By Harry Jaffe
I am one of the lucky Phillies fans who did not have to take a bus down Interstate 95 to see their beloved team start the 2010 season. Being a D.C. resident who follows the Nationals AND adores the Phillies, I figure I am a decent judge of the fan experience at Nationals Park.
Overall, I am giving team owners the Lerner Family and team President Stan Kasten a B-minus. Weather gets an A-plus. Quality of baseball by the Nationals: D.
Phillies backers are awful fans. Must I associate with them? They are loud, obnoxious and can be way too fervent. They arrived in busloads and carloads and by train for last Monday’s first game of the season. They occupied entire sections of the outfield seats. If there were 40,000 in the stands, I would estimate at least 20,000 were wearing a “P” somewhere on their hat or shirt.
A colleague related this scene: A dad had brought his young son to the game. The kid was dressed in Nationals cap and jersey. Dad and the boy were munching on a hot dog in the plaza by the hot dog stands when some Phillies fans started to sound off in their overheated fashion. The kid got scared and started to cry. Dad grabbed him and walked away.
“I doubt they will be coming back,” she told me.
Did there have to be so many Phils fans in the stands? Stan Kasten and his ticket sellers might argue that they made it especially easy for Philadelphians to buy seats, because they doubted they could fill the stands from the Washington region. It’s a free country. First come, first served.
I think Kasten is shortsighted. I would have marketed to Washingtonians, rather than Philadelphians.
For the first game of the season, you want to nurture your fan base. They are the people who will keep coming back. They will leave their offices on K Street and take the Metro to the ballpark. They will organize a family excursion on a Sunday afternoon. They will bring little kids who will grow up to have the Nats in their hearts.
As soon as the Phils start to lose, and they always do, the Phillies fans will stay home. Kasten killed a lot of fan loyalty last week.
I give the Kasten and the Lerners a decent grade because the ballpark was in great shape. Bathrooms were clean, food was good — though annoyingly slow at times — beer was plentiful and varied.
The Nationals still play like a minor league team. Unless the pitching gets better, this season will look a lot like 2009, when the Nats were the worst in the major leagues. The starting rotation is spinning straight down into the mound.
But in the final analysis, I don’t care who’s playing, who’s yelling, who’s winning. There is nothing quite as sweet as sitting in the stands on a balmy evening and watching a lazy old baseball game.
They call it the national pastime for good reason.
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected]
