A Sept. 12 article incorrectly said that the Washington Redskins and the Washington Nationals did not post updates of each other's scores throughout their games the day before. At RFK Stadium the Redskins updates appeared on the auxiliary scoreboards, located on the first and third base lines, and at FedEx Field the Nationals scores ran on the main scoreboard.
Fans' Choice: Horsehide or Pigskin
Nats, Redskins Host Games Simultaneously
Quarterback Mark Brunell waves after the Washington Redskins' 9-7, season-opening victory over the Chicago Bears at FedEx Field.
(By Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Post)
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Monday, September 12, 2005
At 3:46 yesterday afternoon, Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves crushed a two-run home run off Chad Cordero, one of baseball's best relief pitchers. The ball rose above the clock in deep right-center field and into the mezzanine level at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, and perhaps siphoned the playoff hopes out of the Washington Nationals.
Less than two minutes later, nine miles away in Landover, a 6-foot-3, 310-pound meat-slab of a man, Cornelius Griffin of the Washington Redskins, slammed a rookie quarterback from the Chicago Bears to the ground. Before a howling throng of 90,138, Griffin jarred the ball loose, recovered the fumble and ensured the Redskins a victory in their first game of the 2005 season.
For what is believed to be the first time ever, Washington sports fans could choose yesterday afternoon: A Major League Baseball team and a National Football League team from Washington played regular season games here on the same day, at the same time. There was dejection at RFK, delirium at FedEx Field, as summer wended toward fall and baseball gave way to football.
In the spirit of the day's symmetry, the final score of both games was 9-7.
"It's good for the town," said former Chicago Bear and current Redskin Phillip Daniels. "I was used to all the teams playing the same day in Chicago. It made it feel like a real sports town."
If the games signaled the continued progression of a growing sports town, it was lost on both teams. Neither franchise announced the other's score over the public address system. At FedEx Field, the Nationals' score did not appear until 3:05 p.m., two hours after the opening kickoff, along with other major league scores. "Braves 6, Nationals 2" barely elicited a reaction from the crowd.
No mention was made of the Nationals' stirring comeback, which culminated when Ryan Zimmerman singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning before Cordero gave up the decisive home run to Jones.
The Nationals seemed especially interested in snubbing the Redskins. A sampling of what appeared on the RFK scoreboard instead of regular updates on the score from the football stadium to the east:
Southwest Airlines Fan Flyaway contest.
Security Moving and Storage Big Move of the Game.
And Nats-erpiece Theatre, in which the Nationals' Ryan Church acted out an inaudible scene from an Austin Powers movie.
Fans had an easier time getting to and from the games than their teams did winning them. On a day when Metro used its entire fleet of trains to handle big crowds at both stadiums and at the Sept. 11 anniversary Freedom March from the Pentagon to the Mall, riders said they had little trouble getting where they needed to go.
