There are good cheese steaks and Italian ices in the stadium, but the longest lines are for a Schmitter, a cheese steak topped with grilled salami and tomatoes and smothered in Thousand Island dressing.
TICKETS: This will be a hard ticket to get, so you may need to resort to sports tour packagers. Two companies with tickets at press time: Stub Hub (www.stubhub.com; $117 and up) and Baseball Tickets (www.tickets-mlb-baseball.com; $125 and up). If you can't snag a ticket for opening week, there are other Philly options: The Nats play a weekend series there July 8-10 and a weekday series Aug. 15-18. Tickets range from $15 for terrace deck to $40 for field level seats. Info: 215-463-1000, www.phillies.com.
WHAT ELSE TO DO: Take a 90-minute ballpark tour to get a close-up view of the visitors' dugouts, Cooperstown Gallery and more. Then get out of the park and explore Independence Hall and the real Liberty Bell. Museum-hop along Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Go from the Old World of the Italian Market to the Hip New World of South Street, which is curb-to-curb shopping and dining. At the Philadelphia Zoo, take a helium balloon ride 400 feet above the city. Info: Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, 215-599-0776, www.gophila.com.
GETTING THERE: Philadelphia is about a 2 1/2-hour drive from Washington. Or take Amtrak (from $47 one way) and the city subway, which has a stop in the stadium parking lot.
May 6-8: San Francisco
Visit baseball's best new ballpark during an early May weekend series at the intimate, neighborhood-friendly SBC Park (built in 2000). A Willie Mays statue and palm trees greet you at the front door; clam chowder in a sourdough bowl and a 40-clove garlic chicken sandwich await you inside. And you just might see a ball blasted into San Francisco Bay.
The view across the bay from the upper deck seats is the most spectacular in all of baseball.
If you can take a few extra days, the Nationals will be at Los Angeles's Dodger Stadium (1962) earlier that week (May 2-4), and in Phoenix at Bank One Ballpark (1998) the following week (May 9-11).
TICKETS: The biggest problem is getting tickets. This park is so beautiful, and the Giants are so good, that season-ticket holders have bought nearly every seat. Try an online ticket broker: At www.tickets-mlb-baseball.com, tickets for the Nats series are $40 and up; at www.tickco.com, $45 and up.
A limited number of bleacher seats (500) are sold each game day for $12 to $17, starting three hours before game time at the King Street ticket window. Some $10 standing-room tickets also are sold, depending on crowd size. If you can't get in, you can watch the game free through the knotholes in the right-field wall. There are spaces for three dozen fans, and ushers rotate the crowd every half-inning. Info: 415-972-2000, www.sfgiants.com.
WHAT ELSE TO DO: Take a ferry to Sausalito to see the art galleries and smart shops, or tour Alcatraz. Visit some of the city's famous neighborhoods, such as Haight-Ashbury, Chinatown, the Mission District and the Presidio. Check out the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market at Green Street, where you can buy heirloom veggies, wild trout and vegan tamales, and eat at outdoor tables. Admire the bay views from the 180-foot-tall Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, or enjoy the sea lions and surf on Ocean Beach, near the Cliff House, where you can toast the Nationals with a cocktail. Info: San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, 415-391-2000, www.sfvisitor.org.
GETTING THERE: Flights on any of the major airlines to San Francisco start at about $225 round trip. To reach the stadium, take the Muni Metro N line/inbound (or specially marked Metro trains on game days); the Second and King Muni Metro station is next to the ballpark. Many Muni buses also stop within one block of the park.
May 27-29: St. Louis
Help the Nationals celebrate Memorial Day weekend and the final year of baseball in St. Louis's Busch Stadium (built in 1966). By next season, the Cardinals will be playing in a new downtown park.
Busch Stadium is one of those 1960s concrete doughnuts we have come to hate, but this one is somewhat loveable. Its rooftop design replicates the Gateway Arch with a series of miniature arches. The plastic grass was replaced with the real thing in 1996. There is a statue of Hall of Fame slugging outfielder Stan "The Man" Musial outside. If you don't like to stand out in a crowd, wear red!
The food is ordinary in this park, with none of St. Louis's famed toasted ravioli to be found. But the peanuts are just-roasted and, of course, the home-brewed beer is fresh.
