by Andrew Lang
by Andrew Lang
Photo by Marlene Koenig for Talknats
Washington Nationals closer Sean Doolittle and his wife, Eireann Dolan, are a very politically astute, media savvy couple. They’ve spoken up on behalf of Syrian refugees, sponsored the Oakland Athletics’ first LGBT Pride Night and written opinion pieces about military veterans. Continue reading
The first game out of the All-Star break did not start off well as the Nationals lost 8-5 to the rival Braves. The Nationals offense did their part as they scored 5-runs while the Nationals pitchers did not. Stephen Strasburg was not sharp and exited with a final line of 4.2 IP 6 ER and that’s all you need to know. Strasburg exited in the 5th inning and had words in the dugout with Max Scherzer. Yes, Stras is intense and so is Max Scherzer. No big deal with that as the big deal was the “L” which pushed the Nats to 1 game under .500. Continue reading
Photo by LEGNats for TalkNats
As the official second half of the season starts tonight for 28 teams, the Nationals have a golden opportunity to make up ground in the NL East as they will face the rival Atlanta Braves for a 3-game weekend if the weather allows. The Nationals get back two pitchers today off of the disabled list. Stephen Strasburg returns to the mound tonight after clearing out shoulder inflammation, and Sean Doolittle will remain on the DL with a toe injury. As expected, Ryan Zimmerman returns from the 60-day DL. The corresponding moves for them are fairly straightforward as Trevor Gott was returned already to Triple-A Syracuse and Wander Suero will head back so Zimmerman can return. Continue reading
My 10-year-old and I had a blast this week at the All-Star festivities. We went to the All-Star Fanfest twice and to all three days of games (Futures, HR Derby, All-Star game) at Nationals Park. We also went to Miami last year for that All-Star game and are starting to plan to go to Cleveland next year for their All-Star game. The All-Star week is so much fun for us hard-core fans. Continue reading
The Dog Days of Summer are Here
About a month after the summer solstice the atmosphere gets with the program the sun has been laying down. It gets hot, humid, and stays that way. Life slows down just a little. It has been that way for as long as there has been recorded history. The Greeks and Romans noted that the start of the really infernal heat coincided with the appearance of the star Sirius in the East rising just before the sun. Sirius is the brightest stellar magnitude star in the sky, outshining the planet Mercury. It is located in the constellation Canis Majoris, hence the nickname, “Dog Star.” The prevailing theory was that Sirius added to the heat and misery. The Ancients called this period, starting on July 19, the “Dog Days.” It has been used and modified over time to mean anytime it is really hot. But, July 19 to August 20 is the time period ascribed in many traditional interpretations. It also happens to be baseball’s Prime Time. Continue reading
Photo by MLB; Bryce Harper with Nationals principal owner Mark Lerner
On Monday night, Nationals fans fell back in love with Bryce Harper who is the soon-to-be free agent slugger mired in a protracted funk for months for the Washington Nationals. Harper made his adopted city proud as he put on a power display that was nothing short of what you would expect from “The Natural” which is a fictional movie about Roy Hobbs who obliterates baseballs into the stratosphere for long home runs. Bryce at the age of 16 was dubbed the “Chosen One” for a Sports Illustrated cover and SI was probably correct in terms of baseball marketing where Harper excels. Continue reading
Photo for TalkNats
It was nice during yesterday’s game that I could write something “positive” about Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez and his strategies he put in place in the finale before the All-Star break. It all worked. It has been a while for Davey that he could genuinely smile in a game. When you’re winning, it’s all fun — and you can look like a genius. When you’re losing, you look like the village idiot at times. Yesterday, he really pulled out all the stops. Whether it was Matt Wieters bunting or going with Daniel Murphy off the bench early to pinch-hit for starting centerfielder Michael A. Taylor — it worked. What worked was execution. If Wieters does not get the bunt down or Murphy strikes out, the pitchforks are back out. Continue reading
"Opening Day should be a National holiday"
We recently upgraded our comment system to improve reliability, performance, and long-term control, and we’re currently running both systems during the transition. This shift moves us away from an external service to a system we run and control directly—meaning we own the content and can continue improving it over time. We’ve also reduced the comment refresh delay from about 30 seconds to 10 seconds, making it much closer to real-time.
We understand there have been frustrations and increased feedback, and we’re actively working to improve things. What we ask is simple: use the system and give it a fair shot. If you run into issues, please submit them through the support form so we can track and fix them properly. Repeated complaints without details don’t help us solve problems—we appreciate your patience as we continue refining the experience.
If you’d like a full side-by-side comparison of the platforms and the reasons behind this decision, please refer to the chart below. This change is being made with the long-term benefit of the entire community in mind.