What irony: the city of Washington gets it's first team in 12,251 days and the guy to throw out their opening pitch is nicknamed Dubya to match the Dubya on the front of team's caps. Sure, lots of Opening Day pitches thrown by presidents but how many of them were previous baseball owners?
One of them had even been traded during George the Terrible's reign as owner of the Texas Rangers (the team the last Washington team became).
As Thomas Boswell notes, Good Times Are Here Again, all 45,596 of them:
"However, it wasn't just the box seats that bounced. The entire upper deck, including the press box, began the same unmistakable swaying up and down that marked so many touchdowns in the Redskins' glory days. Then you could see the whole upper deck sway. The Nationals crowd hasn't quite got the knack of it yet, not after one game. But they're learning fast. All that was required was one Washington run after 33 vacant seasons and the place rocked on its old hinges."
Not only was the platable excitment at the return of baseball in DC shaking some excitement but the Nats even managed to win the game over the Arizona Diamondbacks and Javier Vasquez (ironically, an ex-Expo himself) by a 5-3 margin and their ace, Livian Hernandez took a one-hitter into the 9th inning before the adrenaline finally ran out.
Joining Hernandez as a star for the night was high profile acquisition Vinny Castilla going 3 for 3 and driving in four runs by smoking a double, triple and a home run.
Whether it is to be believed or not, the Nationals have now won three straight, and remain atop the National League East.
Even the visitors had nice things to say. "Us, as players, we're excited not to be playing in Montreal," Arizona outfielder Luis Gonzalez said. "We had what -- 40,000 or 50,000 people tonight? If we had been there, they'd have had 2,000."
Even the unhappy were content:
According to the NY Times, Outside the stadium, Mark Plotkin was distributing T-shirts that said, "Taxation Without Representation," a protest against the District of Columbia not having voting representatives in Congress.
"It's anti-American," Plotkin said during his moment in the sun. "And then we invited the president of the United States to throw out the first ball. We have Stockholm Syndrome. We identify with our captors."
Still, Plotkin, a commentator for WTOP radio who said he was acting as a private citizen in his spare time, said he was glad there was a baseball team back in D.C.
So long as they get out of first place in time for the Mets to take it over, well, we can all be happy for them, for now. Wave for the cameras, Mr Angelos.
Sheffield V Fan
This early in the season it almost doesn't really matter that the Red Sox took two of three from the Yankees in this home series or that the Yankees still lead the season series 4 games to 3. Nor did it matter in the end that the Yankees' massive free agent coup of the off season, Randy Johnson, surrendered 3 homers against the main team he was hired to beat as the Yankees lost 8-5.
What mattered most and perhaps WILL matter most as time goes on this season is that in the bottom of the 8th with Gary Sheffield fielding Jason Varitek's two-run triple along the low right-field fence, a fan swung a short uppercut in his direction, appearing to graze the side of his face with his right arm.
"Something hit me in the mouth. It felt like a hand," Sheffield said. "I thought my lip was busted."
After Sheffield picked up the ball, he shoved the fan before throwing the ball back to the infield as two runs scored. Another fan's beer also sprayed in Sheffield's direction.
"I tried to get his hand out of my face so I could continue on with the play," he said. "To get punched in the mouth, you don't expect that in a baseball game."
Sadly this will probably bring another round of pointless debate about fans v players and bring back more recalls of the Pacers/Pistons/Fan Fist Fight a few months ago. Frankly, it's too bad Sheffield didn't just deck the guy and it's too bad that if he had, he wouldn't have been allowed to get away with it. People like that, who interfere with a game or throw shit down on players from a safe distance or actually take swings at players, should be dealt with the full force of their actions - that doesn't mean running off and hiding in the crowd like a coward nor having some absurd "ban" from coming to the games or even the handslap of being ejected from the game. The stadiums should have thugs who take care of people like that in backrooms so that such a fan not only isn't allowed back but wouldn't be able to walk properly the rest of the lives if they did. Really, if there's something I hate more than Peter Angelos, Bud Selig and the Congressional investigation of steroids, it's fans who interfere with games and fans who assault players or umpires.
Fortunately for Sheffield, he didn't explode. He whirled around with a cocked fist, shouting in the face of the first man -- but he stumbled, seemed to lose his balance and then stopped short of getting close enough to shove or strike the fan. A security official quickly jumped over the three-foot wall to separate the two.
Joe Torre, summed it all up perfectly:
"These people shouldn't be allowed to walk the streets, much less come to a ballgame. The sad part about it is, it's a handful of people who screw it up for everyone."
When Sheffield was asked what prevented him from retaliating a second time, he answered "Ron Artest," referencing one of the Indiana Pacers players involved in the N.B.A. skirmish among the Pacers, the Detroit Pistons and fans at the Palace at Auburn Hills in Michigan.
"That's the first thing that came to my mind," Sheffield said. "Don't react. That's what I did."
It's a pity but still, it'd have been nice to see Sheffield beat the shit out of the Red Sox fan nonetheless. Let's face it, after six months of listening to their joyous arrogance and incessant replaying of one bloody moment as a footnote in time, isn't that pretty much what most of us want to do by now anyway?
And while all this was going on another story was bured and that was How A-Rod Starred As Superhero saving an 8 year old boy from getting hit by a truck.
Thursday he was standing in a crosswalk on Newbury Street near downtown Boston at about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when he saw the boy starting to run across the street into the path of an onrushing truck.
Allegedly, Rodriguez reached out and grabbed the boy, pulling him back and saving him from certain damage.
Perhaps the life he saved will grow up to become another annoying Red Sox fan who takes cheapshots at opposing players in the middle of a play. Let's hope not.
Blue Jays Keep Rolling
Anyone kicking themselves yet about not foreseeing the miraculous resurrection of the Toronto Blue Jays after losing Carlos Delgado yet? Aha, but it is only a few games so far even if the Jays are playing a far more exciting and far more energetic baseball than the two kings of their division are capable of playing at the moment.
This isn't a team of ageing free agents and mercenaries. This is a young and hungry team that are in first place in the AL East.
Last night former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay shut down the Rangers in a 2-1 win.
The final score brought two telling milestones: Halladay got his first complete game in nearly a year and the Jays have now won the opener in three of their first four series.
Halladay, who is now 2-0, held the Rangers to five hits and struck out nine.
It was Halladay's 16th career complete game and his first since a year ago today, against the Detroit Tigers. He spared no one, striking out Michael Young three times and Hank Blalock twice. Young, who has a .330 career average against the Blue Jays, had a nine-game hitting streak snapped. Blalock went into the game hitting .417 and had multiple hits in four of his past six games.
Sox Stop Short of Sweep
The best team in Chicago, the new and improved White Sox, lost their third straight series finale, and were denied a three-game sweep for the third time in 2005.
Now they will return to Chicago after a successful roadtrip that saw them take 4 of 6 against the Twins and Indians, their primary rivals in the AL Central this season and still atop first place.
Proving that it's dangerous to have him on the field, White Sox traditional DH, Carl Everett, made an outstretched attempt for the blast but couldn't come up with the ball.
Instead, Everett got a face full of the left-field wall. Whe collision briefly knocked out Everett and caused a contusion to his left shoulder blade. After the game, both Everett and manager Ozzie Guillen said the hot-hitting designated hitter could miss the series opener against Seattle, but otherwise is day to day.
The Sox also found out that Frank Thomas' return was derailed when he required rest and a cortisone shot in a setback in his rehabilitation because of tendinitis in his surgically repaired left ankle.
Good thing they're going for small ball this season because with Thomas and Everett both hurt, they've got no real long ball to speak of anymore.
Mets Win Fourth In A Row
Although they aren't doing as fabulously as the Nats and although they have the deadly pitching of the Florida Marlins to face next, the Mets have to be pretty happy to have won their fourth in a row after losing the first 5 of the season.
Today's Menu
Cubs: If they're good enough for the Brewers to beat up on, why not let the Cubbies have a swing at the rotten Pittsburgh Pirates? They open a weekend series against the Pirates with Carlos Zambrano (1-0 2.25) taking the mound. The right-hander had good success against the Pirates last year, going 5-0 with a 1.02 ERA.
Twins: Have last year's Cy Young winner Johann Santana (2-0 4.50) taking the mound for them against the Cleveland Indians and Jake Westbrook (0-2 7.20)
Red Sox: The Fat Man David Wells starts for them against the Devil Rays and is still looking for his first win of the season after an 0-2 8.44 start.
Mets-Marlins: The red hot Josh Beckett (2-0 0.00) for the Marlins. Beckett hasn't allowed a run in two starts, a span of 15 innings. He comes off the second complete-game shutout of his career, blanking Washington, 8-0, on Sunday. He struck out 11. His other regular-season complete game, also a shutout, was last Aug. 31 against the Mets at Shea Stadium.
The Mets will start...Aaron Heilman. Hmmm. Wonder who will win this one?
Angels @ A's Open with the potentially exciting Bartolo Colon (1-1 4.97) v Barry Zito (0-2 11.57) duel although neither has pitched very well so far this season. Zito had the worst outing of his career last time out, allowing 11 runs (eight earned) over 3 1/3 innings at Tampa Bay.
Padres @ Dodgers, Cards @ Brewers are some more intra-divisional matchups this weekend.
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