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Nationals Park, Washington, DC

bmfc1 Sep 06 2017 05:21 AM

Nationals Park is often depicted as fiery, painful, and harsh, inflicting suffering on the guilty. Despite these common depictions of Nationals Park as a place of fire, some other traditions portray Nationals Park as cold. Buddhist - and particularly Tibetan Buddhist - descriptions of Nationals Park feature an equal number of hot and cold areas. Among Christian descriptions Dante's Inferno portrays the innermost (9th) circle of Nationals Park as a frozen lake of blood and guilt.

Benjamin Grimm Sep 06 2017 07:16 AM Re: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

I've attended one game there, on June 6, 2009. The stadium struck me as loud and crass. The stadium announcer seemed more suited for a professional wrestling match than a baseball game. The arrival experience was nice, you exit the Metro and the stadium is at the end of a pedestrian block. So you walk among fans, past vendors and giant costumed Presidents. I also remember liking the scoreboard, especially the clock. I don't recall anything about the food selection.

bmfc1 Sep 06 2017 08:31 AM Re: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

I like the food options at Nationals Park, which includes a Ben's Chili Bowl stand, a Shake Shack, and "G by Mike Isabella" which serves excellent sandwiches. My son likes the beer options which includes a beer only sold at Nationals Park: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... 3435e87f25 (it's "bright and quaffable"!). The "MC" has been changed since Mr. Grimm attended and it's more tolerable. The scoreboard is good. The fans are idiots: rude AND stupid. The mascot is still an effeminate owl.

Frayed Knot Sep 06 2017 05:53 PM Re: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

bmfc1 wrote: The "MC" has been changed since Mr. Grimm attended and it's more tolerable. Really? I caught part of a game from Nats Park on TV the other day and it sounded like the same over-the-top manufactured "spirit" that so pollutes NBA arenas. That's my only real problem with that park. The building itself is fine -- some of their seats are pretty damn high but that's a minor deal -- but there seems to be an attitude where, probably because the city was away from baseball for so long, they feel the place needs an artificial injection of enthusiasm so that they don't seem inferior to more established baseball towns. My view of DC is that there's long been a certain inferiority complex among the populace as compared to the bigger east coast towns (NYC, Philly, Boston) that they're determined to not seem small time. Problem is that the artificial stuff comes off as high-school-ish and makes them look even more small time and I'm sure I don't need to remind you that the announcing crew's cheerleading just adds to it.

themetfairy Sep 06 2017 06:10 PM Re: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

My first visit to Nationals Park, in its opening season, was when I was introduced to bmfc1 by G-Fafif. The only problem was that it was during Passover, and I couldn't have one of the very tempting W shaped pretzels that I saw. I rectified that a couple of years later - The park itself is fine, and some of the views from it are spectacular. The fans are boorish. Even in their first season at RFK, the Nationals fans were trash talking as if they had actually accomplished anything other than stealing another city's team. But fans aside, I have no complaints with the place.

bmfc1 Sep 07 2017 06:19 AM Re: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

Frayed Knot wrote: bmfc1 wrote: The "MC" has been changed since Mr. Grimm attended and it's more tolerable. Really? I caught part of a game from Nats Park on TV the other day and it sounded like the same over-the-top manufactured "spirit" that so pollutes NBA arenas. It's definitely a new guy. He is awful but less awful than his predecessor. They still have tee shirt tosses and the dopey fans count the number of runs after a run is scored and then yell "WOO!" or something like that (my ears are bleeding at that point). Your comments about DC having an inferiority complex is accurate. There is little that I will ever say that's nice about the "sports fans" in this city or Nationals Park (other than said earlier). I even hate the way they salute the Vets. What's fun is walking out of there after a Mets win and seeing Charles Krauthammer with a sad look on his face (which happened in 2015).

Frayed Knot Sep 07 2017 06:43 AM Re: Nationals Park, Washington, DC

bmfc1 wrote: It's definitely a new guy. He is awful but less awful than his predecessor. The disturbing part is that they still think that kind of pro-wrestling hype (as Grimm put it) is needed. So while it's nice that they've upgraded the voice, it's the attitude that's the bigger problem. They still have tee shirt tosses and the dopey fans count the number of runs after a run is scored and then yell "WOO!" or something like that ... Maybe it's just small sample bias, but the handful of times I've been to that park that "cheer" seems to be a favorite of the 65 and older crowd. For those uninitiated, Nats Park fans have a have a variation of the 'J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets' cheer -- and by 'variation of' I mean blatant rip-off -- except that after the 'Nats Nats Nats' part they add a dorky WOOOOO! at the end which just sounds so out of place that it makes you turn around and go 'Huh?!?'