Nats Picnic in the Park And Get Well Nyjer!

I wanted to lead with something about Nyjer Morgan but couldn't make it sound right, but I promised Kalina that I would post about Nyjer, our pictures of him, and his ill-timed injury this week.

This post is going to showcase the pictures and autographs that I got two Saturdays ago at the Nats Picnic in the Park autograph/meet the team event, highlighted by Mr. Morgan.

Who's that guy? It's Nyjer!

He was very cool and even knew a little bit about baseball cards; mentioning both Upper Deck and Topps to us as the Nationals assistant next to him kept trying to get us to have his Nats program card signed.

I decided to have him sign my 08 Heritage rookie card.



Ron Villone (with his son) was at the table with Nyjer,



and did a double-take at the 15 year old card I had of him.



Another highlight was getting Adam Dunn's autograph...



on this sweet Topps Trading Card History card.



Dunn was at a table with Jorge Padilla, who I didn't have a card of.
But he made this funny face at Kalina when she took his picture.



Rob Dibble was showing off his crazy tattoos.



Saul Rivera and Ronnie Belliard (obviously pre-Dodgers trade)



This is one of the cards the Nats have been giving out in their game-day programs all season.



Ronnie was really cool to the fans.



JD Martin(on the left) and Mike MacDougal were at a table together.



J.D. needed a new sharpie.



I'm a big fan of Mike's autograph for some reason.



We ran into Elijah in a hall on the club level.



Jason Bergmann representing the Nats




And finally, Marquis Grissom was signing for everyone. Did someone say mid '90s Braves?

5-1 First Nats game of '09

I made my first trip down to Nats Park this season (mainly to see Phat Albert (Pujols)) for the first time but also to enjoy the scene. And since 70% of the people who responded to my poll wanted me to post autos from other teams, here we go.

But not so fast; I am going to tie this post in with the O's. To start, here is my first Ray Knight auto on an O's card. I had his autograph on a Reds card but this card is what I prefer and since he does the MASN pre & post game show from Nats Park, it's not too hard to get his autograph at games.


Also, I got Willie Harris to sign my card. I already have his signature on an O's card but since he played 9 games for the O's in 2001, I can include him in my Orioles discussion.


I got Nationals players Elijah Dukes (on a card that shows some real emotion from a typically stoic guy) and Saul Rivera to sign my cards. I also just missed out on John Lannan & Jesus Flores. I also saw Austin Kearns & Shairon Martis signing for fans.



Chris Perez of the Cardinals also signed for me. I saw a few other Cardinals signing but didn't know who they were.



Here are some pictures from the stadium and the game:

I'm not the first person to blog about this but the new Nats statues look like they have weird tree-bark like bats & arms growing from them

JZ (Jordan Zimmermann) warming up pre-game

Albert didn't disappoint, going 3-4 on the night. He also hit a HR on this swing...

Point to the sky, Albert! You hit another one!