Click on the images to see a larger version. You can click on the larger versions of the panoramas to see supersized versions.
I had heard a lot of bad stuff about RFK as a stadium, so I was pleasantly surprised by almost everything, especially the crowd:
On Saturday there were nearly 40,000 people there, and they were loud, loved their baseball and loved their team. It was like being at Fenway without the overhanging sense of impending doom that Boston fans have cultivated. Not only did they loudly applaud good plays on both side (obviously louder for the Nationals), but they applauded the ends of innings, and stood up for anything vaguely exciting. RFK uses most of the same canned sound effects and GET LOUD notices on the scoreboards that were so common at the Rogers Centre previous to this year, but the difference at RFK is that they work. I would kill to have a crowd this excited to be watching baseball here in Toronto.
The field itself was nice, and both days our tickets had very good views. There was more foul territory than Fenway but less than Rogers Centre, so field level seats are pretty close. Some Nationals fans told us that the outfield bleachers weren't all that bad, either.
But not everything about RFK was great:
This is the ticket office. While the field is well-sized, the walkways and tunnels inside the stadium are decidedly cramped, so almost anything that isn't a food stand is located outside in a temporary structure.
Tomorrow in part two I'll show you the Team Store, which I found hysterically funny, and talk a bit about the concessions and the bizarre mascot at RFK.
