My son and I were at the Nationals-Dodgers game last night with 43,934 other people.
I took the Metro to the game with thousands of others. As I exited the Navy Yard station, an announcement came over the loudspeakers telling us the last train heading north of that station would be at 11:39 pm. That was surprising because with the game beginning at 8:08 pm, and being an elimination game with both bullpens likely to see lots of use, it seemed unlikely any of us would be able to return home the way we came.
That premonition turned out to be true. The game lasted four hours and 32 minutes. Thirteen pitchers pitched. The 7th inning somehow took 66 minutes all by itself. At 11 pm, partway through that 7th inning if I remember correctly, the video on the scoreboard reminded us poor suckers who had relied on Metro to get to the game, that Metro’s last train heading toward Greenbelt would leave at 11:39 and that Metro advised people to get to the station early to make sure we would be able to board.
This guy in front of me was the fan of the night. He maintained his intensity for the full nine innings.
This was greeted by the crowd with angry shouts of hateful derision that exceeded their dislike of the Dodger third baseman Justin Turner. A vulgar chant broke out involving Metro and a physical impossibility. I resisted the temptation to chant but I was struck by the strange set of incentives facing profit-and-loss enterprises and those that can fall back on tax revenue. The DC Metro system has serious budgetary problems.
Last night was a chance to make a lot of money (or at least one would have thought so but maybe not). But even if the decision had been costly in expenses vs. revenue, it was a chance to build goodwill for a customer base that is not happy with the many outages and delays that often occur. It was a chance to do something nice, something desperately needed, for the people who would find themselves on the street late at night with no way to get home.
But Metro showed no flexibility. No extra trains were added. The timetable for a weekday night remained unchanged. I don’t know if anyone directly made that decision or if anyone had the power to change it. But if there is such a person, the costs of that decision to that person must have been quite small. Incentives matter.
My son and I wandered out into the night. How would the thousands of people at the game who had not driven manage to get home? How could all the cars that would be needed to get us home be coordinated? This was essentially an evacuation. There was no immediate crisis, but what would happen? Would people end up walking home? Spending the night on the street?
I called an Uber. My son, heading in a different direction, called his own, a pooled ride that took him out to the Maryland suburbs for $15. To my surprise, there was no surge pricing. I stood opposite the stadium as people stood in groups waiting for rides. Some called friends. Some climbed into taxis whose drivers realized there was a chance to make some money. Some called Uber or Lyft or some other service. My Uber took longer than expected to arrive as traffic around the stadium choked most of the streets. I should have walked for 10 minutes or so but such is life.
I was rewarded with a vision of what is usually unseen, dozens and dozens of people finding their way home without anyone being in charge of the process. There was no coordination but the only thing that worked poorly was the traffic.
My 30 minute ride home ended up taking closer to 45 minutes. My phone was almost out of batteries so my driver let me charge my phone from an extra cord he carried. Nearing sleep, I tried to understand why the 3rd base coach had decided to send Jason Werth home when he had no chance.
Werth is out at home by way too many feet
Scherzer made one mistake on the night. This pitch was not it.
I thought of Scherzer’s filthy change-up and of how close the Nats had come to victory. I chatted with my driver, who is working to improve himself and who drives for Uber to help feed his family while he goes to school. It was just past 2:00 am when I got home. The fare was $31. I thanked my driver and gave him 5 stars on the Uber app when I got inside.