Feeling Grand Over Nationals' Fixed-Up Digs
Notes from Friday night's "reopening of RFK Stadium."
Metro's Orange Line train to the Stadium-Armory stop nearly full with Nats fans and Cubs fans who dressed in expensive Cubs jerseys and caps worthy of Wilbon. My seat neighbors came from New Orleans to root for the Cubs. . . .
  Even Cubs fans such as Gary and Debbie Roach, from Chicago, received free Washington Nationals baseball caps as part of the team's "grand reopening" on Friday night. (By Ricky Carioti -- The Washington Post) |
The "fan fest" set up on the grassy plaza leading to the stadium featured stuff for kids such as a bounce house, dunk tank, giant slides, pitching machine and T-ball stand. A good grandparent takes his grandchildren to "fan fest" today -- not batting practice. . . .
I wondered how weeks of promotion for this new day for the Washington Nationals and the new owners, the Lerner family, might be torpedoed by that nastygram Major League Baseball (likely with ownership's knowledge) sent city officials this week complaining D.C. had failed to meet construction provisions for the ballpark. But fans didn't care and Theodore N. Lerner signed the papers Friday night, making him official owner of the Nats. Check for $450 million in the mail to MLB, Mark Lerner said.
"The frustrations have been building for a long time," added team president Stan Kasten. "It's hard dealing with delays." The Lerner group and city need to get along better or the next 18 months will be torture for everyone but WRC's gloom-meister Tom Sherwood. . . .
What a sight: Alfonso Soriano greeting fans and shaking hands as they arrived at Gate A. "First time I've ever done that," Soriano said later. "I shook a lot of hands."
Joe Kissel of Rockville was awed: "Things like this make a difference." I saw one frantic woman drag her two preteen daughters into the mob, yelling "it's Soriano" at them. Hmm. Maybe the owners ought to keep Soriano and trade the GM.
Food review: Mezzanine level food court is a nice addition, but lines were much too long, as they were throughout rest of the stadium. More televisions needed for dopes like me standing in line. Even hot dog eating king Takeru Kobayashi would turn his nose up at Natdogs. Nathan's or Sniders grocery must be called. . . .
But nice touch adding the W to a flower bed in front, the Dixieland band playing outside, the ushers trying even harder than they did before ("the Lerners met us at one training session," one said), new furniture, carpeting and a flat screen television in the Nats' clubhouse. Most important to the new owners, the majority of the 35,442 fans in red hats left happy with a 7-6, come-from-behind, Washington victory.
"A great night," Kasten said.
United Stands Apart
Fans will notice Washington Nationals banners alongside those of D.C. United's -- an example of coexistence among the two RFK Stadium tenants. But that's where the comparisons end. While the Nats struggle to escape the cellar of the NL East, United is running away from the other 11 teams in Major League Soccer. Consider these facts: Going into this weekend's games, United had 44 points on a 13-1-5 record, 11 points more than its nearest rival (FC Dallas), and boasted an 13-game unbeaten stretch. It also has seven players and Coach Peter Nowak on the league's all-star team that plays the two-time defending English Premier League champion, Chelsea, Aug. 5 outside Chicago.
With the lengthy regular season slightly more than halfway completed, Nowak, United's intense third-year coach, isn't concerned about his team peaking too soon before the playoffs begin in late October. "For 19 weeks, we try to teach our players to win," Nowak said after practice at the stadium on Wednesday. "First things first -- win the games and the regular season and then worry about the playoffs."
