I'll Take Three

Via D.C. Sports Bog (& the Nationals), behold your Michael Morse bobblehead:

Yessir, I'll be getting one (or two... possibly three) of those. Kudos to PNC on some fine bobble-heading. All that's missing is a  "Beast Mode" t-shirt and a little button you can press to play "Take On Me".

I just hope that Morse's early season lat strain was the only manifestation of The Curse of the Nationals Bobblehead, a mysterious affliction that has already felled Chad Cordero, Jose Guillen, Fat Screech, Dmitri Young, Nyjer Morgan, Jayson Werth, Ryan Zimmerman (twice) and Stephen Strasburg (preemptively) to name but a few.

The Time Has Come

I'm a fairly lazy custodian of our "Nat(m)osphere" sidebar. I tend to stick with what I know and what I like. Hey, it's our sidebar. And, as previously noted, I'm a lousy housekeeper. What that means in practice is that I'm slow to update when new bloggers join the party and even slower to delete those who may have signed off or gone off the rails.

Every so often though, something gets my attention and reminds me to clean house. In this instance, it was this piece of whiny, self-important BS from Nats320. SBF's place on our blogroll is a function of longevity, not quality. As of now, that's no longer good enough. The team is in a downward spiral, our best pitcher is laid up for the next year, our best slugger is about to take his show on the road, and Jeff is incensed by the inequitable distribution of swag?

To make matters worse, this is the stuff that gets picked up and rebroadcast to the wider web. DC baseball fans have a fairweather, frontrunning image problem that Nats320 is feeding directly into. The Nationals Enquirer has nailed the only possible response to the substance of the post, but I'm using it as an opportunity to tidy up the ol' blogroll. I'm confident that SBF neither wants nor needs my link; I doubt there's much overlap in our audiences.

In place of Nats320 I'll be adding long overdue links to Nationals Fangirls and Nats Inquisition, and removing a few of the older, comatose if not dead links. The link to Nationals Farm Authority will stay until I've completed all five stages of the grieving process. I'm still bargaining. If I'm still missing anybody, feel free to leave your info in the comments, though it may be another 6 months until I get around to doing this again.

And finally, in case you were wondering, Ryan Zimmerman can't hear you.

Nationals "Blogger Day" Take Two

Saturday afternoon was the Nationals second Blogger Day of the 2010 season. This time Dave and I were set loose on Nationals Park with video camera in hand. Chad Kurz, Manager of New Media and the Nationals public relations staff provided us with access to GM Mike Rizzo, Manager Jim Riggleman and many others.

Over the next few days we'll be posting still photos, video clips and thoughts on the day's activities. For now please enjoy this photo of the view from the press box.

Additional bloggy coverage of Saturday's events can be found over at Nationals Fangirls and Nationals Inquisition.

This Time Was Different

Years ago when I visited Yankee Stadium for the first time, I quickly realized that there was something different about that crowd. We exited the train onto the street and there was a hum and excitement that you could actually feel. It brought to mind the tension in the air just before a massive thunderstorm rolls in. At the time I chalked it up to just being at Yankee Stadium but after Steven Strasburg's debut last night I know different.

As I was walking to Rosslyn to meet Dave last night I had complete strangers walk up to me and ask if I was going to the game. People were plainly envious that I was heading to the ballpark. Then we got to the stadium and I started to feel that hum again. It wasn't quite as strong as that Yankee Stadium feeling but it was there. Then the capacity crowd gave Strasburg a standing ovation when he walked in from the bullpen and the feeling exploded like thunder. That was when it dawned on me why this was different. This game mattered.

Last night wasn't about opening a new ballpark, it wasn't about a family taking in the national pastime, and it wasn't about the guys going out for the night. Last night was about baseball. The product on the field was what mattered.

Something happened right off the bat that made it feel like something special could happen. The crowd chuckled when "Jaared" the saxophone player was introduced to play the national anthem but once he started we all stood up a little straighter. Nobody expected the soulful instrumental that followed. He got two different spontaneous cheers during his solo and that's saying something.

Then it was time to get underway. McCutcheon's liner to short made us all hold our breath but then we settled in to witness greatness. 7 strong innings, 94 pitches and 14 strikeouts. The homerun Strasburg gave up to Delwyn Young stung a little bit but in hindsight it served as a reminder that after all he is just a rookie.

And it wasn't just Strasburg that dazzled last night, Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Dunn, and Josh Willingham provided their own fireworks. This was Strasburg's night but it was a team win. It was a win on a night when, for at least one game, the team had something concrete to play for. It mattered to the 40,000 plus fans, it mattered to the people watching at home, and it mattered to the Nationals. This time it was different.

A Complete(ly Embarrassing) Game

Though I live just 150 miles from the city of Philadelphia, I have never been to a baseball game at Citizens Bank Park. And yet, I feel that I can say I have, because I attended Opening Day 2010 at Nationals Park. If the crowd was less than 70/30 Phillies fans I will eat my Replica BP Hat, hundreds of which probably ended up in trash cans immediately after being distributed to the Philly faithful. I'm not sure GEICO's going to be thrilled with that particular marketing expenditure.

The Phillies have a large and vocal fanbase (larger and more vocal since their recent run of success, but c'est la vie.) A good number of transplanted Pennsylvanians live in the DC metro area, and of course it's a relatively easy three hours down I-95 from the City of Brotherly Love itself. So it's not surprising that Philly baseball fans come to DC to take in a game. What rankles is when Washington fans feel like visitors, even interlopers, in their own park. From booing Ryan Zimmerman's awards presentations to serenading the visitors with nicknames and chants, the auditory experience of today's game was all Philly, all the time.

To quote the guy who threw out the first pitch, "Let me be clear." I don't blame the Philly fans. This is what they do. At home, on the road, on their couches, and for all I know, in their sleep. They're loud, boorish, not infrequently drunk, and at least as prone to pick fights with each other as with opposing fans. They've found a home away from home on South Capitol Street, and they treat it that way. The responsibility for the present state of affairs rests solely with the ownership and management of the Washington Nationals.

It was just last year when Stan Kasten went on the radio in Philly and all but begged the locals to turn our stadium into CBP-South. I'd say today's showing means it's Mission Accomplished. In the six seasons since baseball returned to Washington, DC I've been to every home opener and 100 more games besides. I was at two of the three games the Yankees played at RFK and the crowd there was much closer to 50/50. Maybe the Red Sox games were as lopsided, but hell, the Sox do that everywhere.

This was Opening Day. The game that was supposed to showcase Mike Rizzo's rebuilt, revitalized Nationals. I've seen a lot of embarrassing things on and off the field over six years of Nats fandom, but I was never embarrassed to be a fan of this franchise until today. I understand that Washington is a city of perpetual transplants, and local sporting events are always going to be forums for showcasing divided loyalties. I also accept that DC is a front-running town that loves to claim winners as its own. (I grew up here, I'm a big boy, I know the score.) But none of that provides an excuse for what I saw in the stands at Nationals Park today.

From a purely financial perspective, what matters is that tickets are sold, not who fills the seats, or even if the seats are filled. Ted and Mark Lerner and Stan Kasten can probably run a perennially profitable operation catering to transplants, tourists, visitors and everyone but DC baseball fans. Because those folks won't care that the right fielder is a light-hitting career utility man, or that the back half of the rotation is a cobbled together mess for the fifth year running. They won't notice that the farm system, for all the hype and blather about "building from the ground up", really hasn't produced anything all that remarkable. Why should the Philly fans of the world care that while the owner talks about spending money to compete, it never quite seems to happen? Those folks come to enjoy a nice stadium they didn't pay for and root for the visiting team to whip the Nats. More often than not, they leave happy, having deposited a few more dollars in Uncle Ted's alabaster piggy bank.

It's a system that works great, for everybody but the fans of the Washington Nationals. And if there are fewer of us every year, well, can you honestly be surprised? Half the time you can't find this organization with a compass and a map. They've buried a great radio team on a hit-and-miss AM signal. The TV rights are held hostage to an agreement that ought to be a case study on how not to negotiate a media contract. Advertising, to the extent that there is any, is mostly confined to these outlets. I'm not a marketing guy (I leave the flashy stuff to Dave) but it sure looks to me like the Nats are doing everything possible not to broaden their appeal to a wider audience, at least not if that audience is local.

I write this with no particular hope or expectation that things will change soon, or even at all. Lest you think that I'm simply a bitter crank, I'm happy to report that today on the banks of the Anacostia, the sun was warm, the beer (when available) was cold, and an afternoon at Nationals Park still beats a day at the office 100 times out of 100. But if we don't expect more, we certainly can't complain about never getting it...

*****

UPDATE: Also, what he said. And Needham expands on why we're all probably just talking to ourselves. $2,000,000 buys a lot of ear plugs.

Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape

In the wake of the "harsh interrogation" controversies of the past few months, reference has been made to the SERE training commonly given to U.S special forces, Air Force pilots and others with a higher than normal risk of capture. SERE stands for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (or Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract for the Brits.) Now I'm not suggesting that being a Nats fan is in any way as hazardous as serving in the armed forces, I'm just saying that no one should be forced to watch this team without a well-rehearsed survival plan. With that in mind:

Survival: The typical Major League Baseball Season lasts from early April to early October, not counting Spring Training and the abomination of the World Series dragging on into November. Six months, more or less. That's what you as a Nats fan have to plan to endure. Sure there are other baseball-related activities sprinkled throughout the offseason, but those are easy enough to ignore. Survive the regular season and you're home free. Nats playoff games pose no more threat than unicorns. Spring and summer in DC provide a wealth of alternative activities like the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Independence Day, Screen on the Green, and many more. Plan now to fill up your evenings and weekends, leaving less time for a spontaneous baseball encounter.

Evasion: Thankfully it's pretty easy to avoid the Nationals. Delete MASN from your channel guide and WFED from your radio presets and your odds of randomly stumbling across a Nats game are virtually nil. With no marketing to speak of, accidently exposure to the Nats is almost impossible. You certainly won't be seeing them on ESPN or the MLB Network. In fact you could easily watch a week's worth of Baseball Tonight and risk only passing exposure to Washington's baseball club. Unless of course they're playing the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Dodgers or Cubs, which you won't know because you're actively not paying attention. Probably safer just to avoid ESPN altogether. You won't miss it.

Resistance: This is the tough part. Even with no advertising, a pathetic excuse for a television and radio presence and an almost palpable antipathy to fan cultivation, you're bound to hear, see or read something about the Nationals. Maybe they have a promising young pitcher, or a veteran reclamation project is having a career year. Do not get sucked in. Nationals Park is very nice, but it is not now and never has been a fun place to spend a summer afternoon or evening. It is an attractive vessel for a bottomless well of suffering. It's the baseball equivalent of being waterboarded in a Barcalounger. Maybe you're comfortable, but it's still torture.

Escape: If you find yourself, despite all your best efforts, actually attending a Nats game, do not give up hope. Given the frequent invasions by visiting fans, it is possible to convince yourself you are not at a Nats game at all. In addition, there are several areas of Nationals Park which seem almost intentionally designed to divert attention from the product on the field. From the Playstation fun zone and batting cages to the Build-a-Bear workshop and concession lines it's entirely possible to spend hours in the stadium and not watch any baseball at all. You should also note that the Red Porch restaurant and Red Loft bar frequently have televisions tuned to other sporting events if you prefer active rather than passive avoidance. Because crowds are generally sparse, the physical escape from Nationals Park is usually effortless.

There you have it. A basic, 4-step plan to survive the baseball season in Washington, DC. With practice and a little luck you can enjoy the hallmarks of spring and summer in our nation's capital with never so much as a hint of the atrocities being committed on a daily basis just down South Capitol Street.

Flirting with the Enemy

The pitching sucks, the defense is non-existent, the manager is over matched and now the President/GM is actively courting the most heinous fanbase on the planet.

"No, we want to play you, we want to see you here, and we would WELCOME your fans here. And I've got to tell you, I have gone to enough games in three different sports in Philly to tell you that I haven't always felt welcome in your parks, ok? But you can root for whoever you want, you will be welcome when you come to Nationals Park."

That's how long it takes to scrub the smell out of the stadium.

Thanks bunches, Stan. Don't think we'll need to break out the translator for this one. On the heels of last night's embarrassment, did you really need to make the home opener less palatable for Nationals fans?

You remember Nats fans, right Stan? The dedicated thousands who are actually trying, in spite of all obstacles, to root for your team. Jim Bowden may have been an insufferable d-bag, but at least he never openly advocated turning every Nats game into an away game.

I understand Kasten has an ownership stake, so every empty seat really does hit him in the wallet, so here's a suggestion. It's true that Washington is a front-running town, but we're suprisingly supportive of consistent mediocrity too. Put a g--d--- watchable product on the field and you won't have to beg every bottom feeder from Flushing to Miami to make a summer time road trip to D.C.

Prediction Challenge

So Chico @ WaPost put up a Prediction Challenge. I'm not on the ball enough to ask the other NTPers to do it with me, so here are mine... Happy Opening Day.

1. 2009 win total - 65

2. Attendance at Nationals Park (81 dates; last year's was 2.32 million) - 2.30 million. Half will be Red Sox fans.

3. All-star representative(s) - Adam Dunn

4. Adam Dunn's home run total - 32

5. Date of Stephen Strasburg's major league debut - 8/15/09

6. Nick Johnson's total games played - 100

7. Wins for John Lannan - 7

8. Percentage of season Dmitri Young spends in big leagues, not on DL - 25%

9. Josh Willingham's total at bats - 300

10. Innings pitched for Daniel Cabrera - 80

11. Team ERA leader - Lannan

12. Team batting average leader - Guzman, for Nate

13. Biggest surprise - That Jim Bowden was that much of a bad influence.

14. Biggest disappointment - I only get one?

15. Current minor leaguer (not counting Zimmermann) who will make an impact - A collection of people who will rotate through, and you wont learn their neames.

Bonus: Predict the Nats' rotation entering the last week of the season:
Impossible. Space and time do not allow for vision like this.

Talk amongst yourselves.

NatsTown, USA. Population: ?

Because Natopia was too on the nose?

I hate cutesy, theme-driven ad campaigns. Marketing is all about inducing people to buy things that they would otherwise be indifferent to owning. Really good products/companies/sports teams don't market themselves. They don't have to, because the product speaks for itself. Sure, they advertise: "This is where we are; this is what you have to do to get us." but they're selling a thing, not a feeling or state of mind.

Bad teams dream up elaborate campaigns to distract from the product on the field. The Nationals can't just say: "Come see winning baseball at Nationals Park this summer!" because odds are on any given day, you won't. They can't say "Come marvel at the play of [established superstar]!" because apart from Zimm's slick fielding and flair for one dramatic game-ending homer per season, there hasn't been much to "Ooh" and "Ahh" over since Soriano left NatsTown.

In the absence of a tangible result, the Nats have to market the "experience" and the "community." That's fine, but it doesn't make a virtue out of the necessity to advertise around the team instead of advertising the team.

P.S. Whether it's a lousy catchphrase or not, sorry Caps fans, we've had dibs on "Get Your Red On" since the Nats-Cubs series of 2006.

A Short Tour of NatsFest 2009

Welcome fans!The field is decked out in its best winter white.

The dugout has never been cleaner.They'll let anyone into these things.The temple of GUZMANIA!I'm not the only one who writes his locker combination on a Post-It.

FYI, nary a cheeseburger in sight.The Mannyger in the big brown hat.

Thanks Willie!

More in-depth coverage here, here and elsewhere around the Natosphere. Special thanks to Willie, Zimm, American Hero, Irish Mike, Steven Shell and Dan Steinberg for a memorable afternoon. Let's just hope it doesn't turn out to be the highlight of the 2009 season, okay fellas?

And for 2009... we're choosing to be homeless.

As Nate alluded to in a previous post, the NTP crew has made our season ticket decision for 2009.

Like a great many other folks, we will not be renewing our ticket package.

I in particular have taken a lot of grief over the years for my pro-season ticket holder stance. (See "The Business of Baseball" and "Value of Investing in the Team") So this represents a major change in our thinking as fans and “investors”, if you will, in the team. An explanation is in order.

First and foremost, there’s just no added value in owning season tickets to the Washington Nationals. We aren’t in line for preferred seating at the new ballpark. Frankly, hanging onto our tickets from RFK didn’t get us where we wanted to go anyway, and at this point, we’re not looking to increase our investment to snag “better” seats than Section 223. At best, we’d be looking to continue our current spending, but there are better uses for our hard-earned money. The economy IS down, and justifying a big expenditure on tickets is much harder now than it was several years ago, particularly when there are other ways to get the same or better seats with less outlay.

The final straw was my experience with the Padres/Nats game on Saturday. Watson had the tickets, and was taking his family. Ticket price was $25 per ticket, and we sit in Section 223, Row L, seats 8 to 11. My wife and I decided we wanted to go, as well. So off to Stubhub I went, looking for seats. What did I find? Section 223, Row C, Seats 9 and 10... For $12 each. LESS THAN HALF what we pay for our seats farther back, and I didn’t have to reserve anything. Not a thing! Yes, it’s the Padres. But what this showed me was that I could see plenty of baseball, move around the stadium AND get better seats, for significantly less! How about buying a game in Section 104? Then one in 123? Then one up in 402? Then back to 223? Odds are we can practically pick the seats and still spend less than we’re committed to now, at least for 2009.

Now, let’s be honest. The Nats 2009 aren’t going to the playoffs. They just aren’t. The team has gotten worse — much worse — in the short we’ve been watching. I’m looking for a better season next year, but in the words of the immortal Jim Mora, “Playoffs? PLAYOFFS!?!”. So any though of purchasing tickets in hope of having first pick for the post season is folly. We’ll all be happy to be a 81-81 team again, and that ain’t getting you to the playoffs.

What’s more, apologies to Boz, but the Lerners aren’t spending any money. They aren’t paying rent! Say what you will about the stadium not being “substantially complete” , Mr. Lerner, but the city delivered a habitable, useable major league stadium, on-time and on budget. We know because we were there. You look petty — AND CHEAP — with this rent withholding nonsense. It’s bad PR, and when I’m sitting here deciding on my renewal, it doesn’t inspire me with confidence in your commitment to improving the team. Stan the Man may have the Plan, but I don’t see anything turning around fast enough to make 2009 much better than 2008. Certainly not playoff worthy, which is the prime incentive to secure a whole season’s worth of tickets to this mess.

Is the schedule worth it? Securing good seats for premium games? Next year, Opening Day and the last game of the season are both on the road. No special games there. Memorial Day — road. July 4 — home. Labor Day — no game. A 3 game home series with Boston might be a draw, but the annoying Bahstan fans factor is pretty damn high. Looking at the 2009 schedule, there isn’t much worth “securing”. No big first game in the new park. No Opening Day. No Closing Day. Can’t really say there’s anything here that I need to have.

And even if there was, the Nats aren’t even close to selling out the stadium. You can walk up and buy a seat anytime you want, and even with no planning, you can probably get better seats than you’ll get in a reasonably priced season package. If the ownership chooses to push the fans away by not even trying, well, I’m finally done rewarding them. I have every confidence that in a year or two I can line back up for season tickets and get as good or better than what I have now. With season ticket purchases dropping each and every year, the trend suggests that taking a year off won’t cost me any ground.

You need me more than I need you, Mr. Lerner. I can buy what I want anytime I want. You need me to commit to a season ticket purchase to help prop up your revenue base. Your corporate sponsorships haven’t appeared, the demand for tickets isn’t there, and you can’t sell those $400 seats. And now the economy is in the tank to boot. You may not have needed me in 2006, but you will in 2009. You’re in it for the cash too, Mr. Lerner, and I’m looking to get value. And what am I getting for my season ticket commitment? From where I sit, not much.

Thus, we’re not renewing. We’ll be at the stadium in 2009. I’m sure of that. But we’ll be there on our terms.

PS – Who am I kidding? They’ll make their money back from us on half smokes, Miller Lights and helmet sundaes. It’s not for nothing that MLB is a six and a half billion dollar business.

Closing Day, or You Can't Lose if You Don't Play

The NTP crew reunited for one last inaugural season bash at Nats Park under a light mist that occasionally swelled to a steady downpour over the course of two and a half hours. Matt, Dave and I were gung-ho for a 10 pm start time and a game played before dozens of soaked fans into the wee hours of Friday morning, but it was not to be.

Instead, half-priced inaugural season merchandise was purchased, ($5 is still too much to pay for a Felipe Lopez t-shirt!), Clint was menaced (Hey, Nationals Fans! Have a crippling beating!), and Curly W helmet sundaes were consumed. Best of all, the Nats didn't lose. Second best of all, no lines for Ben's Chili Bowl. Do I value personal convenience over good weather and a competitive baseball team? Yes, yes I do.

Fan Appreciation Night went on as scheduled, and I'm sure the several hundred fans still hanging around at 9:30 felt extra-appreciated when the players popped out of the dugout into the steady drizzle and, after a few words from Manny Acta began unburdening themselves of dozens of PNC Bank t-shirts that they'd apparently been hording all season. After that BP balls went flying into the crowd assembled behind the home dugout. (I would swear one Tim Redding toss was deposited back into the left field corner for what would have been an easy double, but my mind may have wandered.) MissChatter got the whole thing on camera, but her devotion cost her a coveted Wil Nieves bat.

The players certainly seemed appreciative, but few really embraced the moment. They should take lessons from Willie Harris, who engaged in a little impromptu showboating as his highlights were replayed in HD glory, and whipped up a fine call-and-response from the thinning crowd before skimming his cap deep into the lower bowl. With that one gesture, Willie vaulted way up the list of potential free agent Nats I'd like to see back in 2009.

If the night at the stadium was drama-free, the Nats Express trip back to RFK was anything but. Trusting in his internal compass and the infinite mercy of an omnipotent God, our driver saw no need to defog the bus windows, and our ride passed in a hazy blur of streetlights, indistinct road signs and quick-reflexed fellow motorists. Damp and unnerved but unbowed, thus ended NTP's inaugural season at Nationals Park.

The home season may be over, but Nats Triple Play rolls on. Stay tuned for some scintillating insights on economic development in the ballpark district, and news on why NTP will be severing its ties to Section 223 for the 2009 season.

Olympic Daze

I've come out of my Olympic Daze.

It was fantastic. It's fun to watch a team win, and team USA did that for us in spades. Swimming, gymnastics, track and field, beach volleyball, and water polo all are sports I don't give a damn about normally, and I became obsessed. Hell, I'm thinking about buying tickets to go to London in 4 years. There won't be baseball in the Olympics, but who cares!

And I resurface, and besides figuring out what Nate and Watson are doing, I decide to check on the Nats. I had some vague concept of them doing badly, as it seemed like I got a lot of text messages from the team that they lost. I don't remember many wins in there, but I wasn't really looking.

I totalled it up.

The team went 2-14 during the Olympics.

2 wins. 14 losses.

Holy crap.

What the hell happened? I mean, we're bad, I know that, but 2 wins? 14 losses? One game we lost zero to 12!!

Are we even trying?

I'm understanding of the Plan, but does the plan mean we don't field a team? We're not looking to win the World Series, but hell, can we play the game? What if we call up all triple-A guys? Or is that what we've done?

I'm going to the game on Thursday. Somebody brief me.

This seems kinda epic. Just not in the same way the Olympics were.

NTP Takes On: The House That Ruth Built

Seeking a temporary escape from crappy baseball, the NTP crew, significant others and assorted hangers-on in tow, headed north this weekend for the Saturday afternoon Yanks-Reds game at historic Yankee Stadium. The official cover story was the 30th birthday of an NTP acquaintence. The truth, of course, is that we were scouting ex-Nats farmhand Daryl Thompson's MLB debut.

Nate: One of the worst kept secrets in baseball is that the "cathedrals of the game", historic old parks like Fenway, Wrigley and Yankee Stadium, tend to be, when you get right down to it, decrepit sh*tholes. It only stands to reason. 50,000-odd people tromping through 80 or so times a year for 70 or 80 years, things are going to get worn down.

Dave: Yankee Stadium is a dump. I understood the appeal at Fenway. It's charming. Another dump, but it has charm. Yankee Stadium had none of that for me -- historic, yes. Charm, not so much. Our seats were upper deck, and in the shade. Good view, and the company of friends on a beautiful day really goes a long way. I was quite surprised at the scoreboards being as small as they were. With as much money as New York has, I was expecting more ad revenue opportunities to have been taken.

Oh, and when the water stopped working... yeah, that really impressed me. When the toilets don't flush, you have a winner.

Matt: After hiking up the Matterhorn to get to our seats I realized how lucky we were to have RFK. Yes RFK was old but the place wasn't a claustrophobic maze of blue concrete. The concourses at Yankee Stadium are ridiculously narrow. Cram 50,000 people in for game day and it's a little tight. That and the nosebleed seats are so far away you need binoculars to figure out who's pitching. I spent ten minutes trying to figure out if number 33 or number 38 was pitching for the Yankees. I never did figure it out. The sight lines for our seats were good, but wow, we were far away. As a sports fan I understand the nostalgia you can attach to a building where so many great moments happened but I think a new Yankee Stadium is way past due. The only real bright spots were Bob Sheppard, the long tenured PA announcer and the fact that the Reds came through with the win. I'm glad we went but I have no desire to go back.

Dave: Now, I will give it up for the travel. To get to the stadium, we took the Yankee Clipper from Hoboken up to the Bronx. The water tour of the city, combined with the beers available on the boat meant I was three beers deep by the time we got to the stadium on a beautiful day. This would be a rocking good time if you could leave from National Harbor or Alexandria and get up to Nationals Park. Travel back was just as pleasant, and as my wife will attest, you can keep drinking even on the way back. Only a quick break for innings eight and nine from the beer!

Nate: The Nationals Park water taxi franchise should have been ready to go from Day One. The Yankee Clipper was a 90 minute cruise with multiple stops and there's no reason an Alexandria-National Harbor-Anacostia Waterfront loop couldn't be done in an hour or less. It's definitely another item for the Nationals Park "Room to Improve" punchlist.

Speaking of stadiums, if the exterior is any indication, New Yankee Stadium is going to restore Bronx baseball to its rightful status. The architecture remains iconic and I don't doubt that the Steinbrenners spared no expense on the fit and finish. The Evil Empire has slumped a bit in recent years, but it looks like they'll have a facility worthy of their history by this time next season.

Dave: The new park looks like a Roman Coliseum. Impressive and daunting as hell. I'm inclined to bet that you don't get the views of the city you do at Nationals Park, but then again, you're in the Bronx. Nothing quite the same to look at. Now, I will say, they sold the place out. They have 50,000+ fans on a regular basis. And their fans are very into the game. Clapping, paying attention. You see why they're passionate about their team. They're involved. That's impressive, and it's not something to turn your nose at.

Matt: In any case, the New York fans are in for a real treat next year. They get to abandon their dingy, no plumbing, hellhole of a stadium for a brand-spanking new monument to the MLB luxury tax. The real question will be if the new stadium provides a grace period from the fans demands for a championship because I don't see that team getting better anytime soon.

Nate: Oh, and in spite of Daryl Thompson winning his MLB debut, you still do that Kearns/Lopez/Wagner trade 100 times out of 100.

A Saturday night in Charm City

So this is late and slightly less timely, but it's not like we have people beating down our doors telling us to get off our asses and write. You can file your complaint with our complaints department, located conveniently in Nate's office.

My wife and I spent Saturday night up at Camden Yards to catch the O's/Red Sox game. This was lucky happenstance that we had the tickets to the game. A friend of Sharon's had landed a block, and I discovered I had tickets to a Sox game.

I had two big reactions to the game, which was very exciting and I was much more into that I thought I would be. I texted both Nate and Watson that I was cheering on the O's that night. Mostly because...

Red Sox fans may officially be more annoying that Phillies fans. There are plenty of articles about annoying Boston fans (that second one is a personal favorite).

I really felt for Orioles fans on Saturday night. Sitting there in my curly W cap, surrounded by a sea of annoying Red, that Boston humility really is gone. When a Boston fan yelled out "How many World Series does Baltimore have?", I saw the humility disappear in a cloud of smoke. Let's quickly do the math, shall we? Since 1954 when the Orioles came to Charm City, they have three World Series wins. Since 1954, Boston has.... two. Ah, your mighty dynasty. And to add a little salt to your wound, your hated New York Yankees? 10 World Series since the O's came to Bal'more, hon.

(Yes, so I've answered it crazy Boston Fans... How many to the Nats have? We have zero in that time frame. Considering we didn't have a team from 1972 until 2005, excuse me if I don't give a cr@p about that comparison.)

This added to with several moments that told me these were annoying, fair weather fans of baseball. Now, Nate and Watson will quickly say I'm the last person who should call someone else not paying close enough attention to the game, as I'm easily distracted by shiny things, beer and ice cream at the ballpark, so when I'm annoyed, it must be bad. Even my wife, for whom radio broadcasts of baseball assure her of a good nap, was annoyed.

Every damn pop fly -- EVERY FLY BALL BY EVERY BOSTON PLAYER -- was a cheer like it was a home run. It's one thing to be on your feet for Manny -- I was too, as that was genuinely exciting -- but to cheer a simple infield fly like it's a dinger... you're not engaged. Even I don't pull that crap.

To top that, they stopped and stood in the damn aisles! I'm sorry, your "Big Popi" T-Shirt does not make a very good viewing angle when I'm trying to watch the game! I didn't even have any skin in the game, and I was paying attention.

Sharon and I have also decided that Nationals Park kicks the $hit out of Camden Yards. Yes, Nationals Park has the benefit of being new, but it has made an impression, and some of the items that bothered me the Orioles could fix.

First off, Nationals Park's sight-lines are truly amazing. It sank in for me when I went to get a beer in the 3rd and suddenly couldn't see the game... at all (except for TV). The decision to put the vendors on the outside was genius, and while not a first, it clearly makes Nationals Park a better place to watch baseball than the Yard. Add to that the fact that the seats are angled correctly at Nationals Park -- my head on view of the outfield and scoreboard allowed me to watch Manny fumble two catches but not to easily watch the pitch, particularly through the giant ass of a Boston fan standing in the aisle.

Leaving the bowl left me feeling completely disconnected to the game, and I realized this had shifted for me since Nationals Park. RFK long had this problem, as the moment you left the bowl you were in the dingy concourse, and so the airy outside of Camden was a blessing. With our new park, I never feel this way, as when I wander around the concourse for another beer or a Five Guys burger, I just turn and see the game. I love it, and it's connected me to the field in a new way.

Sharon wanted me to mention the food, as that's even more a priority for her. Our O's seats were up in section 370, putting us in the upper deck of Orioles Park, which is a wasteland for food. I checked, at National Park put premium vendors up there, including Foggy Bottom Diner and a Micro Brew stand, "Base Line Brews". No such luxury is in the upper deck, as Sharon will attest to on her quests for the $1 cheaper beer. (She's always willing to walk down five more stands to find the one that serves beer for $1 cheaper. When we first toured Nationals Park, I made note of these stands for her so as to ease the pain of her quest for beer.) O's, you could fix this one.

Before Watson calls me out for being venomous and just hating, I had a really good time and was into the game. Boog's BBQ is delicious, the ushers in Baltimore were great at working to shoo people out of the way and make sure everyone was having a good time, and the Orioles played some good baseball, despite the loss. I had a great time and am glad I went. Manny's 500th dinger was something to see, and kudos to him for it. Some Orioles fans behind us were just being bad sports as they claimed "Oh, is something important happening?" when everyone stood for Manny. It's something to see. I felt the same way when Bonds hit his record breaker against the Nats, and that's a more controversial moment. Sure, you don't want it to be against your team, but that doesn't take away from the historical significance of it, and I cheered for him. The guy hit 500 dingers. That's 500 more than I've hit in the majors.

I've just come to the conclusion that for all the hype about Camden Yards... Washington out did it. Nationals Park is really something.

And Beantown fans... god I'm glad we only play you here in Washington every three years. You're horribly annoying. Phillies fans may be assholes, but you're another dimension of annoying.

Go West, Young Team

Random thoughts in advance of late night, left coast baseball.

These are the Times that Try Mens' Souls

There's a difference between a bad baseball team and a baseball team performing badly. The 2007 Washington Nationals were a bad baseball team. The late-2005 Washington Nationals were a baseball team performing badly. The problem with the 2008 squad is that it's impossible to say for certain that they are in one camp or the other. Based on recent results, you'd have to say "bad team", right? But these are the same guys who have taken series from the Cubs, Mets, Phillies and pretty much every team not named after fish, and earned a split with the talented if underperforming Brew Crew. What to make of that?

Are you not entertained? Are You Not Entertained?!

Isn't this more or less the team we wanted on the field? Flores behind the dish, Felipe at second, Pena-Milledge-Dukes across the outfield? Youth, notwithstanding the ocassional shoulder impingement, is being served up and down the lineup. And the result is team that's counting on DaMeat Hook to leg out a triple. Folks, that's entertainment.

Buy One, Get One at Regular Price

Among the "Special Season Ticket Holder Benefits" trumpeted in a recent email from Nationals.com: a tour of Nationals Park, at the regularly scheduled time, for the regular price! Act now, before the hoi polloi snap up this not particularly special, not remotely limited, offer.

Faith is the Evidence of Things Unseen

Like Ryan Langerhans's ability to handle a major league breaking pitch. Nonetheless, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of central Ohio, Langerhascendentalism has returned to Washington, DC. That's right, where's your God now, Loganites?

Deep Thoughts

What if Cristian Guzman is the best free agent shortstop on the market next season? You can bet he'll get more, at age 30, than $4M per year.

MASN continues to disappoint

So, at the risk of annoying our sponsors, I'm really horribly disappointed in MASN this weekend.

I had every intention at the beginning of the season of making it up to Oriole Park for one of the games Nats V. O's. But, schedules conflicted, and my wife and I decided to roast swine this weekend, and thus I spent Friday night over a cooker smoking a 105 pound pig to eat on Saturday. I anticipated shoveling out said cooker on Sunday, and thus no driving to Baltimore for me. But, two opportunities to watch the Nats on TV. (Saturday was spent drinking and eating and not watching baseball).

Now, I'm normally reasonably happy with MASN's coverage. I admit to liking the radio broadcasters a lot better than the TV ones, but I don't have any particular bone to pick with our TV crew. Nats Xtra Post Game is a bit weak, but the actual game coverage is acceptable.

But the braintrust at MASN decided it would be far more fun to combine broadcasts and do one combined broadcast, putting everyone together in the booth... sorta. Only three at a time, in some weird rotation system.

Now, I've been listening to Jim Palmer for years, so he's a capable announcer. I don't have any bone to pick with the talent. But this format sucked!

First, this is a RIVALRY. A budding one, yes, but a rivalry all the same. I don't want to hear our announcers hanging out and saying nice things about the Orioles. I just don't. I want to beat the Orioles, not compliment them. Try and imagine this happening in New York, and you get the picture.

Second, when you have announcers in this format, you end up at times with two Orioles announcers and one Nationals announcer. Again, this sucks. The coverage becomes Orioles slanted, and I don't WANT TO HEAR THAT. I want to hear analysis from the perspective of the Nationals, not from the perspective of the Orioles.

Third, MASN itself ends up mostly orange. All the in-game "games" and drawings and graphics became Orioles slanted. Again, I don't want to see a "MVP vote" between two Orioles and a National. I don't want to hear that "we'll give away cheap crap every time an Oriole hits a homer". I want to listen to the hometown broadcasters, and I want to have a little "Rah-Rah-Nationals", not a million commercials for "This is Birdland".

SCREW Birdland. I swore off Peter Angelos years ago when he told us all there were no baseball fans in Washington, and thus I want my Washington coverage to be about the WASHINGTON TEAM.

MASN -- get a clue. You're constantly accused of slanting to the Orioles, and if you want to build a Washington brand, you don't do it by having our announcers hang out with the guys in Baltimore. They're nice guys, but they are the opponents. Let's all remember that. We can shake hands at the end of the weekend, but when we're actually playing the game, we're supposed to be competitors. Can we all please just get along... without having to sit together and hug?

I love me some bobblehead action

Watson posted on our freezing our tails off on Tuesday. It was a ton of fun, and our love of the new stadium has not diminished at all.

I'm off to the stadium tonight, with other, non-NTP fans (Watson has other "obligations" this evening, and Nate is difficult to get on a weeknight these days).

Look for me wearing my red fleece. For a summer sport, I have yet to see a warm game. I love the location, but that water breeze is damn cold.

Notes from 223

Dave, Sharon, our friend Borders and I caught last night's game. Despite being windy and cold we had a great time. I'm happy to report that the $3.50 hot chocolate is worth every penny. Also the kielbasa from Senators Sausages was very good. I recommend it with mustard and sauerkraut.

Food and drink aside, the highlight of the game was the back-to-back homeruns by Zimmerman and Johnson. Hopefully last night's 3-4 performance will help get Zimm on track. Dave and I have had an ongoing discussion about whether or not our new home is a hitter's park and right now I'm winning. The statistics will probably prove that it's marginally a hitter friendly park but it's certainly a huge change from the canyons of RFK.

So far this has been a great homestand. The team has won 4 of their last five games and 10-17 sounds an awful lot better than 6-21.

Attendance woes? No. Marketing Woes.

Yet again, attendance is the top of the discussion again.

WaPost has a blog article and full up article about the topic.

Here we go again.

I see a whole lot of bullshit in this spin. Lots of posters in the blog article too about all the various reasons why. I'm not going to bemoan the cheap owners, the weather, or the team itself for attendance.

You know what I'm going to point to as the number one, more important thing than everything else?

Marketing.

This team has the worst marketing I have seen in a while. I spend a good portion of my days thinking about marketing, and do you how crappy this marketing is?

First, let's break down the message. "Welcome Home" is the theme. Right from the beginning, I'll point out the massive flaw. This message speaks to existing fans, not to new fans. You've already got those of us who are fans hooked. We don't need to be welcomed home -- we were going to be there already, with big goofy grins on our faces.

Instead, this message needs to go out to NEW fans, and it needs to be something much more appealing than this. The team needs to speak to the experience, the enjoyment of the game you can have. Some of the (few) radio ads I have heard do go into this, but focus too much on the ballpark and not the game experience.

Now, let's talk coverage. There should be a billboard on every bus. This team should plaster the logo everywhere it can. There should be promotions in the city, ticket offers, and events with every sports bar and restaurant from here to Leesburg. The team needs to be screaming from the top of their lungs that they have a great product, they've gone all out on making it easy to get to, and that they want you there. And I'll give them that -- it's a great ball park, they have gone out of their way to make it easy to get to, and they have quality entertainment going on there.

And let me say, running ads on MASN DOES NOT COUNT. You're already interested if you're watching the game -- you're certainly not watching for the stellar coverage.

I'm not particularly pleased about the ticket prices either, but they're comparable to every other city, and those cities don't have issues. Washington does face unique problems with drawing a fan base, and I'll grant those.

Time to get inventive here, team. You don't have to spend tons of money, but you do have to hussle.

- Promos. Give us our two for one tickets, give us "be a presidential seat for a night". Put butts in seats.

- Encourage your fan base. Appeal directly to the existing fans. Have a "We won't show Clint if you break 32,000 attendance" night. Have a bring a buddy and get a hot dog night.

- Do something interesting. In this "Web 2.0" world, why is everything about marketing this team so damn dull? Why is the marketing department running boring TV ads on the channel that already shows the game and doing slogans that don't appeal to anyone, when it would be so much more interesting -- and buzz worthy -- to have one of the team members Twitter? Hell, do it for them! You want buzz? Send us comments from the clubhouse for them -- put a marketing person on it to do it for the players!

- Stop being so damn scripted. Stan, Mark... I do like you guys. I do believe in you. But you know what's a hell of a lot more interesting? When Jim Bowden was wearing leather pants. Or even better? When Mark Cuban gets vocal. Here's a guy that gets the value of marketing. If you don't think his connection to fans is valuable, you're clearly missing something. The fact that we have a "StanSpeak" translator should tell you something. And you want to know what? If you played with this... if you ran with it.. you'd generate buzz.

- Interesting, revisited. Remember that night when you had Curly W's projected on buildings? Why aren't you doing that all the time? Why don't they move around the city? Put them up in Adam's Morgan the weekend before a home stretch and promote going to the game instead of going out. Put them in Tyson's Corner (remember, Lerner Family, you own that!) and light up the mall on a Friday night and remind people to go into the city. Partner with restaurants in the suburbs and do a dinner and bus promotion, or a dinner and drinks one.

Why is it that in a 45 minute blog post, I've come up with better stuff than what you've come up with in the whole time you've been doing this?

You know what's probably the worst thing? I bet the team spent a sizable amount of money with an ad agency to do this shitty job of marketing the team. That's the worst part. I'm SURE they spent money here, and didn't get very much for it.

Stan, if you're reading this... these ideas are all yours for free. There's more where this came from. Now, imagine if you paid someone to do a really unique job for you. Now that would really be something to talk about... and go to the ballpark to see.