The Natinals Game

I was originally going to blog about the Natinals game yesterday against the Brewers, and I still am, but then I realized that there was another component to this game that may not have been as obvious

The last post was about how a man came up to me and tried to put me down for being a woman and liking sports. Well, this post is about those people who appreciate the fact that you like sports, find you credible, and go to games with you to share what you both love the most.

Yesterday I was invited to go with a good friend of mine, Jake Russell from the Hogs.net, to see the Washington Nationals (the Natinals) and the Milwaukee Brewers play in Washington, DC. I had not seen Jake in a while, and he did have a "care package" for me that he's been meaning to give to me for the longest time. But I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to see a lot of people before I went back to school and even since I got back with moving in and settling before my classes start next week. And I mean, who would turn down $3 in tickets to a baseball game at a beautiful stadium - regardless of who was playing? So I decided to go...

The game was preceeded with first, a private press conference with the Washington Nationals' newly signed draft pick, Stephen Strasburg, and then a public conference with the fans in the stadium afterwards. Of course, Strasburg was well-recieved by the Washington fans, who are more than eager to see him pitch soon.

Surprisingly, the game wasn't delayed despite the previous rain showers and ominious clouds overhead the stadium. Eventually it started raining and people left their seats, but the grounds crew didn't put the tarp over the field the first time.

J.D. Martin, old head pitcher for the Nats, pitched last night and gave up 2 early runs in the first inning, but the Nats (of course after Jake put on the early rally cap) got the 2 runs back in the following 2 innings. The Brewers, however, got 2 more runs through the 4th inning. At 4-2 in the top of the 8th inning, Brewers lead, the rain started up again, and murmurs in the crowd began, suggesting that the game was going to be called as the grounds crew finally put the tarp on the field. Fortunately for us, the game wasn't called so we got to spend more time at the game but for the Nats, it was much less fortunate. They ended up allowing 3 more runs and only scoring one more run from a Ryan Zimmerman home run in the bottom of the 9th inning. The final score: 7-3, Brewers, followed by post-game fireworks.

Before the actual game started, Jake and I went to go get food and then sat down by the dugout to watch some of the players in batting practice. We sat down in time to see the Brewers players practice hitting. While watching, we took pictures of them, ourselves, and just chatted about random sports topics: Prince Fielder and his short-but-heavy build, Tony Plush a.k.a. Nyjer Morgan of the Nationals, the Sports Junkies, pointing out sports personalities from various local stations, making fun of me not understanding that he was actually ASKING me if I knew who "#42" was (but of course, I knew that he knew, that I knew it was Jackie Robinson), since I just sat there and didn't respond for like 5 minutes...

Throughout the game, Jake and I kept cracking random jokes about the Brewers (i.e. Hey, Prince! Your name should be "Bad," because you're a bad Fielder - I think I died after hearing that one), hurling insults to the umpires for bad calls (i.e. One more eye and you're gonna become a cyclops - also dead after that one), and taking random pictures of ourselves at the game.

Aside from the game...

Jake has been one of my favorite people to go to games with; we ALWAYS end up having a good time. We met at a mutual friend's birthday party, where we went to a bar and watched the Washington Capitals play the Atlanta Thrashers. After that, as I interned with Crystal Palace USA (USL Division II soccer team in Baltimore, MD), he took me to a game I had to work and I got him in the press box with me while I was taking down notes for the game. I definitely plan to travel to bars and games with him during more sporting events.

Oh yea, and about that "care package" I mentioned earlier on... I never really got a chance to sit down and really take everything out until a couple hours ago. Jake already told me what was in there, but when I took the stuff out, it certainly made me smile a whole lot. In it were stats, daily clippings, game notes, roster lists, and programs from the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup playoff run last season. Being the die-hard Caps fan that I am, this was like a whole "more than I could ask for" kind of Christmas gift thing over a "care package." Also thrown in there was an "Inside Pitch" (Nationals program/magazine) with of course "Tony Plush" on the cover and an... umm... a CD from an old boy group, LFO... you might have heard of them, but I wanted it really badly, so now I have it! It just completely made my day and it also reminded me that I've got some awesome friends.

It's always nice to know that there's someone that can appreciate your knowledge enough, and consider you a fun person to accompany them on sporting events. Jake is an awesome friend, but especially after that fool fromt he other night, it definitely made me feel better knowing that my sports knowledge is welcomed and such.

So special shout out to you, buddy! Had an awesome time last night!