.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: right; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: .92em; margin-top: 0px; }
Cole Hamels Dealing in DC, originally uploaded by The700Level
Washington, DC -- The weather felt more like the beginning of April than late May in the nation's capital last night. Cole Hamels took the hill and did everything he could to put the Phils in a position to win it. Unfortunately, the bats have remained frighteningly silent and it wasn't until the 9th inning that the offense gave the arms some support.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
My thoughts on the game as well as the new ball park in DC after the jump.
The fan friendliness of the new ball park started out rather poorly as the ticketing windows were experiencing long technical delays. After battling a delayed Metro system on the way to the game, the lines at the ticket booths were a joke.
After finally securing a $5 ticket (cheap!) we made it in just after first pitch. The ball park is light years ahead of the wretched RFK that it's replacing but when compared to many of the other modern parks around the league I found Nationals Ball Park to be simply unspectacular. The field and sight lines are real nice but the rest of the place lacks any real character or notable aspect of the park that makes it distinct.
We noticed some local favorites in terms of concessions such as Bill Cosby's favorite Ben's Chili Bowl and other somewhat local favorites like Five Guys burgers, etc. There's also a $14 crab cake if that's your sort of thing.
News
We went with the trusty hot dog and weren't real impressed. Not sure what kind of dogs they were using but I've certainly had better in a handful of other parks around the league. At least the beer was cold.
The chilly weather may have kept many people from coming out to the game and it certainly kept fans of both teams fairly quiet for most of the evening. When things started to get interesting late in the eighth and into the ninth there was some fun, harmless back in forth between the Nats fan(s) and Phillies fans.
New chant learned of the night: Lets Go-Nads!
As far as the game, it wasn't exactly a real entertaining one to be at. If the Phils bats didn't get a win after Cole's solid outing, I would have been one angry fan. But Pedro came through and the Phils fans left happy.