Nationals Set To Kick Off At RFK in '07

The Washington Nationals will open the 2007 season at home, the first time since baseball returned to the District that the club will play its first game at RFK Stadium.

Katy Feeney, Major League Baseball's senior vice president in charge of scheduling, said yesterday, "They will be opening at home next year." The opponent wasn't announced yesterday, though it will likely be a team from the National League East. Nationals President Stan Kasten said he would not comment on the 2007 schedule until it is released.

The master schedule for all 30 teams is being tentatively set, and the date for the Nationals' opener is likely April 2 -- though Feeney said ESPN, which annually broadcasts a game on the Sunday night before the traditional start of the season, hasn't yet selected its game.

The issue is a sensitive one for the Nationals' players, who feel they have been shortchanged when it comes to scheduling over the past several years. They opened last season with a nine-game trip that began in Philadelphia, then opened in New York this season, beginning a stretch in which their first seven games -- and 13 of their first 16 -- were on the road. The last time the Montreal-Washington franchise opened the season at home was 2002.

"We've had hard trips the last two years, and in Montreal, we did the same thing," catcher Brian Schneider said. "Hopefully, this'll allow us to get off to a better start next year and get settled in right away."

The Washington Senators traditionally opened the season at home. But, as Feeney said, "That was a whole different history."

A Little Infield for Their Troubles

The Nationals took full-fledged infield practice for one of the few times all season yesterday afternoon, a move made at the behest of Manager Frank Robinson.

"I just thought, with all the new people around, we could use it," he said. Robinson said the Nationals stopped taking regular infield practice back when the team played in Montreal because the veterans complained about it. Washington entered last night with 108 errors, most in the majors.