Published: April 11, 2008 11:10 am         

In D.C., the novelty can wear off pretty fast

Pope Benedict XVI will be in Washington, D.C. April 17 to check out Nationals Park, the Washington Nationals' new baseball venue in Southeast D.C. So far, the reviews have been very good, but it should be interesting to see what the Pope thinks of the place. Pope John Paul II loved Camden Yards in 1995, although he was too busy to try a Boog's Barbecue.

Actually, my pal Babe Sawyers tells me the Pope's not going to a ballgame at all while he's in D.C. He'll be doing official Pope stuff and will celebrate Mass at Nationals Park on April 17. Popes through the years, though, have had some baseball experience, just so you know that. Years ago, the great Yogi Berra met the Pope. I read about that in Kevin Nelson's "Baseball's Greatest Quotes: The Wit, Wisdom and Wisecracks of America's National Pastime."

INTERVIEWER: "I understand you had an audience with the Pope."

YOGI: "No, but I saw him."

INTERVIEWER: "Did you get to talk to him?"

YOGI: "I sure did. We had a nice little chat."

INTERVIEWER: "What did he say?"

YOGI: "Ya know, he must read the papers a lot, because he said, 'Hello, Yogi.' "

INTERVIEWER: "And what did you say?"

YOGI: I said, 'Hello, Pope.' "

We discussed ballpark attendance here on Wednesday, if you recall, and I don't think there's any question the Pope will play to a sellout at Nationals Park on April 17. Hopefully, the Nationals will be able to play to another one of their own before then. You'd think they would have played to more than one by now.

I know it's too early to start bashing attendance in Washington, since entering last night's game, the Nats had only played three games in their new digs with the seating capacity of 41,222. Once the weather breaks, once everybody finds their best routes to the place, and once the summer plays out, there's no question the Nationals will have outdrawn their American League neighbors in Baltimore by plenty. Despite the weather, and despite the newness of the season, it's just a little surprising that Opening Night provided the only sellout of the season, that's all, with the Nats drawing 39,389 March 30 against the Braves.

Sure, who wants to see the Florida Marlins play on a cold night in Southeast D.C.? Heck, not even the fans in Miami want to see the Marlins play on hot nights in South Florida. Although, we would be remiss not to point out the Marlins have won two world championships since 1997.

Just thought, though, that with all the clamor over the new ballpark since the Nats arrived from Montreal that the second and third big-league games to count in Nationals Park would draw considerably more than 20,487 and 23,340 respectively.

Granted, the RFK Stadium baseball experience was a nightmare, and when we've discussed our reluctance in the past to believe D.C. will ever be a dead-red baseball impassioned city, we agreed it was a little too much to ask to sell out outdated RFK every night, even though all we heard for over 30 years after baseball had been taken out of D.C. for the second time, is that in the name of Walter Johnson that dead-red baseball passion would show its frenzied self in D.C. once the new ballpark was in place.

Well, the new ballpark is in place, so here's hoping with the weather breaking and with perennial draw Atlanta back in town tonight to start a three-game series, the Nats can play before at least 30,000 per through the weekend.

It is understood when the Orioles opened Camden Yards in 1992 and played to 455 consecutive sellouts, they benefited greatly from the "25 percent" that was always said to be fans making the trip up the parkway from D.C. It's also understood that the Orioles being a consistent winner in those days didn't hurt matters either.

What's difficult to understand, even with a once formidable baseball market now split into two, is that in the first three games in a brand new baseball-only stadium, a region that for over 30 years said it was a deserving big-league baseball city has filed into said baseball palace to just 67 percent of its seating capacity.

Perhaps D.C. will eventually thrive into the dominant baseball market of the two baseball markets that used to be one. Only time will tell. The feeling here is the attention span needed to be a true baseball fan day-in and day-out doesn't exist within the average D.C. socialite, particularly if the hometown nine is not a consistent worldbeater.

With the lone exception being the Redskins, Washington, D.C. has forever been the mothership for frontrunners of every sort. There will always be something more important or more socially advantageous to do in D.C. than go to a baseball game every night. It is, after all, the capital of the free world. Just as it was when D.C. lost baseball teams twice before.

Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.