A rare day with the Nats

First of all,Washington’s baseball team isn’t known for excellence. Fact is, it had won nary a playoff or World Series game in all my aging lifetime of 79 years — until last week.

Thus, the day after that happened, I loaded us Blankenship boys into the minivan and celebrated by tooling down the Interstate to the Nationals’ fine new stadium in D.C. Rounding them up was easy. All five of us — myself plus sons Bud and Bob plus grandsons Jamie and Jason — now dwell happily ratcheer in Aquia Harbour.

Our tickets weren’t classy or too costly, at $24 per. They entitled us to seats about three rows back from the fence and a bit to the right of center field. From there I could easily see my favorite, 19-year-old rookie Bryce Harper, as center fielder throw out a runner trying to score from third base at home plate. He’s getting really good at that. Alas, the night we were there against Milwaukee, he went none for four at bat.

I could see little else, including most of the balls hit in the air by either team. You see — but I didn’t because I left my distance glasses in the car — we were seated also right in the glare of a huge bank of stadium lights atop the stadium on the opposite side. Downer.

I tried pulling down the bill of my Nationals cap to where it shielded me from the glare. But that didn’t do much good. So we then decided to sit in some unoccupied seats several rows higher in the stands. That helped, but not much for fly balls.

Also of no help was the giant TV screen that showed all the batters and replays of exciting things for fans on the opposite side of the ball park. I guess that didn’t handicap us too much since there was little or no excitement in the game anyhow.

It was nice to see my other favorite Nats player, Tyler Clippard, get into the game in the ninth inning to protect the home team’s 2-1 lead. His pitching record as an excellent stopper suffered that night as he blew the lead and let Milwaukee win the game.

Even so, and even though I could see very little of the plays and would have enjoyed the TV version much better, it was a lovely night, that first day of fall. I trust the Nats will now do better without me or all my Blankenship boys in person.

The crowd was friendly, not a bit rowdy, and it featured lots of families and couples. There was a big crowd, but not where we sat. Our food and drink choices were tasty, but pricey. A beer cost $8 and a hot dog $4 or thereabouts.

Regardless, it will be a while before I return to D.C. to watch baseball. After all, the last time, as I recall, the replacement Senators were on the verge of departing to Texas and were playing in RFK, where everyone was much closer to the field, by the way. I do remember that game. It was against the White Sox, and also dull. The Senators finally won that “night” game, 6-5 in 23 innings.

You read that right. My buddy and I didn’t get back home to Falls Church until nearly 3 a.m. and our wives wouldn’t believe we had only been at the game. We did get more of our moneys’ worth then than this time.