just act like you know what you are doing
Stan Kasten, Nationals team president:
This is a very, very positive development…
The Washington Post reports that an agreement has been reached to finally air Nationals games over Comcast, the region’s largest cable provider.
Filed under: baseballFrom today’s post article MLB: D.C. Government in Default of Lease Agreement:
Tom Ostertag, a lawyer for MLB, said the city had failed to meet 11 provisions called for in the construction administration agreement between the District and MLB.
You know it had to happen, right? Here we were cruising along, getting our red on, about to see the team handed off to the Learners and WHAM! Along comes this little problem.
Now, here’s what I don’t get: Why can’t MLB still hand the team over to the new ownership group? I understand that they would want to hand it over with everything tidy and in order, but must they hold it up by sending a letter to the DC Sports and Entertainment Comission asking for what they are legally owed? More, does MLB get to keep the money that comes in from the big re-opening weekend coming up? Is it required, legally, in the deal between the Lerners and MLB that this must be done and nothing should be in deliquency when the sale closes?
That’s not the only bad news, there is also rain in the forecast all weekend. Go figure.
Filed under: baseball
Last night I doubled my bobblehead collection to two with the addition of the second of three bobbleheads that the Washington Nationals will be giving away this season. As I sat in the stands before the game watching other fans amuse themselves by asking questions of their Jose Guillen doll and getting repeated and emphatic affirmative answers I harrumphed when the subject of the third bobblehead came up. The third bobblehead will feature the likeness of the team’s mascot, Screech. Screech is supposed to be a fierce eagle, but I can’t help but see a doofus of a chicken whenever that ridiculous suit comes into my view.
However today my position on the Screech, or at least his bobblehead changed dramatically for me. I realized that they are only going to be given away to fans who attend the game on August 13 who are twelve years old or less. That puts this silly plastic doll of a character I don’t even really like out of my direct reach. What’s more, at only one per young fan in order for me to have one I would have to devise some way to take one away from a kid who probably thinks Screech is the best part of the whole ballgame experience. Now, with the potential of an incomplete collection it seems like some kind of stupid, plastic, nodding grail. Crazy.
Filed under: baseballI’ve been to a few (or more) games at RFK stadium and done my share of waiting in the sea of sweaty fans at the Stadium/Armory Metro station escalators after the game. Invariably I have these two thoughts while waiting there just before I begin to make mooing sounds. First I start to wonder what would happen if some nutjob with a backpack full of bombs and/or keys were to be setting off his payload right about now… and then I quash the thought like a good American. The next thought I have goes something like, “I’m so done with this crowd, why the heck isn’t there a watering hole around here to wait in while these good people go home?”
So once I sought out Trusty’s Full-Serve but found that it was still a healthy walk from the park and walking there there alone (well, with about five new dodger-fan friends) I found that it wasn’t a bad place or experience, just not quite close enough.
And since the new stadium isn’t quite ready yet we, Nationals fans, need a place to whet our whistle, drown our sorrows, or celebrate the on-field successes all while staying away from the obvious target masses of sweaty bodies. To that end, NationalsPride.com has been so kind as to provide us all with The Unofficial Bar Guide for Nats Fans
Filed under: baseballWalking through these streets may be off-putting for some, but they are much safer than most fear, and can give a taste of DC like many have never seen. This is where the “real DC” lives and there is not a Starbucks, Austin Grill or Cheesecake Factory to be found.
So if you’re as anxious and excited as I am about the construction of a new baseball stadium in Washington DC, you’ll no doubt love watching the Clark Construction: Construction Camera between now and opening day ‘08. Today the forms for one more gigantic pillar appeared. Yay progress!
I also like the fact that the camera faces northwest so you can see the Capitol dome and the top of the Washington Monument in the background.
Filed under: baseball, Real Life, The InternetThe latest Washington Nationals News is that bullpen coach John Wetteland has been “offered another position within the organization.” And in my opinion it is about time. It seems that the team’s offense has been doing suprisingly well and the defense has been getting gradually better since the end of spring training and the beginning of the regular season. The pitching, however, seems to have been suprisingly unexciting. Pitchers have not been performing up to their potential and the relievers have really lost us games. I think that a loose bullpen could very well be the cause of this. Considering how there have been a lot of pitching moves with the players since the start of the season, this one makes a lot of sense to me.
Filed under: baseballAsked whether he had concerns about how the bullpen would react to the move, Robinson said, “I don’t care. Maybe they will get mad and get someone out.”
The WashingtonPost.com has (apparrently) recently introduced a cool but hard-to-locate feature of their website with an interesting chart that crunches statistics from various sources to predict the probability of a Nationals victory. Wow. Finally all this brainliness produces a real-life useful output!
Go Nats!
Filed under: baseball, The InternetFinally this day is here. The Washington Nationals have ownership.
This is important in its own sense. I mean, it isn’t important on the level of stem-cell research or genocide. It is still essentially pudgy guys, mostly white guys, with more money than I can imagine. They are still just playing a game, but at some point there is a border where the game and the men with cigars overlaps with real life.
Tomorrow in view of the Capital building - in a part of the city you would not want to park your car at night - while wearing Nationals caps a few people, including the new owners, will use gold plated shovels to break ground to begin construction on a $611Million+ stadium. The idea is that such development will change real estate values and change real lives and fortunes in the process. The idea is that people who may not care so much about baseball will come to see the new civic building. They will each buy a ticket, maybe a hot dog, and possibly a hat. This will generate money for the owners who will reinvest it in capable players (and other employees) who can outplay the competition and, hopefully, one day … eventually … win. That will sell more hats and t-shirts, tickets, and parking spaces. And all of this money changing hands in a part of the district you wouldn’t spend the night in today will hopefully cause the district to break even on the expenses. At least this will increase the quality of life for residents of the region.
I will say this in support of the new owner … or rather, I will share this quote with you because the man speaks for himself: “We are caretakers of a great community treasure.” And the quote that means a lot to me as a fan, the glimmer of hope (even as the team loses again tonight), “We want the Nationals to be winners.”
Me too, Mr. Lerner, me too.
Filed under: baseballToday the Nats wore their alternate red jerseys for the second time this year and they lost 5-0 to Cincinnati. Last year they wore their alternate jerseys only once and they lost that game too. Is it something with the jerseys? I certainly hope not because I personally like the alternate jerseys much more than the regular home shirts. I’m glad they’re only occasionally worn but, jeez, can’t we get a win in ‘em? (actually, at this point I’d like to see the Nats get a win in any shirts at all).
