The Clark Griffith Monument

In 1956 a monument was dedicated to Clark Griffith outside old Griffith Stadium just months after the former owner of the team and stadium died.  His passing was marked by every major newspaper, his funeral attended by every official of the game.  He was recognized as a giant of the game whose place in Cooperstown [...]

Are We There Yet, Davey?

As if in answer to Jim Riggleman, the Nationals gave Davey Johnson a contract that keeps him with the organization through 2013. He manages out 2011 and is in charge of finding a permanent manager. Yet that resolution to the immediate crisis leaves so many things still un-resolved. Who will manage in 2012? Will Davey [...]

How to Spell Quitter in One Easy Lesson

Today Nationals fans are caught up with the news of Jim Riggleman’s departure and the backwash therefrom.  Tom Boswell’s column in the morning paper provides some insights, but the headline, “Riggleman Proves He Wasn’t the Man,” says it all. Riggleman was not a particularly good manager.  He had his good qualities: his straight-shooter, old school [...]

Wilderness Days Yield to Surge

Six years ago to the day, the Washington Nationals sat atop the National League East with a three game lead over the Braves. They would remain in first place in the summer of 2005 until July 26th. Since the end of July 2005, the Nationals have been lost in the wilderness, searching for team defense, [...]

Touring the Bases With Mike Devereaux

In the run up to the 2011 first-year amateur draft, Mike Devereaux was called the best baseball talent to come out of Wyoming until Brandon Nimmo was taken 13th overall by the Mets. It’s a tough call. After all, Mike played in the same outfield at Arizona State with Barry Bonds and Oddibe McDowell. However, [...]

Anthony Rendon in Washington? Who Knew?

Early in the day there had to have been excitement about the prospect that Bubba Starling would fall to the Nationals with the sixth pick in the amateur draft. Finding a center fielder has been a vexing problem for the team and Starling playing alongside Bryce Harper was a vision of joy for the DC [...]

The “Mental” Game

Baseball, more than most other sport, is impacted by the player’s internal mental landscape. Players make it to the majors because their confidence in their own abilities is unshakable and flourishes even in the most high pressure environments. But there are some teams where bad karma chews nails for breakfast, where the most confident players [...]

Washington Posting

Brad Peacock continued his rise from obscure origins on Saturday afternoon–he was a 41st round draft choice in 2006–as he struck out ten over six innings, winning his sixth game. Peacock posted 14 Ks in his prior start and those eye-popping numbers have brought the Nationals 23-year old right hander a little extra attention. He [...]

The Catch of the Young Season

Several years ago I went up to Harrisburg to interview Justin Maxwell, the promising young outfielder of the Harrisburg Senators at the time. He was a warm and sincere young man and I spoke to John Stearns about the Maryland native and came away impressed. Yet truthfully it was another player who caught my eye [...]

Brad Peacock, Selig Man with Upside Heart

Brad Peacock was taken in the 41st round of the 2006 draft as a “draft and follow” pick by the Washington Nationals. For Washington the 2006 draft was a disaster. Conducted when the team was still under management by Bud Selig and MLB, Inc., it might serve as a tutorial on all of the things [...]

Touring the Bases With Barbara Gregorich

Barbara Gregorich is one of the best authorities on women in baseball and her book Women at Play is testament to that knowledge.  Barbara has recently published a portion of her original research notes for Women at Play. This interview talks about her books and her experiences in baseball.  The full, in-depth interview will appear [...]

The 2011 June Amateur Draft, A Last Hurrah

This year’s Rule 4 Amateur Draft will be held on June 6-8. College and high school players are feeling its heat in the final weeks of their season. But the paydays awaiting them will make it worth the sweat a little longer. This year’s well-publicized affair will be the last in the 46-year history of [...]

Let’s Play Two

The Sunday doubleheader was a staple of baseball in the Golden Era of the game, you know, when the World Series was played in the first half of October and kids listened to Don Larsen’s perfect game on the radio in Ms. Hill’s sixth grade class.  The Nationals and Brewers played a Sunday doubleheader today. [...]

Motivational Speakers

Not only was the Philadelphia radio station giving away tickets to the Nationals game last week, but the seats were in the first row, right field bleachers closest to Jayson Werth.  And Werth got an earful from the Philly faithful. Every time he touched the ball it set them off. Suze Orman couldn’t have provided [...]

The Harrisburg Senators and Terry Byrom

Harrisburg, PA is home to the Double-A Eastern League Senators and Terry Byrom.  The Senators are one of the oldest franchises in the Eastern League dating to 1924. Byrom is the broadcaster and Director of Media Relations for the Senators with an impressive history, but a more recent one. I had the pleasure of previewing the season with [...]

Centerfield in Washington Is Ankiel’s Now

When Rick Ankiel laid down the perfect squeeze bunt in the seventh inning yesterday all the thoughts of the Nationals nagging center field question disappeared like Brad Wilkerson going back into the dugout after waving to the crowd upon hitting for the cycle early in the 2005 season.  Nyjer who?  And what was that other [...]

DC Opening Day Always a Historic Moment

Opening Day in Washington today was notable for the absence of two persons, the first being President Obama.  Starting with President Taft more than a hundred years ago in 1910, they have been there. Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon–so many have been there throwing out the first pitch in Washington, DC and the renewal of that [...]

Turning the Corner in DC

The future for the Washington Nationals is about to arrive.  The major league team looks vastly improved from the ones that finished dead last among the 30 teams two years in a row.  But Baseball America’s new rankings put the Washington development pipeline at number 13 among MLB organizations.  That climb from the bottom may [...]

Quiet and Steady as She Goes

The Nationals traded Nyjer Morgan for Cutter Dykstra and during the wee hours. The move was no surprise to anyone, but some had opined that the Nationals would take almost anything to get rid of the distractions surrounding Morgan. Dystra is not “almost anything,” but he knows a little bit about distractions. Anyone who has [...]

Showalter Ups the Ante in the AL East

In a recent interview on the Seamheads Podcast Network’s Outa the Parkway, Tim Donner of Radio America talked about Buck Showalter’s intensity, how he wore out his welcome quickly in the three previous managerial gigs that define his career.  Showalter’s fire and competitiveness are on display once again in an article on ESPN and in [...]

Trying to Focus on the Positives

At his best Nyjer Morgan is a scrappy, prototypical lead off guy.  Diminutive in size, he plays with grit and determination. He hurt himself sliding head-first into second base one too many times a season ago. But in 2010 he committed a multitude of sins, not the greatest of which was running into the Cardinal [...]

On Seeing Elvis in Florida

Bryce Harper’s appearance in right field at Osceola County Stadium Thursday night occasioned a rush of fans to the wall alongside that would have made Elvis blush.  A fan beside me said it, “The king is in the house again.”  The stadium is the Astros’ spring home, but the hero carrying the scarf of the [...]

Ian Desmond, Linchpin to the Future

There was an interesting note in a post recently by Nationals beat writer, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post.  He said that if manager Jim Riggleman could build the Nationals from scratch, he would start that team with one player–shortstop Ian Desmond.  Ryan Zimmerman is widely thought to be Washington’s franchise player, especially with Stephen [...]

Touring the Bases With Peter Bock of the Coastal Plains League

College baseball is set to go off this week.  Wood bat leagues like the Coastal Plain League will be evaluating college talent before their start-up in late May.  Here is a behind-the-scenes look at that league with one of the league founders, Peter Bock. The Coastal Plain League operates in three Atlantic Coast states.  The [...]

Touring the Bases With: Bob Luke, Negro Leagues Author

The first “Outta the Parkway” Podcast on Thursday, February 17 at 7:30 pm will feature Bob Luke, noted author of The Baltimore Elite Giants,  and Dwayne Sims, founder and CEO of the Negro League Legends Hall of Fame.  I had the pleasure of talking to Bob Luke this weekend and he was kind enough to [...]

Pitchers and Catchers and Other Warm Thoughts

Pitchers and catchers report in a month. There will be a few more trades such as Vernon Wells going to Los Angeles, but rosters are pretty well set and it is time to start looking at the results. This early look at the NL East by Mark Zuckerman provides an early chance to disagree with someone, [...]

Jim Riggleman, Still Light on His Feet

Baseball personalities rarely lead lives connected to their home communties, which is what makes Jim Riggleman’s tenure as manager of the Washington Nationals so unique.  This morning Jim was introduced to a breakfast crowd by a local Bethesda, Maryland woman who said “Jimmy” was the first boy to ask her to dance, back when they [...]

Ripeness as a Baseball Concept

With the signing of Adam LaRoche, the Nationals ownership group is making a statement.  The Lerner family who own the Washington franchise are just beginning to introduce themselves, but for those who don’t know, they are real estate Mughuls. They have created an empire valued at somewhere between $3 billion and $4 billion by buying [...]

A Cameo Appearance for Family Values in Sports

Jayson Werth said in his press conference in Washington, DC today that a big part of the deal for him was the stability that a seven-year contract gave him, further guaranteed by a no-trade clause. “You finally get to free agency, you have a chance to do something special for yourself and for your family. [...]

A Big Step Forward

Mike Rizzo announced that the signing of highly prized free agent Jayson Werth was just the beginning of Phase II–competitive baseball for the Washington Nationals. It will hopefully mark the turning of the corner, where the Nationals can compete in the National League East on a daily basis. No one believes that a seven-year contract [...]

“Jews and Baseball, An American Love Story”

“Jews and Baseball, An American Love Story” is a new documentary film written by long-time and Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times sports writer, Ira Berkow, and directed by Peter Miller.  It was featured Sunday night to a packed house at the American Film Institute theater in Silver Spring, MD. It is not just any movie house, [...]

Catch a Falling Star

Lastings Milledge was non-tendered by Pittsburgh yesterday. It is just another benchmark in the descent of a once promising talent that was briefly with the Washington Nationals. Jim Bowden traded Ryan Church and Brian Schneider to the Mets for Lastings Milledge during the off-season before the start of 2008.  The rumblings of his unpopularity in [...]

Maximum Feasible Dunn

And all through the house not a creature was stirring, no baseball news from even a mouse.  Black Friday shoppers are out in force, but baseball has only the near silent whisperings of General Managers waiting to see which players accept arbitration before the Tuesday night deadline. One quiet household could be turned on its [...]

Happy 90th Stan the Man

Malcolm Gladwell in a recent New Yorker article recounted a story about Stan Musial, who late in his career–1959 to be exact–offered to take a twenty percent pay cut after having one of his worst seasons. “Stan the Man” hit only .255 after ten seasons in which he averaged .350 as a batting average.  ”I [...]

Any Fish’ll Bite If You Got Good Bait

The Nationals continue to make notable progress in building their minor league organization.  Rated consistently in the bottom tier since the move from Montreal in 2005, the system is on the rise, but an acid test awaits. GM Mike Rizzo wants to trade for a starting pitcher. The rumor mill has the Nationals looking at [...]

« Previous Page — Next Page »