Jim and Michelle Matthews met at a Dodgers game, got married and had Mindy, now 13, and Will, 14. The whole family wrote letters to help bring baseball back to D.C., bought season tickets to Nationals home games and split them with friends. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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Local Nats fans take leap of faith

Stafford County couple's box-seat miracle is a good sign for Nationals

By MICHAEL ZITZ

Date published: 4/14/2005

By MICHAEL ZITZ RFK Stadium seats too good to let go

Jim and Michelle Matthews believe in God, baseball, apple pie and the miracle of infield box seats.

That's why the Stafford County couple will sit within a peanut's throw of Washington Nationals third baseman Vinny Castilla at tonight's home opener.

They swallowed hard when they got the bill for their four Washington Nationals season tickets: $12,960.

That's $40 each, times four, times 81 home games.

"Oh, my gosh!" Michelle Matthews said at the end of January, when the invoice arrived. She admitted that in her initial excitement about the new team, she had lost sight of how many games there are in a Major League Baseball season.

"We were shocked," Jim Matthews said.

The thought of declining the tickets briefly flitted across their minds.

The Matthewses are huge baseball fans, who met at a Los Angeles Dodgers game at Chavez Ravine. And they dearly want to pass their love for the game on to their children, 14-year-old Will and 13-year-old Mindy, students at Fredericksburg Christian School.

They had been writing letters urging the D.C. City Council to grab the team and asking about tickets ever since they heard the Montreal Expos might move to the area.

But they're a one-salary family. He's a 43-year-old commuter, working for Raytheon in Crystal City. She's a 42-year-old stay-at-home mom who volunteers at the homeless shelter and their church.

And the price of four lower box seats could buy a car--well, at least a Korean car.

But then they looked closely at a seating chart.

"When we saw where they were, we said: 'These are great seats. How are we going to make this work?'" Jim Matthews recalled.

Indeed they are great seats, right next to third base, undoubtedly better than the seats wheedled by many members of Congress.

"We have to do something," Michelle Matthews agreed.

Many area fans pooled their money with friends and co-workers to buy season tickets.

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Date published: 4/14/2005