Another cool thing about Nationals Park in Washington, DC, is the fact that the gates to the stadium open early. Like, REALLY early. They open 2 1/2 hours prior to game time to allow fans to watch both the home team and visiting team batting practice.
I got there at this time, after running out of things I wanted to see in DC and my tour of the Capitol building. (SO not worth it, you see the rotunda, and where the House of Representatives USED to be...if you want to see the Capitol, try to get in contact with the office of your Representative or Senator, and if you don't know who any of them are, stop reading this now and figure it out.) After getting a real workout, I simply entered and sat down in the Right-Center Field seats to catch a breath and rest my legs.
The Nationals were still in Batting Practice, and were working on fundamentals, as any 100-loss team should be. A bunch of players with names I didn't recognize were shagging fly balls and trying to judge hits off of a fungo bat.
There were a few kids trying to get balls in the left field stands, but I was the only person in the right field stands at the time. I normally don't try for balls in BP. I've caught 3 before, but the odds are usually stacked against me and the effort of fighting off a bunch of 11 year olds or ego-maniacal 20-somethings just isn't worth it.
One young player caught a fly ball and looked up in to the right field stands, looking to flip his prize to ANYBODY. Since I was the only one there, he simply said "Hey! Wanna ball?" I must have had a pretty solid look of disbelief as I hadn't even asked, but simply said "Sure!" and made a pretty nice bare-handed catch. (If I say so myself).
I had to look up the name "Maxwell" in the free Nationals program, and the player turned out to be Justin Maxwell, a prospect in the Nationals system who was called up when the rosters expanded on September 1. He seems like he has promise, and is still up and coming, and I'll certainly be paying attention to his career from now on.
It's always a really cool thing to catch a ball, either in BP or a foul ball for those of us lucky enough (I'm not), and its especially cool when a player on the field acknowledges you in the stands. After this, and spending time with the Twins, my perception as a fan is changed, because I know now that players really do care about the fans, and know that we're there, and work really hard to try and keep us entertained. If they don't sign your autograph or flip you a ball, it's not because they're jerks (well, some of them are) but because they're focusing on trying to play well in the game and make you happy that way. You are not entitled to an autograph or a ball, but you are entitled to good baseball.
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