Going Deep with The Nats

What makes a baseball season?

Well, for starters, 162 games. Before it starts, there’s some games that don’t count. After it ends, there’s some games that very much do.

But a season of Washington Nationals baseball is made not just of numbers — batting averages, walks and hits per inning, errors, strikeouts, wins and losses — but also of the special moments that make us excited to be fans. Sometimes what looks like just another tally on a stat sheet can be a big hit that sets the tone for a big season, or a great game pitched by a man in memory of the past and in mind of the future. An anonymous, workmanlike win over a sleepy team counts the same in the win-loss record as an awe-inspiring comeback victory that makes a statement against a top rival, but to the fans, comparing them is like comparing Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride with Superman: Escape from Krypton.

Each season has its own cast of heroes, too. You know their names — you know their stories. There’s the kinda quiet, kinda shy kid from Texas who would rather talk about the Houston Rockets than talk about his MVP-caliber numbers. There’s the “washed-up,” “once-great” slugger whose body failed him the past three years, but who defied the odds and the skeptics to reclaim his superstar status. There’s the big-bodied thirty-something who bounced from organization to organization before signing a minor league deal over the winter, only to emerge as one of the most dominant relievers in the major leagues. The emergency call-up who spent 10 years toiling in anonymity in the minor leagues, only to come up and prove he belonged in The Show all along. The bespectacled wildling who locks down the ninth inning with often just a single pitch. The unappreciated utilityman who knuckled down and turned the trajectory of his career around. The underrated lefty who rediscovered his old form on the mound. The kids. The stars. The veterans. Continue reading →

(Andrew Harnik/The Washington Times)

For a week before last year’s NLDS, we were inundated by the media’s coverage about the disaster that would ensue if the Nationals had a late night game with an early Metro service closing. Last year, Metro was on early shutdown and who could forget when Game #5 of the NLDS was scheduled for a Thursday night with no late Metro service available. We came up with the social media phenomenon using #NatsRide as a form of ride-sharing through a crowdsourcing strategy, and it worked well — and maybe better than well. There was no mass exodus from Game #5 of the NLDS when the game approached 11 p.m. The media was waiting outside of the stadium and on the Metro platform, and there was only a trickle of fans who left early and it felt like “good” won over “evil”. #NatsRide won the night since the Nationals did not. For years Nationals fans were dogged as lousy fans which has never been accurate. This year there will be new challenges.

Last year the Nationals had an excuse.

“Metro won’t hear of any changes,” Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner said during a radio interview on 106.7 last year. “They flat-out told us it’s not happening. So if we get deep [into the playoffs] and you have these 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock games, frankly, people are going to have to bring their cars. Metro will be useless, because who wants to pick up in the fourth or fifth inning and go home? It’s crazy. But they’re not cooperative at all, unfortunately. They just said they don’t care what event it is, they’re not going to cooperate.”

This year, the Nationals will host the first and second games of the best-of-five NLDS against the Chicago Cubs on Friday, Oct. 6 at 7:31 pm and Saturday, Oct. 7 at 5:38 pm. There shouldn’t be a Metro problem with either of these games because on weekends Metro is regularly scheduled to close shortly after 1 a.m., with the last train to Greenbelt leaving the Navy Yard Metro platform at 12:52 a.m. and the last train to Branch Avenue leaving at 1:18 a.m.

On June 22nd, Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld  announced that it could extend Metro hours for Nationals post-season games — but nothing is free. The extra charge this year is $100,000 per extra hour of service compared to near a reported $30,000 per hour fee just 2 years ago, but according to reader Robert Schiff, “as under Metro’s previous policies, the event organizer will get any part of their deposit back that is covered by riders’ fares after the regularly scheduled close of the system” whereby the final cost for whoever fronts the money for that extra  hour would be far less than $100,000 unless the game went more than one hour late. Continue reading →

Final Week Mailbag

Baseball is never boring, but there have been few games with relevance this week; even less so this weekend.

When I sent out on Twitter my desire to write a mailbag this week, I claimed this final week of the MLB season would be “boring.” With not much to discuss with on-field activity, I turned to an idea for a mailbag.

I was met immediately with a response on how could I call this week boring? Baseball is never boring; there is always plenty to discuss! I stand corrected, and this reply is of course true. I spent Wednesday night watching an extra innings matchup between the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles Angels mostly due to the fact I love watching the game of baseball, regardless of impact on the standings.

This mailbag’s intention was to be mainly Washington Nationals related, however I was up for answering any questions across the league. I opened it up to the league due to, again, my thoughts of perhaps Nats loyalists would be bored by this week. Wrong again. There is plenty of interest in the play this week, with of course the big story being the return of Bryce Harper.

Photo by Marlene Koenig for TalkNats

BRYCE!

News came in last weekend Harper would be returning for the final week of the season. The flu kept him out of Monday’s game (an unfortunate tease), but he was slated in the starting lineup for a Tuesday match-up against the Philadelphia Phillies. Continue reading →