Springtimes Past and the Changes They Have Wrought

Watching Anthony Rendon play third base for the Nationals last week in Kissimmee, Florida reminded me of so many past Spring Training games. Osceola Stadium, where the Astros train in March each year, is one of my favorite places to watch major league baseball. It is the closest ballpark to Viera, FL where the Washington […]

Can You Over-hype the Nationals?

Bryce Harper has put on 10 pounds to hike his playing weight for 2013 to 230.  I remember Jim Callis at Baseball America coming on our podcast a few years ago and quoting some scouts who believe Harper will one day have more of an Adam Dunn footprint than a Mickey Mantle one.  I don’t […]

Feel It! The Heart of a Good Baseball Town is Beating Once Again

Baseball is part of the historic and cultural mosaic. You cannot unwind it from the larger picture and in Washington, DC, the rebirth of baseball’s winning tradition here is intertwined with a larger transformation taking place all across the length and breadth of this city, our nation’s capital. There have always been tourists tramping around […]

Heart and Soul

Nick Johnson finally hung up the spikes today, according to MLB Rumors. Only 34 years old, Johnson will be remembered as the backbone of the first Washington Nationals team in 2005, and to those of us who wore his name proudly on the back of our first Nationals jerseys, he was the heart and soul […]

Are Nationals Trying to Launch Death Star?

Raphael Soriano became one of the elite late inning pitchers with Tampa Bay in 2010 when he posted 42 saves and a 1.73 ERA. At the end of that season, the Yankees signed him for two years as the ostensible heir to Mariano Rivera–no small complement. Atlanta’s Craig Kimbrel might be the best and Fernando […]

Bo Knows

Football lost its luster for me long ago, but on Sunday I tuned in to watch the Redskins because frankly, Robert Griffin, III is just that special. Fast on his feet, and just as quick-wited, RG III has it all and he had Washington buzzing about a rebirth not just of football in this town, […]

“Oh, Canada” Again in October??

Will they be singing “Oh, Canada” again for the 2013 MLB Playoffs? Trying a formula reminiscent of the 2012 Miami Marlins, the Toronto Blue Jays have brought in Jose Reyes, Mark Buerhle and a host of others.  Many writers bought the “new” Marlins concept last year hook, line and sinker, which may explain why Toronto’s […]

Santa, a Baseball Fantasy

The free agents were nestled all snug in their new beds, visions of the playoffs danced in their heads… Santa stood on the roof next to his reindeer and was about to jump to the chimney when the shiny new Louisville Slugger in his bag caught his eye. Santa took the bat out of the bag […]

A Tribute to Marvin Miller

Marvin Miller died at age 95 yesterday. More than the compelling change Marvin Miller wrought in baseball and American sports as a whole, he should be remembered for the courage the man brought to every part of his public life. The New York Times eulogy credits Miller with creating the modern professional athlete as “pop culture […]

Bryce Harper, Rookie of the Year, And More

Bryce Harper was named the National League Rookie of the Year this evening. It is a great award for the Washington Nationals and their fans. It is a great decision for the game. But as much as it means to the fans of DC and the game, there is the very personal issue of what […]

Tailoring Washington for 2013: A Hot Stove Preview

Since Sandy blew out of town, the weather has been cold and windy. The stove has been cooking constantly, so it must be time to starting thinking about the 2013 Washington Nationals. They should improve on the best record in baseball without doing anything, but playing a pat hand is downright arrogant. Maybe they need […]

Dick Bosman Talks Strasburg Innings Limit and More

As the roving minor league pitching instructor for the Tampa Bay Rays, former Senators pitcher Dick Bosman has helped groom some of the best pitching talent in the majors. I asked Dick to comment on the Washington Nationals handling of Stephen Strasburg this season on our podcast show Friday night. The response was one of the most […]

A Closing Argument Falls Flat

The Washington Nationals season ended in agony on October 13 at 12:30 pm. What had been the best pitching staff in baseball was no where to be found over the final six innings of baseball last night. When Washington scored six runs in the first three innings off Adam Wainwright, the momentum of the previous […]

A Transformative Baseball Moment in Washington

In every life there are those moments when your life takes a sudden turn, when you are standing still in one place and then events sweep you away to a very different place. Your life is changed, moved from one platform onto another from which you take off in a totally different direction. Call them […]

Potential Clues to Post Season Success

In discussing how little the regular season matters in the playoffs, Ron Gardenhire said that the post-season is determined by which team gets hot.  It is a simplistic but quite accurate formula if you look at recent playoff runs by various teams. How hot were they going into the post-season? Certainly there are other consistent […]

Freakin Awesome

After winning the NL East Champions for 2012 last night, Ian Desmond was asked to describe the feeling. “Freakin Awesome,”  he said.  Desmond exemplifies the spirit of the Nationals better than anyone. He worked his way through the Montreal Expos organization to become the Washington Nationals everyday shortstop in in 2010. But this has been […]

Yes, Keith, There Is a Place for a Street Fighting Man

Philadelphia sports fans have a special place in the heart of Washington, DC sports fans. The verbal and very physical abuse the former have heaped upon the latter at hockey games in the City of Brotherly Love have been documented in the press and need no further mention. But that is hockey, a blood lust […]

The Sweet Madness of Pennant Race Baseball

The magic number for the Washington Nationals to win the NL East sits at five now. Most fans are beginning to put away the prayer beads and rubber chickens. But it has been a rough ride for Washington Nationals fans who have never been here before, never known the emotional highs of having the best […]

MLB Gets the Elevator, Washington Baseball Fans Get the Shaft–Again

The playoff season looms in a scant two weeks and ESPN, Sports Illustrated and the rest of the sports media are abuzz with September pennant race fever. That very special form of madness has lain dormant all these many years in Washington, DC. but it is spreading quickly. Yet in this city where October surprises […]

John Lannan, Soul of the Washington Nationals

The conventional wisdom early in 2004 was that Washington, DC might not be ready for baseball quite yet. In upstate New York, much the same was said of John Lannan as a college pitcher who was not really ready for the big leagues. And yet here they both are together at this critical juncture in […]

The Washington Nationals Are Shooting for the Moon

The St. Louis Cardinals are not only the reigning World Champions, but they are in a tight race with the Braves and Dodgers for the NL Wild Card. They probably still hold out hope that they can catch the Reds, which is why Washington taking three of four from a team like St. Louis in […]

Going Negative in Washington

The Washington Nationals followed a bad weekend of baseball in Philadelphia with an even worse evening in Miami. Stephen Strasburg was supposed to right the ship for Washington against Chris Volstad. Comparing the numbers for the two pitchers any betting parlor would have given steep odds on Volstad’s chance of winning, but he out-pitched Strasburg […]

Baseball State by State, A Review

There are many fine baseball resource books to keep close at hand and Chris Jensen has added another. My favorite is Paul Dickson’s Baseball Dictionary, but Chris Jensen’s Baseball State by State may have more practical value, even if it lacks Dickson’s wonderful illustrations. The strength of the aggregation is two-fold. While there is no […]

Winning Ugly? Winning Often Will Do That

Anyone who watched the entirety of the Nationals 13-inning 5-4 win over the Atlanta Braves on Monday night is susceptible to one part of the Stephen Strasburg argument. It goes like this: Washington’s pennant run in 2012 is a “perfect storm” convergence of talent and luck. Strasburg does not want to sit this out because […]

The “Shark” in a Feeding Frenzy Near Frisco Bay.

Several years ago Terry Byrom, broadcaster for the Harrisburg Senators, was kind enough to let me interview John Stearns, the manager of the team at that time. I was trying to get a read on Justin Maxwell, a local suburban Maryland player who had great promise as he worked his way through the Washington Nationals […]

You Know It Don’t Come Easy

Roger “the Shark” Bernadina has been “Side B” for his entire baseball career. For those of you too young to have ever seen a “45” they were what boomers played on their record players, a two-sided vinyl disc that contained two songs, the hit single on Side A, and a throwaway song on side B. […]

Adam LaRoche, Washington National’s 2012 MVP?

For the four games against the Marlins, Adam LaRoche was 7-for-15 with three home runs and 7 RBI, an amazing offensive display. It has always been said of LaRoche that he is a strong second half player, but no one could have understood just what others were talking about until this past month. He is […]

Handicapping the Stretch Run in the NL East

Who will wilt under the pressure and strain of the long season, age and experience or youth and energy? That is the question facing the two contenders in the NL East, the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. Atlanta has the edge in experiece, but will veterans like Chipper Jones and Tim Hudson wear down in […]

Walter Johnson’s 1924 Innings Limit

The 2012 Washington Nationals have moved beyond any centennial comparisons to Clark Griffith’s inaugural year at the helm in DC. Yes, having Davey Johnson come aboard in Washington is a nice parallel, but that 1912 Nationals team trailed the Boston Red Sox–led by Smoky Joe Wood and Tris Speaker–the entire season. They remained in second […]

From My Cold Dead Hands

There was so much written last week in DC about Stephen Strasburg’s innings limit that he might warrant consideration as Mitt Romney’s running mate, or Obama’s for that matter. Will he or won’t he? All-Star Week was the slowest sports week of the year—no hockey, basketball, football training camp, nada. So maybe what sports junkies […]

Turn Back the Clock, Please

Paul Dickson, whose book on Bill Veeck makes him an authority, said that the old master would be appalled at what passes for marketing gimmicks at today’s baseball games. But the Washington Nationals did such a wonderful job on “Turn Back the Clock Night” last week. I kept thinking that it would have all made […]

Gimme That Ole Time Religion

When we were kids too long ago, we often came to the game of baseball through the morning paper, scanning the box scores to see whether our team had won and which of our heroes had done the deed. Doris Kearns Goodwin book, Wait Until Next Year, captures that ethos remarkably well as she tells […]

Two Roads Diverged

Seven years ago the Washington Nationals, during their inaugural season in 2005, stood atop the NL east to the surprise of everyone. They had a four-game lead and were playing in Toronto against the Blue Jays. It was the team’s first trip back to Canada and in the Montreal sports pages they celebrated their team’s […]

The Clemens Verdict

The Clemens trial played out over the long weeks here in DC. Eight weeks is a lot of billable hours for a top tier criminal attorney. Roger Clemens may have been acquitted by a jury of his “peers,” but there are few in DC who show up for jury selection that could sustain an attorney […]

A Rising Tide in Washington

The Potomac River is near flood stage as it boils through the rapids at Great Falls, a crescendo of roaring noise. Further downstream from that much photographed natural beauty, at Nationals Park, a wave of human noise has not even begun to crest as fans of the Washington Nationals cheer a team that has risen […]

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