Apply To Be A Racing President

Have you always (or at least since 2006) dreamed about being one of the Washington Nationals Racing Presidents? Now is your chance to be Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln (or pretend to be Daniel Day-Lewis), Roosevelt or Taft! There's more information about the tryouts on the Nationals website, and here is a job description from TeamWork Online.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
• Take on the person of the Racing President you encompass.
• Greet fans during pre-game.
• Race in the mid-4th President's Race.
• Participate in the GEICO photo station following the end of the race until bottom of the 5th inning.
• Take part in the 7th Inning Stretch.
• Take part in outside appearances as needed
• Other duties as assigned.

Requirements
• Must be 18 year or older.
• Previous mascot experience is preferred, but not required.
• Take part in the annual tryout (tryouts are by invitation only)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Necessary to perform Essential Functions
• Ability to run from centerfield to first base (approximately 200 yards) in a 50 pound costume.
• Ability to properly function in while wearing a 50 pound costume.
• Availability from March 2013- November 2013 as well as other appearances as needed.

Physical / Environmental Requirements
• Must be between 5'7" and 6'6" in height
• Gameday Seasonal: Job requires employee to function in high activity and heavily crowded outdoor professional sports venue. May work at heights. Employee will be exposed to inclement weather of varying degrees. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to stand for long periods of time, walk long distances, and climb up/ down stairs. The employee is required to stoop, kneel, crouch, or sit and must lift and/or move up to 45 pounds.

Note: When you apply for this job online, you will be required to answer the following questions:

1. Do you live in the DC, Maryland, or Virginia area?
2. Are you available from March 2013 - November 2013?
3. Are you between 5'7" and 6'6" in height?

I could be the perfect candidate. My driver's license officially shows that I am 5'7" and I have previous mascot experience serving as Celebrate Fairfax's retired mascot, CHIP.

Jayson Werth Deserves Suspension

Baseball and even non-baseball fans remember when Pittsburgh Pirates first baseman Randall Simon hit a woman wearing an Italian sausage costume with his bat during the Milwaukee Brewers' costume race in 2003. Major League Baseball suspended Simon for three games and fined him $2,000. Additionally, Simon was fined $432 and cited by the sheriff's department for disorderly conduct.

On Saturday afternoon, Washington Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth incorporated himself into the Presidents race. Take a look:



Werth actually shoved Thomas Jefferson to the ground. Well, not the actual Thomas Jefferson since he would be 268 years old, but the person in the Jefferson costume. While the announcers and fans all took this as a fun attempt to let Teddy Roosevelt win, take a look at this second video from the folks at Let Teddy Win:



You can see Werth start to take Jefferson down at the 45 second mark. Once Jefferson is on the ground, Werth pushes him again. At 1:10, Werth attempts to kick/trip Jefferson.

According to Let Teddy Win, this "was not scripted by the Nationals, and caught the team’s in-game entertainment and mascot team by surprise." Essentially, this was a premeditated attack that was not planned by the team or major league baseball. Therefore, why isn't Werth subject to the same punishment as Simon?

Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post has more about Werth and the race. This was clearly premeditated which I don't think you can say about the Simon incident.

Evening at RFK

I attended the Washington Nationals-Atlanta Braves game on Tuesday night, my first baseball game of the season. What a fantastic evening! Here’s why:

I bought Lower View Outfield seats for $5, but never got close to sitting there. Instead, we sat on the 1st base line in Field MVP seats that sell for $55. I used to do this all the time for Pittsburgh Pirates games at Three Rivers Stadium, although then, we actually sat in the outfield or upper deck seats and moved down to the nice seats later in the game. The one good thing about a losing team in an old, undistinguished stadium is the many open seats. I’m really going to miss RFK for baseball games next year when the Nationals move to a brand new stadium.

I may have mentioned a while back that I used to work as a beer man. I write this now because I think I have a good sense of what makes a good beer man. So when I write that RFK has the greatest beer man I have ever seen, I write that with conviction. First, RFK Beer Man (I don’t know his name) carried three stacks of beer trays. I didn’t get a full count, but my guess is he started with a minimum of 72 cans. That in itself is tough enough to do while walking up and down aisle after aisle and yelling to sell the product. What really distinguished this beer man was how he opened and poured the beer. He had some type of hand-held electric can opener (I searched unsuccessfully online for about 20 minutes trying to find the product) that removed the entire top of the beer cans. He could do this for two beer cans at a time, and then quickly pour the topless cans into plastic cups. Anywhere he went, people would stop watching the game and watch him in amazement as he opened the cans and poured the beer. It was unbelievable!

A foul ball landed two rows in front of us and another two rows behind us. I have never caught a foul ball, and if I ever do, I have a feeling that I won’t be able to keep it. I’ll end up giving the ball to some little kid sitting a row down.

If you are a designated driver or have no intention of drinking beer at a baseball game, I highly recommend signing up at the designated driver booth. Just for pledging that you’re not going to drink, you receive a free pop coupon (soda for some of you) and are entered into a drawing. Tuesday night, the designated driver booth gave away two free pop coupons. I also won two tickets for Busch Gardens as the lucky winner of the drawing.

Anyone who has attended a Nats game this year knows about the President races. This is a complete knock off of the Milwaukee Brewers’ Sausage race and the Pirates’ Pierogi race. Anyway, the big story is that Teddy Roosevelt has never won a race. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Abraham Lincoln always win. My guess is that the Nats are saving a Teddy win for a big moment, either the last game at RFK, the first game at the new stadium, or if the Nationals ever sell-out a game, which could happen this weekend against the Baltimore Orioles.

Oh yeah…the Nationals lost 6-2.