If you are a reader of Matt’s Bats, you were probably at last Wednesday’s Nats-Brewers game because it was the 2nd annual #VoteNats Tweet-Up. .

When I arrived at Nats Park, the first thing I did was check in behind section 141, near the picnic tables.  One reason they had the Tweet-Up was to encourage fans to vote the Nats into the All-Star Game.  The Nats staff had set up iPads on the picnic tables to get Twitter fans to vote right away!  Last week, Bryce was behind Andrew McCutchen and Justin Upton, but enough people voted for him that he actually got the 3rd starting spot in the outfield for the NL All Start team. 

At the tweet-up, I voted for the All-Star Game the maximum allowed 35 times. In the National League, I voted for Adam LaRoche, Anthony Rendon, Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman, Bryce Harper, Denard Span, Jayson Werth, and Wilson Ramos.  (I was so excited to see Bryce Harper and Jordan Zimmermann named to the All-Star Team!  Hopefully the fans vote in Ian Desmond too – Click here to help send Desi to the ASG!  If everyone knew how great Desi was to his fans, he would definitely win the fan vote!) #DesiIn13

After we voted, the Nats set up a special Q&A session with F.P. Santangelo (@FightinHydrant), Julie Alexandria (@JulieAlexandria), Dave Jageler (@DaveJageler), and Tyler Clippard (@TylerClippard).  Earlier in the day, @Nationals asked followers on twitter to submit questions for the Q&A.  I asked Julie a question on Twitter, and she answered it.

At the tweet-up, they asked her the question again in front of everyone. I was so surprised they asked my question!  When they announced my name, everyone cheered, which was great. 

I wanted to know if Julie Alexandria is more afraid of getting hit by a ball or getting hit by a tidal wave of Gatorade.  She answered, obviously, a ball (a ball probably hurts a lot more than Gatorade!). She also said that if she gets Gatorade dunked on her, that means that Nats won.

Since they asked my question, I got an official Tweet-Up poster autographed by Tyler Clippard.  (Actually it was a 2012 Tweet-Up poster, since Clippard’s picture wasn’t on the 2013 poster).

FP also told the story of our funny conversation when I was on vacation in San Francisco.  I asked FP on Twitter what was fun to do at AT&T Park, because he used to play for the Giants and was a broadcaster for the Giants before he came to DC. He replied, and told me to jump the rail with two outs in the 3rd inning and run on the field. I knew he was kidding!  I answered with my own joke – “I am not spending my vacation in Alcatraz!”

One of the reasons I love Twitter is that I get to interact with my baseball heroes!  I also got to see a lot of the people who I communicate with or follow on Twitter like:

• @AshburnNatsFan
• @LauraRoose
• @DCSportShopped
• @NLBeastNats
• @JackOBeam 
• @jonfeng1
• @nextyeardc
• @courtney_hsieh
• @NothinButNats
• @MHeller
• @Cindysterp
• @NatsFamily
• @TracyTran
• and others

During the game, the Nationals had other Twitter contests for fun prizes.  I guessed who was going to win the President’s Race, but I was wrong.  I was glad I stayed for the game – I got to see Anthony Rendon hit a home run!  It was a bummer the Nats lost, though.

I loved the tweet-up, and I can’t wait for next year’s when we vote to send the Nats to the 2014 ASG in Minneapolis!

TONIGHT’S GAME
NATIONALS VS. PHILLIES

DAN HAREN (4-9, 6.15 ERA) VS. JOHN LANNAN (1-3, 5.15 ERA)

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