Getting to the New Ballpark in Washington

on Saturday March 29

Nats v. Orioles – the Final Exhibition Game

I spent most of the week before trying to figure out the best route to Nationals Park using the Metro from downtown.

Nats president Stan Kasten has been exhorting everyone in sight to take the Metro to the Park. Aside from the actual stadium being ready on time, the next most questionable item was whether the extension of the Green Line’s Navy Yard Station would be ready.

If you are reading this and you are not from the DC area – don’t feel bad. We don’t know where these places are, either.

For those who may not be heavy users of the Washington area’s Metrorail system the lines are named for the last stops on each. The Blue Line directions will send you to Largo Town Center or Franconia-Springfield. The Red Line runs between Shady Grove and Glenmont.

I had figured out how to get to the ballpark from my office downtown, so I turned to my attention to getting there from home, which is in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia.

Looking at the subway map, I realized I could come in through, essentially, the back door: If I drove up the Maryland side of the Potomac River, I could park at the Anacostia Metro Station, get on the Green Line going toward Greenbelt and be only one stop from the Navy Yard.

One of the issues I have been thinking about has been: Where do I want my car to be after the game? Clearly, if I can walk out of Nationals Park get on the subway, go one stop and drive home from the Anacostia (with the additional excitement of a trip across the Wilson Bridge) then that will be the way to go.

Following the old rule (never drive to Alaska or Anacostia without a full tank of gas), $70 later, at 12:45, I had the Mullmobile aimed for the Beltway.

I carefully entered the ramp which said “Baltimore” and steered toward the first exit over the Wilson Bridge which is I-295.

Interestingly, the exit was labeled 2A and 2B. This is how I get into trouble – I started thinking about how can it be that first exit is not 1A and 1B.

The reason this leads to trouble is because I am a linear thinker. If I’m involved with the 2B or not 2B issue, then it is absolutely possible that by the time I remember what I am looking for, I will have gone miles past Anacostia and be well on my way to Annapolis.

I DID snap out of it when I realized that the second exit was Exit 1. You might think this solved my mystery, but it only deepened because the exit Mapquest had told me to use was Exit 3.

Lo and behold, the exit after Exit 1 was Exit 2, and then there was Exit 3.

SIDEBAR

There is a scene in one of the “Hitchhikers Guide …” books by the late Douglas Adams where one of the characters lands on a planet and runs into local. The new arrival drops something and asks the native if he saw the object go up or down.

“Down,” he says. “Why?”

“I was just trying to determine which way time runs on this planet,” said the newcomer.

I felt much the same way with the 2-1-2-3 exit sequence.

END SIDEBAR

I didn’t find myself in Annapolis, but I couldn’t remember whether I was supposed to get off at 3A or 3B. On the theory that … Ok, I didn’t have a theory, but I saw a sign which said “METRO” so I got off at 3A which, of course, turned out to be wrong.

It turns out the parking garage for the Anacostia Metro is off Exit 3B and the Metro Station stretches for about three blocks underground.

Parking is free on the weekends, so I pulled in, asked a Metro cop how to get to the station and he pointed to the end of the garage and said the escalator was right there.

I bought a Metro Smartrip card and went down to the platform just as the train pulled in. I hopped on, got off one stop later, went up the escalator marked “BALLPARK” and was a block from the stadium entrance.

This was a great way to go!

As Nat’s manager, Manny Acta, had promised in his pre-game press conference he pulled his starters after six innings and I thought that would be a good time for me to leave the game, too.

Most of the fans agreed with me and Manny and were leaving as well.

At the Metro stop, the platform was jammed to the point where the Metro folks had turned off the escalators and were only letting a few people walk down at a time.

I told the Metro Monitor I was going toward Anacostia, not toward downtown (where the huge proportion of riders would go to change for points north and west, and she let me go.

The Anacostia-train side of the platform was relatively empty and I thought this was the ONLY way to this, at least on weekends when I would be coming to the games from home.

Guess what? Metro is smarter than I gave them credit for.

They started bringing trains into both sides of the station to take the traffic back to one of the transfer stations – L’Enfant Plaza or Gallery Place, leaving those few of us going south toward Branch Avenue to stand and wait.

A Metro person with a microphone was instructing riders which train was going where. After the fourth or fifth train pulled into the station and left toward downtown, several people started shouting at the person with the microphone about having been stranded.

This is the kind of thing which crowd control people know can lead to big trouble in a big hurry. Loud venting spreads like ebola, infecting everyone within earshot.

A couple of Metro cops hurried down the platform and told the people who were upset that the very next train would be going south so please to calm down.

True to their words, the next train pulled in about five minutes later, we all got on, and I was back in the Anacostia parking garage four or five minutes later.

There were two Metro police on duty in the garage who watched me walk to my car, fifteen minutes later, I was sitting in Landini’s ordering a glass of wine.

According to the sign in the station, the last train out of the Navy Yard toward Branch Avenue leaves at about 12:15 am. I am not certain whether that will depend upon when a home game ends, but as the official opening game Sunday night doesn’t begin until 8:15, it is not unlikely that I will be writing until after the last train leaves.

To that end, I will sample the RFK-to-Nationals-Park-Shuttle-Bus and report on that experience.

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