Acta Out?

Is the curtain coming down on Manny's act? According to Ken Rosenthal, Acta could be axed following this weekend's series at Tampa Bay. The info comes from Ladson-esque "major-league sources" but it's hardly a far-fetched rumor. (As an aside, are "major-league sources" sources in the big leagues or sources who are a really big deal? Is Rahm Emanuel a major-league source? But I digress...)

Robothal's "sources" indicate that the unenviable task of managing the rest of this season in DC will fall to bench coach Jim Riggleman. Riggleman took over as interim manger of the almost equally terrible 2008 Seattle Mariners before coming to DC to backstop (backstab?) Manny. There's no word yet on who will be promoted to bench coach to play MacDuff to Riggleman's MacBeth. Where have you gone, Pat Corrales?

It's my view that canning Manny is unjustified and will be at least unproductive if not actively counter-productive. I've said so repeatedly. But the numbers don't lie. 15-42 does not portend job security. Likewise, Acta's career record of 147-231 is hardly confidence inspiring. If your solution is to replace him with someone with a track record just as bad, over a much larger sample size, well that's where you lose me. Maybe Manny "deserves" to be fired in some sense. But if the goal is to improve the team, shouldn't you shoot for somebody who would be an improvement? And if Riggleman's just a stop-gap, what's the point?

In one sense though, this is a good thing. The lines of authority are as clear as they've ever been on South Capitol Street. If things don't improve there are no more buffers between the President and the people. June 13, 2009 is Inauguration Day for the Kasten Administration.

Introspection

As far as I'm concerned, navel-gazing is the mortal sin of blogging. Having the ego to imagine that anyone else would care what we think about baseball, movies, local politics or footwear is one thing. Expecting anyone else to give a rat's ass what we think about ourselves, though, is a whole other level of self-absorbtion. That said, every once in a while something comes along and makes us take stock of our situation. Chris Needham did what the United States Supreme Court has steadfastly refused to do; he put an end to Capitol Punishment.

Chris was already an established voice in the nascent Nat(m)osphere when NTP was unleashed upon teh unsuspecting interwebs in early July 2005. Our blog was born of the desire to have a place for three idiots to spout off on the amazin', unheralded 2005 Washington Nationals. Of course, not long after, that team dissolved into the 31-50 in the second half Nationals. Totally not our fault though. We kept on going to games, drinking beers and heckling Pat Burrell like it was a paying job. In between, we blogged. Sometimes sporadically, sometimes half-heartedly, but we blogged.

Along the way many other, better Nats bloggers closed up shop. By my count, we've outlasted The Nats Blog, Nasty Nats, Distinguished Senators and the original (and much better) incarnations of Federal Baseball and The Curly W, to name but a few. Life, it seems, is what happens to you while you're blogging, and time is no respector of great baseball fan/writers. Still, I never expected to be writing a post the day after Capitol Punishment shut it down.

We've not been immune to the evolution of the Natmosphere. When a thousand flowers bloom inevitably some of them are going to start looking alike. And when your team (struggles/is rebuilding/just flat sucks) it can be even harder to find a fresh and interesting way to express that sentiment. In contemplating Cap Pun's retirement from the hurly-burly, I'm mostly just thankful that we're still here.

Four years on, despite relocations, job changes and the ebb and flow of daily life in the DC Metro the three of us still find time to go to games, drink beers and heckle Pat Burrell like it's a paying job. And in between, we blog. We are older, but no wiser. No less certain of the theological correctness of GUZMANIA! and still in awe of the curative powers of a $6.50 Miller Lite draft and a half smoke on a late spring evening. We few, we happy few, we band of bloggers.

The Birds are Back in Town

Look, I know what you're thinking. The team (despite recent improved play) is lousy. The weather is iffy at best. The stadium is still a dump, and the opposition is almost as pathetic as the home team. So why should you spend your hard-earned entertainment dollars watching two 5th place teams beat up on each other in a 3-game interleague regional (non-rivalry) series?

But here's a better question: Why watch at all? Did you watch Jay Bergmann's almost no-hitter against John Smoltz and the Braves? Why? You couldn't reasonably have expected the rag-tag Nats to best Atlanta's veteran ace. But they did, and topped that by taking two of the next three from the formerly frontrunning Braves. Did you stay up till the wee hours to see Zimmerman's walk-off granny against the Marlins? Okay, probably not. But if you had, you'd be telling everyone about it, and the resulting series sweep of foundering Fish.

Fans, like players, can get tight. They root too hard, want it too much, live and die with every GIDP and blown save. But fans of bad teams have the luxury of rooting loose. We can go to the ballpark and just watch the game unfold before us in all its majesty and farce. It's not that we expect to lose, exactly, it's just that we've made peace with the possibility. The wins really are more sweet, because they aren't taken for granted. Why not celebrate when we throw a roadblock in front of the division-leading Braves? These are our playoffs. Which brings us to the Orioles.

I said everything I had to say on the subject at this time last year. Others have expanded on the theme. Angelos and the Orioles stuck it to DC baseball fans but good. And more than that, Peter Angelos ruined what had been one of the flagship franchises in all of baseball. I don't know if he did it intentionally, or just couldn't help himself, but he did it just the same. So you don't even have to dislike the Orioles to root against them this weekend. You just have to like the Orioles of Powell, Palmer, Dempsey, Ripken and the Robinson boys more than the Orioles of Angelos, Thrift, Duquette and Flanagan. Really, how hard is that?

And on top of everything else, They Killed Barbaro! So...

Once more unto the breach, Nats fans, once more;

Or close up the wall with our injured pitchers!

And baseball fans in Washington that stayed away;

Shall think themselves accursed they were not at RFK.

And hold their fandom cheap while any speaks;

That cheered with us the Battle of the Beltways.