The third and final day was under picture perfect skies along the banks of the Anacostia River for the finale of the Rangers/Nats series.

Instead of going by train from the hotel, we decided to park the car at RFK and take the bus shuttle to Nationals Park with the thinking that a quick hop on the bus after the game would get us back to the car in decent fashion for the long ride home. Oops,(if you’ve read post below).

But the highlight of Sunday’s game would be the opportunity to sit with the rich folk in the club seats. Yep, we treated ourselves on this day.

From a viewing perspective, I’m really not very picky about where I sit as I can enjoy the action from anywhere so long as there’s an unobstructed view. The stuff that makes a club seat experience great in my mind is the paraphenalia(baseball related or otherwise) that these sections tend to have that are unique to the club level.

The highlights of the club level at Nationals Park are three pronged from a baseball historian’s standpoint.
1. A pair of murals depicting many of the various baseball cards featuring Washington Senators/Nationals past including some 1974 Topps player cards titled “Washington - National League.” when it appeared that the San Diego Padres were heading to the nation’s capital.

2. Another pair of murals dedicated to the Negro League’s Homestead Grays. While Senators baseball had a history of being completely inept, the Grays had six future Hall of Famers(Cooperstown) and won eight Negro League titles during the 1930’s and 40’s.

3. The hallways were decked out with various photos and other memoribilia depicting the role of patriotism in America’s pastime. One photo that stood out was that of Bret Shephard, a WWII vet who lost his leg in combat and still returned to play a little for the Senators. Coincidentally, Shephard passed away this weekend and the Nats gave a nice video tribute to him during a break in the action.

On to the game. The pregame festivities made note of the late, legendary Post beat writer Shirley Povich as the team named the press box in his honor. Povich’s family was in attendance including son Maury of “The Maury Povich Show”.

I couldn’t help but imagine a scenario in which an official approaches him during the game and says “we’ve just got the paternity tests back Maury, and they reveal that Shirley is…….NOT your father”…followed by hysteria and mayhem and such. Anyhow…..The Nationals would lose again using the same formula, where a strong starting pitching performance would be wrecked by an atrocious bullpen to hand the game and the series to the Washington Senators Texas Rangers by a 5-3 score.

The Nats are just a sad, sad team. A bunch of role players in the starting lineup and a nearly mediocre pitching staff are enough to form the club with the NL’s worst record.

Then again. That’s pretty much what Washington baseball has always been about through the generations, as now they’re “first in war, first in peace and last in the National League“. But with a gem of a ballpark to play in, who’s complaining? Not us as we left the yard knowing that not even the USRT karma could save this team, nor would it help us in making a quick getaway back to Buffalo(see post below).

-Peter Farrell

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