#TBT to "Nationals Classics": An abundance of offense

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": An abundance of offense
There's no way around it: Good teams make their hay at the plate. And if you're one of those who favor offense over pitching, you'll want to pay close attention to this week's smorgasbord of "Nationals Classics" on MASN, which feature more offense than you can shake a stick at. Of course, in this case, that stick would be a Louisville Slugger, or some other wooden implement used to terrorize pitchers. So as you prepare for Thanksgiving, sit back and enjoy these offensive highlights from...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Near perfection at home, craziness in L.A.

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Near perfection at home, craziness in L.A.
To say that 2020 has been sad, strange and unnerving is almost cliché now. But that doesn't make it any less true. And with seven weeks left before the arrival of 2021, many of us have begun our countdown to New Year's Day a little earlier than usual. As we head toward what's bound to be a long winter likely to bring a coronavirus surge, we all face a long list of morale-challenging circumstances. While it certainly includes much more impactful factors, the absence of baseball still has...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Offseason begins with curly W memories

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Offseason begins with curly W memories
The World Series is over and free agency has commenced. We've gotten back the hour of sleep we lost in March at about the time baseball and the world went a little crazy. Now it's dark at 5:30 p.m. Is it supposed to be this cold in November? I could swear I saw flurries this morning. While we don't know for sure what the 2021 baseball season will hold, we do know a few simple truths. Among them is that MASN will feed your need for diamond memories all offseason long with "Nationals...

Zimmermans, ZiMS Foundation to be honored at virtual National MS Society Ambassadors Ball

Zimmermans, ZiMS Foundation to be honored at virtual National MS Society Ambassadors Ball
Longtime Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and his wife, Heather, will be honored with the Champion Award at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's virtual 42nd annual Ambassador's Ball on Sept. 30 from 7-8 p.m. The Zimmermans will be honored for their important work through the ZiMS Foundation, which has raised both awareness and more than $3.5 million in the fight against multiple sclerosis since its founding in 2006. Ryan Zimmerman began the ZiMS Foundation after his mother,...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": A sampler from the 2010s

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": A sampler from the 2010s
Can you hold on for one more week? The long delay of the start of the 2020 season and the resulting longer-than-anticipated wait for the raising of the championship banner at Nationals Park make the 2019 season seem like a very distant memory of a much simpler time. But in just seven days, baseball finally, finally returns as the Yankees come to South Capitol Street to kick off the oddest season in the sport's long history. While we don't yet know exactly what baseball in the 2020s will be...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Walk-off this way, please ...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Walk-off this way, please ...
They don't call Ryan Zimmerman "Mr. Walk-off" without good reason. He's got 11 walk-off homers to his credit, and the notion of coming through in the clutch with the game on the line isn't a foreign concept to the longtime Nationals slugger, who has announced he will sit out the 2020 season over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Well, the next best thing to seeing Zimmerman walk off an opponent live is seeing it on MASN - and that's where this week's slate of walk-off-heavy...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Doubling down on twinbills

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Doubling down on twinbills
In a time of disappointments for baseball fans everywhere, Nationals fans got an extra dose of woe this week when they learned that the face of the franchise has opted out of the 2020 season, citing his concern that returning to the clubhouse this year would greatly increase his chances of contracting the coronavirus and spreading it to his family. Ryan Zimmerman, 35, would have been easing off on his playing time this season even if the COVID-19 pandemic had not come to pass. Now with the...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Reaching baseball's October pinnacle

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Reaching baseball's October pinnacle
One of the few positive points about living in pandemic hell is that the Nationals continue to be world champions. And the way things are going, they may get an extended stretch atop the baseball world. In this week's collections of "Nationals Classics" on MASN, we're happy to revisit some October baseball, specifically the four World Series games in which the Nats prevailed over the Astros, all of them coming at Houston's Minute Maid Park. So much for home field advantage, right? There...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": It just wasn't in the cards for St. Louis

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": It just wasn't in the cards for St. Louis
What with the coronavirus and all, you might feel squeamish about leafing through Father's Day cards wherever you usually go to get that sort of thing. But do at least give dad a call this Sunday. If you still (or again) live with dad, you'll want to spend the day together sharing some great baseball memories as you watch "Nationals Classics" on MASN. Who knows? Maybe you attended one or more of these games together, perhaps the one against the Yankees on Father's Day 2006. Ryan Zimmerman...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": A wild introduction to postseason run

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": A wild introduction to postseason run
There's no way around it. We miss baseball. We miss everything about a trip to South Capitol Street to see the Nationals play. The way the warm June breezes buffet the upper deck. The taste of a Ben's Chili Bowl half smoke when you bite into it. The taste of a cold, refreshing Budweiser. The roar of the crowd. We don't know when baseball will return, but until the owners and players can come to some sort of agreement, MASN has plenty of "Nationals Classics" to help you get your diamond...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Strap in for some Strasburg

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Strap in for some Strasburg
Was any postseason retrospective ever more aptly titled than "Improbable"? The look back at the Nationals' 2019 playoff run re-aired on MASN recently, reminding us just how odds-defying the team's climb to the top was. Battling back to a playoff berth after teetering on the edge of oblivion in May, the Nats then had to come back against a dominant closer to win the wild card, survive two elimination games in the National League Division Series - coming back from a three-run deficit late in...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Pitching and offense are on display

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Pitching and offense are on display
This week's selection of "Nationals Classics" on MASN fits into one two categories: those games dominated by stellar pitching and those featuring lots of offense. Pitching and hitting are the game's cornerstones. Put them together and you've got a winning combination. Good pitching can usually trump good hitting, and this week's "Nationals Classics" wraps with a trio of the best mound efforts ever seen in D.C. (or anywhere else, for that matter). On Wednesday, you can settle into your...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Starting with a midweek doubleheader

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Starting with a midweek doubleheader
While taking nothing for granted in a COVID-ravaged world, we can reasonably assume that the sight of Spring Training 2.0 and a shortened - but certainly sweet - 2020 season on the horizon is not a mirage. With the target window now in the Independence Day/All-Star break vicinity, we can almost smell the hot dogs and the horsehide. In the meantime, we'll tide ourselves over with Nationals baseball from seasons past. Not a bad deal, really, considering that many of those seasons produced...

MASN to air "Kolko & Friends" at 7 p.m. on May 19

MASN to air "Kolko & Friends" at 7 p.m. on May 19
If you're among those who are missing Nationals baseball - and since the game is the sole focus of our website, we're guessing that's pretty much all of you are - MASN has a brief respite from the coronavirus gloom and doom. "Kolko & Friends," presented by Budweiser and featuring "Nats Xtra" host Dan Kolko, will air tonight at 7 p.m. on MASN. Additionally, "Kolko & Friends" will stream on Facebook Live, YouTube and nationals.com. So if you're away from your television this...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Worth the wait for late heroics

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Worth the wait for late heroics
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...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Slugfests and nailbiters

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Slugfests and nailbiters
Guess you'll just have send your mother a card this year. If she's like my mom, she'd probably prefer that you take her to see a ballgame, but sadly, that's not an option this Mother's Day. The good news is that if you happen to be living under the same roof during the Great COVID-19 Shutdown of 2020, you and mom can park yourselves in front of the TV on Sunday (or any other day this week) and enjoy Nationals baseball together. True, we can only bring you the exploits of seasons past, but...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": A nice mix of offensive and mound highlights

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": A nice mix of offensive and mound highlights
Few things in baseball are better than a home run. Face it, the second you hear the ball ricochet off the bat and start tracking the trajectory of the missile, your heart starts beating a little bit faster. Even if you can't quite focus on the cowhide, you can always check out the positioning of the outfielder. When he doesn't turn, you know good things are coming. So this week's smattering of "Nationals Classics" on MASN will provide plenty of offensive fireworks. Round-trippers, homeric...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Youngsters shine

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Youngsters shine
Our long national nightmare continues, and we continue to go without the national pastime. We take comfort in knowing that our baseball heroes are stepping up to the plate to help the heros who are giving their all for our communities, but as we endure a public health crisis and steel ourselves for its economic repurcussions, we can't help but wish we could at least take in a ballgame. As we've been reminding you throughout the unpleasantness, you indeed can catch some exciting baseball...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": 15 years' worth of memories

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": 15 years' worth of memories
With 15 years of history, the Nationals have created plenty of memories. Last year's World Series championship was definitely the pinnacle, but even the most pedestrian of Nats campaigns offers a highlight or two. This week's smattering of "Nationals Classics" on MASN is a trip down memory lane, a look at nine noteworthy games from the past, from the Nats' debut season in 2005 through a Max Scherzer strikeout record in 2018. We know you miss baseball - the real-time kind, which mandates a...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": The moment you've all been waiting for

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": The moment you've all been waiting for
You've been spending way more time at home than usual and your television set is working overtime. Normally at this time of year, MASN would be bringing you live Nationals games, but maybe you've been catching some of the wide variety of sports competition (taped back before the world went on lockdown) that MASN presents daily: auto, motorcycle, air and speedboat racing, Bundesliga soccer, PBA bowling and poker tours, to name a few. Of course our bread and butter is baseball. So while our...