Nationals Park

All summer, I've had this post started and sitting in my draft folder. I guess at least this way I'll get it out before the World Series is over:

Washington, D.C.'s new baseball stadium - Nationals Park - opened this spring, giving the capital's new team a brand-new stadium after three years of playing in the crumbling confines of RFK Stadium. The beginning of the season brought high hopes for a decent team and a signature park.

Unfortunately, neither wish was fulfilled.

The team has been miserable, hit by injuries and a lock to have triple-digit losses. The park isn't quite as bad as the performances it has housed, but it, too, certainly is a disappointment.

The pre-opening promotional materials hyped the park as continuing in the best tradition of the post-Camden Yards "retro" parks. But the best features of the truely old parks and the new crop of imitators are the intimacy and charm - two aspects completely missing from Nationals Park.

The D.C. area offers many architectural gems the park could have played off. It could have incorporated aspects of the Capitol dome, the only major landmark visible from the stadium. It could have put in subtle classical touches, maybe some columns to mimic the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials. Alternatively, it could have made the most of its location in a former industrial area, and gone with an exposed brick-and-steel construction which has worked for several of the other new parks.

Instead, the decision was apparently made to go with another option. The architects appear to have toured the city of Washington, and decided the most exciting style along the streets were not the classical symbols of government. Instead, they went with the buildings that housed the actual workers of that government - the park appears to have been based on the style of the hulking concrete Federal offices that blot the downtown landscape.

The outside of Nationals Park is a solid wall of white concrete rising out of the street, broken only by a few windows on the back side of the team's offices and luxury suites. On the one side where the seats end at street level, offering a view outside the stadium to the surrounding streets, the single-worst aspect of the park destroys what could have been a redeeming street plaza.

Right where the left-field upper deck ends, in the middle of what would have been the line of sight toward the Capitol and the National Mall, stands a five-story parking garage.

It is the most visible feature of the park for the vast majority of fans who arrive at the stadium via the nearest Metro station, and it's just the most glaring example of the way good things have been overshadowed by the areas where the stadium doesn't live up to the potential.

The view of the Captiol, for instance. Thanks to the parking garage in left-field, the dome is only visible from a handful of the upper upper-deck seats. The team also made a big deal of the decision to plant a row of cherry trees along the plaza in left field, which would in theory provide an iconic view in early spring when the pink-blossomed trees dominate the scenery along Washington's streets. In reality, the handful of trees are too few to draw the eye, except as out-of-place oddities.

There are bright spots, especially in the conveniences for fans.

There are enough different concession options that I heard someone describe the stadium as a "baseball field surrounded by a food court." The description wasn't meant to be complimentary, but when you attend a game as a fan it is nice to have more options than just the usual hot dog and pretzels. The options include several local vendors and there are some decent values to be had (for a stadium).

The high-def scoreboard is large enough for a clear picture everywhere in the park, without dominating the scene. The display got better as the season went along - at first, it was occasionally hard to find such obscure information as the score of the game, but by the end of the season they found a way to include the necessary information along with the flashier offerings.

In the end, though, what stands out about Nationals Park aren't the things that work well. It's all the ways in which the park could have been good, but just isn't.

rain, rain, sent away

Last night was to be the final home game of the season for the Washington Nationals. Instead, a few hundred fans showed up to sit through a two-hour rain delay before the game was finally canceled without a player ever taking the field.

It was kind of fitting for this Nationals season - they're about to lose 100 games - and to be honest, it was easier sitting through two hours of rain delay than it would have been to watch a bad outing of baseball one more time.

nearing the end

Sunset at Nationals Park
Originally uploaded by slack13

I'm out out Nationals Park for one of the last games I'll see this season (my personal countdown has me working four more games).

I won't really be sad to see this season gone - the Nationals have rarely been pleasurable to watch, and I'm about done of the long days I end up with when I work a day job and a night game. When I do a full three-game series, like this week, my sleep total takes a serious hit.

But I've had a chance to be out at the park for probably more than 20 games this summer, and I've also seen games in Baltimore and Seattle - a good summer all around. I need to put up a few more park reviews, I suppose.

A preview of the Nationals Park review: this photo shows one of the nicest aspects of the park - the view of the Capitol - and also gives a glimpse of the worst aspects of the park - the parking garage in left field that blocks the view for everyone that's not in the upper upper deck.

surprise

Saturday was perhaps the first true spring day of the year in D.C. With the sun shining and clear skies, we decided it was a good time to go check out the construction progress at the new baseball stadium.

We expected to take a look through the fence, walk around the perimeter and be on our way. As we came up to the main outfield gates, there was one other man standing there who had the same impulse. As construction workers walked around us, generally ignoring our spectating, one came over and asked if we wanted to see the view from the seats.

Turns out, it was Greg O'Dell, CEO of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. He was out on a Saturday checking out the park (and, I think, waiting for someone with more clout than us who wanted a personalized tour). Apparently he had a few minutes of downtime, or he was hoping to build some PR karma, and decided to give the random fans a personal, comprehensive tour of the stadium under construction.

The view from the outfield seats turned into the view from the suites, progressing from the simple club level to the box suites to the super-exclusive club down behind home plate, complete with a lounge with one plexiglassed wall overlooking the players' batting cage underneath the seats and, in another area, the press conference room. Then down further, to an area without a field view. The locker room, the training area.

The stadium seems generally ready for Opening Day, although there was still plenty of construction debris to clean away. I imagine there will be slight odds and ends that don't quite get finished up by the first game, but the important stuff - the playing surface, the seats, the scoreboard - certainly look good.

I should be seeing quite a bit more of the stadium this year as a fan and as working press. The unexpected preview wasn't a bad way to spend Saturday afternoon.