Baseball is back, and that means another fun season ahead at Nationals Park.

I went along with my mom and brother to the Nats home opener Thursday, which was a scrappy win that seems to be a preview of what is in store for the team this year.  Here’s a little photo/video montage of the day:

I didn’t have a shot of it myself, but Gio Gonzalez getting his first Major League hit was a fun moment.  You can see in the video here that he couldn’t help but hide how happy he was.  He even tweeted a screenshot of his “BIG smile.”  In a game played by millionaires, it’s easy to forget the fun aspect, so it’s nice to see someone let loose like that.  Add in his great pitching and amazing attitude so far about playing in Washington, and I think I’m really going to enjoy having him on the team.

On Friday, my brother and I went back for the second game of the year — a 13-inning marathon that ended with Jayson Werth slapping a game-winning single.  His first words after the game were thanking the fans for their support.  He didn’t have very good numbers last year, but I can’t help but like his attitude too.

My brother and I wore our presidents shirts for the first time.  For those who don’t know, the Nats have four presidential mascots — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt — who wear a jersey with their first name and the number of their presidency.  This year Pat and I got our own shirts honoring some lesser-heralded leaders:

Note: I am not actually three times the size of my brother

At first we tried the conventional photo op, but quickly discovered Jefferson’s arm around your shoulder obscures the name.  Plus with taking the photo from behind, it’s awkward to tell when to stop posing.  We opted for this “stand near him” style, which means we also happen to be in the background of several other people’s pictures.

If you’ve made it this far, stick around for one more story from our Metro ride home Friday night.

A couple sat down in front of us — the woman immediately turning around in her seat to talk to my brother and I.  To say that she was drunk would be a massive understatement.  She apparently recently read a book about body language and set about examining us, giving such observations as “YOU’RE BROTHERS!” and “You have the same eyes, but a different face.”  For the record, we have very different eyes.

After about 10 minutes, her male companion (probably boyfriend, but I didn’t ask) mentioned that high-fiving was “her thing” and how he was surprised she hadn’t asked us for one yet.  We gave her one.  And then, in the spirit of the fun we were having, I challenged her to high-five 20 other people in our packed train car.

There were tons of people around us, so I figured she would high-five all those within reach and be done in roughly a minute.  Instead, she took off down the opposite end, high-fiving her way to meeting all sorts of new friends.  She was gone for a while, her companions occasionally calling out to her and noting her laugh as a response.  But with about five stops before they were set to get off, they didn’t hear anything, and went to look for her.  The male companion came back with a look of frustration and said, “She…got off the train.”

He stepped off at the next stop to find her, while their friends shook their heads and laughed.  Apparently this wasn’t the first time this kind of thing had happened with her.  Who knew a simple high-five challenge would turn out like that?