Attention Ladies! It’s that time of year once again when the Washington Nationals host their Baseball 101 Women’s Clinic. If you’ve been to the clinic before, you might notice that the Nationals are mixing it up a little this year. For one, it takes place on a Friday - July 17th to be exact. In past seasons, one price included 2 hours on the field and about an hour or so having lunch followed by a Q&A session with several folks associated with the Nationals. This year there is no lunch, with the day being split into two portions, and lunch being replaced by dinner.
The day portion of the event will run from 9:30am until 12:00pm. It will include a “Behind the Scenes” tour of Nationals Park and the ever popular on-field skills session with Nationals coaches. The first two women’s clinics were not exactly the same, so I can only guess at what this year’s on-field skills will include. But I think it is safe to assume that you will have some sort of a discussion in the outfield about the decision making that occurs during games (or possibly a go at throwing and fielding the ball), a quick lesson on how to run the bases, some sort of baseball talk in the dugout, a turn in the batting cages, and of course my favorite, pitching in the bull pen. Now, during the first clinic, we actually took turns throwing the ball in the outfield and fielding ground balls, however, we didn’t even touch the ball in the bull pen, instead getting a demonstration only. At the second clinic we only had a discussion in the outfield with no physical participation on our part, but in the bullpen, we actually got to pitch (which is so much better than talking). So I can’t say exactly what will happen this year. Regardless, I am willing to bet that our base running lesson will not allow us to run around the actual bases, as we never have been able to do this in the past.
The evening portion of the event will take place on the Rooftop Party Deck from 4:30pm until 6:30pm. This allows anyone participating in both events to go home and clean up! During this time, participants can talk to Debbi Taylor and Bob Carpenter of MASN, Chartese Burnett who is the VP of Communications for the Nationals, and “more” although I don’t know what “more” is (it’s a tease)! Dinner will also be served overlooking the ball park. Then of course, at 7:05pm, participants will go inside the park to watch the Nationals beat the Chicago Cubs!
For those of you ladies who have always wanted to talk to Bob and Debbi, but feared picking up and throwing a ball, then this is your year. Women can opt to either participate in the entire day including the skills session ($85) or just the evening portion ($45). So if you are only interested in the Q&A and dinner and the game, or you attended prior years’ clinics and don’t care to repeat, there is still an option for you.
Oh, and important information I found out for you all: There will be new t-shirts given out this year, not the same pink ones as the first two years!!
I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the first two seasons of Baseball 101, and I plan on attending this year’s – in fact, I am even cutting short my Jersey Shore vacation just to attend! I love being on the field, standing in the dugout, hitting, and hopefully…pitching! For a true fan of the game, it doesn’t get much better than this. In years past, the coaches have been terrific and really seemed to enjoy the event themselves. They were always surprised at our level of knowledge and fandom, although I don’t know why that should have surprised them. And of course, this year, we have a whole new set of coaches to impress!! If you haven’t gone before, I highly recommend it.
For more information or to register, visit the Baseball 101 site. https://secure.mlb.com/was/community/baseball_101.jsp
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