Game 12---Cubs 4 Nationals 0

Product---Jumbo Hot Dogs
Temperature---58 degrees, clear

Last night I attempted to conduct some research. Was I trying to cure the common cold or create the seedless watermelon? No, not that kind of research. I wanted to find out how many Washington Nationals fans there really are.

My plan was to ask every person wearing a white and red Nationals hat or t-shirt if they A) Were also Expos fans? and B) Had a favorite player on the team? My plan turned sour when I was put into the upper deck, but I still found three guys brave enough to support a ‘W’ in Chicago.

Fan One- This guy was sitting in the 400’s (the front section of the upper deck) wearing a Nationals shirt and hat. He was actually the only one of the three to purchase a hot dog from me. He reported to me that yes, he was a big Expos fan and was devastated to see them leave Canada. He also said he considered switching allegiances to the Minnesota Twins, but decided to stick it out with the Nats. His favorite player is Jose Vidro.

Fan Two- Fan number two was a kid (probably around 12) was wearing a Nationals hat, sitting right next to the fair poll in left field. When I asked him if he had been an Expos fan, he looked very confused and shook his head no. I called an audible then and decided not to ask question two, because this kid obviously wasn’t in the mood to talk.

Fan Three- This guy actually found me instead of the opposite. I was walking down the ramp after I checked out in the top of eighth and this gentlemen, probably around 25 years old, wearing a white Brad Wilkerson #7 jersey, came up and asked me if it had been a good night. We chatted for a bit before I began to question him. He told me that he had lived his entire life in D.C., but since he hated the Oriels, he always had rooted for the Braves. Last year when the Nationals came he switched his allegiances and went out and bought the Wilkerson jersey. Unfortunately for him, B.W. was traded this winter to Texas for Alfonso Soriano, so this guy’s favorite player is now rookie 3B Ryan Zimmerman, but he mentioned that that’s only by default.

So what did my research prove? That there was actually at least one Montreal Expo fan, kids don’t talk to strangers, and that the Washington Nationals are in desperate need of some better players.

Observations:
I got the heads up before the game from a Wildcat Insider that it was Northwestern day at the park today. An NU student would be throwing out an opening pitch, discounted tickets for NU students and staff and I assumed somebody with Wildcat connections would be singing the seventh inning stretch. Turns out I was sort of right, but actually way off. The singers were recent graduates of a Big 10 institution, but not from Northwestern. It was my guys Dee Brown and James Augustene, ballers from the University of Illinois…With most colleges finished now, there were a lot more vendors today then in games past…Because there were so many vendors, I was forced to be in the upper deck to sell jumbo’s. I don’t really like the upper deck, but it wasn’t too bad last night. I was seven dogs short of thee loads, so I made $57.20 in commission and a solid $62.50 in tips...I saw four fellow ETHS Class of ’05 graduates yesterday, all in the upper deck…Did the Cubs really shut out an opponent?