All posts tagged: Washington Nationals

Observations from Home (The It Is Still the Christmas Season Edition)

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If it is the Christmas season, it means that the Browns are likely to have a new family photo taken by our friend John Thorne. (Blog interruption:  For those who may be wondering about the use of Christmas language after New Year’s Day, just think of the 12 Days of Christmas.  That’s how we celebrate at the Brown home.) I’ve written before about the fact that we wouldn’t have family photos if not for John.  Thankfully, he showed up at church on December 20th and asked if we would like a family picture.  All four of us were there, and it was also Andrew and Claire’s 23rd birthday.  A perfect day to capture the family for 2015! John used two settings, with two different cameras.  At the top you see us in the church yard, while the photo below shows the Washington National Cathedral in the background. What a wonderful gift for the Christmas season.  Thank you John! Speaking of getting the family together:  I’ve been hinting over the past couple of months that I’d …

Stick a Fork in This Season

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Saturday was the final home game included in my season ticket package for the Washington Nationals 2015 season. I was much more ambivalent about the end of this season than I am for most. Although the Nats finally won in the 12th inning yesterday, the Mets also won earlier in the evening and clinched the National League East Division title.  Time to stick a fork in this stinker of a season. I’m not going into all the problems with the 2015 Nats (although I’ve touched on several recently). They are almost too many to contemplate. If you want to read why Matt Williams should be fired, you could do worse than this one from Nationals Baseball at the end of the disastrous 3-game sweep by the Mets earlier in September. If you want to read why the trade for Jonathan Papelbon was the worst trade of the season (something I supported at the time, but now see how wrong I was), read Joe Posnanski. That trade, plus the pre-season dealing of Tyler Clippard (which I …

2015 Feels A Great Deal Like 2013

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Just when Washington Nationals fans thought August couldn’t get any worse, comes this news item about the revocation of the Jayson Werth walk-off bobblehead from the Nationals’ website: Jayson Werth’s walk-off home run in Game 4 of the 2012 NLDS was one of the greatest moments in Washington Nationals history. While we tried to capture his jump into home plate and commemorate it with a bobblehead for our 10th Anniversary season, we were not satisfied with the final product. Therefore, we will be re-issuing a new bobblehead. The first 25,000 fans to enter Nationals Park on Sunday, August 30th for the 1:35 p.m. game against the Miami Marlins will receive a voucher redeemable for the new bobblehead. Fans will be able to pick up their new bobblehead on an offseason date at Nationals Park. In addition, you will receive a special gift for the inconvenience. More information will be available on the vouchers and on this site. This is the August when the Mets never lose, and on the off day when they do finally …

Baseball vs. Golf. No contest.

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Spring is a weird time for sports. First, there are lots of changing seasons.  Playoffs are just starting in hockey and basketball. (Do you know that WWII wasn’t as long as the NBA playoffs?) Baseball is in its first week. Golf begins to come back onto the radar screen. And those folks who think football is the only game get all excited about…the draft.  (Please. Get a life, people.) This afternoon, I watched about all the golf I will take in on television over the course of the year – the last nine holes of the Masters.  It takes me about an hour of CBS coverage of the Masters to remind myself why I think golf is so damn pretentious and full of itself.  The hushed tones, the endless references to history, the endless paeans to Phil (I make millions of dollars, but I still complain about having to pay taxes) Mickelson. (The guy actually wears logos of a bank and an auditing firm.  That should tell you something about this “game.”) Give me a …

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. …

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 …