Stadium Opened: 1962
Team: Washington Nationals
1st Visit: 4/14/05
Last Visit: 9/23/07
# Games: 49
Food: 5/10
Stadium: 6/10
Important Games Seen:
Washington Nationals' 1st-ever home game (4/14/05), Jimmy Rollins' 36-game hitting streak (10/2/05), got engaged to Staci (7/4/06), last-ever game at RFK (9/23/07)
When I first visited RFK Stadium in 2004, it was not for baseball- it was, for all things, soccer. How did that happen? Well, I wanted to see an old-school ballpark that had little hope of ever seeing a baseball game played in it again. But 3 weeks later, MLB announced the Montreal Expos would be moving to DC. Despite the excitement of that, I could have not have realized how very special this concrete behemoth would become over the next three years.
2005 was a magical season for the new Nationals- at least the first half was. And we were there for alot of it- Mari, Ian, Staci and I became partial season ticket holders. The Nats were much better than anyone expected, and the crowds were bigger than anyone could have hoped for. Chad Cordero was the biggest star, the "Chief" as he was known, the closer who would come in to great applause. And we loved every second from our perch in the right-field seats.
There were major issues with RFK however- there was a major lack of amenities, lines for food were always ridiculous, and for the first season, the team store was a tiny trailer outside the park. The video board was tiny, and searching for a ball-strike count was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Basically, it was often like watching a game in 1971, except it was 2005. But for a place that hadn't hosted baseball in 34 years, and hadn't hosted any major sport in 10 years (the Redskins left in '96), the Nats did the best with what they had to work with.
As great as 2005 was to watch, 2006 was even more special for us personally, as Staci & I got engaged there on the 4th of July. And while the Nats weren't as good, they had the one-year wonder of Alfonso Soriano. Of all the games I've been to, few players were more embraced and exciting than Soriano. Staci's man Ryan Zimmerman had his break-out season in 2006 as well, and we got to see two incredible walk-off home runs by him- one against the Yankees on Father's Day, and the other on July 4th- at the game we got engaged. And of course, Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson was the manager for 2005-06.
But with all the great memories, RFK was a short-term solution and we said goodbye for good in 2007. Nationals Park is a state-of-the-art stadium and is a new favorite, but it will be hard to replicate the 3 magical years at RFK Stadium.
