If there’s any sport that’s made for love, baseball might be it. The season overlaps with prime time for outdoor dates; the bases stand for things. The game’s theme song even sounds like a date request: “Take me out to the ballgame, take me out to the crowd.”
Last week, I took myself out to Nats Park to scour for couples on dates. (This is the reporter equivalent of being that creepy dude at the bar, hitting on everyone in sight; and in either situation, liquid courage helps.)
My mission was to speak with nine couples in nine innings, and guess what: They’re everywhere. I met people on first and second dates; a pair that’s “more than friends” but pointedly “not in a relationship”; couples in their first year or two of dating; and married folks carousing with their single friends.
The Nats lost, but my conversations with couples and singles highlighted at least nine reasons a baseball games can be a great date spot.
1. There are built-in conversation starters.
“We’ve been fine — no awkward silences,” Rebecca, a 26-year-old Nats fan in a Zimmerman jersey, says of her second date with Patrick. It’s the first inning, and they haven’t yet been to their seats over right field. Instead they’re having beers on the Red Porch Patio, paying little attention to what’s going on below. “I have no idea what’s happening now,” she says. “It’s okay.”
A baseball game can be a lengthy second date; the average game is about three hours and Wednesday night’s clocked in at more than four. But where else can you mix a dinner date, hours of great people-watching plus on-field entertainment?
You can swap memories of baseball games past or ask your date: “What would your walk-up song be?” If you’re really bold: “What would you do if we were on the kiss-cam right now?”
And if you run out of things to say …
2. It’s okay to have silence.
Rachel and Ian Gainor decided to be exclusive while at a Nats game two years ago. They got married this past March. (Lisa Bonos/The Washington Post) A baseball game is better than a movie, says Ian Gainor, 33, because “it’s a date where it’s okay to have silence.” He’s at the Nats with his wife Rachel, her twin sister, her husband and a few of their single friends.
It’s true, there’s so much going on all around that you don’t have to talk the entire time to have fun. And all that silence can make a couple think about where they stand: One of the biggest conversations Gainor’s ever had with his wife was at a game. It was about two years ago at Nats Park when they had the “let’s be exclusive” talk.
3. The ballpark is a good place for a speed-date.
“I met a guy here once,” Katelyn McFarland, 26, says as she playfully puts her hand on her boyfriend Raymond Rieling’s shoulder and asks if it’s okay if she tells this story.
Before these two were a couple, McFarland was at a Nats game with some girlfriends when she realized that a guy she’d been talking to online but hadn’t yet met was also at the game. “We just decided we should go on a date now,” McFarland said, adding that “it helped because I had been drinking before that.” The spontaneous scheduling meant that there was no buildup before the meetup.
That guy didn’t pass muster, but no matter: McFarland and Rieling have been together for a year and half, and seem to be going strong.
4. It can be a bonding experience.
If the game is a comedy of errors, you won’t feel guilty paying more attention to each other than the field. And if it’s horrible because it’s just hot, wet or cold out, well, there’s bright side, too: Any adverse experience is a chance to bond.
One of Gainor’s friends, Luke, once went on such a bad baseball game date — a day game where it was so sweltering “it smelled like seafood had been left out in the sun all day” — that he’ll never again go on a date to a day game. “After that, I felt like we needed to go out again,” he says, “because we’d bonded by surviving it.”
5. You can make it a cheap date (but not too cheap, please).
Amanda McHenry and Brad Hunter at their second Nats game this season. (Lisa Bonos/The Washington Post) Yes, going to a baseball game can get expensive fast. But a recent study put the average cost of a date in Washington, D.C., at $166. Yikes! Next to that average, a night at Nats Park looks like a bargain. You don’t need to splurge to have fun: You can snag $5 seats but spend most of your time at outdoor bars or observation spots.
Whatever you do, though, don’t eat before you arrive. Brad Hunter did that the first time he took in a Nats game with Amanda McHenry, and she hasn’t let him forgot it. “Typically when you take someone out, you buy them food,” she says, giving him that “you should know better” look.
Message received, Amanda.
6. You can bring a buffer.
Not ready to spend several hours with someone you’ve only been out with a few times? That’s where the group-date comes in: Some of the best baseball dates I’ve been on haven’t been one-on-ones but groups of friends where someone has an extra ticket. It’s a good chance to get to know someone’s friends without the pressure of a group interview.
Just be careful: The last time I was on a group baseball date, I ran into friends on our way into the park and by the time we were at our seats I had a text that read “Did we just meet future Mr. Bonos?”
Try answering that one while sitting in super-close quarters.
7. It’s a good place to assess your date’s placement on the easygoing-to-crazy spectrum.
Does he drink too much? Is she a super-complainer? Is one of you an obnoxious super-fan? If so, any of that will come out quickly. So just make sure you’re ready to show off your true ballgame self before saying yes to the date. Or, if you’re an antsy one: Remind your date that just a 7th-inning stretch won’t cut it.
Hunter, for example, says he won’t go to a baseball game with someone until about the fifth date. “It would take me at least four really good dates” before he’s ready to sit down with a woman for three to four hours.
8. There are things to do other than baseball.
“I told him we were going to a gardening event,” Elizabeth Johnson, 24, told her boyfriend Zach Dendas, 27, when she bought them tickets for the game but didn’t tell him where they were going until that evening.
Dendas was pleasantly surprised when that “gardening event” turned out to be: We’re going to get you a Jayson Werth Chia Pet for your garden.
The fan giveaway underscores the fact that, even though the ballgame is the main event, there’s a lot more going on: the President’s Race, several bar and lounge areas, plenty to eat, plus the occasional fireworks show.
And if all else fails, remember…
9. Even if the date’s a bust, there’s still a game to watch.
If you’re a big baseball fan, it doesn’t matter so much if you really hit it off with your date because: You might be there for the baseball first, the date second. When I asked a friend of mine who’s super-Nats fan for her thoughts on the baseball-game date, she says: “It’s a guaranteed good time even if the date is a bust.”
Whenever people tell her that she’s crazy to go on first or second dates to a ballgame, she says: ‘It’s fine because it’s something I enjoy and want to be doing anyway versus having a painful conversation at a bar.’ ”
Average attendance at Nats Park hovers around 34,000 people per game; thousands of them must be single. It’s a great reminder that there are plenty of batters who could be a better fit for your lineup.
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