Baseball
So I went back to the ballpark today and it was a hot one. I came home with a sunburn and a feeling of satisfaction after the Reds worked over one of the finest talents in the game of baseball today.
It was the second time I have seen Strasburg throw live.
Click through the jump to see Strasburg’s bullpen session as well as other photos and commentary.
Started the day off by watching the Nationals take on the Marlins with the Pirates game on the radio. Should have been on my way to Cincinnati for the game but some things fell through. Not a bad way to take in the day with some MLB.tv, though. Here’s some bullet points from this one:
Here’s some running total stats from today’s game, and from my couch:
Home Runs: 2 (Bryce Harper 1, 2)
Strikeouts: 9
Runs: 2
Hits: 7
Errors: zero
Stolen bases: zero
Official time watching baseball: 2 hours, 10 minutes
Times taking the dog out to pee: 2
Chores my wife asked me to do during (unofficial): Zero
STATS during the 2000-Inning Quest:
Home Runs: 3
Bryce Harper home runs: 2
Strikeouts: 29
Runs: 12
Hits: 22
Errors: 1
Stolen bases: zero
Official time watching baseball: Five hours, ten minutes
Times taking the dog out to pee: 4
Chores my wife asked me to do during (unofficial): Zero
Innings left to go: 1,982
Sergeant Gunnery Hartman/Davey Johnson is baseball’s best manager. We only get one more season of him.
Any conversation about baseball’s most-loaded team must begin with their R. Lee Ermey style manager, Davey Johnson. Johnson is baseball’s finest manager, having been perched on dugout top steps since Small Pox was a problem; he’s seen more baseball than any living man has forgotten.
Johnson is a no-nonsense, tough loving, thick skinned son of a gun. He’ll probably live to be 120 years old before crawling off into the woods somewhere and dying alone with his dignity like only the toughest old hombres would do. We actually were lucky enough to obtain footage from the Nationals Spring Training barracks just a few days ago. Let’s take a good look at Johnson addressing his troops during a routine, middle of the night bed check:
If there’s one thing Sergeant Davey hates to find, it’s an unlocked foot locker. How did you like when he went off at Dan Haren there in the video for having a jelly doughnut in his foot locker? In all fairness to the Gunnery Sergeant Davey and Haren; this came after Haren’s most recent troubling spring start.
Biggest Off-Season Moves:
The Nationals had an already absolutely loaded roster, even down into their minor leagues before any of these moves were made. Things seemed to line up perfectly for them to add three key veterans in spots that could afford some touching up with the perfect addition.
I have loved everything that this team has done in building it’s organization since General Manager Mike Rizzo took over. Now they’re in a position to really reap the benefits over the next five to seven years. They’ll have a chance to win a World Series every year in that window unless something goes wildly wrong. They’re also in position to trade a highly valued prospect in the farm system; of which there are many, should they need to acquire another Major League ready player to help them in their current run. Times are good right now for the Washington Nationals, and that is putting it lightly.
The last three 19-year-old visitors to homer at Fenway Park: Robin Yount, Al Kaline and Mickey Mantle. The fourth was Bryce Harper.
Strasburg and Harper were on display in Boston yesterday, helping the Nationals lock down a 7-4 victory.
WaPo’s Adam Kilgore summed it up well:
BOSTON — A century’s worth of players have passed through Fenway Park, where history seeps through the emerald walls. Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper graced the cathedral for the first time on Friday night, and they did not dissolve into its annals. They made them richer, more complete: The old yard can say it bore witness to Strasburg and Harper at their unbridled beginning, the moment in time when the Washington Nationals became something fresh and different.
Two of the most arresting players in baseball spearheaded the Nationals’ assault on the Boston Red Sox in a 7-4 victory. Harper, the 19-year-old without an off switch, went 3 for 5 with a double, three RBI and a 420-foot, two-run home run. Strasburg, pitching on the two-year anniversary of his masterful debut, threw his first 100-mph fastball of the season, struck out 13 over six innings of four-hit ball and escaped a bases-loaded jam by throwing a 3-2 fastball with his 119th and final pitch.
And now for the footage of this majestic blast:
I didn’t spend a ton of time this weekend watching baseball. I played 36 holes of golf. I watched several ESPN 30 for 30′s–since my wife was nice enough to let me spend our Best Buy gift card on a set of them. Here’s some stuff I took from the weekend before Memorial Day, when the cement is officially declared ‘hardened’ and we know what we have seen in the instances of teams, players, and organizations is for the most part; what is for the given current season.
Alright, everybody have a good Monday. There’s a few more hours and then this day is behind us with a great night of baseball on tap.
Last night was another one of those nights. Another Bryce Harper rope off the wall. Another Nationals home victory.
Right now the Washington Nationals represent everything that is energy-infusing and exciting in the game of baseball. Everyone is quick to talk about Harper or Stephen Strasburg, myself included. But I think one of the coolest aspects of this roster is who it’s being led by; their R. Lee Ermey style manager Davey Johnson (tell me he doesn’t look like Gunnery Sergeant Hartman down in the dugout some nights).
This is the tough son of a bitch who won 108 games and a ring with those 1986 Mets. Spry enough to fight (and drink with) a few of those hazy-eyed Metropolitans back then, he’s back from the dead for one more run at the Holy Grail. And therein lies one aspect that I love so much about baseball–Johnson managed Darryl Strawberry and Doc Gooden–and now he’s overseeing the precious roost of prospects that the Nationals have compiled. Two completely different eras with eras in between, and Davey Johnson probably still has the same wad of Beech-nut tobacco in his cheek from that summer in ’86.
Just above the Parris Island drill instructor who moonlights as the club’s manager is general manager Mike Rizzo. He’s part rich uncle, part wise guy. He’s just the kind of Italian your mother always warned you about. He’s also the architect of the roster that has collected the best young kitty of talent in the big leagues. He has the players’ backs. And he’ll forever be a hero because he is the guy who brought Strasburg and Harper to the nation’s capital.
The Roster doesn’t end with the big two. How did we all miss this much young forged talent before the season started? No one should be surprised at the club’s 23-14 record (best in the NL East) when you look at the wonderful mix of veteran and young-stud that litters the roster up and down the organization.
I know Wilson Ramos got hurt this past week and will miss the entire season. But even after Ramos, Harper, and Strasburg, the cabinet features a collection nice young names like Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmerman, Drew Storen, Henry Rodriguez, Ian Desmond, and soon to be ‘next one’ Anthony Rendon. I even still think there’s hope for Danny Espinosa. The Nationals are primed to make this their league over the next few seasons. Rostering veterans like Ryan Zimmerman, Rick Ankiel, Mike Morse, Tyler Clippard, Brad Lidge and Adam LaRoche adds a really nice mix as well.
They play the game the way it should be played. Reflective of their manager’s temperament, they grind out ugly win after ugly win with pitching, defense, and timely big hits in crucial spots. Dominant at home while taking every other game on the road. That’s how a winner is built.
There’s a lot of directions we could go from here. President’s races at the park. The best two young players in the game today. Based in a great city. The Nationals are young. They’re exciting. Finally a fresh face in the National League East. They’re about to begin a decade of dominance a few years before anyone ever predicted–which is how every true great run starts to begin with.
But we digress by going back to the girl who brought us to the dance.
Their manager is a hardened old baseball man who would in any era and these guys are simply playing their ass off for him. In sports nowadays, you just don’t see ballplayers motivated in such a way anymore. This is like Jack McKeon’s last run; if you packed McKeon’s cigars full of cow chips. Davey Johnson is coming downstairs, and he’s pissed off folks. He might be 85, but he’s still here to kick your ass and drink your Johnny Walker.
And back to Harper: isn’t he the type of kid you could see taking a curtain call after ever home run? I hope he decides to do it. In fact, I hope the Nationals never lose again.
[WaPo] [Big League Stew] [DC Sports Blog] [Dodgers Now]
I’m happy with what I saw of Bryce Harper’s big league debut. The only at-bat I missed last night was his first MLB hit, a rocket double off the base of the wall that would have been out of most parks. But I saw all I needed to see.
The hustle, the look, the grey bat. The incredible bat speed. The rifleman throw from left field that had a runner nailed at home plate if Wilson Ramos would have just hung onto the ball.
I hope this is the first of many memorable games from Harper and I hope he’s up for good. Last night was a memorable atmosphere as a baseball fan with Strasburg on the bump, Matt Kemp slugging one deep into the night, Vin Scully calling the game on my television. It will always serve as the perfect memory for the youngster’s debut.
Did anyone else miss Jerry Hairston comparing Bryce Harper to Larry Walker/Jay Bruce? Hairston was on the field the night that Bruce made his MLB debut. Pretty neat to read that coming from a player’s perspective.
Leading up to the start of the 2011 Regular Season, Diamond Hoggers will preview each of MLB’s 30 teams . Today’s preview features the Washington Nationals. Stay tuned as Diamond Hoggers previews every team division by division until the start of the regular season. [Read more...]
Now time for a post about a ballplayer that isn’t hideous. But the act of what he’s trying to accomplish; at least in our experience, is very hideous.
Stephen Strasburg is attempting to kick his smokeless tobacco habit. This comes after hearing about the bout of gland cancer that Tony Gwynn is going through (with chewing tobacco being tabbed as the unofficial cause).
“I’m still in the process of quitting,” Strasburg, 22, said. “I’ve made a lot of strides, stopped being so compulsive with it. I’m hoping I’m going to be clean for spring training. It’s going to be hard, because it’s something that’s embedded in the game.”
If by ‘compulsive with it’–he means after a meal, while driving anywhere over 15 minutes, while on a baseball field, while playing video games, while watching sporting events, while on a golf course, at his desk at work, while in a movie theater, after drinking caffeine or coffee, first thing in the morning, before he brushes his teeth at night–then we know what he means.
Hey, we applaud Stras in his efforts here. As someone who has tried to quit several times–we know what a bear this can be. But is a year on the sidelines without even playing really the time to try and quit? You know, with all that extra free time on your hands and all? Okay, now we sound like addicts don’t we?
Good luck in your efforts in trying to leave Dipville forever Stras. You’ll probably be successful, so long as you aren’t hanging around Dunner too much.
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