Not Too Many Tears Shed for RFK
posted 6:26 pm Thu September 20, 2007 - Washington
Still, not too many tears are being shed at the thought of departing for a brand new stadium next season. The Nationals' four-game series beginning Thursday against the Philadelphia Phillies marks the end of baseball at RFK, and outfielder Ryan Church pretty much summed up the sentiments around these parts.
So, Ryan, anything you're going to miss about the place?
"Nope."
Nothing at all?
"Nope."
Then, after thinking about it for a few moments, Church did come up with this: "Opening day, 2005. That's it."
Well, then.
It's leaky, it's creaky, there's rust in spots, cement that's been chipped away and seats that show signs of decay. The stadium has, don't forget, been around since 1961, serving as host to baseball's expansion Senators until 1971 and football's Redskins until 1996.
Even after the Nationals go, RFK will remain home to soccer's D.C. United - for three seasons, the teams have shared the stadium, which is why the infield grass is occasionally torn up and why, if you look carefully during a baseball game, you can see where the white soccer lines have been covered with green paint.
"There's a lot of things I won't miss," said catcher Brian Schneider, part of the crew of ex-Expos who brought baseball back to Washington. "The dugouts are tiny - two people can't walk next to each other without going up on the steps. At times, the smell in the dugouts gets to you. But, you know, it's an old stadium, so you can't expect it to smell great, and you can't expect it to be spacious."
Other teams aren't all that broken up about the move, either. Opposing players often have been heard to complain about the cramped quarters in the visiting clubhouse, which actually isn't a whole lot smaller than the tiny home digs.
Bobby Cox played at RFK against the Senators, then managed the Atlanta Braves there against the Nationals.
"Will I miss anything about this stadium? Personally? No," Cox said. "The one name that stands out here was Frank Howard. We'll miss that. But other than that, not much."
When it comes to baseball, Howard's name usually is the first associated with RFK. When he was a slugger for the Senators, he drove a few balls high into the upper deck, and some seats up there are painted white to mark where those homers landed.
Howard is slated to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for RFK's finale Sunday, when the game will begin at 12:05 p.m., an early start in hopes of attracting more fans because the ever-popular Redskins play in Landover, Md., at 4:15 p.m.
After the Phillies and Nationals finish, home plate will be removed so it can be transported a few miles away to what is being called Nationals Park until the naming rights are sold.
"I'm looking forward to the new stadium. Who isn't? ... We've got to catch up with the times," Nationals rookie manager Manny Acta said. "Regardless of nostalgia and all that, we've got to move on. This place is old and obsolete, and I hear all the complaints from fans on the street."
To be fair, there are things that will be remembered fondly about baseball's time in what originally was called D.C. Stadium, then was renamed to honor the late Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in 1969.
Well, mainly two things: Howard's white seats, and the bouncing stands down the left-field line.
Redskins fans used to make those movable stands rock when John Riggins and Dexter Manley were leading Washington to the Super Bowl. It didn't take long for Nationals fans to figure out what a little jumping would do to that section behind the home dugout, and they had plenty of opportunity to hop when the home team was winning more than it lost in the magical first half of its inaugural season.
"That's one thing from 2005 that I'll never forget," Schneider said. "That's a cool thing that's really unique to this stadium. I'll miss that."
What he and other batters won't mind leaving behind are the pitcher-friendly dimensions of RFK - it's 410 feet to straightaway center and the power alleys are at least 380 feet - and many a player has seen what he thought was a homer become an out.
During the Nationals' first year, it became a subject of much conversation and consternation. Just last week, general manager Jim Bowden was talking about a September callup's power and said that a particular flyout "in RFK counts as a homer."
That's also why, after a recent batting practice at the $611 million new park along the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington, Church said: "We're going to be in heaven over there hitting. Wish we could do that now."
Like some fans who waited more than three decades to see baseball return to the nation's capital, there are players who will take an extra look around RFK this weekend, maybe even try to grab a souvenir. Hopefully, though, nothing along the lines of what happened Sept. 30, 1971, when the Senators forfeited their final game before moving to Texas because spectators stormed the RFK field during play to yank out bases or patches of grass.
To players like closer Chad Cordero, this stadium always will be where life as the Nationals began.
"This was our first home. It does mean a lot to this franchise - it was a place to play the last couple of years," said Cordero, who threw the last pitch in Expos history and could wind up as the last man to toe the rubber at RFK. "And who knows? Without this place, we might have been in another city."
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