April 7, 2005 [LINK]
Thanks to timely hits and a remarkable "cycle" (single, double, triple, home run) by Brad Wilkerson, the Washington Nationals won their first game last night, beating the Phillies 7 to 3. With such a small outfield at Citizens Bank Park, triples must be few and far between. Vinny Castilla got four hits as well, putting an end to his recent "cold streak." This afternoon the Nationals beat the Phillies 5-4, thanks to a tenth-inning home run by Jose Vidro. In their first three games, the Nats have amassed a total of 40 hits. WOW!
I saw a brief video clip of the first D.C. United home game of the season, at RFK Stadium. It looked like they did a pretty good job of doing the rapid switchover to the soccer configuration, and I noticed that the left foul pole was moved to center field along with the movable portion of the lower grandstand. There was a hitch, however: one of the metal support beams scraped the wall as that section was being rotated, causing damage to the area near the Nationals' inside batting practice area.
Several D.C. Council members are disputing the cost estimates for purchasing the land where the new stadium will be built. See washingtonpost.com. No doubt, there will be ugly confrontations and threats as this process moves forward.
En route to the game at Citizens Bank Park on Monday I passed by RFK Stadium, Camden Yards, and the site of Memorial Stadium on the north side of Baltimore. Three of those four pages have new photos; there will be more from RFK soon enough...