Nationals Park: A Scathing Review

Last night I had the unique privilege of seeing, in person, the Phillies bullpen implode yet again.

I won’t bore you with the horrors that happened on the field too much, but instead I will bore you with the horror that is Nationals Park. This was my third visit to the stadium and it is as awful as I remembered it.  Maybe I am biased because I dislike the Nationals and all the stand for and I have never seen the Phillies win in D.C.  My other two experiences were Roy Oswalt’s debut with the Phillies and a Ryan Zimmerman walk-off in a rain delayed debacle.

Outside the park there are maybe two bars and restaurants within reasonable walking distance. There is also a outdoor area called “The Bullpen,” which is basically place for the handful of 20 somethings to play cornhole and eat hot dogs. My guess is it is the Nationals way of trying to get people to do something similar to tailgating.

Waiting inside the main gate are all the presidential mascots. My friends and I took our picture with Thomas Jefferson.  These guys would be cool if they weren’t so stupid.

Our tickets were$15, but we never actually sat in the seats we paid for. We spent a few innings up in the 300 level. The view is about as good as you can hope for being a mile away from the field.  Sight lines on the lower levels are mostly terrible.  It is hard to tell if there is a field walking around the concourse.  If you are sitting in the outfield it is impossible to see the main scoreboard.  There are barely any other places to check on things like pitch speed, scoring decision, and the count in a given at bat. I don’t know about you, but these things are important to me when I watch a baseball game. I was shocked to find out the Nationals don’t really seem to care.

Beer and food prices are comparable if not slightly more expensive to other stadiums I have been to.   Beers in the stadium are between $7.50 and $9.  Beers at bars around the city are the same price. So there isn’t much of a difference, yet another reason this city sucks.

There is a Shake Shack though. I have to give the Nationals that because as far as ballpark food goes that is top notch.  Really, as far as any food goes, you can’t beat a delicious burger and milkshake.

The best part of the night was when we were sitting behind the Nationals dugout. A man was going after a foul ball only to have it deflect right into his mouth.  That is how memorable Nationals Park is.