Despite the rainy day loss

May 12, 2008

Some cool stuff happened at the game. As mentioned, since it wasn’t our turn in the season ticket pool, we bought a Sunday family four-pack, with our seats being in section 226. We considered dugout box seats, but for a family of 4, that would have been $300 + convenience fees. You think the Lerners are cheap? Meet Mr. Chatter! (if you’re reading this, love ya, honey!) I thought that was pretty cool that the cheap seats would be in the second level, until I realized it’s a little misleading. The even numbered 200s are up from the second level, effectively making them the third level. The odd numbers are the true 2nd level. Anyway, we hoped that whoever’s turn it was in our pool wouldn’t show up and given the forecast, we thought odds were in our favor. So while Mr. C and the kiddos stayed in the seats, I ran down to take some pictures of the Mother’s Day pre-game festivities, running into and saying hello to “Coach” Ron on the way, patrolling his usual section. [Photoset]

Last year the player’s moms were honored on the field with a pre-game ceremony. This year, a group of pink-clad breast cancer survivors frolicked on the field and received VIP treatment. They “pinked out” the PNC diamond club seats behind home plate for the game. Debbi Taylor interviewed Susan Sonley, a survivor and supporter of the Susan G. Komen For The Cure, on the field for Nats X-Tra prior to the game. Turns out the Race for the Cure is on my birthday, June 7th! After the interview, I was able to chat briefly with Debbi about her daughter being nearly a year old, remembering she was quite pregnant on Mother’s Day last year. Because that’s what us moms do – chat about kids and pregnancy!

While standing down by the dugout shooting photos, I was stunned when a guy in the camera well below me asked how my lighthouse was doing! Wow! Apparently he works sound (I’m guessing for TV?) and a friend of his had pointed him to my photos taken at RFK last year because he was often in the shots, being next to the Nats dugout on the other side of the field. He also comes from a line of lighthouse servicemen in the Chesapeake, so had been following that side of my life. Too cool! I would love to hear his family stories, but I didn’t even get his name. What a pleasant surprise! We also chatted cameras, of course. Nothing gets me going like chatting about my two passions. So “Hi!” if you’re still reading!

John Lannan, Austin Kearns, and Cristian Guzman (look, you can see the scar on his thumb) enthusiastically autographed the white with pink Curly W hats given out to fans upon entering the stadium. Meanwhile, I noticed the seats I was standing in front of were padded, despite being outside the Presidents Club area. I wasn’t sure why and didn’t believe my eyes, so to test that they really were padded, I bounced up and down on one a few times. Yep, really padded! Another fan told me those are the owners’ seats – which made me feel really silly because earlier while chatting with the PR woman, I jokingly responded, “Can I stay in these seats for the game?” when she asked if I needed anything. Ha! (But wow, it’s fun to dream about the photos I could get from there!!)

The colors were solemnly marched out and the National Anthem sung, so I returned to my family and learned whoever had the day’s tickets had turned them in, and new people with dot-matrix printed stubby tickets showed up in our seats. We dutifully made our way to the third deck, settled in and began feeling confident in the win that was brewing. I put the camera away — as good as it is, distance is not something it can overcome magically. Kind of a bummer – I have no photos of the players using the pink bats this year, which is kind of heartbreaking!

I guess I never should have trooped us all down to Hard Times for cheese fries in the 7th inning. Immediately after was the turning point in the game.

The good thing about being up high was that I was nearly on level with the press box. So meet Chico Harlan, the new beat writer covering the Nationals at the Washington Post. Here’s his introduction.

Posted in Gameday, MLB, Washington Nationals