Walking into RFK Stadium the night after Opening Day was like having your alarm go off in the middle of a wonderful dream. Opening Day was a picture perfect afternoon for baseball in Washington, DC. Forty-thousand fans decked out in red, full of hope for a new season and full of faith in the Nationals. But on Tuesday night, you’d be lucky if you could hit a fan in red with one of those t-shirt launchers. And find a fan with an ounce of hope for 2007? You’d have an easier time asking Washingtonians to check their Blackberries at the gates. It was 9:02 pm, almost two hours after the first pitch, when the fans suddenly noticed there was a game going on thanks to Dmitri Young’s RBI walk. There was a little spark when Brian Schneider drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but the attention spans were sucked right back out of the stadium as soon Ryan Church fouled out to the catcher.
What happened to all of the optimism from Opening Day? What happened to all of the optimism from two years ago when we were given the gift of a franchise? There were a lot of other cities vying for the Expos, but we got them and it’s time we stop taking them for granted, for better or for worse. We expect the Nationals to win, but the Nationals expect us to root for the home team. If they finish the season in last place, we can blame the management, coaches, players, and mascots, but we better shoulder a share of that blame as well. We all come to RFK with our old baseball allegiances, but we need to stop seeing the Nationals as a means to see our other teams play. We need to support the Nationals and give them a chance, and if that doesn’t work, then we need remember the nightmare that was a Washington without baseball.
1 comment:
I was at both Opening Day and last night's game. While it was half full last night, this is not out of the ordinary for most ball clubs. Here are some attendance numbers from other games so far this season (opening day attendance/2nd game attendance):
Houston:
43,803 (107% full)/31,238 (76%)
Minnesota:
48,711 (107% full)/24,439 (54%)
Seattle:
46,003 (97% full)/25,287 (53%)
Milwaukee:
45,341 (107% full)/22,603 (53%)
Colorado:
48,169 (96% full)/20,547 (41%)
Notice the significant drop-off from game one to game two? This is normal for most teams at the start of the season.
Not to mention that the White Sox drew only 38,000 (94%) to their home opener, and they won the World Series two years ago!
Having gone to a good number of Nats games the past two seasons, I've noticed that attendance is less the first couple of months of the season. Once schools let out, attendance will increase. Will it increase to near capacity? Of course not. But it will in time. Once the Nats are able to place a competitive team on the field, the fans will flock. The Nats are experiencing what most other ballclubs experience. A less than stellar team drawing less than stellar fans to the stadium. Looks like DC has become a MLB city!
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