Scott Walker already loves Metro

Having mentioned that new winger Scott Walker took Metro to the Caps game on Monday night, I figure I should provide the follow-up. This all comes courtesy of Vya Jairam of the Caps Radio Network, who taped a piece on how Walker's Metro riding will endear him even more to the home crowd.

Walker started by telling Vya he plans to get a SmarTrip card, so taken is he with the mass-transit experience. See, having played most of his career in Nashville and Raleigh, he had apparently never been on a subway system before.

"So I was excited to use it, little bit nervous at first obviously," he told Vya. "But man, people were so helpful. I just kind of looked lost -- that was pretty easy to do -- and people just helped me and taught me how to go over and figure out how to pay for a ticket and how to get on. I'm sure I overpaid a bit, because I was just so scared that I was gonna get trapped in there, so I just made sure I put enough money that I could get in and out. And man, I had a great time, and I'm so excited to use it more now. Now I'm not so scared to just jump on it and head one or two stops or all the way, wherever."



He hadn't yet tried Metro before his wife and kids left town, and he said they were mad at him for not introducing them to mass transit.

"I wasn't sure to take my kids on there and my wife yet because I didn't want to get lost," he explained, "but now they're thrilled and they're excited to come back and give it a go and get downtown and go see the sights...."

"My family, mom and dad, they asked me, 'Well, what's it like, what's the makeup?' " Walker later said. "And I said 'Well, it's mostly people headed to work or home from work or to school or whatever they do.' I said 'They just go about their business, not really much chit-chatting. Just people jump on, do a few stops and they're off.' It's pretty interesting to see and it's amazing to me how it works. So for a small city kid it was pretty exciting, and now I'm so glad, because now it's so much easier to get around for me."

But, Vya pointed out, as his toothless smile becomes more famous around town, it won't be as easy for Walker to slide anonymously into a seat.

"I'll put my teeth in," he suggested. "Got to disguise it."