Making a kid's first baseball game special

[Count Walewski]

My daughter is going to be attending her first-ever professional baseball game on August 13 against the A's. She's five. This is a major moment in any baseball fan dad's life and I'm hoping it can be a special moment in her life too.

It's a Kids Run the Bases day so we'll be doing that after the game: she enjoys doing it at the softball field by our house so hopefully she enjoys doing it on a pro field too.

Any other tips and tricks? Any way I can ensure an encounter with Screech? I know the Racing Presidents are usually out there greeting people at the CF gate before games.

[imref]

Get their "First Game" certificate at the customer service stands behind Sections 103, 131 and 320

Photo with the racing presidents behind section 131 during the 5th inning

kids play zone near the RF gate

half smoke all-the-way from Ben's Chili Bowl.

We did the kids-run-the-bases with ours, i would recommend heading for the line at the end of the 8th inning.

[HalfSmokes]

Probably not what you want to hear, but don't get there to early and don't force her to stay if it's clear she's miserable. At that age, we stuck with the PNats because making it through a whole game was questionable. Most importantly, ratchet down the pressure on yourself. If it's not memorable, that's fine

[imref]

Probably not what you want to hear, but don't get there to early and don't force her to stay if it's clear she's miserable. At that age, we stuck with the PNats because making it through a whole game was questionable. Most importantly, ratchet down the pressure on yourself. If it's not memorable, that's fine

and for the love of all things good and holy, do NOT buy a ticket on the 1st base side for a day game.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Ice cream...lots and lots of ice cream 

[Natsinpwc]

I think the key as others have said is not expecting too much.  You won’t see much of the game in all likelihood unless she really is a fan. Be ready to spend lots of money also.

[imref]

I think the key as others have said is not expecting too much.  You won’t see much of the game in all likelihood unless she really is a fan. Be ready to spend lots of money also.

first game i attended with my kids was Father's Day 2006 at RFK vs the Yankees. They were toddlers at the time. We finally walked into the park at the start of the 7th inning, but we did see Zimmerman's walk-off.  That was memorable.

So...Count. If you could arrange for a walk-off for your daughter's first game, that would be nice. Or, ask Paul O'Neill to hit two home runs.

[English Natsie]

Abandon her, all alone, with some obnoxious, drunk fans and steal her popcorn and candy-floss. That'll make it a day she'll never forget...  

[welch]

Does she collect baseball cards? We did, the kids on our block. I memorized the back of the cards. We prized the Nats cards, and everyone wanted Mickey Vernon's card. In 1954, we also wanted Roy Sievers. Hold onto the scorecard from the game. If the New Nationals still sell yearbooks, get her one of them, and save the scorecard and yearbook forever. I still have my 1960 Senators yearbook. It's a prize.

[imref]

Does she collect baseball cards? We did, the kids on our block. I memorized the back of the cards. We prized the Nats cards, and everyone wanted Mickey Vernon's card. In 1954, we also wanted Roy Sievers. Hold onto the scorecard from the game. If the New Nationals still sell yearbooks, get her one of them, and save the scorecard and yearbook forever. I still have my 1960 Senators yearbook. It's a prize.

Great idea. We always bought our kids a card set for the year

[Count Walewski]

This was today. It was hot but we survived 9 innings (well, sort of) and ran the bases after the game.

Some notes:

(1) Having grandma there helped. My daughter was unsure if she wanted to see an MLB game but was sure she wanted to see grandma.
(2) Having good seats helped - my instinct was to get the cheapest possible seats because of the risk we'd go home early, but grandma convinced us to shell out for nice seats down the right field line. Being close to action helped.
(3) Speaking of being down the right field line, we were able to sneak down and have front row seats for the President's Race. I have a great picture now of the presidents racing right past my kid.
(4) We snuck down to right behind the right field line ballgirl in the hopes of getting a baseball. Nobody hit a foul ball down there while we were in the area and Lane Thomas seemed to prefer to throw his warmup balls into the center field seats. However, a racing president threw my daughter a t-shirt which was the highlight of the game for her.
(5) She was definitely drawn more to the CF scoreboard than to the action. She asked a lot of questions about what various numbers on the scoreboard meant and this was often the start of me explaining things about baseball to her.

As advised, we left at the start of the 8th inning, exited via the Right Field gate, and got in line for Kids Run the Bases early. We were maybe the 4th or 5th family in line and the line eventually got HUGE. The downside is that we missed the epic 9th inning rally where, after being down 7-2, the Nats came back and won the game.

My daughter insisted we time her running the bases and she made it from first to home in 32.5 seconds - she claims she can do better so I guess we'll be back one day to see if we can improve.

[imref]

Wonderful to hear count!

I did tell you above to arrange for a walk-off