Barry Me Not at RFK

• Giants 5, Nationals 1

Well, crap. It's not bad enough that Barry Bonds (who is, paradoxically both clear & creamy and extra chunky) knocks another one out of the park, but I have to listen to a Giants fan cheer about it... from my seats! Watson and I will be having an extended chat about the proper ratio of home team etiquette to booty gettin', but at least she wasn't a Phillies fan. And Watson was nice enough to chauffeur us to Coyote after the game, thereby delaying the aforementioned booty gettin', so I suppose it all evens out.

Bring on the Rookies!

Having paid at least enough attention to statistics to realize that the Nats are toast (New mission: Screw the Phillies out of the playoffs!) Cap'n Hook has consented to tinker with the finely-honed offensive machine that is the Nats lineup by randomly inserting people who might, you know, actually put the ball in play once in a blue moon. High on the list: Ryan Zimmerman, Brandon Watson and yes, that's right, 32-year old rookie Rick Short. The traditional knock on Short is that he's a mediocre-to-terrible fielder, which is funny coming from the team that sanctioned the "Carlos Baerga is a 2nd baseman" experiment.

In other rookie news, the Nats named two players from Single-A Potomac organizational players of the year. Third baseman Kory Casto is the Nats player of the year, while lefty Michael O'Connor is the pitcher of the year. Now normally, organizational players of the year are guys you might expect to see up with the big club in the near future. But O'Connor probably needs at least one full year at Double-A, and Casto just happens to play the same position as an underpublicized Nats 1st round draft pick. Maybe J.B. can make him into a shortstop.