I don’t know, but stand outside for forty-five minutes with no gloves on and then you’ll know how my hands feel right about now. I snuck out of work for the meet and greet with the stadium construction workers stop on the Nationals winter caravan, mostly because I wanted an up close and personal peek at the new stadium from within the fences – an opportunity I’d not likely get again before it’s finished. Nice! Plus, Zimmerman swung a bat in his future digs to test it out. Steinbog didn’t like the blogger competition (but got way better info than I did!), insisting I was supposed to be at work so he had the daytime coverage to himself! Ha! I met and shook hands with a few local sports writers (Todd Jacobson, Tim Lemke, Dan Steinberg, Bill Ladson) and a couple others (Svrluga) completely ignored me. Dang, Loverro was there? Really? I’d love to meet the king of printed snark! It was really an odd and somewhat awkward sensation being among the big boys – like I was treading on their turf and they weren’t quite sure how to take me. I tried to be respectful and not hog the perfect position for photo ops and whatnot. Ian Koski was another blogger there and a pleasure to meet him.
Todd Jacobson is “caravaned out” and the Nats PR girl is “mascotted out”. Luckily, today is the last day. Now I’m back in my sterile office with mud caked on my shoes. Hee!
Great pics!!!!! I don’t know why, but I am very excited for our new place. How is it shaping up???? Are the uper decks to high up??? Dose it look like it could be one of the best parks in baseball??? Thank you
Thanks! It’s looking very cool (you know, like a stadium instead of a bunch of concrete piles). The upper decks do look pretty high up, but then I’ve never really evaluated how high RFK’s upper decks are by looking from the field up, so hard to tell a comparison. Charlie Slowes was asking where the press box will be and the guy there explained. I believe Charlie said, “You mean like above the roof?” So I know the press area will be much higher than at RFK. Still too early to tell about being one of the best parks in baseball – but we can certainly hope! It is shiny and new, that’s for sure.
Yup. And the media’s afraid, too. Congrats on being recognized, and for participating.
Speaking for the media, we don’t really care that the press box is as high as it will be. Pittsburgh’s press box is super high up, and it’s fine.
As long as there is a fast elevator to the clubhouse we’ll be fine (and there is the jacuzzi and open bar that we requested).
Heehee – I think the bar and jacuzzi pushed the stadium over the $611 million budget and were slashed.
Besides, you guys have TVs in there, right? Now will they be hi-def or tube?
Thanks for the congrats, DOFAM. It was pretty cool to be recognized. But to clarify – I don’t want to scare the media (yeah, I’m a scary person!) and the idea that my presence does is not something that makes me jump for joy (quite the opposite). I need them around because I write about them too! It behooves me to get along with them rather than make adversaries. I admire the hard work the beat writers and columnists do and the steps they followed to get where they are. Everyone has a job, ya know? I don’t want to be party to putting anyone out of a job. On the other hand, I’m of course flattered that I seem to be doing an okay job here (for no pay) and look forward to expanding my coverage a little bit – which is reward enough for me.
Hey, didn’t Steinberg say you could join him at some of the events he covers? He shouldn’t be complaining :-)
So much for Svrluga- he’s off the cool guy list!
I spoke to Svrluga today – he didn’t know who I was, that was all! It wasn’t an intentional snubbing. :-) I could have maybe introduced myself, but believe it or not, I’m shy!
Though I was saddened they went for the hybrid of modern and classical instead of straight classical, it still should be a beautiful stadium. Hell, lets be honest, anything at this point is better then RFK. I will miss my are of the high 460s, we have a blast up there during games.