Mission: Diamond Club

September 5, 2006

I am forever grateful to a colleague for taking me to a game of my choice on his company’s season ticket dime in the Diamond Club. It pays to advertise fandom! And what a game it was! Naturally I picked a Cardinals game on the off-chance Gary Bennett would be playing, but that meant a long wait until they came to town this week. I didn’t expect he would be starting after injuring himself against the Marlins last week, so I was delighted to see his name in the lineup on the jumbotron. All the pieces had come together perfectly! Even the clouds that had threatened earlier scampered away by game time not to return until after the game. I was so excited about this day, I hardly slept the night before, making sure the camera battery was charged, my jersey was ready to go, and I had my notebook all prepped and lined for my custom scoring system and packed. Finally, 10:30 AM arrived Monday morning on Labor Day and I was off and running after taking down the top on the Jeep despite the slight chill in the air.

The tickets looked very much like my season tickets only a ribbon across the logo at the top said “PNC Diamond Club” with a shimmery gold outline. Oh, the other major difference was the number of digits before the decimal down next to the dollar sign at the bottom. I realized on the way that I had no idea how to get to Lot 4, the parking lot that corresponded with the ticket in the envelope. We found our way there, though. Definitely not a tailgating hangout area, but awfully convenient to an entrance! We arrived around 11:15 in order to see batting practice from our seats, and surprisingly the gates weren’t open yet. I guess I should have known what time they normally open (I guesstimated 2 hours before game time), but I rarely get to the stadium more than an hour before game-time (and then tailgate until about 5 minutes before!). Since the tickets included a meal in the Diamond Club area, there was no tailgating involved on this day.

We entered the stadium at 11:30 and beelined to our seats where an usher stuck flourescent wristbands on us – indicating we get royal treatment the rest of the game ;-) She also mentioned the “day’s specials” for food. Huh! I noticed Gary Bennett taking batting practice right there on the other side of the netting behind the plate, so took out my camera. Once out of the batting cage, I yelled his name. He turned, but didn’t see me. I wanted to say ‘hi’ and ask how he was doing after the back sprain (and find out if he’d be playing). I kinda waved, but he didn’t see me. I figured I’d pop over to the visitor’s dugout after we ate our hearty PNC #1 Diamond Club meal, but it was pretty mobbed with Cardinals fans, so I wasn’t sure that would work out.

We meandered up to the Diamond Club – well ok, B, my colleague, said he thought he walked fast, but I was practically racing up there! I didn’t want to miss anything on the field and may have been a wee bit excited! Our wrists were checked for flourescent bands upon entering and after passing muster, we walked through the gate into the Diamond Club area. I’d only been in there twice before, but never for something like this. The first time was when my kids ran the diamond after a Sunday game and the line cut through there. The second and last time was when it was used for a staging area for the Grays jersey winners (and I snuck in as a photographer). It presented very differently on those occasions! This time, I was greeted by a restaurant grease-board advertising the day’s specials of maple roasted pork and bbq’d chicken. Beyond, a bar stood on the right, and through the center were buffet tables with a salad bar, potato bar, and bread and desserts. Impressive! I walked the whole thing first before getting a plate and picking my food (surprisingly, I did not find bacon on the potato bar table!).

Even though we were quite early, we were too late to get a seat at the bar overlooking the field and settled for a table behind it where we could kinda sorta see the field through the people at the bar. We ate quickly and then headed back to our seats. By then, field and batting practice were over, so we watched as the grounds crew watered down the basepaths, set up a white curly “W” behind the pitching mound, and created the lines from home plate to the bases (no one was in the dugout, so stopping was pointless). They also polished home plate up, and we commented on how that was the cleanest it would look all day! Our seats were in row 11, which is the last row of the Diamond Club. It looks like “they” tried to cram as many seats in there as possible as walking to them must be approached from exactly the right angle or you get blocked by seats where walkways should be. The pitch between rows is rather shallow as well, so heads in front of you can block the view. Leg room is also a luxury not afforded as much as in the less expensive seats down the baselines. My tush was quite comfy on the blue cushion cover for the hard plastic seat, however. Plus, the two other tickets from B’s company never showed, so we spread out over all four seats with my scorebook taking up a seat of its own, making it all much more manageable.

The view was amazing! Nearly all of my photos were taken through the net, but that was a trade I would make for those seats! Wow! Normally I end up with 30 or so postable photos from a game (where I take nearly 300), but this time I ended up with many postables. I whittled it down to only 88. Not that the game was that exciting – absolutely hardly anything happened for the first six innings. Ortiz walked a couple and the Nats had scattered hits here and there, but to that point, no one scored. Yawn! All the defensive plays were rather routine was well. A grounder to short, a pop to left or right… yadda yadda. The most exciting moment was when Jason Marquis balked to advance Bernie Castro from second to third and Gary Bennett appeared to disagree (but in rewatching on tv later that night, the announcers seemed to think he agreed a balk had occurred).

The guy sitting behind me kept heckling Preston Wilson during every at bat. It was hilarious, if a little embarrassing! He lost his voice while heckling. Speaking of Preston Wilson – Brian Schneider passed him while coming to the field from the bullpen and the two hugged like old buddies and chatted for a moment. Now back to the guy behind me – he mentioned on his trip up to the concourse that he spotted another woman in a Bennett jersey. “Really? A Nationals jersey? Red? Really?” I grilled him on details, hardly believing it! Sure enough, a few innings later, I spotted a woman in a red batting practice jersey with Bennett’s name and number on it from last year. Wow, my trademark on someone else! Could she be a relative? I did ask her after the game – nope, her last name is Bennett, so she got it. But man, she had sweet seats right up in the very front right next to where the netting ends – so easy assumption to make. Meanwhile, unbeknowst to the two of us Bennett jersey wearers, Daverlie 2.0 mentioned the jerseys on the radio broadcast in the second inning when Gary came up to bat. I stayed up to listen to Nats at Night just to savor the occasion! I thought I saw Charlie Slowes looking down at me from the broadcast booth.

Throughout the game, a few people came through our section asking if they could get us any food or beverages. There was none of the loud bellowing of “Bud Light!! Cracker Jacks!!” while vendors carried their wares right in front of where I was trying to take a photo. Although, I’m kinda nostalgic for that familiar stadium bellowing. Although, I didn’t miss the obstructions to my view. There was a family of about six decked out in Cardinals outfits who arrived and were shown to seats two rows in front of us. And stood there fussing over the kids, the seats, the bags… and stood there some more. Being in such close proximity to the field, the six month old baby blocked the entire view from first to second base, so imagine a family standing there for minutes on end. I could hear the ticking of a clock in my brain as I began wondering how long they were going to just stand there! Finally, I couldn’t stand it. “Do you mind sitting down?… Please?” Eventually they clued in to the fact that they were blocking everyone’s view behind them. That didn’t stop them from standing periodically for whatever reason having nothing to do with what was going on on the field throughout the remainder of the game. Everyone around me became vocal about telling them to sit down.

By now you all know how the game ended – fifth win in a row and definitely Ramon Ortiz’s very good day!I didn’t even realize, despite the fact that I had been writing down big fat 0s next to the ‘hits’ line in my scorebook every inning, that Ortiz had a no-hitter going! I was just happy that he was getting a shot at a complete game when he came up to bat lead-off in the bottom of the 8th. So I stood and cheered with everyone. Imagine my shock, particularly after his goofier swings in earlier at bats, when he hit one into the visiting bullpen in left field! I loved being so close to home plate and seeing all the action there. Mostly high fives! Cheering in the fancy schmancy section was just as loud and hearty as in the other areas of the stadium – who could resist being on their feet cheering the home team during all that?! And I was up close and personal to all the papers Jim Bowden shoved out his open window when Ortiz hit the dinger (but not quite close enough to grab one and see what was on it!).

After the game, I hung around and watched Bowden dump water on Ortiz’s head on the field and then carry around a bottle of champagne while interviewed for the radio broadcast and television Nats X-tra. Very cool! I definitely prefer being closer to the home dugout as opposed to my regular seats out in right field. You miss so much out there in the hinterlands, although it is fun to watch the bullpen guys come out and warm up the outfielders between innings. And Kearns-smile-watch continues out there.

This was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience! I even met Screech’s Best Friend and wife on the way out, which was really cool. I found out this morning that they participated in the Racing Rushmores that day too! Wow, that’s so cool! I sooooo want to try that someday. But definitely not as Teddy.

With a little sunshine comes rain: Riding high on the perfect day, perfect game, and general happiness of the moment, I then went and stupidly spoiled everything and my mood is still bummed/suffering from humiliation. But I’ll save that for another post (maybe). I also discovered someone had stolen my monthly parking pass for work out of its pouch on my windshield (as well as the old ones stacked behind it mixed with old parking stubs from previous Nats games). Weird! They serve no purpose to anyone! Which reminds me, I need to run down and get a replacement…

Posted in Washington Nationals