Great night at the Park and it had nothing to do with the game, though that certainly didn't hurt. We have some friends in the San Diego area who got married Sunday in a simple ceremony on a beach there. Instead of having family and friends fly out there, they're going around the country and doing five "events" - first one was last night at Nats Park. They'll do more baseball on Thursday in Atlanta (Jacob is from that area). It was great to see them and some other old friends who joined us and great to be a part of their neat idea. I would not have been able to make San Diego.
It was also fun to show off Nationals Park, but I'd be remiss if I didn't point out how disappointed I was that almost all the upper concourse concession stands were closed. What the hey? Good thing we found something we wanted at Ben's Chili Bowl. My hankering for a slice of that cardboard pizza went unfulfilled.
Turned in my season ticket vouchers, too, and was surprised they still had some decent selection. No more bobbleheads but I added to the growing stack of t-shirts.
But how 'bout that game, huh? Hands up if you were convinced Ryan Howard was going to park one over by Five Guys. Mine's in the air. I just knew it. I couldn't breathe for about an hour after it finished.
Seems the team CAN win if Desmond plays. That air-mailed throw aside, I saw enough that I hope they let him play it out. It isn't just that he managed a home run and a double. He looked comfortable at the plate, not scared. One game does not allow for an accurate impression but it is certainly a positive first step. Let's see more, please. Lots more.
Four more for Dunn. Seeing him get No 36 might have been the highlight of my night. I really want that streak of 40 to continue. Sure, as I noted in yesterday's comments section, I'd take the year he's had every single year. Great average, lots of power. Edge of your seat when he comes up because you never know when it is going to fly out of there. But that streak is significant and he's capable of extending it to 10 years. Four more. Please. Am I wrong to want him extended?
Some caller on the postgame show brought up Sevgoia or whatever his name is and said "I never want to see him again." Wasn't me, I swear. The Desmond error doesn't help. Maybe he gets out of it. He sure didn't look good but I'd give him a shot in another 8-2 game.
All in all, a great night, even without pizza. I dropped some of the others off at The Ugly Mug after the game and I wish I could have stayed for a while. Alas, my old self had 125 miles of driving ahead and an early start today and another road trip tomorrow. Had to get on home.
6 comments:
I was at Saturday and Sunday games. Got my Frank Howard bobble head on Sat. The closed stands are, unfortunetly, part of end of 100+ loss, 18,000 per game season. Navy Yard Metro now only runs 1 escalator up from train platform to Mezzaine (as opposed to 2 earlier in season) and 1 (as opposed to all 3) from Mezz. to Street at before games. All due to end of bad season declining attendance. At least, the win gave the obnoxous (so they seemed on TV) Philly Fans something to suck on as they wound their way home.
Seems the team CAN win if Desmond plays.
Desmond's situation now seems similar to Zimmerman's in September 2005. Vinny Castilla was the entrenched veteran then, and the team was still in the hunt for the wild card. Looking back at the game logs from that month, Frank started Castilla and gave Zimm only an aoccasional spot start (one or two of them at SS) plus fairly regular pinch hit ABs until Sept 24th, when all of a sudden Zimmerman began to start every day and Castilla disappeared from the box score for the rest of the year. What happened then, did Castilla get hurt or did Frank just decide to throw in the towel? I forget. Of course, by the next March Castilla was long gone and Zim was the man.
Guzman conveniently has the bunion problem, so maybe he or Riggleman can decide that it's flaring up and he needs to rest a bit, allowing Desmond to play at least as much as Zimm did in 2005. I predict this will happen, if for no other reason than that getting a handle on Desmond will make Rizzo's offseason job of deciding what to do about Guzman for next year a lot easier. Unlike Castilla in 2005, Guzman's not going to just go away and make the decision for him.
ABM - interesting point. I lost count of how many times my wife and I made Sept. 2005 trips to see Zimmerman and always got Cash Stealer instead.
I do see where Nats.com reports the brass has asked Guzman to move to second and he was "shocked."
Be an interesting saga to watch in the offseason, that's for sure. Of course, if last night was Desmond's career highlight reel, maybe not.
We had Philly fans in our section last night but they were actually pretty cool. One told me afterward the Nats were "getting there." Yeah, by the time they do, everyone else will be somewhere else!
37 for AD.
2 HR in 2 days.
Now Dunn has 3 to go in 21 games? Doable.
Yeah, I take full credit for sparking this hot streak! Love to see him get one more in Florida.
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