After months off the beat, my gallant return… coming to you not from the back of a donkey cart traipsing through the rocky flats of middle Morocco, but on the Metro in humidly bustling Washington, DC.  Already, in three months, I’ve seen more rain than two plus years in the desert.  I’ve also played more softball, almost.

Life here is nice.  Every weekday morning I take a bus from a small, tree-lined, and flower-filled traffic circle, five minutes from the row house where I live in LeDroit Park, to my place of work in the development department of an international education organization near Dupont Circle.  I prefer the bus, with daylight and passing scenery, over the Metro’s dark tunnels and crowded rush hours.

One of my favorite parts of living in the U.S. is watching baseball.  During my time abroad, I caught precious few live games, depending instead on glorified beat writing and dry box scores.  In 2006, I saw parts of four playoff games at the American Club, gladly missing the finale as the Redbirds raised yet another championship banner among those littered throughout their devastatingly overcrowded girders.  In 2007, when the Loveable Losers in Blue crashed and burned in three games, I watched not an inning.  Thanks to a good baseball buddy, I heard Pat and Ron deliver the calls over the Internet, though with five innings left in what became their final game of the season, the operators of the neighborhood Internet café kicked me out at midnight.

Back to the future.  The Washington Nationals are not as good of a baseball team as their new stadium is fantastic.  As in many other Major League cities, most people utilize public transport to get to the game.  The Metro outfits game-day with increased personal and informative PSAs.  As one walks, takes the escalator, or rides the elevator up from the bowels, and ambles through the exit stalls, the image of the striking ballpark façade, literally only meters away, and sea of seats beyond, and the murmur of a mobilizing fanbase beckon.  Arriving for a night game, the air thick and dusk falling, fans buy overpriced light beer, grab snacks and find their seats.  Vantage points throughout the ballpark include combinations of the Washington Monument, the Anacostia River, and the U.S. Capitol Building.  Towering over centerfield is an HDTV screen large enough to provide all 40,000 plus spectators with a fine alternative to IMAX programming.

-Bart-