D.C. Reunited

By Johanna Neuman

April 4, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The weather was hardly the essence of spring. Winds gusted up to 26 mph and the temperature rarely broke the 50-degree mark. The dress code was hats, gloves and ski jackets.

But for 25,453 intrepid people who paid to see the Washington Nationals play an exhibition game against the New York Mets at RFK Stadium on Sunday, the day had all the promise of spring. Thirty-four years after the Washington Senators slunk out of town to become the Texas Rangers, big league baseball returned to the nation’s capital. And no amount of frigid air could chill the joy.

Brad Snyder, 65, grew up when baseball was a national pastime, and the nation’s capital had a team.

“The Constitution is here, baseball should be here too,” said Snyder, who runs a charity organization for combat veterans’ families. Accompanied by two sons and two sons-in-law, he added, “We are going to see the history of the first game.”

Fred Phillips, a 46-year-old Washingtonian who works for the Communications Workers of America, remembers as a kid when his grandmother gave him $1 -- the cost of a general admission ticket -- and he would sit in the upper deck, eat hot dogs and go down to the field to seek autographs from Frank Howard and Ted Williams.

“I thought I wouldn’t live to see this day,” he said.

And Aviva Kempner, a filmmaker who produced a documentary on Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, was nearly speechless.

“I dedicated my movie to the return of baseball to Washington,” she said. “I’m in heaven.”

The fans were emotional and supportive. They roared when Tomo Ohka’s first pitch was a strike. They applauded when the Mets failed to score in the first inning. They stayed, most of them, until the ninth, when they rose to their feet to try to generate some offense before the Nationals lost, 4-3.

They booed when City Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp was introduced -- she nearly killed the deal to bring baseball back to D.C. by questioning the financial arrangements to build a stadium -- and cheered wildly for Mayor Anthony Williams, who was tireless in lobbying Major League Baseball for a team. The 62-year-old mayor threw out the first ball Sunday.

On April 14, when the Nationals play their home opener -- they open the season today at Philadelphia -- President Bush gets the honors. Every president since William Howard Taft in 1910 to Richard Nixon in 1971 attended the home opener in Washington, and the Nationals are eager to restore the tradition.

The deal to move the Expos from Montreal to Washington -- word is Commissioner Bud Selig wanted to call the team the Senators but Williams pointed out that disenfranchised D.C. residents might resent the name because they don’t have any senators -- was approved at the end of 2004. Ever since, officials at RFK Stadium have been hustling to ready the field -- still used by D.C. United of Major League Soccer-- for baseball.

They put a hydraulic lift under the pitching mound so it could be lowered for soccer matches, and put some seats on rails that could be moved off the field. The $14-million renovation left some things to be desired -- there is only one scoreboard, high above the field, and no video screen.

The clubhouse needs work -- there are no nameplates on the players’ lockers and Manager Frank Robinson said the bullpen mounds need more clay in them and the front of the mound has a lip on it that a ball could hit.

“I compare it to playing off-Broadway,” he said. “Get the kinks out and get ready for opening night.”

Still, players who for years labored in front of empty stands at Montreal were almost as emotional as the crowd.

“That opening ovation, we haven’t had that before,” pitcher Joey Eischen said. “That really got all of us going. And booing the other team? That’s something we haven’t heard.”

Outfielder Terrmel Sledge wasn’t in the starting lineup but he came out before the game just to look at the crowd and sign some autographs.

“To have this many fans here for an exhibition game, I can’t even put it into words,” said Sledge, who was put in late in the game. “It’s unbelievable.”

Robinson, too, expressed his appreciation for the fans, saying, “We didn’t give them much to yell about and they stayed until the end. On the 14th the crowd will be bigger and hopefully we’ll give them more to cheer about.”

With the loss, the Nationals assured that they came back in the same way they left -- losing to a New York team. Except in 1971, fans were so angry at the departing Senators that with two out in the ninth inning and the Senators leading the Yankees, 7-5, they tore up the field and umpires awarded the victory to the Yankees by forfeit.

The fans of the new team are eager to cheer again -- officials say the home opener is sold out and that 22,000 season tickets have been sold. Fans Sunday didn’t seem to mind the debut loss too much. Maybe the proximity to politics has conditioned them to hold out for another day.

“It’s pretty cold to play baseball,” said Jose Almanzar, a 16-year-old right fielder at Archbishop Carroll High in Washington. “There’s better ball to come.”

Joshua Hayes, who lives in Culpepper, Va. and came with his 3-year-old-son Caleb, is happy to have a National League team in the area. A Cardinal fan, he said, “I’m just happy I don’t have to go to St. Louis or Philadelphia to see them.”

And John Biegler, who is from Washington but lives in New York, drove from Manhattan so he could be at RFK Stadium when the gates opened at 8 a.m. He said he waited on the third base line overlooking the Nationals’ dugout seeking autographs until the game began at 12:07 p.m.

He was too moved for words. Or maybe he was too cold.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Opening Day Facts

* TODAY: Washington at Philadelphia, 12:05 p.m. PDT. Starting pitchers: Jon Lieber vs. Livan Hernandez.

* HOME OPENER: Baseball returns to Washington on April 14 at RFK Stadium when the Nationals play host to Arizona at 4:05 p.m. PDT.

2005 Nationals

Lineup

LF...Brad Wilkerson

* Key stats: .255 BA, 32 HRs, 67 RBIs

SS...Cristian Guzman

* Key stats: .274 BA, 8 HRs, 46 RBIs*

2B...Jose Vidro