You know your team has had a rough day when the President’s Race is the best thing on the “Nats Highlights” reel at the end of the day.

Yes, Thomas Jefferson wiped out George, Abe, and finally Teddy with a series of pretty impressive body checks before crossing the finish line at the head of the pack. But on a beautiful Father’s Day in Washington, the home-standing Nationals couldn’t match  Tom’s effort and come up with the timely hits they needed.  Unfortunately, they also  made a couple of uncharacteristic blunders that led to a 4-1 Yankees win and a sweep of the weekend series.

But I was enjoying the weather, the sell-out crowd…and my daughter Claire. So all-in-all it was a pretty wonderful day.

And as is true with any day at the ballpark, you’ll always see something you’ve never seen before.

Today (besides Tom wiping out Teddy just before the finish line), it was fun to watch 19-year-old phenom Bryce Harper rap out a double…

…and then spend the next minute or so chatting with first-ballot Hall-of-Famer Derek Jeter on second base. I don’t know if they had met before (Harper was 0-7 in yesterday’s 14-inning marathon, so I know Harper and Jeter didn’t run into each other on the base paths in that game). The body language of the two seemed to indicate that they were taking advantage of the moment to introduce themselves. A friendly pat on the rump from Harper as Jeter headed back to short and Jeter’s returning the gesture with a small wave of his glove led me to believe that the respect was flowing both ways.

So even with a loss, the Nats remain in first place by 4 games. If you had told me our Nationals would go 6-3 in the first 9 games against the American League East, and would be leading their division on Father’s Day, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat. Enjoy a couple of other photos from a beautiful Father’s Day.

More to come…

DJB