I went on a tour of the new home of the Washington National’s today, and I couldn’t have been more impressed with the ballpark. What a gorgeous stadium!

The cliche about sports stadiums is that, “there isn’t a bad seat.” But at the new home of the Nats, that statement could ring any more true. Sitting in the upper-deck level is nothing like a normal trip to the nose-bleed level. You feel like you’re sitting right over top of home plate, even while standing out on the terrace in the upper-sections of center-field.

Make a list of the things you want out of a stadium, and I’d bet my lunch money that Washington’s new ballpark has it.

Do you want a playground for the kids? Check. Four-and-under have a play-place bigger than three of the finest McDonald’s facilities you could find combined. There’s also going to be a section of the park devoted to the older kids. A play-station room, batting cages, and a pitching area will all be accessible to the youngsters.

Do you want to drink at the bar, but still watch the game? Nats Park has you covered. There’s going to be bars in the outfield, both in the lower section in left-field and in the upper level to the right of the right-field foul pole. At each of the locations, sipping on a beverage of your choice won’t keep you from watching the game. All you’ll have to do to take another glance at the diamond is spin around on your stool, because you’ll have an un-blocked view of the field waiting for you.

A few of my other favorite aspects of the new stadium were…

1. There’s a dining area and bar in one of the suite sections - for the platinum ticket holders - where a glass wall enables fans to over-look the batting cages that the Nationals are warming up in before the game. In that same room, another glass-wall will allow those same fans in that bar/dining area to watch Manny Acta’s press-conference, as the team’s interview room will be only a slate of glass away from the fan dining area.

2. The locker room is mammoth. It’s also shaped like an oval, designed that way in an effort to pay tribute to the oval-office, being in D.C. and all. The carpet in the locker room is navy blue, with red trim, and there is a huge Nationals’ logo in the center. There are also more flat-screen TV’s in the locker room than there will be gloves come April. It was empty today during our tour, equipped only with cushioned red folding chairs that have never been sat on. One chair was in front of each locker, awaiting the player that will soon occupy it.

3. There’s a view of the capitol from behind home-plate, and pretty much every between first and third base in the third level. While trying to locate it, you’ll have to peer out over the left-field wall.

4. The scoreboard screen is prodigious, the biggest in baseball I believe, and will more than likely be the most talked about aspect of the stadium during the first few weeks of the season. There’s going to be a digital out-of-town scoreboard, which will also serve as a scrolling banner, on the fight-field wall. The scrolling out-of-town scoreboard is similar to the one that Atlanta Braves fans are used to in Atlanta.

5. Lastings Milledge better get his running shoes on. He’s going to be moving around a ton in center-field. The deepest part of the outfield (402 feet) is in deep left-center, where there’s a triangle that jets outward. Although the dimensions are hitter-friendly down the line (336-feet to left and 335-feet to right), it’ll take a legit poke to give a fan a souveneir in the power-alley bleachers. 

6. I’ll be intersted to see how the wind affects fly-balls, as the stadium is for the most part open, both in the outfield, and in the upper levels down the right-field line. Today, while we were taking out tour, the wind was coming in off of the Anacostia River. It was blowing in from down the right-field foul line and towards the field, which could be something of a norm with a stadium that isn’t enclosed on an end bordering a river.