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Welcome Home, Nationals!

© Eugenia E. Gratto

If you'd asked me a year ago if we'd ever get baseball back in Washington, I would have said no way, no day. Baseball? In Washington? It still seemed like a total pipe dream.

But baseball did, in fact, return to the nation's capitol on April 14, the night of the Washington Nationals' home opener at RFK Stadium. The team formerly known as the Montreal Expos packed the veteran stadium, which has hosted nothing but the occasional exposition game since the Washington Senators packed up and moved away, and has captured the hearts of D.C. baseball lovers.

I tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to Opening Day—but no matter. At the next home game on April 16, it was just a matter of walking up to the ticket booths on the side of the stadium and buying a ticket. The stadium is larger than the average baseball stadium, and no one expects any of the rest of the games this season to sell out. At gametime, there were tickets available at the $7, $10 and $15 levels, making a Nationals game not that much more expensive than a trip to any of the minor league parks in the region.

RFK is an older stadium, so some of the amenities aren't up to par if you're used to stadiums built in the past ten years. The food at the stadium leaves something to be desired, although the options were better than they had been any time I attended soccer games there. The bathrooms and concourses are fairly old and dingy, and the stadium doesn't have a state-of-the-art sound or Jumbotron system. But a last-minute change to the stadium rules allows visitors to bring in their own food and drinks (plastic bottles or juice boxes are fine, but no alcoholic beverages), which means you can pack your own peanuts and Cracker Jack, not to mention bottled water and sodas.

The stadium is right on Metro's blue and orange lines, and it struck me, as I was leaving the game, that even as a lifelong baseball fan, the April 16 game was the first I'd ever attended via public transportation. Not only does it make a trip to the stadium quick and fairly painless, but it means you can enjoy a few beers free from any designated driver issues.

The fans make the game, too. As a lifelong Orioles fan, I'd grown awfully used to fans who refuse to get rowdy unless the game's coming down to the wire. When the O's play the Yankees or the Red Sox, the fans for the other team always drown out the home team's fans, hands down. But at RFK, Nationals fans had the place rocking all game long.