Raves (or just raving mad) for Nationals Park
- Last night's game was not so much about the play on the field as in the facility that hosted the game: $611-million Nationals Park. (Now that's it's built and opened, perhaps we won't need to always prepend the stadium's price to its name any more.) "The senses were overloaded and overwhelmed on an Opening Night unlike any ever witnessed in these parts", the Post reports. The stadium got a presidential endorsement: "Beautiful park," Bush said on ESPN. "I'm real proud for the city. This is going to be great for Washington."
- "I tell you, I don't have any words to describe it," Mark Lerner told the Times. "I really don't. It's amazing."
- Nationals Park completes the return of baseball to Washington, MLB.com's Mike Bauman writes. "[I]t became vividly clear on Sunday night that the Washington Nationals now have a home that is worth calling a home." By comparison, old RFK "was to Major League ballparks what the Bates Motel was to quality lodging."
- "My job description does not include enjoying things," team president Stan Kasten told MLB.com on Opening Night. "But I'm enjoying it nonetheless, kind of on my own."
- Commissioner Bud Selig raved about the park as well. "When I use the word 'cathedral,' I only use it when the park deserves it," he said. "And this is a fabulous stadium." (And it literally will be a cathedral on April 17). As for the trials and tribulations of securing the new ballpark: "Look, nobody ever said that life is easy. Nobody ever said that some of these processes were ever easy. You can look back in retrospect and say there were a lot of difficulties, but here we are."
- While Selig loves the ballpark, he said DC will have to wait its turn to host an All-Star Game. "We have enormous interest in cities wanting all-star games. They're lined up for years to come."
- Broadcaster Jon Miller likens Nationals Park to the famous Italian opera house La Scala. Really. "And, as you know, in opera, there are tragedies, there's redemption, there's great happiness. All of these things happen, and, of course, that is also what could happen here in Washington at this beautiful new yard. From tragic circumstances, losing streaks to redemption to an ultimate championship, it will all play out here. Opera, in the big ballpark along the Anacostia."
- Both the Post and the Times get the fans' reactions, which are generally positive. The articles gloss over, though, some serious problems with concessions that left a lot of people grumbling about long lines and poor quality.
- Even the visiting Atlanta Braves like the park. Mark Kotsay described the visitors clubhouse as "almost as nice as our home clubhouse in Atlanta."
- "The clock started again for baseball in Washington last night," Tom Boswell writes. For the first time since the 1930s, "Washington finds itself with a franchise that has a fighting chance at a future. Thanks to a District-paid ballpark that already has exceeded most expectations, the Nats have the financial foundation necessary to be competitive. If a winning team is built -- far from a certainty -- the Nationals boast a facility that can please fans, gush cash and create credibility."
- "This was a happy, nearly delirious crowd," Marc Fisher concluded. About the only people he found complaining were the media, consigned to a press box high above the field.
- Even Metro worked better than expected (although that may simply be from low expectations).
- So, does anyone not like the ballpark? The Post's architectural critic turns his nose up at the stadium, whining about the stadium's bland exterior and how the process of designing major league baseball stadiums "precludes first-rate, daring and exhilarating architectural form." While Nationals Park provides a better "experience", he believes that RFK is "a better building". Also: "Nationals Park might be a better experience than RFK, but it fails to say anything larger to the city, or the world." (Nevermind that, to the average fan, a "better experience" is far more important that "daring and exhilarating architectural form".)
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