space and lots of angles to just create angles. When I say wasted space, there seemed to be spots where there should be seats and sections of seats that weren't there. It did remind me a lot of PNC Park in Pittsburgh, only Pittsburgh has the great backdrop and the feeling that it is a small ballpark. At Nationals Park, you could be playing the game in the middle of a Kansas cornfield you wouldn't know the difference. This is no view of anything. Speaking with other folks, and FanBlog readers I might add, they had no view from their section of the Park either. Rather disappointing.

I also felt that there was a tremendous minor leaguish feel to everything as well with all the between the innings activities. And the Nats PR staff went a bit too far in trying to make the Orioles fans feel inferior. I liked Teddy beating the Bird in the Presidents race. That was funny, entertainment, but the beefcake in Nationals gear pounding out the pushups dressed in his Nationals gear humilating the less in shape fan in Orioles gear was unneccessary.

I am still trying to figure out one thing though. I've been to two Oriole games this year, a Yankee contest at Camden Yards and a Nationals game in DC. My question is, at which game were there more folks rooting against the Orioles?

Oh, and one other thing. I have never been to a baseball game where there were so many dresses and skirts worn by the female portion of the crowd. Never. I don't think I'm really complaining, but it just struck me as odd.

So anyhow, I'm the Orioles/baseball fan from the surrounding area that Peter Angelos has to be concerned will goto Nationals Park to watch baseball now that the option is there. And I've got to say that I really don't see it happening. At least not often. It's just a better all around experience at Camden Yards, and its about half the price. Truly half the price, for just about everything, tickets, parking, food, the whole works for one night costs me about half what it does at Nationals Park at Oriole Park.

Good win for the O's. They defeated John Lannan, who had really shut them down in May and this time the Orioles seemed determined not to get behind in the count. They were aggressive and it seemed to work. That's the thing I like best about this coaching staff. It seems that there is an offensive gameplan each night, and the team follows it. And the gameplan adjusts pitcher by pitcher. So that is refreshing.

Washington is flat out a bad, bad, bad baseball team right now. The lineup is pathetic. Truly pathetic. Minus Cristian Guzman, I'm not sure there is a player who would start for the Orioles. Obviously, Zimmerman would if healthy, but other than that, I'm not sure. The catcher Flores would have a chance, but Ramon has really done a decent job for the Birds since the atrocious start.

One more baseball note, congratulations to Josh Vittek on his first professional hit. The Mount grad went 1-for-5 in his debut as the designated hitter for the Burlington Royals. Vittek had a two-run single as part of the Royals 6-run seventh inning rally. However, Burlington came up short again in extra innings. We'll keep monitoring Vittek's progress and see what comes to be for the former Mount star.