So last night was Ladies Night at Nationals Park. The Nationals have had a Ladies Night for the past few years, and there are usually a couple per year, this being the first. For those of you who have not heard of this (where have you been?!), the Nationals offer a very good deal to Ladies (and men too, of course, since no discrimination is allowed at Nats Park) to pay $30 for Happy Hour and a ticket to the game sitting with other fellow Ladies Nighters or $20 for just the game if you can’t make it early and join the festivities.

Despite the rain that seems to have been going on for months now, Ladies Night took place on the roof of Garage B underneath the red party tent. And Party Tent is a good way to describe it as everyone there seemed to be having a great time. Along with a DJ providing entertainment and fun giveaways, there were vendors selling jewelry and other accessories, free chair massages and manicures, tables providing info on nail salons (they also had cupcakes…mmm) and gyms, and of course, food (nachos, vegetables, fruits, cheeses). In addition to this, there was a table offering beer and other flavored alcohol beverage samples (For the purpose of thorough blogging, I tried as many of these as I could, and highly recommend the Michelob Ultra Tuscan Orange Grapefruit. This is the sacrifice I make for you.).

The ladies of the Nationals Dream Foundation were also there with a table of items to sell. Ties, tote bags, new Curly W reusable bags, and of course my favorite, the Mystery Grab ball offering an autographed baseball from someone on the team for $25. I must have 20 of these grab balls at this point and sure enough, I grabbed another last night (Anderson Hernandez for anyone who is wondering). Each item sold raised money for the Nationals Dream Foundation.

But the Dream Foundation wasn’t the only ones raising money. At the other end of the tent there stood the imposing Mechanical Bull raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. A reasonable $10 donation to the LLS gave one the chance to ride this bull. I waited for a good hour or more to see if anyone was going to ride him, and at first, I didn’t catch anyone even tempted by it. But after checking back a little later, there were many brave women who took to the bull and gave it a whirl (yes, myself included – see above for mention of beer samples). I didn’t see a single woman get off that thing without a smile on her face, albeit a bruise here and there. In my opinion, it was the highlight of the event. Unfortunately, my camera malfunctioned, so the We’ve Got Heart site will have no pics of me on said bull!!

The game included in the Ladies Night deal was actually Thursday night’s, however, the rain postponement of the previous night’s game allowed us to look over the side of Garage B and watch the makeup game that was going on at the same time. Once we left the Ladies Night tent, we were free to actually watch the rest of “Wednesday’s” game in our seats and watch baseball history as Randy Johnson won his 300th game. Although I’ll admit, I was cheering for the Curly W in the books and not for the chance to see history. As much as winning 300 games is truly amazing and I am happy for Randy Johnson, I wasn’t one of those in the crowd cheering about Dunn’s ball four, oops, I mean strike three! I would have been just as happy to let some other park full of baseball fans watch the win on his next turn in the rotation. I’m a little tired of the Nats being on the opposite side of these historic games (anyone remember Bonds?).

Anyway…After the makeup game and a quick turnaround, the Ladies Night game began. Although Sections 102 and 103 were used for the seating, I have to admit that I took cover from the rain in a suite provided by a friend (special thanks to Kelly for that one). From what I could tell looking across the field, there were not many ladies sitting in the actual Ladies Night sections, and I can’t say I blame them as the rain just kept falling and falling. Eventually, the game was called early - another loss for the Nationals.

All and all, despite the weather, it was a successful Ladies Night for the Nationals. A good time was had by all, judging from the smiles and looks on the faces. And Ladies weren’t the only ones having fun. There seemed to be more men at this event than the last one I attended, not that there’s anything wrong with that! Unfortunately, due to the makeup game going on, none of those men in attendance included our Nationals players as planned (at least not to my knowledge as I didn’t see any or hear of any being able to attend). Perhaps the next time around will work better in that regard.

The next Ladies Night is at Nationals Park on Thursday, August 20. Visit www.nationals.com/ladiesnight for more details.

Here’s some pictures from the event.

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