Ultimate Baseball Road Trip (30 page)

To be quite frank, there isn’t much happening outside Nationals Ballpark just yet. While the marketing folks have dubbed the area surrounding the park “Natty Town,” it seems a bit like “Nothing Town” to us. In other words, it’s pretty deserted. Unless you’re planning on hitting one of the joints noted below, we would recommend taking advantage of the vibrancy of our nation’s capital, and spending your time elsewhere. Dupont Circle, Alexandria, and Georgetown all have plenty of places to go before the game, and while they are nowhere near the ballpark, they might provide you more with the type of experience you seek (read: a fun experience!).

The best way to get to the ballpark, undoubtedly, is via the Metro. With its vast transit connections, you can park at a friend’s place or come in from the airport and make use of this excellent system. Simply connect with a Green Line train heading toward Navy Yard station, and you’ll rise from the subway terminal just two blocks from the Centerfield Entrance to the ballpark. The bus system is also very extensive and will get you to the ballpark as well.

Metro Info:
www.wmata.com/
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If you must drive, there isn’t too much street parking to be found, but there are plenty of lots surrounding the ballpark, including two enormous garages that actually connect to the park. You will likely have to pay upwards of $25 to park, but you won’t have trouble finding a place to do it. If you’re as passionate about free parking as we are, try crossing over Capitol Street and looking behind the industrial complex near the corner of “T” and Water Streets.

Josh:
Passionate about free parking!

Kevin:
Yeah, by that we mean “if you’re a cheapskate like us.”

Most people don’t enter the park through the Home Plate Gate, but those who do are treated to a walk down memory lane—Washington baseball style—as they approach. Every major milestone is captured in stone, from the return of baseball to D.C. with the Nats, to the departure of the two incarnations of the Senators franchises and the garnering of their only World Series, to the Homestead/Washington Grays winning the last of their Negro League titles. The memorial is not the best monument in a city where monuments reign supreme, but it is a nice way to bring together the disparate factions of D.C. baseball history and honor them all in one location.

A sneak-peek inside the ballpark from S. Capitol Street SE through the Third Base Gate provides a glimpse of a playing field that lies twenty-three feet below street level.

The street that runs into the Centerfield Gate is blocked off before the game to create a pregame neighborhood atmosphere. Here you’ll find street vendors hawking everything from water, to chips, peanuts, sunglasses, and official Nationals jerseys and hats. One day, when Natty Town comes into its own, Half Street may well be a pregame ballpark gem akin to Eutaw Street in Baltimore. For now, it’s only halfway there.

The two large parking structures that run along N Street are fairly unsightly for a ballpark, but do have a nice little
decorative element to them: silver balls. Perhaps to distract the eye from the fact that the main entrance to the ballpark in nestled between these two enormous parking structures, the designers lined the façade with silver baseballs, giving it the look of a Christmas card scene during the summer.

There have been other ballparks where we’ve warned that you’d have to walk a country mile to get to anything worth munching on or drinking. But to be quite frank, no ballpark has less going on in its immediate vicinity than Nationals Park. More than three years after the ballpark first opened, the neighborhood was still being built around it. The Navy Yard, or Capitol Waterfront, as it is now being called, was still, quite literally, under construction. High rise condos were going up fast, but sales have been slower than Pirates playoff tickets.

To illustrate how dead the neighborhood outside the ballpark really is, a national coffee chain based in Seattle was closed at 3:00 p.m. on the day of a 6:00 p.m. game. We didn’t think this coffee company ever closed, at any location, for any reason. At some point in the future, people will actually be living in this part of town and they’ll need places to go out, eat, and have some drinks before the game. But as of now, it’s slim pickin’s and slim just hung a “be back later” sign on the door.

Corner of M and 4th Street

www.sizzlingexpress.com

This is a quick-bite kind of place, ideal for grabbing something on the go. Chinese, Italian deli and pasta, Sushi, and Mexican offerings are on the menu, as well as the steak and cheese sandwich, other sandwiches, and smoothies—and most everything is good. But it’s a buffet, and like all buffets, you have to go for what looks fresh, not what you’d actually want to choose to eat. If you’ve just come four hundred miles and don’t have time for a full sit-down meal, this place can fill the void. But beware, it can be costly.

Kevin:
Worst restaurant nickname ever: SizzEx?

Josh:
Sounds like hip-hop for doing the nasty.

1100 New Jersey Ave. SE

www.fiveguys.com

Okay, we like Five Guys. It’s as good a fast food burger as you’re going to find and you get a mountain of fries. It’s a tasty burger with fresh ingredients, the burger patties are packed by hand (not frozen), and the fries are made from real potatoes you can see. Though it’s a regional chain, it’s going national, and though the prices are a bit high, Five Guys serves up a quality burger experience and is a great place for pregame grubbing. The only suggestions we might make: Let us order the burgers rare and serve some shakes to go with them. And oh yeah, open a Five Guys inside the park.

140 L St. SE

Don’t let the name fool you, this place is the bar/cafe inside a Marriott and nothing more. About the only baseball-related thing we could find was the green carpet that looked more like real grass than the turf at RFK once did.

1102 8th St. SE

For a taste of soul food and barbecue in D.C., check out Levi’s Port Café. The cue is served North Carolina style, which means a vinegar-based sauce covers the tender bites of pulled pork. Fried chicken, mac-n-cheese, yams, peach cobbler, and sweet tea also make for a mighty fine meal. The food’s all good at Levi’s. This is a locals’ place that can be a little sketchy after hours, but you can handle yourself, right?

1229 Half St. SE

and

Das Bullpen

25 M St. SE

www.thebullpendc.com/www/

The Bullpen calls itself a park, but really it’s a combination tailgate and beer garden located directly across the street from the Centerfield Entrance, featuring beer served in cups, live music, and tailgating games. Get under the tents if you can on hot days. It’s likely your best chance for a festive good time before the game if you’d like to walk into the ballpark.

1205 First St. SE

http://justinscafe.com/

Justin’s is small café, and only partly sports bar. This place features a large variety of panini sandwiches and American-Neapolitan pizzas. Kevin had the Mutz and Sauce, which is fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce with sausage as extra. While the toppings were fairly standard, the crust was topnotch and kept him going back for another slice. Josh had the Rutledge sandwich, which is grilled chicken breast, chopped arugula, roasted red pepper pesto, with balsamic vinegar on toasted ciabatta, which he found delightful.

Kevin:
Really? Delightful?

Josh:
I call ’em like I see ’em.

The outside of the ballpark is a bit uninspired in its design, with gray and white slate tiles being used, perhaps to be reminiscent in some way of the city’s great monuments and memorials. It doesn’t really work and the ballpark looks like it could be the home of the D.C. United MLS team, just as easily as it could be an airplane hangar. However, the ballpark’s interior more than makes up for any deficiencies of the exterior. Once inside, you’re treated to the sights, sounds, and smells that make a ballpark special. Nationals Park feels like a ballpark should on the inside: intimate, well apportioned, and roomy enough to get around easily, with seats that are tucked in close to the action. Sight lines have been well protected in most areas. The playing surface lies twenty-three feet below street level and the bleachers in left aren’t too high, allowing for excellent views of the city. Many fans seated inside can see the Capitol building dome and the Washington Monument. This was no doubt a difficult challenge in the design, because D.C. doesn’t have enormous sky-scrapers dominating its skyline. A city building ordinance keeps buildings lower than in many other cities so they do not dwarf the monuments and memorials that give D.C. its flavor.

Most fans enter the ballpark through the Center Field Gate, which opens into the Center Field Plaza two and a half hours before game time, and is the only area accessible at that time. This airy space gives fans access to batting practice home runs, pregame eating and drinking establishments, and a kids’ area with batting and pitching cages.

Entering the Centerfield Plaza through the Centerfield Gate, one is immediately taken with the images of three statues looming overhead from Washington baseball past.…

Many experts consider Josh Gibson to be the best hitter to have ever played the game of baseball at any level. He played most of his career with the Homestead Grays, who though they were from Pittsburgh, played their home games for many seasons in D.C. Though records kept in the Negro Leagues were not always meticulously accurate, and while some competition was against barnstorming teams, The Baseball Hall of Fame credits the man often called “The Black Babe Ruth” with more than eight hundred home runs and a lifetime batting average of .359. He led the Negro National League in dingers for ten straight years. Legend has it that Josh Gibson hit the only fair ball out of Yankee Stadium. He died just a few months before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and is buried in Pittsburgh.

Walter Johnson played twenty-one seasons for the Senators between 1907 and 1927, and served as the club’s manager for four more. One of the most physically dominating pitchers of any era, Johnson was said to be a long, tall drink of water with a slow windup that culminated in a sidearm thunderbolt when released. He led the big leagues in strikeouts twelve times—and eight seasons in a row—more than any other player. Johnson was the career strikeout leader for more than five decades. He remains the all-time leader in shutouts with 110.

Frank Oliver Howard played outfield for the Senators from 1965 through 1971. He stood six feet eight inches tall and was nicknamed the “Washington Monument” for his height and the “Capital Punisher” for how he treated the baseball.
His 237 home runs as a Washington Senator remains a Washington-based-team record. Many of Hondo’s accomplishments are forgotten perhaps because the Senators teams he played for were so woefully bad.

Josh:
Hey, where did you get that ball?