Author Topic: Out of state Nationals Die Hard... Anyone else got that Natitude?  (Read 1096 times)

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Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
When the Nationals played their first game on Thursday, April 14th, 2005, I made the long trek from Arizona to see our inaugural season opener (somehow I scored six additional tickets for everyone in my family and my best friend from Manassas - I had two season tickets that I had already purchased for my parents). I have since been to each season's home opener adding the away opener in Wrigley this season. With the NLDS around the corner, I scored two tickets during the pre-sale for my dad and I - PNC Diamond Club at that (I'll be making the trip from Texas). Anyone else out of state like me and consistently making the trip back to DC? I booked a flight and flew to LA to see B Harp's first game as a Nat this season (too bad Kemp ruined that evening).

My Nationals framed memorabilia is something else as well. My dad worked for the Washington Post (laborer, not a writer) and got me the actual press plates that the newspapers were printed on from the inaugural game. I have one piece framed with the press plate, the Opening Day program, the inaugural ticket stub vs the Diamondbacks, the ticket stub for their first away game ever versus the Phillies, and a ticket stub for their first ever Spring Training game versus the Mets. This is one of seven items that I have since had framed. Now I get to work on my eighth piece... the tickets and program from their first ever playoff game (as well as a picture with my father who is aging quickly unfortunately). Anyways, my living room is a shrine to the Nationals. Any die hards like myself out there? I know I can't be alone...

Offline lastobjective

  • Posts: 4751
  • Natitude
My Nationals framed memorabilia is something else as well. My dad worked for the Washington Post (laborer, not a writer) and got me the actual press plates that the newspapers were printed on from the inaugural game. I have one piece framed with the press plate, the Opening Day program, the inaugural ticket stub vs the Diamondbacks, the ticket stub for their first away game ever versus the Phillies, and a ticket stub for their first ever Spring Training game versus the Mets. This is one of seven items that I have since had framed. Now I get to work on my eighth piece... the tickets and program from their first ever playoff game (as well as a picture with my father who is aging quickly unfortunately). Anyways, my living room is a shrine to the Nationals. Any die hards like myself out there? I know I can't be alone...

That is AWESOME!!! Do you have a picture of the press plates? I'd love to see them!

And there are diehards on here like  you! You have some serious dedication, congrats and good luck!

Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
Yeah... Let me see if I can figure out how to post it on here...

Offline JMW IV

  • Posts: 11345
  • Name on the Front > Name on The Back
I was in the DC area up until Feb. of this year.

as everyone else on this forum knows, i left (divorce) and moved to WV before the season started. we don't get Nats games up here so I have been listening on the MLb At Bat app all season. thank god we have a really good radio broadcast team.

Offline heeman82

  • Posts: 3358
I just got a job offer in South Carolina.  Not sure if I want to take it.. Main reason:  I won't be able to get Nats season tix next year

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Yeah... Let me see if I can figure out how to post it on here...

You can upload to a site like imgur and use the image codes.
Code: [Select]
[img]i.imgur.com/lEttEr5.jpg[/img]
Or hit the "Preview" button beside the post button on the quick reply box, and under the full text entry box there's an option to add an attachment to your post so you can just upload from your computer directly here.

Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
Not sure if this will work...

Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
Here is another one from their last game at RFK and their first game at Nats Park... I scored Presidential Seats for my dad and I for the Inaugural Game in Nats Park. My ticket alone to fly to DC last second from AZ was $700 as I didn't get tickets until two days before Opening Day (was the toughest ticket for me to get by far to a Nationals game).

Offline Kevrock

  • Posts: 13788
  • That’s gonna be a no from me, doge.
Awesome.

Born in DC, raised and currently live in the area. I do love hearing the stories of out of town fans and why they like the Nats, though. I think there was an old thread about that once before.

Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
I was raised in Northern VA, but haven't lived in the area since 1993 when I left for the Navy. Heck, I used to write for the Journal Messenger when I lived in Manassas (was a sports writer prior to joining the Navy). Did six years on a submarine and then got out so I could attend USF for undergrad/football. Played ball in college after getting out of the Navy (hence my name on here - and the only thing I love more than the Nationals), but anxiously waited for the Nationals/Senators to get a team like everyone else on here - my grandmother would share stories with me about Walter Johnson prior to her passing. Might say my dad and I are pretty hardcore Nats fans (although I realize this board has its fair share as well). We spend each night they play going back and forth on the phone... thank God for the MLB package on both the net and DirecTv. I've had the package since the Nats came into existence and rarely miss a game - perks of being single (no BS from a chick during game time) and working out of a home office. What a great night... I'll never forget where I was when Storen smoked three Dodgers in a row!

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
I was raised in Northern VA, but haven't lived in the area since 1993 when I left for the Navy. Heck, I used to write for the Journal Messenger when I lived in Manassas (was a sports writer prior to joining the Navy). Did six years on a submarine and then got out so I could attend USF for undergrad/football. Played ball in college after getting out of the Navy (hence my name on here - and the only thing I love more than the Nationals), but anxiously waited for the Nationals/Senators to get a team like everyone else on here - my grandmother would share stories with me about Walter Johnson prior to her passing. Might say my dad and I are pretty hardcore Nats fans (although I realize this board has its fair share as well). We spend each night they play going back and forth on the phone... thank God for the MLB package on both the net and DirecTv. I've had the package since the Nats came into existence and rarely miss a game - perks of being single (no BS from a chick during game time) and working out of a home office. What a great night... I'll never forget where I was when Storen smoked three Dodgers in a row!

:pimp: :pimp: :pimp:

Offline BrandonK

  • Posts: 8182
  • #LOLNats
Went to that first exhibition at RFK, then the first at Nats Park. Memorabilia from both, as well as a framed Wilk jersey, and a few auto'd MLB balls (from the likes of Brandon Watson, Daryle Ward, Marlon Anderson, etc...). Also have a Nats hardhat from during the build. Pretty neat piece.

Wish I could be there for the first playoff game! Texas transplant too

Offline welch

  • Posts: 16289
  • The Sweetest Right Handed Swing in 1950s Baseball
When the Nationals played their first game on Thursday, April 14th, 2005, I made the long trek from Arizona to see our inaugural season opener (somehow I scored six additional tickets for everyone in my family and my best friend from Manassas - I had two season tickets that I had already purchased for my parents). I have since been to each season's home opener adding the away opener in Wrigley this season. With the NLDS around the corner, I scored two tickets during the pre-sale for my dad and I - PNC Diamond Club at that (I'll be making the trip from Texas). Anyone else out of state like me and consistently making the trip back to DC? I booked a flight and flew to LA to see B Harp's first game as a Nat this season (too bad Kemp ruined that evening).



My Nationals framed memorabilia is something else as well. My dad worked for the Washington Post (laborer, not a writer) and got me the actual press plates that the newspapers were printed on from the inaugural game. I have one piece framed with the press plate, the Opening Day program, the inaugural ticket stub vs the Diamondbacks, the ticket stub for their first away game ever versus the Phillies, and a ticket stub for their first ever Spring Training game versus the Mets. This is one of seven items that I have since had framed. Now I get to work on my eighth piece... the tickets and program from their first ever playoff game (as well as a picture with my father who is aging quickly unfortunately). Anyways, my living room is a shrine to the Nationals. Any die hards like myself out there? I know I can't be alone...

You are not. I live in NYC, but was born in old Garfield Hospital, third generation Washingtonian. My dad worked for PEPCO, at the Bennings Power Plant. Once a season, he got the PEPCO box seats. Other times, somebody's dad wojld take a carload of kids and we'd sit in the bleachers -- 75 cent seats and worth it just for the batting practice baseballs that Killebrew, Lemon, Allison, and Sievers would hit to us.

Bob Wolff, Arch MacDonald, Mickey Vernon, Roy Sievers. The smell of cigar smoke in the stands mixed with the sweet Bond Bread bakery.

The Washington Senators have always been my team, even during that 30 year road trip after the '71 season.

Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
Great story Welch... Talking about Harmon Killebrew... My grandmother went to the 1969 All Star game in RFK (prior to me being born in 1975). She passed on my 30th birthday (just a month and nine days before baseball came back to RFK - I had a ticket for her for Opening Day), but when she left to a better place, she forgot to take the baseball with her that had signatures from Harmon Killebrew, Reggie Jackson, Brooks Robinson, Johnny Bench, and a couple other players from that game. That ball still sits in Manassas at my parents house in a vase with some other baseballs she left me. One day when I settle in a house again (the housing market in AZ was brutal to me), I'll have that stuff on full display.

Feels good waking up this morning knowing we're finally in the playoffs... Life is good!

Offline Minty Fresh

  • Posts: 20386
  • BOOM!
I was born and raised in Massachusetts but my family moved there from the DC area so I grew up a Capitals, Redskins and Yankees fan.  Converted to the Nats when we got a team in 2005.  Plus, I spent nearly three great years living in DC and really want to move back here someday. 

Yesterday was spent with my wife and three kids walking around the entire city showing them where we worked, where we lived and how we got around (plus taking in a few memorials and museums) all while my wife an I reminisced about our time here.  Then, I took my seven-year-old son to his second-ever game last night and we got to watch the Nats clinch their first-ever playoff berth (at least, this iteration of the Nats).  It was a great day and one that I shall never forget.  #NATITUDE

And I make it back to DC every year to take in a series.

Offline USF_Football

  • Posts: 216
Great story Minty Fresh... Being at the game last night would have been something else. I need to stop screwing around and just do the deed and knock a chick up... I've had plenty of opportunities, but having a father-son/father-daughter moment has still eluded me... although I don't mind not having a wife (seems like more hassle than anything now that I stand back and view the relationships of all my married buddies, brothers, and sister). I guess the grass is always greener on the other side. Cool that you and your wife have good memories from DC. What a great city to live in...

Offline mitlen

  • Posts: 66171
  • We had 'em all the way.
I've had the package since the Nats came into existence and rarely miss a game - perks of being single (no BS from a chick during game time) and working out of a home office.

Pre-nups

Offline nfotiu

  • Posts: 5041
I grew up in Canada as an expos fan.  Most everyone else was Blue Jays fans, but for some reason, the expos were my team since I was about 5.   Still upset of Steve Rogers being brought in as a reliever in 81...  Still heartbroken over the 94 season.  Pretty sad watching what was once a thriving team playing in front of a couple dozen fans, and being subject to the Puerto Rico years...  I remember watching a bunch of games in French, or joined on cbc in the 7th inning after national news.

 Moved to Richmond a year or two before the Nats came here, so almost feel like they followed me here.

Offline lastobjective

  • Posts: 4751
  • Natitude
I grew up in Canada as an expos fan.  Most everyone else was Blue Jays fans, but for some reason, the expos were my team since I was about 5.   Still upset of Steve Rogers being brought in as a reliever in 81...  Still heartbroken over the 94 season.  Pretty sad watching what was once a thriving team playing in front of a couple dozen fans, and being subject to the Puerto Rico years...  I remember watching a bunch of games in French, or joined on cbc in the 7th inning after national news.

 Moved to Richmond a year or two before the Nats came here, so almost feel like they followed me here.

Sort of the same thing with me, but I didn't grow up in Canada. Lived in Montreal for 1.5 years (one Expos season). I felt like they followed me here too when I moved to Maryland :lol: that's great that you get to follow your favorite team locally!

Offline wj73

  • Posts: 784
I've had the package since the Nats came into existence and rarely miss a game - perks of being single (no BS from a chick during game time) and working out of a home office.

You do know that there are women out there who actually enjoy baseball . . .   ;)

Offline Vega

  • Posts: 5512
  • Party’s Over
I'm in South Carolina. When I started following baseball more seriously in the summer of '09, I decided that I should get a team, so I applied my Suckiness Formula, which states that one should follow bad teams in order to see them get better, and selected the Nats to be my team.

Offline Shootmaster_44

  • Posts: 16
I grew up in Canada as an expos fan.  Most everyone else was Blue Jays fans, but for some reason, the expos were my team since I was about 5.   Still upset of Steve Rogers being brought in as a reliever in 81...  Still heartbroken over the 94 season.  Pretty sad watching what was once a thriving team playing in front of a couple dozen fans, and being subject to the Puerto Rico years...  I remember watching a bunch of games in French, or joined on cbc in the 7th inning after national news.

 Moved to Richmond a year or two before the Nats came here, so almost feel like they followed me here.

I'm a diehard Expos fan that is now a Nats fan. I've never had the opportunity to see the Nats play in person. I live in Alberta and the nearest NL team to me is likely the Rockies or the Dodgers and that is a three hour flight (plus a two hour drive to the airport). I'm slightly closer to the Mariners as that becomes a 2.5 hour flight. At any rate, I am as big of a Nats fan as you can be out here. I don't post here that often, but even with my slowish internet I try and watch every Nats game on MLB.TV (my cable company doesn't offer Extra Innings).

When I finally make the trek to DC to see the Nats, I will proudly be sporting my Expos hat and a Nats jersey. I still believe the two are the same franchise, despite what the media and the majority of MLB reporters want to think.

Offline welch

  • Posts: 16289
  • The Sweetest Right Handed Swing in 1950s Baseball
I'm a diehard Expos fan that is now a Nats fan. I've never had the opportunity to see the Nats play in person. I live in Alberta and the nearest NL team to me is likely the Rockies or the Dodgers and that is a three hour flight (plus a two hour drive to the airport). I'm slightly closer to the Mariners as that becomes a 2.5 hour flight. At any rate, I am as big of a Nats fan as you can be out here. I don't post here that often, but even with my slowish internet I try and watch every Nats game on MLB.TV (my cable company doesn't offer Extra Innings).

When I finally make the trek to DC to see the Nats, I will proudly be sporting my Expos hat and a Nats jersey. I still believe the two are the same franchise, despite what the media and the majority of MLB reporters want to think.

You are welcome!

We think of the Nats as Washington's team, with special pain because MLB moved our Nats to Minneapolis in 1960, and moved the New Senators to someplace in Texas in 1971. I was happy to get a team again, but I still think MLB treated Monteal disgracefully. Too much like what had been donme to us. I think this team joins the heritage of the Expos to that of the old Nationals, sometimes called the Senators. I'm happy to think of Gary Carter catching a side-arm fastball from Walter Johnson.

It happens that Washington attracts people...it's a magnetic city. The capital city was placed here because it was a few miles from George Washington's estate, and most of the land was just a swamp. It grew, and it grows on you: you are now part Washingtonian, with the right to call the town "The District" (of Columbia) or "Warshnin"...the local accent.

It's a city that drew and kept people from someplace else. Both of my grandfathers came to work for the street-car company. As I grew up in the late '50s and '60s, one of our neighbors was from the exotic state of North Dakota.

(By the way, my company just finished a job for Alberta Treasury Branches...if you see an ATB branch, you can think "Nats fans")