We’re actually home from Washington, D.C., but I had some more thoughts to share, so there will be a couple more posts.
Our hotel in Washington, D.C., the Omni Shoreham, has seen some things.
Rudy Vallee played the grand opening. The Beatles and Sinatra have been there. Bill Clinton had an inaugural ball there.
And baseball teams in town to play the Senators used to stay there. Right in the front window, along with other notes to the hotel’s past, is the story of the Yankees throwing Joe DiMaggio a surprise party there to celebrate his 56-game hitting streak.
Alas, this is no longer so. Too bad, because how cool would it have been to see Aaron Judge in the lobby to thank him for coming back, to congratulate Anthony Volpe on making the team or run into an anonymous middle reliever so I could say I met one of the Yankees at our hotel?
To be honest, I normally would have complained a lot more than I did.
It’s good that the sun was out, but the temperature barely got to 50 degrees, and there was a stiff breeze that put our hoodies to the test.
But I tried not to make too big a deal of it, figuring we were lucky that the Yankees happened to be playing their final exhibition in Washington the last day we were going to be there.
The game itself was nothing spectacular. Washington won 3-0, and the Yankees only got three hits, although one was by Volpe, who also made a really nice play at shortstop. There’s a lot of hype for this kid; here’s hoping he lives up to it.
Also, they played 8 1/2 innings (with Washington winning, there was obviously no bottom of the ninth) in two hours and 30 minutes. It was zippy, but didn’t feel rushed.
Yay, pitch clock!
The only problem was — the game started a little after noon, and with it ending so early, what were we going to do before our 7:30 flight back to Boston? (We went to the National Museum of American History.)
The crowd was probably best measured in fingers and toes, but probably what you’d expect for an exhibition game at noon on a Tuesday.
It did make things pretty funny when they were playing the various hype videos on the scoreboard and … nobody really seemed to care all that much, or even if they did, there just weren’t that many of them.
But hey, it was the first time out this season for the stadium crew, just like it was for the new cashless technology the Nationals are rolling out this year. The concession stands are going to be an adventure, methinks.
Sometime during the middle of the game, Suzi got tired of sitting in the cold, and suggested we head over to the team shop.
It was something we wanted to do, and it did allow for some different views of the ballpark, but I started to get cranky. Part of it was that I was missing the game while I tried to find something I wanted at the shop (I wound up getting a hat), plus I was dropping things, and it was cold, and my feet hurt, and our trip was almost over and… sometimes I just get that way.
But after we left the store, Suzi found the concession stand that was selling ice cream in miniature helmets — and not just helmets, but the City Connect helmets with drawings of the cherry blossoms — and I stopped being cranky.
What can I say? I’m a simple man, and I please easily.
And yes, I was scarfing down ice cream on a chilly day. If you think that’s odd, let’s discuss it over your hot coffee during the middle of the summer.
Given that the ballpark is in our nation’s capital, has a concession called Steak of the Union (which I’m assuming is always strong) and includes racing presidents as between-innings entertainment, it shouldn’t come as a shock that Suzi noticed at one point the Nationals had two players named Adams back-to-back in their lineup.
Knowing that one of them was veteran first baseman Matt Adams, but having no idea who the other was, I said it was Matt Adams and Matt Quincy Adams.
Yes, a little early president humor. At least she liked it.
I need to do more things that make me happy.
Baseball makes me happy.
I need to watch and go to more baseball games this year.
A Silly Place 
We just bought our tickets last night for a Nats game when we’re in DC in June!
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