October 3, 2006

Obligatory post-season wrapup

So after sunday, I came home, polished my monocle, hung the top hat, and got out a big bowl of caviar to look back on the season. It is somewhat obligatory to have a season recap, and so I'll do my part.

Back in March, I posted something called "What Is Success?", which I took as my own personal success criteria for judging the season. Seems worthwhile to bring this out.

For the team....

1. During the season, at least one 6 game winning streak.

We did this. Friday, Jul 22 to Thursday, Jul 27, we swept the Cubs and swept the Giants.

2. Not to be mathematically eliminated before Sept 5 (which does happen to be my birthday).

We did this too. Our mathematical elmination came later in September.

3. Nick Johnson to only be on the DL at total of 20 days or less.

We did this one as well. Admittedly, the end of the season was quite a way to go on the DL, but he got a full season out there.

4. Chad Cordero has 20 saves or more. Being conservative, but trying!

Chief came in with 29 saves for the season, and one at bat.

5. John Patterson has a record that includes 12 wins. Hoping for run support, this is more than last year

Double injury kept Big Nasty out of the rotation entirely. Patterson's record ended up being 1-2, with 8 games, for a total of 40.2 innings.

6. Guzmania delivers a Batting Average better than .260, and hits 30 dingers. I'm trying to recreate 2004 for him. If he hits Nate's predictions, so much the better.

Ok, so no Guzman. At all.

7. Zimmerman delivers, and we see a solid ball player.

Considering he's a rookie of the year candidate, I think we hit this one.

For Dave

8. Attendance at 15 games.

Did much better than this this year. I made 22 games, which is actually 2 more than last year. The Nats were actually a pretty good club in my presence, playing 13-9 ball when I was at RFK. This does not count the game at Camden, which would have made 23 games for 13-10.

9. Chipwich's at at least 5 games.

Chipwich's ended up becoming hard to find, and I ended up switching this to soft-serve. I did hit 5 for soft-serve, however. :) Soft-serve is yummy.

10. One entry into Coyote Ugly after a game

We did this once this season, even before the place became RnR.

11. One night of total stupidity at the ball park, involving not driving and a lot of beer.

I never did quite pull this off.

12. A win on Jun 24, just to have some personal gratification on beating the Orioles while at Camden Yards decked out in Nats gear.

We lost this game. We were 2-1 at Camden Yards. Better luck next year on this one.

If you do totals on my success list, we hit 8 of my 12 goals. (The team pulled off 5 of 7, and I did my part hitting 3 of 5) Since these were lower expectations than last year, we could dwell, but I'm willing to say it was fun, I saw most of what I wanted to, and from my particular set of beer goggles, this is pretty good. I think next year I'll raise the bar back to something more along the lines of what I would really like to see.

As a P.S. despite being late to the party (and hungover, as there was a wedding the night before in Philly), it was nice meeting the folks at the tailgate before Sunday's game. And yes, I met and shook Yuda's hand, and the world did not explode. Thanks to Miss Chatter for putting it all together.





Time to go don the top hat again, and go find new ways to squash the little man under foot.

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