Even fans of the Seattle Mariners haven’t suffered this long. Today, the fans of Washington, D.C. baseball saw a team don their colors for the first time since the Senators left for Texas in 1971. In a spring training game in front of a sellout crowd of 7,558 at Space Coast Stadium in Melbourne, Florida, the Artists-Formerly-Known-as-the-Montreal-Expos, the Washington Nationals, defeated the New York Mets 5-3.
Tony Armas, Jr. was the starting pitcher for the Nationals. As is the spring training norm, Armas made an early exit, after pitching two scoreless innings, striking out two and allowing no hits. The Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but the Nats tied the game on a two-run blast by Jose Guillen. T.J. Tucker ended up the winning pitcher after working a scoreless sixth. The go-ahead run, the Nats’ fourth of the game, came on an error by Mets’ third baseman Miguel Cairo. Keith Osik also hit a homer for the Nationals.
Fans in the Melbourne area seemed to appreciate the historic nature of today’s game. The Washington Post reports:
“It did feel good once I put it on,” second baseman Jose Vidro said. “And when I went out there, the people were cheering for us once the game started.”
It must have been a nice change from the sparse support in recent years in Montreal.
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An announced sellout of 7,558 began arriving more than five hours before game time, hoping for a photo, autograph — or just a glimpse of a player. The line at the stadium gates was several dozen deep when they opened 1 1/2 hours before the first pitch.
“I’ve been here since 8 a.m. — I don’t want to miss anything,” said Stephen Klatsky of Alexandria, Va., wearing a red Nationals pullover and gingerly holding a crisp white ball with fresh autographs.
“I’ve lived in the D.C. area since 1974, and I’ve been waiting for baseball ever since then. I’m probably (Orioles owner) Peter Angelos’ nightmare. I went to 40 games a year in Baltimore, and now I won’t need to go there for baseball.”
During the second inning, the line of cars backed up on the one-lane road beyond left field stretched for at least half a mile, close to the nearby field where horses can be seen grazing.
Nathan Novak at 4:21 pm
