Our expert: Ryan Zimmerman, Nationals first baseman.
It’s okay to actually talk baseball. “I can’t expect fans not to talk about baseball, because I guess if I didn’t play, I wouldn’t be a very interesting person.”
Be courteous—and that includes not interrupting a meal. “Fans here are polite. You go to New York or Philly or talk to people who’ve played in places like that, it can be not so great. Fans here rarely come up in the middle of dinner and bother you, but also there’s a lot of other things going on in this town as well. It’s a very educated fan base. They don’t get up in your business like the other cities. I appreciate that, but I also enjoy talking with them. The people in this city have become family, and I’ve kind of grown up here.”
Ask him about Bryce Harper or Max Scherzer. “I’d much rather talk about my teammates than myself anytime. I just enjoy talking baseball, any types of sports.”
Read more advice, tips, and tricks from Washington natives in our Secrets of the City package.
This article appears in our January 2016 issue of Washingtonian.
