#27 RFK Stadium
Times Visited: 2
Dates: 4/17/05 vs. Arizona (W 7-3), 9/23/07 vs. Philly (W 5-3)
After the 2004 season the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals and moved into RFK stadium which hasn’t hosted baseball since the 1971. When the stadium was initially opened in 1961 it was designed to support both football and baseball. Yes, this was the first of the cookie cutters we saw in Philly, New York, St Louis and others. . The Redskins played there until the Mid 90s and the stadium has hosted soccer for a number of years. It didn’t seem completely ready for baseball to return. The Nationals only played for three years at RFK before moving into a new stadium (which I have yet to visit).
I was surprised the first time I went to this stadium how easy it was to drive up to DC on a Sunday. I wouldn’t be as lucky after the game, more on that later. I would say there was a some excitement for the return of the baseball to DC during my first visit. While this stadium didn’t allow for great viewing on some parts of the lower deck, a big problem, the view on the upper deck was great and you could see just about everything in and out of the Stadium. Before the game the team unveiled a new mascot, Screech, who represents the American Bald Eagle. The first homestand was also the beginning of a new DC tradition. The race of the US Presidents, during the 2005 this was only done in cartoon form on the scoreboard, this would change with live people in mascot outfits a year later. After the Sunday game in which the Nats won thanks to a big rally in the seventh I drove up to Philly to catch a Sunday night game. Yes I saw two ballgames on the same day and that wasn’t the first time I did that.
The second time to RFK was for the last National’s game at the ballpark. This is where I could tell the thrill of the team being in DC may have worn off a little. The game wasn’t a sellout and most of the crowd left late in the game. I asked around since the game was actually pretty close. I found out that the Skins were home playing a four o’clock game and people were either going there or home to watch the game. So DC is a football town. One of the highlights of the final game at RFK was watching Hampton Roads’ native Ryan Zimmerman play in the game. The other highlight was the President’s Race, throughout the National’s history of the four Presidential characters, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, Teddy was the one to have never won a race in all those years. During the last race the National’s bullpen came out to stop Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson from winning. However their plan back fired as Roosevelt was at the future National’s ballpark and never showed up to race. The tradition continues at the new stadium with the President’s Race and Teddy still loses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z62vJu1fGQ8