Baseball Trip - Day 2

We gathered in the hotel lobby, prepared to head to Washington DC. There were two buses with about 40 people on each one. Each one was built to hold 65 passengers, so there was plenty of room to spread out. The bus was very comfortable, with plugs and charging stations at each seat. You could read, scroll through your phone, watch a movie, watch the scenery, or nap in comfort. A nice way to travel.

Our guide outlined the itinerary for the day, and shared some interesting information about the nation’s capitol and the baseball franchise that plays there. He also gave us the daily trivia question, and I’m proud to report that I knew the answer. The question: what slogan was used to describe the Washington Senators by a sportswriter in 1904?The answer: “Washington - first in war, first in peace, and last in the American League”.

Our first stop was on a busy downtown street a couple of blocks from Pennsylvania Avenue. We had an hour of free time to explore the area, so we headed to the White House. I explained to one of the guards that the Dixie League city champions that I had coached should have been invited there to celebrate, but we were not allowed inside the gate. We got a good look at the presidential residence and immaculate grounds and saw some interesting buildings as we hurried back to the bus, stopping to pose for the obligatory picture at the 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue street sign.

The next stop was Union Station, a huge Amtrak terminal and mall filled with shops, restaurants, and interesting people. Most of the people looked like they were confused and in a hurry. Understandable in Washington. We grabbed a hamburger at the famous Shake Shack. The hamburger wasn’t anything extra, but the milkshake was delicious, and offered the first of several samples of ice cream along the east coast.

After lunch we were delivered to a parking lot near the Lincoln Memorial. We had three hours spare time to explore and we made the most of it. There were some limitations, as we found that a significant area of DC was blocked off. Turned out there was a gas leak at the White House (insert your own joke here) and someone had been arrested for making threats. Just another day in Washington, but we could not get close to the Capitol Building or many others that we wanted to see, but there was plenty to see on the west side of the National Mall. We saw the Vietnam War Memorial Wall and the Korean Conflict Memorial. Both of these were very emotional presentations. We saw the DC World War Memorial which was dedicated in 1931 with the hope that it would commemorate the only world war. Sadly, that was not the case. The World War II Memorial area is beautiful, and offers a quiet place to think about the sacrifices made by “the Greatest Generation”.

We elected not to walk the extra mile to the Washington Memorial, but made our way back to the Lincoln Memorial, and boarded the bus. On the way out of the area we stopped to tour the Jefferson Memorial. It was a blessing to be able to see these symbols that represent the greatness of our country, and reflect on what it has taken to establish and preserve our freedom.

After this whirlwind tour, we headed to see a game between The Washington Nationals and our Texas Rangers. Nationals Park is in the middle of a congested downtown area and doesn’t really look like a ball park. When you see the steps leading up to one main entrance you would think you were going into an industrial building; the other main entrance just gave the appearance of turnstiles stretched between office buildings. Once you got inside it was fairly generic, with little attention given to esthetics. It was spacious, with good sight lines, just nothing extra. To me the whole concept seemed like someone decided to squeeze in a stadium among the existing office buildings, restaurants and bars and added a playing field as an afterthought.

As far as the game itself, it was a real letdown if you were a Ranger fan. It was good to see old friend Nathaniel Lowe get a hit for the Nats, but there was little action to enjoy. Washington managed to score 2 runs on 5 hits. Patrick Corbin took a rare complete game loss, pitching well for 8 innings. Texas could not get anything going, with no runs scored on their 3 hits. The only positive thing I could report is that the game only took 1 hour and 50 minutes to complete.

It had been a long day for an old Coot. The step count showed that we had walked over 8 1/2 miles. It was a memorable day for sure, but it was nice to get back to the hotel for some much needed rest. Another full day awaited us on Saturday.

That’s one man’s opinion - what’s yours?