Memorable Meeting with The Robinson's

Nats320
Fellow 320's: For Memorial Day, I was assigned to shoot beauty shots around the Nations Captial to use on tonight's broadcast. I happened to be at the Lincoln Memorial, walking towards the Korean War Memorial, TV Camera in hand when, lo and behold, walking right towards me is Barbara and Nichelle Robinson. I get this big smile on my face and Mrs. R notices right away and says "Nichelle, its one of those Section 320 Guys!!" I said "Yeah, what at you two doing?" Re-introduce myself. As it turned out, they were taking in the tourist sites before heading back to LA, since the Nats are on a road trip. They hadn't had the chance to see much. They just LOVED DC!! Apparently never had seen the whole place and have truly fallen in love with it. Nichelle enjoyed the fact that there was sooooo much to do here and the history that goes along with it. Completely different mindset here than the LA laid back ways. We went on to talk for nearly 10 minutes. Barbara says they LOVE OUR CHEERS and they try to stay up on it, but we are just too quick and sharp sometimes. I mentioned to them how Jose Guillen told Dan's Hotel Driver that he hears the Jose Song and wants us to keep it up. They laughed and said alot of players hear us and they really do appreciate it tremendously. She and Frank have talked about us on MORE THAN ONE OCASSION. We got into a fabulous conversation about Soriano (Nichelle's favorite player) and I mentioned how Sohna has come to like baseball, but she LOVES SORIANO. In fact, Mrs. R asked what country Sohna was from. And Nichelle said that the Lerner/Kasten group needs to understand that, yes you need to build from the farm clubs up, but you still need a draw to attract and eventually KEEP FANS and this is the one guy that can do it. She was impressed in how in less than 2 months he is the fan favorite and he will put people in the seats, and get you your money back. I couldn't agree with her more. They got a kick out of Sohna's Nickname for Soriano ("Wiggly Butt" for how he stands at the plate) Barbara said that she's been working on Frank about Soriano for a few days, but his influence comes down to what role he will play under new ownership. Franks loves the Nationals and wants to be a part of the winning professional franchise he knows it will become in a meaningful fashion. They both crossed their fingers and we laughed. Its was a marvelous, total chance, conversation. They said that Frank, although he would never recognize us in a game, is well aware of our noise. And has said he likes it!! I REPEAT---"HE LIKES IT!!!"

I then had to move on, but it was just great really getting to talk to them and she how much they really enjoyed our section and felt it added, POSITIVELY, to the games at RFK!! I have been on Cloud 9 all afternoon just remembering the meeting. JEFF