RFK Stadium

Arizona Diamondbacks @ Washington Nationals
April 14, 2005

Nationals 5, Diamondbacks 3

W: Livan Hernandez
L: Javier Vazquez
S: Chad Cordero
HR: Chad Tracy (ARI), Vinny Castilla (WAS)
Attendance: 45,596
Time of Game: 2 hours, 33 minutes

Stadium Facts

Location: Washington, DC
First Game: April 9, 1962 (Senators), April 14, 2005 (Nationals)
Capacity: 45,596
Type: Open
Surface: Grass

It has been a while since my last post, but this was a good break point anyway: three years down, three to go. These write-ups should be a little easier from here on out because they are a little fresher in my memory. Plus, I already wrote about many of the remaining stadium visits on my fantasy baseball league web site. I will be doing a lot of copying and pasting for the rest of these.

My 2005 schedule consisted of a three stadium tour to the Southeast in May, preceded by a game right here in DC in April and concluded with a trip to Pittsburgh near the end of the season. The first stop was RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. Of all the games on my complete stadium tour, this may have been the most historically significant. This wasn't just an ordinary regular season game. It was the Nationals first regular season game in Washington. It was the return of Major League Baseball to our nation's capital after a 33 year hiatus.

In 2005, the Montreal Expos finally found a new home in Washington, DC and became the Washington Nationals. One of the major selling points for DC in landing the Expos was the availability of a MLB-ready ballpark as well as the guarantee to build a brand new park in short order. The Nationals would call RFK Stadium their home for their first three seasons in DC. Originally built in the early 60's as a multi-purpose baseball and football facility, RFK had since been vacated by baseball's Senators moving to Texas and football's Redskins moving to a brand new stadium in Maryland. For several years leading up to 2005, the only sports franchise occupying the stadium was DC United of Major League Soccer. So significant work had to be done to prepare the facility to host baseball again.

RFK Stadium proved to be an adequate home for the Nationals for three seasons. However, it was (and still is) a bit of a dump. Serving as only a soccer stadium for so long, not a lot of money and effort was put into keeping the stadium in peak condition. It is similar in many ways to other multi-purpose stadiums of its era, but probably not as well maintained. The one unique characteristic of the stadium design is the wavy roof which causes some parts of the upper deck to reach significantly higher than other points. Curiously, one of the narrow parts of the upper deck is directly behind home plate.

The thing I dislike the most about the stadium, from a baseball perspective, is that there are no lower level seats in the outfield and probably close to two thirds of the total seats in the stadium are in the upper deck. The completely enclosed stadium can get extremely hot in the summer too. Only once in a blue moon would you feel the wind blow, which made hot/humid summer afternoons nearly unbearable.

In the early years (and to some extent, still to this day), the Nationals were a bit of a low budget operation. RFK Stadium had very few of the amenities found in nearly every other baseball stadium. The concessions were poorly run and offered very few food and drink selections. Finally, the electronic scoreboards were tiny and largely uninformative. Having said all of that, this is largely understandable since the Nationals had their sights set on a brand new ballpark from their first day in DC. Nationals Park is light years ahead of RFK, but I'll get to that in a later entry.

For three years, RFK Stadium was the best pitcher's park in all of baseball. The deep dimensions to all fields, plus the lack of wind led to some very difficult conditions for hitters. The left and right center field power alleys were listed at a lengthy 380 feet, but most people believed the actual distance was closer to 400 feet. I can honestly say I never saw a cheap home run at RFK.

This first Nationals game in DC was quite an event. It was one of the very few sellouts in the Nats three seasons at RFK. I got to the park several hours prior to the game knowing it was going to be a logistical mess with a large crowd passing through the extra security due to President Bush throwing out the first pitch prior to the game. This was the first time I ever saw a President in person. His first pitch was one of many pre-game festivities.

My seats for this game, and all of the 2005 season, were in the second row of the upper deck way down the left field line. They were not exactly the best seats in the house, but I was looking to save a few bucks in my first go-round as a season ticket holder. In '06-'07, I moved to much better seats directly behind home plate in the upper deck. Those seats were very close to the action, much more so than upper deck seats in any newer park.

Nationals ace Livan Hernandez threw the first pitch to former Notre Dame infielder Craig Counsell with flash bulbs snapping throughout the park. The at bat ended in a called third strike. Hernandez lived up to his workhorse status in this game. Javier Vazquez started the game for the Diamondbacks. Nick Johnson recorded the first hit in the bottom of the first, but neither team scored until the fourth inning.

With two on and one out in the bottom of the fourth, Vinny Castilla drilled a triple down the right field line to give the Nats a 2-0 lead. Castilla scored on a Brian Schneider sacrifice fly to make it 3-0 through five. Two innings later, Castilla had the crowd roaring again when he belted a two run home run to make it 5-0. Hernandez continued to roll, taking a shutout into the ninth inning. However, his shutout bid came to a crashing halt after surrendering a three run home run to Chad Tracy to make it 5-3. Chad Cordero came in and got the final two outs to complete the exciting Nationals victory.

The stars of the game for the Nationals were definitely Livan Hernandez and Vinny Castilla. Hernandez picked up the win. Castilla went 3 for 3 with four runs batted in. He was a single shy of hitting for the cycle. His cycle bid was ruined in the eighth inning when he was hit by a pitch, which did not go over well with the crowd.

The Nationals actually had a pretty good season in 2005. They were in first place as late as June, but slid to a last place finish despite an 81-81 record. Sadly, that has been their high water mark for wins since arriving in DC. The Diamondbacks had a below average season too, although it was a huge improvement after an awful 2004 campaign.

I was a partial season ticket holder for all three Nationals seasons in RFK Stadium, so I probably went to at least 80 games there. It had a lot more to do with my love for baseball than my love for RFK Stadium (which was non-existent). It is great having a MLB team so close to home after three years in which Baltimore was the closest MLB venue. I haven't been back to RFK Stadium since the Nats moved into their new park, but wouldn't be surprised if I make it to a soccer game there again at some point. I certainly don't miss it as a baseball stadium though.

Photo Album

From Washington

From Washington

From Washington

From Washington

From Washington

From Washington

From Washington

Next stadium: Turner Field, Atlanta