Washington Wonders
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Better than ever
Topic: Sports Page
Some guy throws out the first pitch for the Washington Nationals in their first home game. Who was that guy? Anyway he had a big script "W" on his hat, so he must have been a Nats fan. People kept calling him "W", and treating him like the President. Must be President of the Nats fan club. Makes sense.

In a nice touch, the first players to represent Washington in 34 years, trotted out to take their places in the field. There to greet them were the last nine officeholders at their respective positions... who then handed them their gloves. Not a dry eye in the joint. When we last left our team they were laboring away in Montreal as the Expos, and were expected to hold down last place in the National League. Apparently, they didn't get the memo, since they've been playing like Nationals was their last name. On Monday, they went into a night game against the Forida Marlins with a one and a half game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. Way to go, Nats!

Baseball in Washington DZ
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: New York Mets
Topic: Sports Page
The following is just 34 years of pent up frustration. I believe that this missive will easily capture the major league record for most baseball cliches per paragraph:

Somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout. But in Washington, D.C. they are going stone crazy. For the first time in 34 years, they have a good reason... the hometown baseball team is sporting a one-game win streak. While the National Hysteric and erstwhile baseball fan George Will was chuntering on about Public TV, the Nationals were in Florida, takin? care of business. Oh yes, you see, Jose Guillen and company dispatched the amazin? Mets, 5-3. You could almost hear Perfessor Stengel say, "can?t nobody here play this game?" (editor's note: when it really counted, the Mets came back on opening day to win 4-3.)

Oh, and you can forget the sobriquet ?Nationals?, they?re the ?Nats?. Period. Solved the problem of what to call the old time Senators and the old time Nationals, both of whom devolved Into the Nats. The first team is now trading as the Minnehaha Twins and the second as the Arlington Rangers. By the way, the trademark ?Senators? is owned by none other than George W. (Bush not Will). Welcome back, Nats.

Anyone old enough to remember the 1971 Senators is probably old enough to remember the July 23, 1969 All-star game played in D.C. Two Giant Willies (Mays and McCovey) teamed with the Alous and the Roses, et al, to beat the Americans 9-3. Of course, the Mets alone sent three unknown rookies, Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman (unbelievable). Washington got the game because it was the 75th anniversary of baseball (with an asterisk, since baseball probably got official in 1890). The baseball Gods sent a major league rainstorm to clear out the celebrities at the night game scheduled for July 22. The following day the celebs were at the airport, and their tickets were available to mere mortals.

Yours truly was behind third base, as true celebs like Hank Greenburg and Mickey Vernon roamed the aisles. Mayo Smith wasn?t sure whether to place his outfielders in the upper or lower deck to defend against McCovey. It turns out he shoulda tried the parking lot as Willie became the only guy besides Arkie Vaughan to slam two round-trippers in the midsummer classic. If you remember Arkie, you are really up there.

Speaking of up there, hometown hero Frank ?Hondo? Howard sent one of his frozen ropes to the deepest part of the upper deck which atoned for a spectacular fielding lapse in the top half of the inning. He was followed by Tiger Bill Freehan who scored two with his own 4-bagger.

Ever notice AL pitchers are the only ones to throw meatballs in the all-star Game? Harmon Killebrew goes 0 for 3? Unfortunately, Washington?s favorite pitcher Darold Knowles, along with Detroit's Denny McLain (Cy Young), and the O's Dave McNally (Cy Old) got touched for 11 hits and 9 runs en route to an embarrassing 7th straight AL loss. American League fans just shrugged knowing full well that the O's would pound the stuffings out of the Mets in the World Series. When that didn't happen, they started to worry.

Oh yeah, while Ernie Banks and Roberto Clemente sat on the bench, some guy named Bench got a homer. Go figure.