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These days, there appears to be a solid distinction in the way baseball fans - in Washington, D.C., especially - view the game. They watch the game and pick its intricacies apart with either a conservative, progressive or moderate lens. Nation's capital puns aside, it's a dichotomy that gets the Nationals' fan base riled up inside the ballpark, via Twitter or in the blogosphere. The
For those fans with a ticket to the Nationals' September 3 game against the Mets, you're in for a special treat. As part of the Washington Nationals Grand Slam Labor Day Weekend festivities, popular rock band Lifehouse will be on hand to perform a postgame concert on the field at Nationals Park. The concert will be immediately following Saturday's 7:05 p.m. game and is expected
Even with the Nationals in the midst of a six-game losing streak, I feel like this team is heading in the right direction overall. The Nationals organization is doing a very good job putting together the nucleus of a solid and soon to be a winning baseball team together in the nation's capital. I believe this team is on its way to become a team
It's getting to be the time of the year when folks start turning their attention away from baseball and on to other pursuits. The kids are going back to school, football season kicks off next week and, before you know it, it's going to start getting chilly and hockey and basketball will begin again. With the local teams out of the pennant race, it would
One of the things I like about baseball is the opportunity to watch people who are living their dream. It makes me happy, and on some days it also reminds me to count my blessings and focus what I might achieve in my own life. Of course, there's more than one professional baseball dream, from being drafted, to stepping on the field for a major
How is it that a 6-foot-2, 245-lb.,36-year-old can be one of the game's most consistent starters? That is the question on everyone's mind as Livan Hernandez puts together yet another incredibly dependable season. Amazingly, Hernandez has started at least 30 games in each season dating to 1998. Despite bouncing around the league having pitched for seven different clubs, Hernandez may be best known for his
Here's the deal, folks: You've got blood, lots of it, enough to spare, and the Nationals have tickets to come see them play. Basically, the Nats are looking for a straight up trade. You give your blood, they'll give you two tickets to a game. Sound fair? I've got a bag filling as I type (not really, that'd be kind of gross). But as someone
Tuesday was no average day in Washington, D.C. Residents, tourists, visitors and members of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Nationals felt a 5.9 jolt from the earth beneath their feet. The tremor was shallow, at just 6 kilometers underground, and was felt from the epicenter in Virginia to a widespread portion of the East Coast. While the earthquake has nothing to do with baseball itself, baseball
When Danny Espinosa's playing career is over, the rookie second baseman has a bright future as a marketing executive to look forward to. On the heels of today's 5.9 magnitude East Coast earthquake, Espinosa sent out the following tweet, figuring there might be a few workers sent home earlier than anticipated as a result of the temblor: "If you get out of work early today
Since his first full season in 2006, Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman has shown a real knack of hitting walk-off home runs. His latest walk-off happened Friday evening. The Phillies and the Nationals were tied 4-4 and the bases were loaded with Nats when Zimmerman hit a two-out grand slam off Ryan Madson. For Zimmerman, it was his second career walk-off grand slam and his
The Washington Nationals start play today with a record of 61-64. They eclisped a milestone of sorts last week without anyone recognizing it, which I guess should be taken as a good thing. Two seasons ago, in 2009, the Nationals won just 59 games. In years past, the mere fact that the Nats moved past a previous year's win total with so many games left
Fans attending this weekend's series against the Philadelphia Phillies will have a chance to donate new school supplies for students in the surrounding area of District of Columbia Public Schools. Before both Saturday's 7:05 contest and Sunday's 1:35 series finale, fans heading the Nationals Park can stop by the Center Field Gates from the time gates open until the end of the second inning and
When the Nationals sent a message to season ticket-holders earlier this week, urging prompt renewal in exchange for a 5 percent discount, I thought about my season ticket group - a collection of baseball fans who started out as the means to help me buy better seats than I might otherwise and have become a bigger part of my life. So if I might, I'd
Jayson Werth is suffering through arguably one of the most disappointing seasons for any player in Major League Baseball right now, as Dan Uggla seemed to turn his around, stringing together a 33-game hit streak. Werth cashed in this past winter, literally jumping from the best to the worst team in the National League East. It's hard to blame him - I mean, what would
It was announced Tuesday afternoon that the Nationals would honor America's fallen heroes, more specifically the service members involved in the deadly Aug. 6 helicopter crash, with pregame activities. The Nationals honored our servicemen and women in the Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy (including the SEALs division), Marines and all military reserves before the game by donning caps bearing the insignias of the various
Since April 2007, I've been writing stories mostly about Washington D.C. baseball history at Nationals Daily News. A lot of my stories are based off of a date in time in D.C. baseball history. Today's story is about a pitcher, Allen "Bullet Ben" Benson, who made his Washington Senators debut this week in 1934. What makes this story so different than any of my other
It's hard to believe it's already mid-August, but here we are, with the Nationals set to begin another lengthy homestand. This 10-game stand will welcome the Reds, Phillies and Diamondbacks to our nation's capital and, as usual, there are plenty of offers and events for fans to enjoy at the ballpark. On Tuesday, as the Nationals open a three-game series with Cincinnati, the Nats will
The deadline to sign draft picks from June's First-Year Player Draft is midnight tonight. As of this post, the Washington Nationals still have not signed their top five picks from this year's draft. It's not an unusual scenario, due to Major League Baseball's antiquated rules governing the draft and the slotting system the league recommends for draft pick bonuses. Even though it's a yearly ritual
Earlier this week it occurred to me that I didn't know the Nationals' record. It felt like we were a bit under .500, but before looking it up, I couldn't tell you if we were two games under .500, five games under, or worse. I also didn't know if the team was again in last place in the National League East, or instead in next-to-last
The dog days of summer are upon us. Pennant races are heating up. Contenders are separating themselves from the pretenders, and unfortunately that means another finish in the bottom half of the division for the Washington Nationals. The Nationals are 56-60 and 20.5 games out of first place; anyone who thinks this team has a miracle run to the playoffs in them is downright crazy.
There was a time, long before Nationals Park was constructed, when I could hear AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" and not think of baseball. Those days are gone. That first song off AC/DC's 1990 album "The Razors Edge" still pumps me up in the gym or gets my head banging at a bar on the weekend but now, whenever I hear the song, I think of the Nationals.
The Washington Nationals' first baseman Michael Morse, is putting up some offensive numbers Washington baseball fans haven't seen in nearly a half century. The 29-year-old Morse has a legitimate shot at winning the 2011 National League batting title. Currently Morse is third in the NL with a batting average of .324 and trails only Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers who has an average of
Washington Nationals right-handed starter Stephen Strasburg, dubbed "Baseball Jesus" by a teammate last season during spring training, made his much-anticipated return to a baseball field facing batters paid to beat him Sunday, as he took the mound for the low Single-A Hagerstown Suns against the Greensboro Grasshoppers (no joke) in his first minor league rehab appearance, as he continues his recovery from ligament replacement surgery.
The non-waiver trade deadline has come and gone and I think it's fair to say the most drama centered around whether Nationals' closer Drew Storen would stay with the team or be traded with who knows who else to the Minnesota Twins for center fielder Denard Span. Oversimplifying a bit, the debate in NatsTown about this potential transaction boiled down to: "Of course you should
If you want to find the front-runners of the National League Rookie of the Year race, look no further than the NL East. Danny Espinosa of the Washington Nationals, along with Freddie Freeman and Craig Kimbrel of the Atlanta Braves, make up the trio of youngsters looking to take home the crown. If I had a vote, I would go Kimbrel, Freeman and then Espinosa.
The wild and crazy weekend of trade rumors and moves has passed. Before (and after) 4 p.m. Sunday, fans took to Twitter to express their concern about whether or not Drew Storen would stay on the Nationals' roster. With all of that hoopla over a singular player, a thought arose: Is it better to devote one's unconditional fandom to an individual player or to a
Like most Washington Nationals fans, I also get a little frustrated when the Nats struggle to win ballgames. I actually have friends that don't quite understand why I keep renewing my season tickets year after year. When they ask me why I keep doing it, I answer quickly: I do it because you never know when you may witness a little bit of D.C. baseball
With the major league trade deadline at 4 p.m. Sunday, fans and media were already on the edges of their seats even before Sunday's game with the New York Mets started. So of course it would turn out to be a tense, nerve-wracking affair - scoreless until the fifth inning - adding to what was an already drama-filled day. When the dust settled, the Washington
