Park Vista grad’s bobblehead giveaway a brouhaha for Nats
The Washington Nationals’ giveaway of 25,000 Trea Turner bobbleheads lit up social media Sunday night, and not in a good way.
The Nationals had planned to give away the bobbleheads — which feature the former Park Vista infifielder sliding headfifirst into a base — Friday night, but their game with the Phillies was postponed by rain and rescheduled as part of a split doubleheader Sunday.
The team decided to try again before Sunday’s second game, which was scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m.
The Nationals announced that gates would open 90 minutes before the last out of the fifirst game, or 6 p.m., whichever was later.
That’s where the problems started, according to the Washington Post.
The gates opened at 6:10 p.m., which didn’t le ave enough time to get every fan into the stadium for the opening pitch.
Some fans had tickets to both games, but had to exit and re-enter the stadium. Others were there for the second game, and already were waiting in line to enter the stadium.
Cue t h e f r u s t r a t i o n o f Nat i o n a l s f a n s , s o me o f whom took to Twitter to express their frust ration with the massive lines.
All’s well that ends well for Nationals fans. Washington beat the Phillies 6-5.
Sunday’s bobblehead giveaway was just one of three the Nationals will hold this season, according to the Washington Post. The others are for 2016 Silver Slugger Daniel Murphy and pitcher Tanner Roark.
Turner was an All-Area pl aye r at Park Vi s t a a nd a lightly recruited player before signing with North Carolina State and becoming one of the top college players in the country. The Padres drafted him with the 13th overall pick of the fifirst round in the 2014 MLB draft and later that year traded him to Washington. He made his MLB debut in 2015 and has quickly become a star with the Nationals and one of their most popular players. He is batting .248 with four home runs, 18 RBIs and six stolen bases, despite spending part of the season on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.