Young students should be filing into Camden Yards this morning for the annual "Weather Day" event at the ballpark. A chance to watch baseball after they learn about barometric pressure. Sun is in the forecast with temperatures in the upper 60s. It's been a little chilly for the second week of May, but no one would be complaining. The weather doesn't really matter. We're stuck at home, wondering whether there's going to be a season. So yes, it's "Whether Day." My optimism fluctuates...

When you watch a baseball game - whether in person or from the comfort of your basement recliner - there's a certain end game at play. Simply put, you want your team to win. You don't really care how they do it, as long as they have more runs than the other guys at the end of the game. Sometimes it takes nine innings, sometimes more. Sometimes it's a stellar pitching performance that does the trick, other times it's a fortuitous piece of offense that's the catalyst. Sometimes, weird things...

Flash back to May 9-12, 2019, as the Nationals continued their long road trip with a four-game set against the defending National League champion Dodgers at Chavez Ravine. Today marks the anniversary to the end of that series, with the Nats coming home with some added confidence that they could hang with the big boys in the NL, even though they were not at full strength. It was the introduction of veteran Gerardo Parra as a member of the Nationals. His grand slam on May 11, 2019, propelled the...

Major League Baseball owners reportedly agreed Monday to a proposal for a 2020 season, one that would include an abbreviated second round of spring training in June, then a regular season of roughly 80 games that would run from July through September, then an expanded postseason that includes two more wild card teams in each league but could still be wrapped up around Halloween. Sounds great, right? Our long national nightmare is almost over! The only thing the league needs now is approval of...

If every at-bat and every swing from Chris Davis in spring training led to a series of dissections, discussions and debates, Rio Ruiz's trips to the plate by comparison seemed to be shrouded in secrecy. The player with the second-highest average on the team and the third-highest on-base and slugging percentages didn't get nearly as much attention. There isn't a dome at Ed Smith Stadium, but it's possible to operate beneath a cone of silence. The spring also was important for Ruiz, who...

If you can get up at (or stay up until) 4 a.m., you can now watch live baseball. It's on the tube at that hour because it's coming to you live from South Korea, where COVID-19 precautions have eased up enough to permit the Korea Baseball Organization to play ball, albeit without fans in the stands. It's a little surreal, watching players you don't know in ad-emblazoned batting helmets and umpires in surgical masks, all rattling around in an empty ballpark at a time of day when the vast...

If reports of the latest proposal to play Major League Baseball in 2020 are true, the Orioles may have a very tough schedule. Whether it be 78 gmes, 82 games or some other number. The latest plan reportedly calls for teams to only play in their geographical region. The Orioles would play against teams in the American League East and the National League East. The same would be true for the Central and West in both leagues. The six divisions would remain intact, but instead of the Orioles playing...

As part of its ongoing COVID19 relief and recovery efforts, No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end childhood hunger in America, and Nationals Philanthropies, the official charitable arm of the Washington Nationals, have issued matching grants of $25,000 to Fairfax County Public Schools (VA) and Prince George's County Public Schools (MD) for a total of $50,000 to each school district. These funds will help Fairfax County and Prince George's County Public Schools make sure kids stay...

I recently got the perspective of high Single-A Fredericksburg manager Tripp Keister on a few of the pitchers he saw throw during October instructional league workouts and more recently in Nationals spring training. The first was left-hander Tim Cate, who I spoke with at the start of 2019 spring training in West Palm Beach. Keister said Cate, 22, moved up to Woodbridge, Va., midway through the season last year. The skipper liked the pitching repertoire Cate brought to the table for the...

I woke up on the morning of June 24, 2011, exhausted from the events of the previous day, and rushed to the airport to catch a flight to Chicago. The Nationals were opening a three-game interleague series against the White Sox, having just won 11 of their last 12 but now employing a temporary manager for the weekend. Jim Riggleman's surprise resignation following a walk-off win over the Mariners at Nationals Park had shocked the baseball world, certainly the baseball-caring portion of...