New ballpark, new experience

Today was Colleen's first baseball game, and our first ballgame at the Washington Nationals' new ballpark.

It's been a fun weekend -- our friends, the Jensens, are in from out of town and we've been spending the weekend getting reacquainted with the sights and sites of Washington, D.C. It's been a while since we really did the touristy stuff in D.C. as an entire family and we got a fair amount of it in this weekend with them.

Saturday morning we saw the Cherry Blossom Festival parade -- I've lived in Washington for 19 Aprils now and Cate for 18 and this is the first time we've been. We sat on the steps of the National Archives and watched it for as long as possible before the kids expired. This weekend was also my first trip to the National Zoo since 2001. (Inauguration Day, in fact ... don't ask.) The kids had a great time and in particular, Elizabeth and I had a good time walking around and really looking closely at the animals and the supporting materials. She took lots of pictures and we all visited a lot of the park, which has gotten significantly better since I visited in 1989.

But the ballpark was the centerpiece, for me anyway. And I think for Elizabeth as well, who said, "This is so, so SO, awesome!"

Giving a 10-year-old that experience in and of itself is worth it.

Kind of hard to put it into words. For me, it was the first time I got a real charge out of a ballpark since the first time I went to Camden Yards, the week it opened in 1992. Since then, it's seemed like every new park I'd been in or seen was a knock-off.

But Nationals Park, which somehow has yet to get a sponsor's name on it, isn't like Camden Yards or any of the umpteen Sponsor's Name Here Stadiums that have followed it. I'm not an architect and I can't write like one, but even on a cold, wet day it was a breath of fresh air.

I'll leave the architecture criticism to Edward Gunts of The Sun, in Baltimore. They know a little bit about groundbreaking ballparks there, anyway.

Colleen appeared to enjoy the game more than Elizabeth, which belies how the day began. When we were standing on the Metro platform waiting for our train, one rumbled by in the opposite direction and Colleen was none too pleased with how loud it was.

"Dad, can we go home?"

Uhh, no, we're just getting started here. And she was less than thrilled with waiting for the Jensens to join us at the ballpark. But unlike any almost-3-year-old I've ever met, she was content to sit in a ballpark seat and actually watch a ballgame. She was not the reason we left early -- the cold weather and occasional spritz of rain was.

The keen-eyed baseball fan will notice that the scoreboard behind me in the picture above (click to enlarge) not only lists the batting average, but the slugging percentage and on-base percentage of the batter as well. Nice touch. The main scoreboard is gigantic as well.

The kids have their amenities as well. There's a cool play area and moon bounce. Even though the play area is restricted to kids from ages 3-8 ... and only one of our kids currently falls into that range ... Elizabeth, Robert and Colleen all had a good time playing on it.

Colleen has no trouble passing for 3. After the person in charge asked me how old Elizabeth was (I said 8), I told her to act more girly. Worked well enough.

As far as the game, well, I can't say much for Robert's first major league game. (A former major leaguer pitched in his first minor league game for the Camden Riversharks in July 2002.) In Elizabeth's first major league game, Hall of Famer Cal Ripken homered, as did future Hall of Famers Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. (twice). In Colleen's first game, well, future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine had the shortest outing of his career, not getting a batter before leaving with an injury. And Chipper Jones homered.

So what if Robert left his hat in the car, Elizabeth forgot her glasses and everyone was about five degrees too cold. It was a great day.