Mudville Mom: Take me Out to the Ballgame!

The day I'd long been waiting for finally arrived! My husband and I left Frederick around 9:45 this morning and got to the Washington, DC Navy Yard around 10:45. We parked there for free since we have a car sticker to get onto any military base, and we walked a little less than a mile to Nationals Park. By the time we got there, they had just opened the center field gate, and we were able to watch batting practice. Even though the Nationals were practicing, the Braves' Derek Lowe came out to do some "light tossing" in between starts (he was the opening day starter for the Braves last Thursday). It was impressive watching him throw to the bullpen catcher, who stood over 200 feet from Lowe. The Nats had some good hits, but nothing like watching Adam Dunn take BP last year. We walked around for a while until we got to our seats, which were the best ones we've had so far (just two rows up from George Will). I loved eating ball park food, enjoyed all the action, and basked in the glory of having had Iván Rodriguez wave at me (he had to; I was the loud lady in the seventh row yelling and frantically waving a Puerto Rican flag every time he returned to the dugout at the end of an inning). After two years of trying, I finally got Iván to acknowledge my craziness!

The game itself was a blowout - the Braves beat up on the Nationals 11 to 2. You know how I've said before that there are a lot of exciting things about baseball that I love? Well, there are also stupid things, and the balk rule is one of them. In baseball, if a player makes an "illegal move," it is considered a "balk." With pitchers, there are many many things that can be considered illegal, but most balks are called when the pitcher starts his windup but doesn't go through with the pitch. In that case, any player who is on base gets to move up a base just because. In today's game, Nationals' pitcher Brian Broderick was making his Major League debut. He had the bases loaded, and when Iván (his catcher) called the pitch, he made some sort of gesture with his hand that apparently confused Broderick after he had started his windup. So instead of getting rid of the ball, he just hung on to it, therefore committing a balk. That made the runners all move up a base, so he basically balked in a run. There were also misjudged balls by Ian Desmond (no surprise!) at shortstop (he'll never be an Ozzie Smith!) and Danny Espinosa at second, and it was just not a good game for the Nationals. But I had a great time, and I can't wait to go back.

In other games today, the Tigers beat the Yankees 10-7 (yeay!!!), the Mets beat the Marlins 9-2 (thus putting the Nationals in last place), Kansas City beat the Angels 12-9 (Alex Gordon went 4 for 6), and the Orioles beat the Rays 5-1. That means the Orioles are 3-0, which is great. Roberts went 1 for 5 and Markakis went 2 for 4.

I can't end today's post without giving a big shout out to "Luis," the Cuban season-ticket-holder who gave me fresh batteries for my camera. Muchas gracias, amigo! I hope to see you again at Nationals Park real soon!