Are you serious? A Tony Plush hockey jersey?
During today’s game against the Tigers, a fan came and stood behind the dugout wearing a Tony Plush #1 Regina Pats hockey jersey. You might remember that outfielder Nyjer Morgan’s first love was hockey and he spent some time on the ice in the Western Hockey League playing for the Pats.
EPIC fan win.
Sorry for the late report. I felt the need to go celebrate Stephen Strasburg’s first outing and the Nats 9-4 loss so I went to Cocoa Beach and the Slow & Low Barbecue for some pulled pork and a fruity drink. Celebrate yet another dismal Spring Training performance you say? Of course not. I celebrate merely the fact the team stays consistent and their 0-7 record is unblemished by something called a win. If they win, they ruin the Feng Shui.
But I definitely celebrated the first two innings young, Stephen Strasburg pitched which was a sight to see in person. While the world watched on TV and Internet, nothing could beat being in the stadium and hearing the satisfying “pop” of a 98 mph fast ball hitting Wil Nieves’ leather. You’ll read about it in the NQ’s recap, but be warned that after Strasburg leaves the mound, everything spirals downhill from there.
Arrived at 8am. Beat the parking attendants yet again, however, as we were checking our camera and equipment there was a knock at the NQ RV door. The parking attendant. He greeted us with, “Hi! I’m the Parking Nazi.” We quickly paid our five dollars.
Mass media was out today. Everyone who is someone in the Nats media world was at Space Coast. Huge satellite trucks are out back. Cameras all over the stadium. Debbie Taylor was walking across the lawn at 8:30 in the morning.
A week or two ago it was reported that extra security was present at Space Coast due to the crowds to see Strasburg. We are pleased to report the only “added Strasburg security” is they now simply shut the gate to the practice field. That is it.
Talking with several fans and Space Coast personnel, it seems no one is excited the Yankees and their mob are coming on Friday.
The Asian media was out and about again chasing Wang (uh huh, huh). Two ladies made their way to the practice field where Livan Hernandez bowed and greeted them in Taiwanese. Our mouths dropped when Eddie Guardado followed suit. Apparently someone has been giving the Nats language lessons.
The Nats spent the morning doing the usual drills and practicing “calling balls.” The peace of the morning was shattered by constant rapid calls of, ” I got it, got it, got it, gadda, gadda!” as a coach fed the machine baseballs. The final few balls were shot to incredible heights for amusement. The last one looked like it would touch the clouds, but Pete Orr completely owned it. Way to go, Petey.
Quote from one Nationals coach to the players: “You took practice into the game with you yesterday. Let’s not do that today.” Siiiiiighhhhhh.
Small five minute drizzle this morning. Then nothing else. It was just before the Tigers pulled up in two buses and a van. They brought some heavy hitters. They smelled meat.
Lots of Viera’s Finest were out today. They were busting scalpers left and right.
Hundreds of people lined the walls and upper stands near the Nats bullpen to see Strasburg come out on the field. Nice sized crowd today but not a sellout. There is a sort of carnival feel in the air. Lots of excitement.
Strasburg comes out to a huge ovation. His practice pitches make a lot of people gasp. His first six practice pitches registered 92, 93, 94, 88, 88, 80 mph. Sorry Canadian readers, I have no idea what you do without the metric system so I can’t translate into whatever you use.
There was incredible motion and speed on Strasburg’s pitches. He threw some balls, but he got three groundouts to end his first inning which began with a 97 mph ball.
Everyone in the stadium nearly fainted when Strasburg struck out Cabrera on a 98 mph pitch. They nearly fainted again when Don Kelly got the first hit off Strasburg followed by yet another hit by Alex Avila. With two outs, Strasburg fell behind to Brent Dulgach 3-0. Strasburg then struck out Dulgach to end the inning. INSANE. Time to party in Natstown.
Miguel Batista struggled in his first inning, but battled hard and got out of the inning. However, during the next inning Batista again struggled and got tagged with two runs which began the Tiger’s scoring. Things are not looking good for Batista.
The famous Nationals Park rally monkey was in attendance today.
Nyjer Morgan had two stolen bases and a beautiful bunt which he beat out the throw. He also made a great play on a ball hit off the wall and he made it to third base a couple times in the game, but no one could hit him in.
Tigers fans were generally very respectful, although there was a crop of them that heckled the hell out of Cabrera. Heckle their own team? Who the hell do they think they are? The Mets?
Tyler Walker has to have one of the worst last names for a pitcher. Sadly, it shows. Walker was tagged with six runs. Add the five from his previous outing and his ERA has ballooned to 37.13. If he isn’t in the first cuts, I don’t know what the Nats are doing.
By the 7th inning, several Strasburg jerseys and t-shirts appeared scattered in the crowd. By the end of the 8th inning it was rumored that all Strasburg t-shirts had sold out in the inner-stadium souvenir stores.
There were at least three Caps jerseys in the crowd.
Justin Maxwell showed a lot of patience at the plate today and was rewarded with two walks.
The pitching was once again atrocious aside from Strasburg and Aaron Thompson who came in and stopped the bleeding from the Walker catastrophe. The offense was completely dead in the water up until the 8th inning where the Nats racked up four runs. At least their home uniforms looked nice and crisp.
We won’t be back to Space Coast Stadium until Friday for the Yanks game. The weather looks a little dicey, but we’ll see if they can get a game in.
Tonight I will dance naked around a fire to my pagan God, Strasburg and ask him not to bring the rain.
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Well, today is the day, folks. The hopes, the dreams, the mere sanity of an entire franchise rests on the shoulders of a young, $15 million baseball prospect named Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg takes the mound for the first time in his professional career against a team that is looking to make a mouse out of the God. No facing his own teammates. No batting practice nets. No friends here. No turning back. Here there be monsters young, Master Strasburg.
The 0-6 ST record Nats take on the Detroit Tigers at 1:05pm in front of the nation. The game will be on MLB TV, MASN, XM/Sirus and on the hearts of everyone who makes baseball their sport of choice. Nats fans watch to see a glimpse of a possible future and for hope. Everyone else is watching to see this oddity and if the hype is worthy or if it will be nothing but another Nats bust. An expensive one at that.
And “it’s only Spring Training.”
For the past 24 hours the “Strasburg tension” has been escalating in Viera. The local paper has Strasburg on the front page, right next to a story on the Space Shuttle. Everyone is gearing for Nats history, but at the same time almost wishing today never came. There is this silent, selfish feeling of anticipation among the fans down here. On one hand, they want to see this kid pitch more than anything. The excitement Strasburg has brought to the Nationals franchise has been powerful and he has done it without throwing even one Major League pitch. It’s infectious, like a drug and like a drug, any sort of withdrawal will have a person come crashing down. What if Strasburg isn’t what they say he is? What if he gets pounded by the Kitties this afternoon? Did the team lie to us? What is this team going to do? A negative outing will certainly spark misery and wonder among a fan base of a 0-6 Spring Training team. It might even bring them to their knees.
But time and history waits for no man. These questions need answering and some of them will be answered today. If Strasburg can get out of his scheduled two innings or 40 pitches unscathed or with limited damage, this beaten and bruised team can at least rest their heads on that shoulder. Hope will survive another day and Strasburg’s legend will continue to grow. Maybe one day Strasburg won’t be on the front page of the paper with the Space Shuttle, but have his face actually on the space shuttle itself. As the rocket boosters propel the ship into orbit, there goes Strasburg with it, his face looking down on all of us. A loving God. A loving God with his own t-shirt. I know because I bought one at the team store yesterday at Space Coast.
Time to part the seas, Nats fans and break on through to the other side. Partly cloudy this morning, some overcast, but the birds are chirping and it looks to be a good day for baseball.
The storm is just hours away on the horizon.
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Just got out of the pool at Space Coast RV Resort after taking in the Nationals 11-2 loss to the Florida Marlins. Even with sunblock I have acquired one of the World Famous Space Coast Stadium Sunburns and I needed to cool off. The team losing didn’t really help matters either, but we are so excited to be here and it is the first baseball we’ve seen in months so the burn of the loss really isn’t that bad. For those stuck in in their nine-to-fives and still shoveling snow, I am sure it is the opposite, but allow the NQ to be your temporary escape.
So, glancing over the Natosphere, I can see many fans are trying to determine if today’s game was as bad as it sounded. Many are using the “it’s only Spring Training” phrase as ointment, but to tell you the truth: yes, it was as bad as it seemed. In fact, it is downright horrible and embarrassing to watch in person. “But it’s only Spring Training.” The following are some notes and observations seeing the game first hand.
Tonight I’ll be putting aloe on my burn, but it’s going to take barrels of the gooey, green junk to take away the burn of this loss for some of the Nats.
We arrived about 8am and at first we thought we were the first ones at Space Coast because no one was there, not even the parking attendants. However, going around to the inner-stadium batting cages we found a herd of sports memorabilia nuts or “vultures” standing outside the fence fishing for player autographs. These leeches had their usual binders of cards, bags of balls and sacks of bats and continue to be the bane of the ST experience. Two of them nearly got in a fight over an Adam Dunn autographed mini-helmet. However, one interesting bit of information found out from these sewer dwellers was the rumor was circulating that if you asked pitcher Livan Hernandez to sign it, he will scratch his autograph and write “World Series MVP” underneath. Livan is milking it for all it is worth. Unfortunately, Livan turned down all requests for autographs today.
Out on the practice fields outfielder/whatever you need, Mike Morse shocked a lot of onlookers by not only sporting a sort of greasy haircut, but also coming out in full catcher’s gear. Morse spent the morning working with a surprisingly nimble Jesus Flores on his catching skills. As Morse was making adjustments to his pads, Livan Hernandez looked up from his stretching and said, “You look like Mike Piazza.”
Stephen Strasburg had a line of fans and vultures from the practice field into the parking lot waiting to see if he would sign. It was reported before Strasburg stays after workouts to sign autographs, but not so says one fan from Orlando. According to this fan, Strasburg shot him and a group of four visitors during the home opener. When asked to sign, The Burg said he wasn’t in the mood that day. When pressed and told they were from Orlando and would only be there one day, Strasburg replied, “I’ve heard that one before” and jogged off. Today, the fan made the trip back to Viera specifically for Strasburg’s John Hancock. I am sad to report that this fan got stiffed again as Strasburg signed only about seven or eight items in line before jogging off. I am happy to report that my daughter’s ball was one of those seven or eight items.
Lots of Asian media out today, no doubt following the Chein-Ming Wang saga. Wang came out into the dugout around the start of the game to talk to the international media, watch his teammates and probably wish he was still with the Yanks after today’s performance.
Pitcher Jordan Zimmermann was in camp and doing some running. Catching up with him and talking with him briefly, he says he is definitely aiming for a September 2010 return. Catcher Jesus Flores was also working out, catching pitching practice and doing drills with an elastic band that attached him to a trainer which made us come up with the term “Jesus-On-A-Rope.”
Starting pitcher Scott Olsen got hit hard in the first inning. He definitely doesn’t look to be tip-top or ready for the regular season at this point.
Adam Dunn played first base today and overall did well, but there was some problems extending at times and he dropped a routine ball in the 2nd inning.
Josh “The Hammer” Willingham proved why they call him the hammer in the bottom of the 2nd. A solo homerun. He hammered it. Over the Tiki Bar in the berm.
Elijah Dukes has a new goatee. He scorched a ball into left field this afternoon and made a hard cut around first base that caused him to suddenly stumble and awkwardly run to second. Not sure if the cut was just too much or he actually injured himself. A coach came out to talk with him and he seemed okay, but it might be something to watch.
Collin Balester and his Epic-Stache pitched 2.1 innings today. He started off a lot better than his previous outing and limiting the damage, but the longer he pitched the more balls he threw and a lot more balls found the dirt in front of the plate. By the end of his time in the game he was losing a lot of power behind his throws as well. Lobs at 71 mph isn’t going to get it done. If Bally doesn’t have a serious turn around soon, he’ll be starting in Syracuse.
Ryan Zimmerman had a “swing-away” sort of day– and kept striking out. Not a whole lot of patience from the Face this afternoon and his anger said he knew it. He later took his aggression out on a pitch by Leroux and pretty much placed his solo homerun where Willingham hit his.
Ivan Rodriguez blasted the “F-Word” after striking out during one of his at-bats. Regardless, the Florida fans in attendance still love the guy.
Speaking of Marlin fans, Marlin fan fathers are douchebags. Behind us sat a Marlin fan and his four year old son who he apparently took out of school for today’s game. That is good and all, except the kid started to cry during the third inning because the sun was scorching everything in the stadium and he was uncomfortable and thirsty. Literally, this kid was in tears. His father’s response? “Toughen up… hey, look, it’s Rick Nolasco!”
The pitching was hands down disgusting this afternoon. By the 7th inning the beer vendor was deemed more entertaining than the game itself. Of course, the offense consisting of a majority of Opening Day starters didn’t help out much either. No clutch hits or hitting with men in scoring position.
Nyjer Morgan had a rough day. Lots of swinging at junk and eventually stopped swinging for strike outs while looking.
Pete Orr and Alberto Gonzalez both had chances at second base today and both were slow getting throws to first. Gonzalez blooped a double play ball that eventually lead to two runs for the Fish. If Adam Kennedy doesn’t work out at second, the Nats are looking in bad shape when it comes to back ups.
Josh Whitesell played first base later in the game and was having a lot of trouble extending to reach throws and bobbled a lot of balls. Bruney saved his ass on a good play he botched in the final innings.
The home plate ump had a wicked reverse-tomahawk chop he throws up when signaling a strike out. Seriously. It was awesome.
Tonight: We’ll try to get in-game, in-stadium pics up.
Tomorrow: Strasburg Day. We be there!
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Good morning from Viera. The NQ has landed.
We pulled into Space Coast RV Resort about 2:30pm yesterday to some beautiful weather and we immediately hit Cocoa Beach, Ron Jon Surf Shop, the beach and a bottle of Sailor Jerry’s Rum. After roughly 14 hours in the cab, we had to air out. My staff is not supposed to convene until 7am this morning, but I tend to get up early on these days to do some extra prep-work before we head out to Space Coast Stadium. And reflection. I do a lot of reflecting, like standing in front of the mirror admiring my Greek God features.
As I said, we haven’t been over to the stadium yet. After Saturday’s 14-6 and yesterday’s 6-5 games, I don’t know if I want to, but we’ve got to do “the job” and pad the blog. Scott Olsen and the 0-5 Nats look to get that first ST victory today against the Florida Marlins split-squad. If the Nats can’t even get the gander up on the Fish’s scrub squad, then there might be some concerns. At least they didn’t lose by double digits yesterday.
You have to look at those little things.
We’ll be heading over to the stadium around 8am with the team coming to work out around 9am. While I have considered doing some “in-game” coverage on this blog, I don’t see much of the point since most of you are listening, watching and interneting anyways and it just seems to be one big bit of clutter. Until I get a system down that I like I am going to avoid doing it here on the NQ. However, if I can, I will post what I can. Definitely after the game I will post a game review, lots of photos and any stories I get. This is a bit of “Spring Training” for the NQ to because we want to prep for next year and our “Endless Spring” mission.
But for now, the skies in Viera are lighting up and it looks like an absolute gorgeous morning. It is going to be a great day for baseball.
Just as a side note, I am shocked to find that my beard is getting a lot of attention down here. So far I’ve had two skateboarding chicks go across the street to avoid me, a bunch of surfer girls run wild in Ron Jon’s and some gnarly, old drunk covered in his own vomit nearly jump out of the back of pickup truck at me– while it was going 50mph down the road. The people of Florida must not be used to mountain men. This scruffy beard must be an oddity to them. At least I think it is the beard.
Could it be my tail that is driving them all wild? Nah.
I know a couple of people who don’t understand why for the past four years this blog packs up and makes the trek to Viera, FL to watch a baseball team. There is so much more to do in Florida like Disneyworld, dodging senior citizens in their over sized cars on the highway and taking one of those fan boats through the Everglades. “Why waste your time in the orange juice state on a crappy team when Spring Break and bikini disrobe-ment are happening all around you?”
When they put it that way I do feel like a nit-wit. But there is a job to do and the job must be done. Total, raw Nats coverage must be had.
The NQ is packing up the RV today and beginning the trip down to Viera. We’ll arrive tomorrow (Sunday) and we’ll be attending Monday’s game against the Marlins, Tuesday’s “Strasburg Game” against the Tigers and Friday’s game against the Yanks before coming home. We’ll do a posting on Sunday to brag that we have arrived and we’ll go from there.
So we’ll be missing today’s 1:05pm game against the Mets at Space Coast Stadium and more importantly, we’ll be missing you. But I don’t want to leave you all empty handed for the day so I’ll leave you with this:
The Facebook of the Wang Chien-Ming DC Fan Club and the Twitter of the Wang Chien-Ming DC Fan Club.
The Facebook page has over 1,200 members now and it looks like the Twitter page just started, but this is only a hint of how popular Wang is. These pages are hopefully a good sign of things to come and are a great idea and all, but your mission, as readers of the NQ:
Will someone please translate these things so I know what they are saying?
Next time you hear from this blog, we’ll be in Florida.
092709_10, originally uploaded by Shelley935.
The Washington Nationals fell to the Atlanta Braves 11-8 in some Florida Grapefruit League action yesterday. This brings the Nationals 2010 Spring Training record to 0-3. They are the first team to lose all three of their first three games and currently sit at the bottom of both Spring Training Leagues in the Standings. In 27 innings of Spring time work, the Nats have given up 36 runs while gaining only 17 of their own…
–but at least the new BP hats they have are pretty sweet. A lot better than last season’s with that little piece of curved fabric just above the ears.
When a team’s pitchers either can’t or refuse to throw strikes and the offense can’t get key hits during opportune times, then you tend to lose. Everyone loses. The team, the fans, the front office– but not Ian Desmond.
Playing a little of shortstop and a little right field, Desmond went 2 for 3 with six RBIs which was highlighted by a sixth-inning grand slam off Jesse Chavez. This guy really wants a job. Either Cristian Guzman is jacking himself up to show these kids a thing or two or he is applying for jobs at Harris Teeter so he can pack those new, reusable Nats grocery bags. Either way, it will be interesting to see Guzman take the field for the first time this Spring.
Really the only other high points worth mentioning was some runs from Mike “I Can Do Anything” Morse and pitcher Tyler Clippard being the first pitcher of the day (seventh of seven pitchers to pitch) to really pitch a decent inning. He only gave up one hit and struck out one limiting the damage.
The Braves announcers with Don Sutton were the most annoying pack of monkeys ever allowed into a broadcast booth. They slobbered all over Chipper Jones like he was the captain of the high school cheerleading team and at one point of the game (did they know a game was going on?) they spent a good five or six minutes talking about harvesting deer and bass fishing.
Losers. Everyone lost yesterday. Even though the Braves won the day, they had one play where Freddie Freeman hit a 3-run bomb only to be called out and given a 2-run single in a freak play that will probably never happen in our lifetime again. So the Braves were trying to lose like everyone else, but couldn’t even do that so they end up losers too. Everyone loses.
Except for Ian Desmond.
