Tag: Washington Nationals

Nats
World Champions, 2019. L-R: Adam Eaton, Patrick Corbin, Howie Kendrick, Trea Turner, Stephen Strasburg, Ryan Zimmerman, Dave Martinez, Max Scherzer, Anthony Rendon, Juan Soto, Kurt Suzuki, Sean Doolittle, Victor Robles. (Washington Nationals Inc.)
Nats Win! Washington Baseball for New Generations. It’s 1924 Again

Nats Win! Washington Baseball for New Generations. It’s 1924 Again

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The great­est thing about the 2019 Nats is that base­ball is again span­ning the gen­er­a­tions in Washington.

Think about it. New York, Philadel­phia, Boston, Chica­go ben­e­fit from six gen­er­a­tions of unin­ter­rupt­ed base­ball. Pitts­burgh, St. Louis, Cleve­land, Detroit—the list goes on. Atlanta, Los Ange­les and Hous­ton have had half a cen­tu­ry or more to build a fol­low­ing: fathers and sons, par­ents and kids. Alas, Wash­ing­ton was with­out base­ball thir­ty-four years. In 1971, the expan­sion Sen­a­tors left for Texas; in 2005, the Mon­tre­al Expos became the Nation­als. A beau­ti­ful ball­park revived a decrepit area of the city, which now resem­bles Wrigleyville in Chicago.…

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Nats
Washington’s first World Series, 1924. President Coolidge with manager Bucky Harris and the first ball, game one, October 4th. Actually, “Silent Cal’s” wife Grace was the baseball fan. When Muddy Ruel scored the winning run she leaped to her feet cheering. The President said, “My word,” and dropped his cigar. (Library of Congress / public domain)
God is a Nats Fan: A Kid from New York Remembers

God is a Nats Fan: A Kid from New York Remembers

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“God is a Nats Fan” first appeared in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor on 21 Octo­ber 2019. Scroll down to the com­ments for emails with fel­low fanat­ics as the 2019 World Series unfolds.

Yankee Stadium, 1958

When Wash­ing­ton was in town, the drill was always the same: 15¢ for a bus to the Stat­en Island Fer­ry. A nick­el fer­ry ride and 15¢ more for the BMT to Wood­lawn and Jerome Avenues. As the sub­way erupt­ed into sun­light from the bow­els of the Bronx, this kid wear­ing his navy blue hat with its white “W” would con­front the Citadel of Base­ball, proud and aus­tere with its eagle logos, bristling with pen­nants.…

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Krauthammer's
Publisher photo
Desert Island Books: Charles Krauthammer’s “Things that Matter”

Desert Island Books: Charles Krauthammer’s “Things that Matter”

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Charles Krauthammer’s Things That Mat­ter: Three Decades of Pas­sions, Pas­times and Pol­i­tics (388 pages, Crown Forum, 2013). In remem­ber­ing Dr. Krautham­mer, I said this book was one of a score I’d take with me if con­fined to a desert island. Here’s why. 

The read­er will ask: why am I plug­ging to a Churchill audi­ence a set of essays by a polit­i­cal colum­nist? Answer: because many are not polit­i­cal, yet reflect Churchillian thought. More­over, Dr. Krauthammer’s essay about Churchill is one of the best sum­maries of the man I’ve ever read. By any­body. Anywhere.

Sig­nif­i­cant­ly, in a book of over near­ly nine­ty columns and essays, the Churchill arti­cle ranks second—in Part I (enti­tled “Personal”)—after a piece on the author’s beloved broth­er, Mar­cel, who also died young after an hero­ic strug­gle.…

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Krauthammer
Daniel and Charles Krauthamamer at Nationals Park. (Family photo / Washington Post)
“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster”: Charles Krauthammer 1950-2018

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster”: Charles Krauthammer 1950-2018

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“CK,” Churchillian

The best edi­tor I ever had wrote: “There is noth­ing to be said when a friend dies, even among peo­ple whose trade is words.” Much nev­er­the­less is being said about Charles Krautham­mer. That is fit­ting, and it is what we have the Inter­net for. (Some of the most touch­ing trib­utes are linked below. Fox News pro­duced a very fine trib­ute, “Krautham­mer in His Own Words” click here.)

My edi­tor meant, rather, that for some, words are inad­e­quate against “a big, emp­ty hole where there was once some­one you loved. And all the talk in the world won’t change that.…

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Remember
The Easter Egg uniform spoof, April 2018. (SportsLogos.net)
Baseball 2018: But Some of Us Still Remember When….

Baseball 2018: But Some of Us Still Remember When….

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“Remem­ber When” was first pub­lished in The Amer­i­can Spec­ta­tor, 18 April 2018.

On the first day of April, a spoof flashed around social media. In hon­or of East­er, all thir­ty Major League Base­ball teams would be wear­ing jer­seys in East­er egg pas­tel col­ors. April Fool! The day dawned, and the teams all wore their nor­mal uni­forms. The cul­prit, Chris Cream­er of SportsLogos.net, said it was all in fun.

Chris’s joke gained cre­dence thanks to MLB’s habit of com­mem­o­rat­ing every­thing from pet dogs to “our troops.” (“Pups in the Park,” who’s gonna clean up that mess?…

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Washington Nationals: Wait Till Next Year

Washington Nationals: Wait Till Next Year

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Long-suf­fer­ing Nats fans hoped 2014 would be The Year.

After play­ing door­mat to the Nation­al League East for ages; after blow­ing a sure Divi­sion Series in 2012, we all expect­ed our Wash­ing­ton Nation­als to put a stamp on the 90th anniver­sary of 1924—the last year Wash­ing­ton won the World Series.

Instead we lost the NL Divi­sion Series to a wild card team that had won only 88 games in the sea­son. We lost three games out of four, all by one run—games that could have gone either way. But the San Fran­cis­co Giants are pros, vet­er­ans of the play­off sea­son.…

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Ryan Zimmerman and the Curse of the Goose

Ryan Zimmerman and the Curse of the Goose

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On June 23rd Wash­ing­ton Nation­als star third base­man Ryan Zim­mer­man went out with a ham­string injury that may side­line him for the rest of the sea­son. The effect on the team’s play was aston­ish­ing. At the close of play on August 1st the com­pa­ra­ble W-L sta­tis­tics were:

With­out Zim (first time): 21-24, .467 (equates to 76-84)
With Zim: 34-19, .642 (equates to 104-58)
With­out Zim (since 7/23): 3-6 .333 (equates to 53-109)

Mark Zuck­er­man of Nats Insid­er wrote on July 23 that from June 30th when they all came togeth­er, the Nation­als were the Nation­al League’s most pro­duc­tive team.…

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Baseball: The Amazin’ Nats

Baseball: The Amazin’ Nats

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In 2012’s great­est base­ball suc­cess sto­ry, the Wash­ing­ton Nation­als went 60-40 on July 28th, hav­ing won more games as they won all year in 2008 and 2009. In the Nation­al League they’re first in pitch­ing, tied for sec­ond in field­ing, and sev­enth in hit­ting, although in the last month their bat­ters have been on fire.

Tied with the Yan­kees for the best record in base­ball, the prece­dents fall week­ly. 2012 is sup­plant­i­ng 2005 as the best year since base­ball returned to Wash­ing­ton. The Nats are now about five games bet­ter than they were at this time in 2005, when they dove from first to last place in the sec­ond half.…

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Baseball: Pitch Counts & Match-ups

Baseball: Pitch Counts & Match-ups

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I watched last night’s Wash­ing­ton Nation­als-Boston Red Sox game with a Red Sox fan named Hank, whose reac­tions may be of inter­est to base­ball fans in gen­er­al, as a sug­ges­tion of how the game is man­aged by some folks these days.

Top sec­ond, Nats 1, Sox 0

Hank: “Your team looks pret­ty good. I think they’ll win.”

RL: “Just wait.”

Bot­tom fourth, Nats 2, Sox 2

Hank: “Bases loaded, one out. Lan­nan the pitcher’s up next. You need runs now. Her­nan­dez is fast and the infield’s back—why not squeeze?”

RL: “Our man­agern­ev­er squeezes. Doesn’t teach bunting.”

Hank: “Hit and run then?”…

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