Tag Archives: Nats Fans

Food and Drink, Sports Fix, The Features
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Nats Fans Find A Home at Duffy’s

Photo courtesy of
‘Duffy’s’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’

There was a sense of unity in the air Sunday afternoon at Duffy’s Irish Pub when Nats fans congregated in the closest thing they have to a baseball sanctuary next to Nats Park. Duffy’s aired the first playoff game in Nats history versus the 2011 World Championship St. Louis Cardinals with the sound on for all patrons to hear, leaving football fans in the backroom where the Packers-Colts game was on.

The sea of red didn’t hurt but what made it memorable was the community of folks gathered for a common purpose: to watch history-in-the-making. Continue reading →

Food and Drink, Fun & Games, The Features
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Justin’s Cafe: NatsTown’s Finest

Photo courtesy of
‘Cubs @ Nats (July 17, 2009) – 1’
courtesy of ‘Garyisajoke’

Nats fans are practically orphans when it comes to bar options surrounding their beloved ballpark. If you’re one of the effected parties, it’s downright miserable to live with from time to time. If you’re an observer of the culture and the area, it’s not that much better.

Current options include: The Bullpen and Das Bullpen. There’s also a McDonalds, a gas station, a couple hotels and apartment complexes. But, alas, a diamond in the rough!

Justin’s Café opened last year, just a few blocks from Nationals Park. They opened up shop at 1025 First Street SE with a fine line of beer, wine, and meals oh so divine. Pardon, my rhyme but I feel the selection was worth the cute play on words. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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What Bryce Harper Means For The Nats Fanbase

Young Fan
Photo by Rachel Levitin

The Washington Post’s Thomas Boswell raised a pretty good point this morning. “Baseball fans can win two ways,” he wrote. “Their team can be great. Or a player can be so sublime that his performance, year after year, almost every day for six months at a time, gives so much accumulated pleasure that his individual art actually rivals victory.”

Bryce Harper signing with the Washington Nationals is just one of a few ways Nationals fans will find victory while cheering for a team who has yet to contend in post-season play.

“Just five years after getting a team back after a 33-year absence, Washington fans are getting a reward that, while perhaps not as cherished as a World Series, ranks enormously high,” Boswell wrote.

What’s the reward? A team that went from hopeless, having lost over 200 games in two seasons, to a team full of hope. Continue reading →

The Features
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Nats Fans Are People Too: Cheryl Hauser


Pictured (left to right): Cheryl Hauser, Josh Willingham, and Cheryl’s friend Kristie / Photo provided by Cheryl Hauser

“Nats Fans Are People Too” is a new series taking you inside the minds and lives of the District’s biggest Nationals fans. Do you know somebody who should be featured? Are you one of the many die-hard Nats fans in town? Get in touch by sending a message to rachel@welovedc.com!

No amount of teasing is ever going to change Cheryl Hauser’s mind. She is and always will be a Nats fan.

Hauser, who was born in DC but lived in Waldorf, Md. until she was 7, grew up in Annandale, Va. with a family who loved to go to Orioles games. Each summer Hauser and her family and friends would take trips to Baltimore to watch baseball. It was their family’s bonding activity.

“We’d support [the Orioles] and we’d go a couple times a year,” Hauser said. “It was a fun family thing, but never as intense as what happened now, which happened by accident.” Continue reading →

The Features
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Nats Fans Are People Too: Mark Strattner


Photo Courtesy of MLB.com’s “Notes From NatsTown” blog

“Nats Fans Are People Too” is a new series taking you inside the minds and lives of the District’s biggest Nationals fans. Do you know somebody who should be featured? Are you one of the many die-hard Nats fans in town? Get in touch by sending a message to rachel@welovedc.com!

Some District residents might recognize Mark Strattner on the Metro or in the stands on game day. He was named the Nationals’ 10 millionth fan at a Nationals-Red Sox game in 2009 at Nationals Park. By day, Strattner is the the Chief of Collection Services Division at the Law Library of Congress. After hours, it’s all about the Washington Nationals.

Mark Strattner has been a Nationals season ticket holder since 2005 and a National League baseball fan his entire life. He grew up the son of baseball fans from Dayton, Ohio, whose parents were from Cincinnati. The family’s blood runs deep with a love for the Reds, but mostly for the National League. This was a consequence of where he was raised. Young Mark was born not too far from the District in Norfolk, Va., home to a Mets triple-A team, but Mark says that didn’t count. Continue reading →