All posts filed under: Baseball

Nats Forget Basics and Lose a Season

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Crash Davis said it best. Baseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball… Last evening and early this morning as they faced an elimination game, the Nats forgot how to throw the ball, catch the ball, and hit the ball. And so – no surprise – their season ended. Throw the ball.  A simple task.  Unless you are Gio Gonzalez and can’t throw a strike with the bases loaded. Unless you are Aaron Barrett, and can’t find your catcher on two consecutive tosses (including an intentional Ball 4). Unless you are Adam LaRoche and you throw home when no one is actually coming home. Catch the ball.  Another simple task.  Unless you are Gio (there he is again), and you do your best Billy Buckner impersonation and can’t pick up a gift of a double play ball that dribbles through your legs.  Unless you are Gio, Anthony Rendon, and Wilson Ramos who converge on a sacrifice bunt – a gift of an out – and …

In Doug We Trust

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See you tomorrow! The Nationals finally played a sharp, aggressive game; had a great effort from pitcher Doug Fister; and turned the tables on the Giants when Madison Bumgarner took a sacrifice bunt and made an errant throw into the left field corner. Two runs later the Nats had a lead that quickly grew to three, and all of a sudden it appears we have a series! Bryce’s bomb in the 9th came tantalizingly close to McCovey Cove (how cool would that have been), but his sliding catch a couple of innings earlier was probably more important, as it helped keep the Giants scoreless at the time. We’ll have another game tomorrow.  Can’t ask for anything else this time of year. As Harper said to begin his post-game interview, “In Doug we trust.” Indeed! More to come… DJB

Matt, You Have to Trust Your Pitcher’s Heart

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  Last night was tough.  No doubt about it. A sunny and cool afternoon turned into a cold and cruel evening at Nationals Park, as we were reminded that sometimes the best managers do nothing in critical situations. They trust their players. Matt Williams is a rookie manager who has had a fine run in his first year, leading the Nats to the best record in the National League. But in what was close to a do-or-die game last evening, he over-managed.  And we were reminded that he is still a rookie. Jordan Zimmermann was one out away from completing two of the most stunning back-to-back pitching performances in baseball history.  How to follow-up a no-hitter on the final day of the regular season?  Oh, how about taking a 3-hitter within one out of a complete game shutout when your team is down one game in the NLDS.  He had easily handled the heart of the Giants order the last two times he faced them, so who cares if their 3-4-5 hitters are coming up. …

God, I Love the Wild Card

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Fact #1: I love the wild card games in Major League Baseball. Fact #2: I’m glad the Nationals are not playing in these “win or go home” games. Last night saw the Kansas City Royals win a thriller from the Oakland A’s at Kauffman Stadium in 12 innings.  The K is a wonderful place to see a ballgame.  Tonight, I’m sitting on the couch waiting to see who will survive the National League Wild Card game and face the Nats on Friday night in the NLDS.  The game is at PNC Park – one of the great places to watch a ballgame. If you look over to the right-hand column of my blog, you’ll see a link to the name Joe Posnanski.  Joe is among the best writers about baseball, and it just so happens that KC is his home.  His post on last night’s game had some of the funniest lines I’ve ever read from a sportswriter. The first concerns the description of the bizarre double-steal attempt that went bad.   Here’s Joe’s description: The …

A Change in the Pecking Order?

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Local all-news radio station WTOP runs a segment entitled Core Values with commentator Chris Core. Today, he had a segment that was music to my ears: a change in the pecking order of local sports teams. In one minute, Core sums up why everyone is fed up with the Washington football team.  (Oops, I almost wrote their nickname, which many see as offensive.) There are multiple reasons to be tired of this team (e.g., Fed Ex Field, the team stinks, they mortgage their future for a perpetually injured quarterback), but the primary reason is that everyone despises the owner. I’ve made the same point before! Then Core turns to the Nationals.  The owners are great (and they stay out of the way of the professionals).  They play in a beautiful park (and he could have added that it is accessible by Metro). They have a great chance to get to the World Series and they are primed to be good for years to come. Then Chris Core does something really great…he let’s out the Section …

Punctuation Mark!!!

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Could there be a better way to end the regular season? Let me answer that for you. Nope. Jordan Zimmermann, the Nationals unassuming #2 starter who doesn’t do much except pour strikes into the zone pitch after pitch – and then more times than not come out with a win – throws a no-hitter in game 162 of the 2014 regular season. For those lucky enough to be there (like a number of my friends) – what a memory.  For those of us watching on television, it was riveting baseball. I have to admit, when the ball was hit to the left field gap with two outs in the 9th, I could only think of Souza’s dropping a fly ball on Friday evening. I thought the no-no was over. But nope, Steven Souza, Jr. made an incredible catch, and history was made. Thomas Boswell wrote that the game “felt like a fitting coda to the season but also a perfect prelude to the playoffs.” I loved manager Matt Williams’ comment.  At his post-game interview, he …

Score Book getting ready to go to the trash

This September 2014 call-up won’t make the postseason roster

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I gave this September call-up several chances. But I have my limits. With tickets to three September games at Nationals Park in hand, I decided to break in my new Baseball Score Book to get it ready for the playoffs. The ring binder on my old score book had a “notebook malfunction” on our August road trip, so the timing seemed right. The idea of the September call-up is standard in baseball.  Rosters expand on September 1st  and promising players come up to the big club from the minors.  On losing teams these rookies get to play regularly to show they should make the ball club next year. On teams going to the postseason, like the Nats, the call-ups may provide an occasional day-off for a regular, but more often than not they fill specialized roles.  (Need a pinch runner, turn to the speedy Michael Taylor.) So I have now given my September call-up three chances.  If he was coming out of the bullpen, my score book would be 0-3 with about a 10.00 ERA.  …

The Well-Appointed Cubicle

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Thanks to my colleague Tom and Section 313 seatmate Kim (she’s the one who added the Woo! to the Section 313 cheer as noted in this Washington Post article), I now have the perfect addition for any Washington-area cubicle.  2014 National League East Division Champs indeed! N-A-T-S, Nats, Nats, Nats, Woo! And since we had a weather postponement tonight, here’s another recent Post story that’s about the logistics of taking care of the Nats over a 162 game season.  Recommended as a good rainy-night read. My next tickets?  Friday night! Go Nats! More to come… DJB

Doesn’t Syracuse Need a Closer?

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No more discussions (or articles) about the Nats being a World Series team. Not after tonight. And it all started with such promise. I showed up to our regular seats in Section 313 with my work colleague Paul to find the new sign the Lerners had posted over the recent road trip. N-A-T-S Nats, Nats, Nats, Woo! Our section’s cheer!  Emblazoned on the ballpark!  How cool is that?!  Thank you, Kim (a 313 regular who suggested it to a Nats marketing staffer). With two runs in the first (thanks to Adam LaRoche’s home run), we had the chance to use it early and often. Woo indeed! Stephen Strasburg is cruising.  My new score book is getting a work out due to the great offense. Strasburg leaves after six terrific innings with a 5-1 lead. One inning later, it is 7-2.  Atlanta gets battered tonight, cutting our magic number by one more.  We had a chance to gain a game in the standings. What could go wrong? Rafael Soriano could go wrong, even though he wasn’t …

What if Everybody Squeezed the Cat?

Twelve influential books (and a few more thrown in for fun)

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Since  I left Facebook about 18 months ago, I miss 99.5% of the silly contests, lists, and challenges that clog the social media world.  And even when I was on FB, I would occasionally take one of their lists — such as the five albums I’d most want on a desert island — and expand that into blog posts (as in album #1, #2, #3, #4, and #5). But the other day, my sister Debbie put up a list of ten influential books in her life, and asked Candice to do the same.  The challenge was to come up with the list quickly.  Both Debbie and Candice had great lists, and that made me think about what my list would look like. So…here is my off the cuff list of twelve books that I’ve read (and usually re-read, and re-read).  Since this is my blog, I’m not going to be bound by the FB convention of ten.  And, in fact, you’ll see I’ve thrown in a bonus book or two along the way. Through the …