Open Memo To Stan Kasten

In spite of my numerous complaints to various staffers this weekend, not a single person was willing to do something about the Five Guys stand behind my section. If I'm lucky I'll only weigh about 500 pounds at the end of the season. And if that sudden obesity does not kill me, my doctor certainly will.

On a serious note though, the stadium policy of not providing lids and straws for sodas is pure bunk. As somebody who was there the night Boozer's Mom was hit in Cole Field House, I understand and support the policy regarding bottle caps. But the policy regarding lids is totally and completely unnecessary.

As for the facility itself, maybe I'm spoiled or maybe I'm hard to impress but there wasn't that "WOW" factor for me that many were talking about. Yeah, RFK is old and can't take the rigors of an 81 game baseball season anymore but there isn't anything at the new place that is very impressive outside of the scoreboard.

Though I had to laugh at the line for Ben's Chili Bowl. Not because the food isn't worth it, but because the line was snaked around the corner and the stands right next to Ben's had no line at all and the employees at those stands looked absolutely bored out of their minds. I took pity on them and bought my dinner at one of those forlorn stands. (I'm not stupid enough to arrive right before the game and expect to get through Secret Service Security quickly. I got there 5 minutes before 3 pm).

Oh, and the Navy Yard Metro Station is totally inadequate. The ironclad proof of that is the fact that they closed the station briefly in order to keep the station from dangerously overflowing. I laughed doubly hard at the signs pointing us to the Waterfront station which had nothing but jam packed trains pulling into it with nobody getting off.

And the "game experience" was indistinguishable from RFK. Same old songs being played, same old promotions being run, same old gags being pulled. (BTW, Teddy should have been running around an empty RFK. Yeah, everybody would have seen it coming but it still would have been HIGH-LARIOUS.)

Finally a special note for the jerk who stood up in front of me right as Odalis Perez threw the first pitch of the game last night. I understand that you too wanted a picture of the occasion but the LEAST you could have done was apologize instead of just looking at me like I was the idiot you bleepin' moron.