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Before it’s too late

By Maggie on October 11, 2012

Once again I could make an excuse about being a terrible blogger. I could apologize for not posting my September predictions. For not posting anything really at ALL during the month of September. For not having the time to acknowledge the amazing things that this team has done (other than clinching the postseason back on September 20).

Instead I’ve been at games – doing the thing I promised I was doing instead of posting. I’ve been a fan – eating hot dogs, drinking beer, cheering myself hoarse, high-fiving strangers. I’ve still been taking lots of pictures and thinking critically about this team, but without the pressure of “How will I write about this for the blog?” I’m able to enjoy this last and sweetest part of the season, and everything amazing that has happened all year long.

I promise to do more later. There may be some catch up posts with links to pictures if I ever get them from my computer to our picture site. For now – have this one. It’s totally out of focus. But I think it expresses a little bit of the exuberance that was palapable even from the “cheap seats”. The Nats are going to Game 5. They’re still in it. The season isn’t over yet…and I think they can do it!

Still Behind, Still Predicting

By Maggie on August 1, 2012

Ok guy (that is, if anyone is still reading), I know we’re behind. I know we’ve been “bad bloggers” this season, but perhaps it’s because there’s other things we’re doing with our time. When you’re watching baseball games every night, it’s hard to concentrate on what’s going on on the TV AND to write a blog post. And then there are the non-baseball things going on in our lives. In any case, Drew and I are still making predictions, and while I haven’t gotten around to rounding up our July predictions (super quick summary: we weren’t quite optimistic enough), we’re going to put in our August predictions before the month gets too far ahead of us. And because we’re going for speed here, there won’t be pictures (at least for a little bit).

July 31-Aug 2: vs Phillies

Maggie: I’m thinking at least 2. They’re having a crappy year, and showing it, but the Nats do have to face Cliff Lee. (2-1)

Drew: The Phillies team that got swept by the Braves isn’t going to be the team that plays the Nats at the end of July. 2-1, a sweep, both sound good to me. What I care about more is how I don’t dread the Phillies fans this season. They don’t come to the park with their usual swag and obnoxiousness. I’m looking forward to the game on the 31st. Should be a quiet night. [Addendum: After the debacle that wast the first game, I still think the Nats will take 2 of the three games (up 2-1 as I write). However, the Nats showed me some things last night that make me take pause.] (2-1)

Aug 3-5: vs Miami (including doubleheader on the 3rd)

Maggie: We’re playing them at home (as opposed to Miami, where they historically cream us), so I’m happy enough to say (3-1)

Drew: This is another team that will look very different than the last time the Nats played them. I think that Miami’s grand experiment can’t quiet be called a failure yet. Being 14 games back is bad but i still think they might pull out a better record this year than last season. However, the Marlins are only playing middling baseball. Their FIP and opp. BABIP are middle of the pack as is their offense. Maggie is right, 3-1 makes sense. (3-1)

Aug 6-9: @ Houston

Maggie: All my past predictions have been so cautious. They have more losses than we do wins. I’ll go with a big series win. (3-1)

Drew: Go BIG Maggie! I’m going with a sweep. Why? Why not! Interestingly, the Astros have scored runs than the the Marlins. However, they give up runs like Goldman execs get options. The Nats’ offense has woken up as of late so I’m expecting the pitching to hold off the Astros for a sweep. (4-0)

Aug 10-12: @ Arizona

Maggie: For whatever reason, the Diamondbacks make me wary. I’ll go with (1-2)

Drew: I do think the the D-backs are going to be a challenge for the Nats. The Dbacks don’t seem to have much of the Nats’ current bane: Speed. They’re near the bottom in stolen bases and are benefiting from a .317 BABIP from playing in a division with terrible defense. I see them as the roughly .500 team they are and don’t expect much trouble on the Nats’ part. (2-1)

Aug 13-15: @ San Fran

Maggie: SF Worries me too, but if I’m going to be optimistic, I’m going to be optimistic. (2-1)

Drew: I’m going the opposite way. It’s been a while since the Nats had a west coast swing and the Giants are playing a lot better than last time. They’re pitching is much improved and their offense seems to be succeeding in playing small ball. That makes me worried because while the Nat’s haven’t been giving up a lot of homeruns, they’ve been losing games on the base paths. I’m going to say the Nats go 1-2 for this series. (1-2)

Aug 17-19: vs NY Mets

Maggie: This is the right time of year for a late season Mets collapse. (3-0)

Drew: That’s the boldness I like to see! I, however, do not share your optimism. The Mets have a better offense than I think their record suggests. Their pitiching is only middling with the exception of R.A. Dickey. I think this series could really go either way but because it’s at home, I’ll say the Nats go (2-1)

Aug 20-22: vs Atlanta

Maggie: I think it would be silly to count Atlanta out since they’re the last team other than the Nats that seems to have any spark in the NL East. I’ll say Nats win the series, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Atlanta took it instead. (2-1)

Drew: Completely agree. The Braves are my new nemesis. Despite growing up in Atlanta, I will never root for the Braves. I think the biggest question will be if Chipper plays in this series. If he doesn’t (and I hope he doesn’t) then I give the Nats a much better chance of going 2-1. Otherwise it’s a coin flip in my book. (2-1)

Aug 24-26: @ Philly

Maggie: A group of Nats fans will be visiting CBP on Saturday night, and I’ve got high hopes they leave happy. I say we sweep the series. (3-0)

Drew: Multiple sweeps! At this point, the Phillies will be at their most dangerous. By this time they should be close to being eliminated from the playoffs and will be playing for the hell of it (and gobs of cash). I say they actually have an uptick in performance as a result and take 2 from the Nats. (1-2)

Aug 28-29: @ Miami

Maggie: Visiting Miami has never been the Nats strong suit. Thank goodness it’s only a 2 game series! (1-1)

Drew: Can them fish! Sweep! (2-0)

Aug 30-Sept 2: vs St Louis (series continues over the weekend, and the homestand deep into September, no good place to cut off)

Maggie: The Cards are one of those more historically (well, recently historically?) dominant teams. I don’t see them fading off into the autumn light. I should end my optimistic month with a won series, but I’ll call it a split. (2-2)

Drew: A four game series with the Cardinals will be a late season treat. The Reds are going to run away with the division but I think the Cards will fight hard for that extra wildcard spot. I don’t think they’ll catch the Nats (if they don’t win the division) but it will be a challenge none the less. A split would be a nice outcome but I think there’s a real chance the Nats go (3-1)

Final Total

Maggie: a ridiculous 22-10.

Drew: identically crazy 22-10

So – are we totally nuts for imagining a 22-10 run over the month of August (plus 1 day in July and 2 in September)? Let us know your predictions in the comments!

June 15, 2011: Washington Nationals vs St. Louis Cardinals

By Ashley on June 18, 2011

Game: #068 – Nationals vs. Cardinals

Starting Pitchers: Livan Hernandez (#61, 3-8, 4.15) vs. Kyle McClellan (#46, 6-2, 3.86)

Final Score: Nationals: 10, Cardinals: 0

Nats New Record: 32-36

Hands down, this was the best baseball game Ashley has ever been to. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the baseball was outstanding.

Ashley and husband Drew were at the park and stayed for the entire game (all 2 hrs, 23 minutes of it). That’s right, the Nats were on fire and made a lot of baseball happen in a very short amount of time.

Everyone agrees, the player of the game was Livan Hernandez. He pitched a complete game and only gave up three hits. In fact, he only had two innings where more than three batters (4 in each case) made it to the plate, and he threw just over 100 pitches (105).

At the end of the game, he removed his cap as a precaution and seemed pleased to be given the shaving cream pie while being interviewed in front of the dugout.

The pie was delivered by Lannan, and it seemed to be both recognition of a job well done and a thank you for giving the bullpen the night off.

The runner up player of the game was Michael Morse. He hit his first home run in the 2nd, and really set the mood for the rest of the game. 2 of the 4 HRs belonged to him, as well as 3 of the 10 runs. He was close to getting another HR during his second at-bat, but had to be content with a ground-rule double instead. On defense, Morse was a very solid player at 1st base. With LaRoche out for surgery, hopefully we will see him there often.

Ashley was excited to see Ivan Rodriguez behind the plate. He did not disappoint on offense – he was on base three times and scored twice.

In addition, in a classic Pudge move, he belted a ball from the plate to 2nd base to stop a runner from stealing.

Kudos to all the other Nats who scored – Werth (twice, including a homer in the 8th), Nix, and Espinosa (twice, including a homer in the 7th).

It seemed like the only one who didn’t score was Teddy – despite being assisted by That Cat and the Rally Penguin, he was unable to beat George to the finish. Perhaps it was the lobster claw hands that slowed him down (Happy belated National Lobster Day!).

For the non-baseball part of the game, Ashley and Drew got to the game early to check out the new Scoreboard Walk. It was very nice on a Wednesday night, but we’re not sure how well it will work on a crowded day. It would be usefull if there were more places to rest a beer while you ate a burger – seats are still hard to get. The new sails seem like they will really work well to lower the temperature on hot days though.

Ashley and Drew tried the Shake Shack burgers and the Box Frites fries. The burgers were very good – moist and flavorful. However, it was the garlic-parm fries that made us happy. The garlic wasn’t overwhelming and the parm was higher quality than “green box” cheese. We couldn’t finish them all at dinner, so we took them back to our seats. They were still delicious cold an hour later.

We can’t say for certain that the full moon had anything to do with the Nats great game, but whatever it was, we’re looking forward to seeing more like it in the future.

(full album from this game can be seen here)

August 29, 2010: Washington Nationals vs St Louis Cardinals

By Bobby on August 29, 2010

Super brief intro: This is a guest post from Bobby, a college buddy of Maggie’s, and honorary “First Lady”. We might look into doing more of these guest posts in the future…

Greetings FLOB fans — my name is Bobby (@bobfrankpat), and since neither Maggie nor Ashley went to Sunday’s game, I’ll be filling in for them with a recap. Also, since I’m not technically a “lady” (although my 7th grade football coach might argue otherwise), the blog for just tonight will be changing its name to “The First Ladies (and First Dude) of Baseball.”

Also, it’s probably best to say up front that I’m a lifelong Boston Red Sox fan (and have the Mike Greenwell “Friend of the Green Monster” baseball card to prove it), so I didn’t really have a dog into today’s fight. But, given the rule that you always root for the hometown team and that having the Red Sox beat the Cardinals in the World Series twice give me plenty of practice rooting against St. Louis clearly put me on the side of the Nats this game.

Game: #131 – Nationals vs. Cardinals
Starting Pitchers: John Lannan (#31, 6-6, 5.23) vs. Adam Wainwright (#50, 17-9, 2.18)
Final Score: Nationals: 4, Cardinals: 2
Nats New Record: 56-75
Play and Player of the Game: John Lannan. I got a text from Maggie during the game saying that Lannan hadn’t pitched this well in a while, and the guy certain put his “I’m going to be somebody” pants on today. One earned run over 7 2/3 innings on 93 pitches, and while there was some touch-and-go moments (2 on with 1 out in the 1st and the 4th in particular) he looked strong. Plus, he turned a bloop hit into a 2-RBI double to both help his own cause and make Matt Holliday look confused and a little afraid chasing after the ball when it got away from him.
Favorite Non-Baseball Moment: If you were watching at home, you probably had little idea how uncomfortably hot it was at the game. We had seats out in the sun, and even with plenty of water to drink, I still felt like a Happy Meal left under the heat lamp for far too long. At the end of the 2nd, I think my entire section got up and ran for the shade of the concourse, each sporting a healthy amount of back sweat. I’m no scientist, but if we could somehow turn perspiration into electric power, we could have lit up Topeka for a week.
So, at some point, we have the swell idea of moving to seats up under the middle deck, and believe me, it was well worth it. Still good view of the game, plus we felt like we had a better chance of not spontaneously combusting. Which we didn’t. Thankfully.
Who Was There: Thousands of sweat soaked fans and not Ashley and Maggie
Where Did We Sit: Before the move – halfway up on the lower level, about 10 yards into the outfield. After the move – corner section of the outfield, and in the wonderful, wonderful shade.
What Did We Eat: Dog. Beer. Peanuts. Water. I know many people who appreciate the food options at Nats Park, but for traditionalists like me, all those fancy food items just make the hot dog line longer. It’s worth noting that the ice cream vendors had a banner day today – I think the person running the gelato stand made enough to send his kid to Yale.
President’s Race: Before we get to the actual race, I realized something recently — Teddy can never win. At its heart, the president’s race is just 4 people in massively entertaining president’s costumes running half way around the field in what is probably a fixed race (when the scandal breaks, odds are we’ll start calling him “Shoeless” George Washington), which after a while (3-4 years) could lose its spunk. But with Teddy still riding a lifetime win-loss record of 0-forever, the fact that he could win gives some sort of overarching narrative to the race and makes it more compelling over the long haul. Even today, there was some tension as to if today was the day that Teddy would break the streak and win, and that if you take that tension away, the race loses something.

And back to today’s race. I don’t know who won, but at the end they all took out posters with a “double rainbow” reference – to which the stadium announcer said with a confused tone “Okay! Whatever that means!” Nice to see that the Nationals staff are keeping up with the latest in internet memes. If you’re not, here’s a helpful video:

Other Observations:
- It was Pups in the Park day by the Washington Humane Society. Just a wonderful contribution to the game, including the Fan of the Game competition (see photo below). I was really hoping we’d see the kiss came come out for the occasion, but I’m guessing they’ll save that for next time.
-I don’t attend enough games to know this, but it seemed like the Presidents lingered a little bit in the stands today – including Jefferson and Abe just randomly taking a load off in an empty section and watching the game.
- You know a pitcher (in this case, Adam Wainwright) is in for a bad day when the lead off guy (Adam Kennedy) absolutely crushes two balls that sailed just foul during his at-bat. Wainwright looked shaky all day (high pitch counts, Nats hitting lots of balls for power) which seems to be a trend in recent days. All that, though, didn’t dissuade the Cardinals fan in my section from shouting “Come on, Waino!” — which, if you’re keeping score at home, is about ten notches higher on the lazy nickname scale as “A-Rod” but still below retired great Fred McGriff’s nickname, “Fred.”
-The scorer blew a couple of error calls today that would have made things look a little rosier for Wainwright, including Holliday’s bobble, which cost them a run. Given the talent of today’s ball-player, if you can touch a ball, you should be able to make a play on it, and the fact that more errors aren’t given is rather surprising.

Thanks for letting me fill in, and Go Red Sox!

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August 28, 2010: Washington Nationals vs St Louis Cardinals

By Maggie on August 29, 2010

Game: #130 – Nationals vs. Cardinals
Starting Pitchers: Livan Hernandez (#61, 3-5, 4.16) vs. Kyle Lohse (#26, 2-5, 7.93)
Final Score: Nationals: 14, Cardinals: 5
Nats New Record: 55-79
Play and Player of the Game: Adam Dunn had a great game, including a 3 run long ball that dropped into the seats just below where we sat in the outfield.
Favorite Non-baseball Moment: The pre-game Dance Party on the Scoreboard Walk! It’s always fun to watch Nat-Packer Terrance do his thing with one of the ushers to the beats the DJ drops. But then Teddy Roosevelt pulled Ashley from our position by the bar to come dance up by the DJ booth. Later, all four of the Racing Presidents got up to dance the Cha-Cha slide with the crowd. It was a fantastic evening.
Who was there: Ashley and Maggie
Our Records: Ashley – 9-8; Maggie – 10-11
Where did we sit: We tried to get there early and get cheap tickets with the intention of standing up in the Red Loft or by the ‘K’ signs to help flip them. But it was a packed night (30K+), and the best deal we could get was in the Scoreboard area, section 239, where we were given a voucher for a free beverage. The downside to these seats is that you can’t see the NatsHD big screen. The other bad part about these seats was that we were inundated by Cards fans. Fortunately, many of them left later in the game when their team was losing.
What did we eat: We both decided to try stuff out at The Pit (up near the Red Loft). Ashley got beef sliders, and Maggie had turkey. The $10 dish had three small sandwiches made from either sliced roast beef or roasted turkey. Beef had a horseradish sauce with a nice tang, and turkey had a really nice gravy. Both dishes were a good deal – filling and tasty. The only downside was that the beef was slightly dry, but it was still something we’d both go back and get again.
Promotional Items: It was Pudge bobblehead night! The figure is really good looking, and features the same personalized catchers gear with Pudge’s name near the neck.
President’s Race: George won, and did a little dance at the end (yes, it was really that boring).

Other Observations:
- Before the game we were hanging out with fellow twitter nats fans @DCyetti, @Darkmeathook, and @tracytran. Tracy was sporting his awesome silver Elvis wig, and a camera guy came by and asked if he wanted to be filmed for the Fan of the Game. Tracy went crazy – yelling at the camera. When he showed up on the big screen during the sixth inning, Ashley and Maggie made sure to yell a lot, and he won!
- The ceremonial first pitch was done by a Marine in a wheelchair who had been hit by an IED. He was amazing, and had one of the best first pitches I’ve seen all year. Everyone at the park was really supportive and the cheer that went up when his pitch went right over the plate was incredible.
- There were a couple of wonky calls (Ian Desmond getting called out for running out of the baseline, Nyjer Morgan body-checking the Cards catcher and missing home plate), but it was fantastic to hear the reaction from Nats fans who didn’t know what was going on. It’s hard to be in the park in situations like this, because no one explains to us what’s going on, and very rarely do they show a replay so that some of us who might have had our focus elsewhere for a split-second can see what actually happened.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mHqWqIbrZ4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veCEN6vXW6c]

(the rest of the album from this game can be seen here)
(videos from this and other games can be seen here)

August 27, 2010: Washington Nationals vs St Louis Cardinals

By Ashley on August 28, 2010

Game: #129 – Nationals vs. Cardinals
Starting Pitchers: Scott Olsen, (#19, 1-6, 5.13) vs. Jaime Garcia, (#54, 5-2, 2.43)
Final Score: Nationals: 2, Cardinals: 4
Nats New Record: 54-79
Play of the Game: Jaime Garcia, the Cardinals pitcher was up to bat and showing the bunt. Olsen pitched, the ball popped up, and Pudge made a FANTASTIC catch of the foul-tip to make an out that the Nats so desperately needed.
Favorite Non-baseball Moment: Before the game, Ashley and I were up in the Scoreboard lounge having $5 beers, when Maggie noticed two distinct pink boxes in the area where Rachel was about to tape a segment for the pre-game show. It turns out that the two ladies behind Georgetown Cupcake were there, promoting their business (and probably their show on Bravo). The cupcakes looked extra tasty, and we hung around watching the taping (even though we couldn’t hear a thing due to the band behind us kicking it in to high gear) hoping to snag a cupcake or two. We asked one of the girls in the Nat Pack, and she said “We’re not even getting cupcakes!” We tried to make a deal with George Washington, who had come over to harass Ashley and try to get her to share her beer, but even he was unable to help us. After the piece had finished taping, Katherine and Sophie gave one of the boxes to the Nat Pack. We were sorely disappointed. On a side note – there’s some kind of cupcake night for the last game of the year. The details were flashed briefly on the big screen before the game, but we believe there are free baked goods involved. Interested? We know we are…
Who was there: Ashley and Maggie
Our Records: Ashley – 8-8; Maggie – 9-11
What did we eat: We got hungry for “appetizers” before the game and decided to split an order of the nachos from Hard Times Cafe, which are one of our favorite things to order in the ballpark. The night of junk-food continued with Maggie ordering a couple slices of pizza from Flippin’ Pizza, and Ashley got blue cotton candy. All in all, delightfully decadent.
President’s Race: Abe led the entire way, and upon winning, took out a felt-tip marker, and signed the camera lens filming him. Abe must think he’s a star.

Other Observations:
- On our way to go order nachos, we stumbled across the wing-eating competition sponsored by Hard Times Cafe. It was interesting to watch, and the guy who won seemed genuinely enthused to get his Nationals Prize Pack.
- During this game we witnessed one of the saddest runner-pickoffs in history. Nyjer Morgan had led off the base, and when the pitcher threw it to first, he stumbled over his own feet, and managed to just stand there while Albert Pujols played a game of dodgeball with him, before Nyjer finally accepted that he wasn’t going to make it back to first, or to second, and allowed himself to be tagged out. Sad. What makes this situation even sadder, is that Willie Harris (who was also pinch hitting), got a home run on the very next pitch. If Morgan had been a little more prudent with his lead, the Nats might have had TWO runs instead of the one.
- Adam Kennedy came in as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, with the bases loaded (see below) and hit a long ball to right field. Unfortunately, it dropped just to the right of the foul line, but Manager Jim Riggleman came out to contest the ruling. From where we were sitting, it looked like it could have been fair, and it would have been a game-changer. Instead, Kennedy popped out, and the opportunity was lost.
- In this game the offense seemed to die when runners were in scoring position. Three times, the bases were loaded with 2 outs, and neither time did our Nationals cash in on this scoring opportunity. It’s terrible to see our guys crack under the pressure.
- The main topic of conversation around the Scoreboard Walk was the recent announcement of Stephen Strasburg’s injury and his being taken out for the year. Die-hard fans seemed both depressed at losing our phenom for a year, but cheered by the thought that now we know what’s wrong, that the solution is a proven one, and that he’s determined to come back better than ever. Also – that the games won’t be so crowded with bandwagon fans.