Coming to you from Nationals (this space for rent) Park in Washington, DC, it's the Atlanta Braves facing the Washington Nationals. Tim Hudson will be twirling for the men from Georgia, while happy go lucky Odalis Perez will be flinging it for the Nats.
But first MLB decides to have its first games played in Japan. And now the next Opening Day game is played in a place that ISN'T EVEN A STATE! Oh Bud Selig, you've sold out baseball's historic past. You keep heaping indignities upon the good people of Cincinnati. Doesn't anyone ever think of Cincinnati?
You can follow on Gameday if you don't have access to ESPN. But it's more fun to guess at what point in the game Joe Morgan will say something that will make you want to throw something at the TV screen.
Oops, posted this in DT when I should've posted it here.
I thought the stadium looked attractive enough from the design plans I saw online, but the new Nationals Park is quite lovely now that we can see it for real.
The Nats also have to feel happy to have Nick Johnson back this season. They'll be a bit more dangerous.
And, wow, recovering from a broken leg he tests Francoeur's arm twice!
I guess Sam DC is at the game, as I inquired over at DT. Any piece that uses 'twirling' deserves comments. JM is bound to make me more of a Nat's fan than I'm becoming.
Because there is no Rule 5 here:
Normally, I would never advocate the booing of a president. But this administration has made it clear it doesn't want to hear from the rabble. So, on the rare occasion when W ventures outside his bubble, We the People are more than justified in giving voice to our opinions.
30 - IMHO you need to step back from this particular president and situation. I am sure that some one could come up with a justification for booing Mother Teresa.
presidential booing:
i'm against it. but i'm american where, in theory, i'm more free than anybody else. in great britain, they boo the PM routinely, and save their non-booing feelings for royalty. weird... to be honest, i'll re-respect the office when the office holder respects me.
50 - I thought it was Franklin who was disowned by his father? Been a while since I read his biography.
As for booing politicians, I'm generally not opposed, even if it's the president. They work for us, after all. Public opinion is an important check on them. That said, we'd be much better off if we had someone in the White House who actually commanded a bit of respect and decency... but since this is a baseball blog, I'll leave it at that.
was there some sort of series of focus groups that told teams that they should have only white lettering on their hats? Because that's kind of lame - unless it's the Dodgers and Yankees.
60 - With those godawful yellow uniforms its the Romanians who should have been booed. Apparently, the Colombians refrain from booing their players. They just kill them.
Back to baseball...
The Nationals' insignia on their caps reminds me of an old line about the Chicago White Sox cap of the late 80s:
http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/716/202914716.jpg
"If you saw that in the grass, you'd step on it before it could crawl closer."
Since Miller is talking about the Dodgers, and I know most here are Dodger fans... is anyone else concerned about Torre's recent reliance on using the DH as much as he has? I'm a little worried he's going to be out of shape when it comes to making double switches and other tactical moves not necessary when the DH is involved.
It's really quite charming, watching the rhetorical measures people will take to excuse liking the Bush booing. Just go ahead and own it, Bush-haters. It's not so bad. It's probably not even a minority position.
69 How hard can it be? If you bring in a pitcher, and Pierre is on the bench, you do a single switch. If for some strange reason Pierre is on the field, you do a double switch.
75 - Lasorda didn't spend 12 years in the AL with the DH.
76 - we won the first engagement, now it's on to the next.
70 - I never said I liked the fact that people are booing the president. Just acknowledging that they have a First Amendment right to tell him to shove it.
Adios O. Did you know that this was Perez' first opening day start? He seemed posed to do so in 2003 with the Dodgers, but management got wind of a young, unknown blogger's opinion that he lacked the requisite gravitas, and yanked him. I think this is called packback, or would be if the Gnats were playing the Bums.
Hopefully this is a good Final Four - the last three have been pretty bad. 2004 was the last really good one, although the Title Game was a bust. 2005 Title game was good.
70 Bush has proven himself an inept, morally deficient leader. We'll be paying for his malfeasance, both at home and abroad, for years to come. I'm amazed he bothered to show up to throw out the first pitch, because if he were going to hear it anywhere, he'd hear it on the streets of the District (89% Kerry vs 10% Bush in '04). The palpable surprise on his face was almost funny. Almost.
Bush notwithstanding, that was an entertaining game.
105- When I said, "it's not so bad," I meant liking seeing the President booed, not his presidency. That people were straining to find reasons to support what they would, but for their distaste for this particular President, prefer to think of as piggy behavior. I just wanted them to give themselves permission to delight in the moment. It was a mission of mercy!
I take no public position on the presidency of George W. Bush.
hey Bob, can the scorer just decide to give Odalis the win for that game instead of GIGANTOR? Or is this one of those cases when his discretion doesn't matter?
115- It's vaudeville without the stripper. It's a shame that baseball gets mixed up in it, but the easy way to fix that is to stop inviting politicians to the games. Let them rent a luxury suite, if they want to see the game.
115 Boorish? People have been booing at sporting events since time immemorial. If they're not booing the President, then they're booing umpires, players, or the ushers that are escorting kissing lesbians out of the stadium. If you want refined behavior in Washington, I'd suggest the Kennedy Center. National's Park is a baseball stadium, not an opera house (though Italians have been known to whistle their disapproval of poor operatic performaces).
You want boorish? I've seen entire street corners of people around Dupont Circle give the VP's motorcade the bird. Of course, it's possible that they were not registering disapproval of policies, but rather their annoyance at the VP's interference with their commute.
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He might have been Buddha. Although, technically, he wasn't really from Cincinnati. Pretty good surfer, though.
I don't know what Cincinnati has. Nevermind.
Hadn't realized Nats were playing the Padres.
Nick Johnson coming up - yeah!
Sam's double post was prescient.
I thought the stadium looked attractive enough from the design plans I saw online, but the new Nationals Park is quite lovely now that we can see it for real.
The Nats also have to feel happy to have Nick Johnson back this season. They'll be a bit more dangerous.
And, wow, recovering from a broken leg he tests Francoeur's arm twice!
North Carolina-Kansas at 5:47 pm PT
My flight to Kauai gets in Saturday at 12:11 pm HT.
Normally, I would never advocate the booing of a president. But this administration has made it clear it doesn't want to hear from the rabble. So, on the rare occasion when W ventures outside his bubble, We the People are more than justified in giving voice to our opinions.
These are my favorite new uniforms - talk about original, wherever did Iowa State get the idea for these?
http://tinyurl.com/yv8t2q
At this time of year, PT is 3 hours ahead of HT.
Which I spent in a vending machine. He would have wanted it that way.
I can't imagine doing it.
http://tinyurl.com/2h4mdx
You're welcome.
http://www.slate.com/id/2090083/pagenum/all
Now that was some booing.
i'm against it. but i'm american where, in theory, i'm more free than anybody else. in great britain, they boo the PM routinely, and save their non-booing feelings for royalty. weird... to be honest, i'll re-respect the office when the office holder respects me.
If one was Mexico... wow.
As for booing politicians, I'm generally not opposed, even if it's the president. They work for us, after all. Public opinion is an important check on them. That said, we'd be much better off if we had someone in the White House who actually commanded a bit of respect and decency... but since this is a baseball blog, I'll leave it at that.
Coincidentally, this was in Lee Greenwood's first draft.
Please say "yes."
It was Colombia vs. Romania. But I would assume that over half the crowd was Latino.
And the place was full.
Romania won the match, 3-1.
On a less snarky point: public figure vs private person, makes a difference.
Can we all agree that it's okay to boo Christian Guzman?
The Nationals' insignia on their caps reminds me of an old line about the Chicago White Sox cap of the late 80s:
http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/716/202914716.jpg
"If you saw that in the grass, you'd step on it before it could crawl closer."
IIRC, the Colombians wore yellow uniforms that day and the Romanians wore red.
Colombia was a big favorite coming into that World Cup. People were dazzled by Carlos Valderrama's hair I guess. But they were bad.
Farm subsidies make my blood boil, you know.
http://tinyurl.com/3dfcnt
I think managing double switches is the least of Joe Torre's issues.
If Lasorda can do it...
76 - we won the first engagement, now it's on to the next.
70 - I never said I liked the fact that people are booing the president. Just acknowledging that they have a First Amendment right to tell him to shove it.
I was just making a joke, because you said out of shape.
And in the end, Hideo Nomo threw an 8-0 shutout against the DBacks.
So the Nationals sprung for USB cables and electrical outlets? That must have sent construction costs into the hundreds of dollars.
Unless it goes to extra innings. So don't do that.
Oddsmakers are pretty much rating UCLA and Memphis as a tossup. North Carolina is favored by 3 points against Kansas.
The USB cables had to meet military specs?
But Australia is on our side now!
Then string Peter Moylan up from the highest yardarm!
Bush notwithstanding, that was an entertaining game.
I take no public position on the presidency of George W. Bush.
Booing that SOB is not only condoned, but encouraged.
I will try to not make anymore political comments again.
Nope. Gigantor gets the win.
Sad to see so many otherwise great people condone such things.
Sigh.
You want boorish? I've seen entire street corners of people around Dupont Circle give the VP's motorcade the bird. Of course, it's possible that they were not registering disapproval of policies, but rather their annoyance at the VP's interference with their commute.
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