A Review of Nationals Park in Washington

When I graduated college, I had no aspirations of seeing Europe, the Seven Wonders (pick any of them, I'm sure there's like eight sets of Seven Wonders), mountains, or jungles. No, all I wanted to do was just wanted to see the 30 Major League Baseball stadiums. That might seem pretty bland (or "fitting", depending on your impression of me), but that's just who I am.

Yet, despite having a then-girlfriend-now-wife who has always been fond of traveling and enjoys going to baseball games, eight years passed without me seeing a new baseball stadium. In addition to U.S. Cellular, I've been to Wrigley, Progressive, Kauffman, Miller, and the Rogers Centre (the Skydome when I visited).

I had a work conference in Washington and the Nationals were playing the Braves, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to finally cross a new one off the list. Here's notes on my experience at Nationals Park:

• The park has a very clean, new, yet unremarkable look to it. It was a pleasant place to be but it was certainly lacking in a "wow" factor. The outfield deck had plenty of bar/seating areas as well as ledges overlooking the park for you to eat and drink.
• The center field entrance gate:

• Views from my seat:

• The pitching matchup was Max Scherzer vs. Bud Norris, which seemed pretty one sided, but neither guy was on his game. Crooked numbers were posted in each of the first three half-innings.
• A.J. Pierzynski came to the plate in the top of the first and delivered a 2-run double off Scherzer. The dude can still hack it at the plate and this warms my heart.
• The hometown crowd LOVES Dusty Baker. This might be a "Not Matt Williams" effect, but he was cheered whenever he showed his face over the dugout. He also replied to the fans with a kind smile and wave. If he wasn't such a fucknuts with baseball decisions, I could see really loving rooting for Dusty Baker.
• The P.A. announcer was very unremarkable. On a scale of one to Gene Honda, I give him one-and-a-half stars.
• The Nats show the artist and title of each player's walk-up music. I think this is a great feature.
• On the subject of walk-up music, possibly my favorite choice was that of Wilson Ramos. He walks up to "Wilson" by Phish. The crowd chants "WIIILLLL-SSSOONNN" along with the music. An extra bonus: Ramos went 4-4 with 2 RBI, so the Wilson Ramos experience was thoroughly enjoyable.
• Bryce Harper walks up to "The Best Is Yet to Come" by Frank Sinatra. If the best is yet to come for Bryce Harper, we're talking about an inner-circle Hall of Famer.
• The Nationals' ushers don't let you walk down the aisles to your seats during an at-bat. I like this rule.
• Food! The Cell certainly beats the hell out of most ballparks when it comes to food. I asked for some advice in the RRRR regarding what to eat. At the suggestion of a South Side Sox commenter, I found the Island BBQ stand in centerfield that served jerk pork ribs and plantains.

• I could have done with more sauce and seasoning, but these were worth it, especially because I usually don't branch out at ballparks for food that much.  I enjoyed these from a neat outlook point in center field.

• The beer selection was just "eh". I drank mostly Goose Island IPA. It's a bit disappointing that I went with a Chicago beer in Washington, but the only interesting-looking thing they had that I never tried before was a stout, and I wasn't in the mood for a stout.
• I then got a burger from Steak Shack. This is the Smoke Stack burger with bacon, cherry peppers, and Shack Sauce. No cheese. Sorry I'm not sorry. The lighting's not great. Sorry I am sorry.

• "Root, root root for the NATIONALS" had a really bad ring to it during the 7th inning stretch. There really was never meant to be a third syllable there.
• Jonathan Papelbon was actually booed by a decent portion of the hometown crowd when he came on to pitch. He got the save, but all three outs were hard lineouts, one to each outfielder.
• The last out of the game? None other than Gordon Beckham, who pinch-hit in the pitcher's slot. I was quiet for most of the game being alone in an unfamiliar city, but I felt just fine giving him an earful. It was the only time I can remember cheering for Jonathan Papelbon. The Nats won 6-4.
• This was the first time I've ever been to a baseball game alone. It was an interesting experience being able to wander around as I pleased without regard to whether I was spending enough time with others. I'd much rather go to games with other people but there was a certain liberating aspect to it.

More pictures that I took:

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (Spoilers)

Film adaptation (and Jennifer Lawrence) give The Hunger Games trilogy the fitting conclusion that the novels never had.

I read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy quite some time ago and greatly enjoyed the first installment as well as the second, Catching Fire.  Unfortunately, the third novel in the series, Mockingjay was an absolute disaster. It was a brutal slog of a read that intermixed uninteresting slow stretches with action that took place too quickly for it to truly resonate. The story that Collins chose to tell was admittedly a tough one to convey via text, and the extreme action of a war zone found in many chapters of the story was always better suited for the big screen than paper. Still, one can't help but feel that a superior author (e.g. Martin, Tolkien, Rowling) would have done a better job with the difficult wrap-up of such an enthralling series.  Collins fell short, but thankfully, Jennifer Lawrence and a good cast of actors did not.

I can't say I'm particularly surprised by that result because I enjoyed the first three films in the series probably equally as much as the accompanying novels.  It's a story that lends itself well to film, for sure, but I think that a common reaction to movies based off of literary works is, "Well, the book was better."  I never once got that sense in The Hunger Games trilogy. The movies managed to do the books justice, and in the case of Mockingjay (particularly Part 2), the film version exceeded expectations.

Of course, one thing that Mockingjay the movie had going for it that Mockingjay the novel did not is Jennifer Lawrence. She did such a great job of conveying the horrors and emotional trauma of war through her face and I can't say enough about her performance. From an entertainment perspective, Lawrence was able to keep me sucked in despite a plot built with obviously problematic elements. "Oh, hey Prim, guess you're randomly here in this war zone with us and.......now you're dead. Good seeing you for three seconds, I guess. That death was totally fitting for four installments' worth of character building."

Unlike Prim's death, the movie handled Finnick Odair's demise far, far better than the novel. The book versions of Catching Fire and Mockingjay did a great job of establishing Finnick as an unexpectedly sympathetic character, and he quickly became a favorite of mine while reading. Unfortunately, the novel Mockingjay wrote him off quickly as a death at the hands of the mutts, much the same as it did a few other nondescript characters in effectively the same scene. I always thought he deserved better. By contrast, the movie was able to paint Finnick as a hero, bravely fighting off monstrosities and even saving Katniss' life before he's dragged to his death. Rather similar to Cato's death in the first movie, Katniss kills Finnick (and the mutts) with an explosive, though this time it's out of love rather than mercy.

Admittedly, a lot of the details of the book escaped me over the course of these past five years (it was bad, remember!), but one scene that I was anxiously awaiting was Katniss' decision to kill Coin instead of President Snow at Snow's execution. The movie set this up very well, and you could even see a knowing grin on Snow's face (Donald Sutherland was consistently awesome throughout the four movies) before Katniss physically changed targets.

The conclusion of the story, involving Katniss' choice to remain with Peeta over Gale, made much more sense in the movie. The audience could see Peeta's slow return to normalcy over the course of the film and Katniss' growing distrust of Gale's methods and attitudes towards war and its victims. The ending of the Mockingjay novel was pretty confusing (to be fair, it's possible and even likely Collins intended to get the same effect as the film did, but she didn't, because the book was bad!) and felt pretty rushed after the action-packed scenes that preceded it. The ending of the movie felt far, far more natural and satisfying.

In the epilogue, we see Katniss and Peeta relaxing in a peaceful meadow with their two children.  In the first installment, Katniss insisted that she was never having kids, and it's implicit that the reason why is that she would never want to bring new life into the horrors of the world in which she lives. That she ultimately chose to have children is indicative that she approves of the new order established in Panem and that the world has become a better place as a result of her choice to assassinate a potential tyrant in Coin. It's as happy an ending as the trilogy could've had, I guess.

Mockingjay Part 2 suffers a bit from alternating dullness and rushes of action, but it was just going off of the source material, so it's hard to fault it all that much. It has plenty of excitement, feeling, and some nice character work (though I would've liked more Haymitch, because Haymitch is great).  It feels like a genuine horror movie when the squad is trekking through the sewer-like tunnels and has no shortage of touching moments between a cast of characters that are developed well for their limited screen time. It's far from a perfect movie, or even a great one, but it's a good, entertaining conclusion to a series that really deserves one.

Better Call Saul, Season Two, Episode Seven: "Inflatable"

In which we meet the biggest sucker of them all, Jimmy's own father.

A couple episodes back, Chuck mentioned in a conversation with Kim that Jimmy had stolen about $14,000 from his father's store.  In tonight's cold open, we get a lot of extra context around that.

In a flashback scene, we see Jimmy "working" in his dad's store (reading a Playboy when he should be sweeping). Jimmy overhears a conversation between his dad at the cash register and some guy spinning a sob story to try to con Jimmy's father out of five dollars. While Jimmy's dad is all too eager to help the man in whatever way he can, Jimmy sees the situation for what it is and pleads with his dad to not give the guy a handout, as he's seen this happen plenty already. Of course, Jimmy's dad doesn't listen and winds up giving the guy ten dollars.

Jimmy's dad runs to find spark plugs to help with the con artist's car, leaving Jimmy alone with him. It's clear to the con artist that Jimmy doesn't trust him, so before departing he says, "There are wolves and sheep in this world, kid.  Wolves and sheep.  Figure out which one you're gonna be."

When Jimmy's dad comes back and realizes the con artist left, Jimmy gives his father a look of utter disdain. Left alone with the cash register, Jimmy steals the eight dollars the con artist used to purchase cigarettes, and we're to believe that this is Jimmy's first of many thefts from the store. At that moment, Jimmy's figured out which one he's gonna be.

The thing is, while Jimmy may have despised his father for being such an easy mark, it's easy to respect a man who would rather risk getting conned than refusing to help someone in need. And while we may admire Jimmy's street smarts, an honest person can't believe that him stealing money from his father is in any way justifiable. The scene makes it more understandable, but it's still just plain wrong. We know from Chuck's story that it's Jimmy who causes the real harm to the store, not random con men pilfering Lincolns and Hamiltons.

The post-credits portion of the episode opens with a truly tough scene to watch. Jimmy represents Mike in his meeting with the prosecutors to explain that Mike will no longer claim that the gun in his confrontation with Tuco Salamanca actually belonged to Tuco. Jimmy tries to make Mike feel better about the incident and even offers to not collect for his services. Mike isn't having any of it -- he doesn't want to feel tied to anyone. Honestly, other than his family, it really doesn't seem like Mike has it in him to give a damn about anyone.

From there, Jimmy sets out to quit his job at Davis & Main, though when Omar points out that his signing bonus would need to be paid back, his mission changes to "get fired without cause". Putting the "colorful" in "colorful lawyer", he dresses up in his outlandish suits and we get a montage of all the things he does to try to get canned:

1. Wearing aforementioned suits
2. Running a loud juicer in the office and exploding said juicer all over a couple associates
3. Screaming Spanglish at a guy who's vacuuming at night, when the guy is from Michigan and speaks English just fine, thank you very much
4. Repeatedly taking shits in the bathroom and not flushing, under the excuse of water preservation
5. Playing the bagpipes in his office

The bagpipes turn out to be the final straw and Cliff cans Jimmy.  Jimmy can't come up with a reason for his actions besides explaining that he's a square peg.  On his way out, Jimmy rips a soda can out of Erin's hand and throws it in the garbage. Awesome.

After quitting, Jimmy goes to meet with Kim and tries to get her to not only quit HHM, but drop her pursuit of the Schweikart job and become partners with Jimmy as a new practice. Jimmy tells Kim that she's too good for a lateral move and goes so far as to call Rich Schweikart "Howard Hamlin by a different name". Before Kim can get on board, she wants to know whether Jimmy is going to "play it straight" or in their new endeavor, or, in a very apt choice of words given the previous montage, whether Jimmy is going to "be colorful".  Jimmy can't lie to her for more than a few seconds, and Kim ultimately rejects the offer in what's a pretty strong scene for her character.

Meanwhile, Stacey shows Mike an expensive house that's well beyond her means. Mike knows that Stacey faked the bullet hole that led her to trying to convince Mike that her neighborhood was unsafe, but just how much is he willing to let Stacey take advantage of him? We know he loves Kaylee more than anything, but even he needs to be aware that continuing to deal with drug gangs for money won't be any good for her, right?

Finally, Kim nails her interview with Schweikart. We discover she's from a small town on the Kansas/Nebraska border. That explains the Kansas City Royals shirt, at least. On her way out, she accidentally calls Rich "Howard". It's a moment that's more than a mere verbal slip-up. When Kim lets the wrong name slip, we come to understand that she knows Jimmy was right; Schweikart and Hamlin are really no different to her at all, and she's looking for a way to get out completely.

Kim smokes a cigarette on the roof of the building and rips her Wexler McGill business card in half. She has her idea -- go out on her own with Jimmy, but operate separately.  That way, both lawyers can practice the way they want to. It seems like a pretty reasonable proposal, but something about the ripped business card gives Jimmy pause, and the show cuts to the end credits before he gives his answer.

Bullet Points

• "Omar, that whole, uh, letter of resignation thing....I didn't mean that. Not a word. I..I'm so incredibly stressed out...I'm stressed out the wazoo."

• "Hey Cliff, for what it's worth, I think you're a good guy." Cliff: "For what it's worth, I think you're an asshole."

• Apparently Omar has kids. His last scene with Jimmy really shows how little we knew him

• Two straight episodes with no Chuck!?!?!? He better be back next week.