The Final Nats Game of the Season

At the beginning of the season, I bought a bunch of "coupons" for Nationals games. Some were for free tickets, some were "2-for-1's" - and of course I forgot to use them throughout the season. So, I invited a ton of friends to join me at the Nationals last home game of the season last Thursday. And as luck would have it, Thursday was a horribly rainy day, and mostly everyone backed out. But, there were a few of us who decided to brave the storm and stick it out. To them, a giant THANK YOU for sticking it out!! We were really good pretend die-hard fans ;)

First things first, we decided to metro down to the game. Rain and rush hour in DC equals major traffic (you'd think it never rains here by the way people forget how to drive). So, Katie and Ben and I headed downtown via metro. We purchased, or should I say, cashed in coupons for tickets, and headed into the ballpark. Of course it was raining, but not very badly. When we walked in, this is what we saw ... The infield was covered with a tarp, and everyone that was there was somewhere underneath the covered portions of the consession stands. Ben bought some of the awesome chili cheese fries from Ben's Chili Bowl, which we were happy to help him eat as we stood in the cold and wind and rain. Then Dave & Mei Li came and me us upstairs. We talked and waited and waited and talked. And Dave tried to scale the wall, Superman Style.
When the rain was letting up and we saw some "really official looking people" on the warning track, we decided to go down to the main level, to stake out our seats. At this point, if they tried to kick us out and make us sit in our normal seats, we were going to have some words to say. So we wound up just off to the right side of the Nationals dugout, where we camped ourselves for the next while. And waited. And waited. Not really sure why we did wait, because its not like any of us are actually Nationals fans (do those exist?!), or because we really wanted to be there in the cold-ish rain. But regardless, we stayed. And then, to our surprise, the grounds crew started rolling the tarp up!Only to roll it out again ... apparently they were just trying to get the water off of it. We kept trying to tell what the grounds crew was saying to one another, and trying to figure out who was "in charge" to see if they had any inside scoop on whether the game would be played or not. At one point, someone told us (on the field) that they had to call New York, because that's where the storm was coming from - to see how bad it was. Interesting, because on the giant HD-TV screen the entire time we'd been waiting, we'd been watching the Mets-Cubs game ... in New York. Obviously they were playing. No one told us what was really going on, and then, just about the time we saw the guy we pegged as the one with all the authority, I saw this sign flash up on the screen ... Game over. Or, game thwarted before it began. Oh well, that about wraps up the Nats season ... 500 fans there, on "Fan Appreciation Night" nonetheless, to cheer them on. That's about all the support they've had all season (ok not really, but its pretty pathetic - I think the only game they sold out was Opening Day).

The Nationals players were in the dugout by this time - and we wondered why. The Marlins never even showed their faces.Then we figured it out. To show us their true "fan appreciation," the players came out onto the field and tossed t-shirts into the "crowd" of fans. Thanks to Dave, I took one home. They showed a "highlights" reel of plays up on the big screen, and the fans cheered. I must say, I sort of felt like like I shouldn't be there, since I don't actually have any sort of loyalty to the Nats other than that they are the home town team. What can I say, when they're in the same division as the Braves?! Regardless of any of that though, its so great to have a team so close by that you know you can always get tickets to! And, even if they didn't play that night, it was fun to share it with some friends who weren't afraid to get a little wet! And, now all we have to do is turn in our tickets for a free game next year too - see, the night wasn't a waste at all!