Watergate Update

As the Nats are battling the Dodgers in LA, here's a quick update:

Baseball denies Mets' rain protest

May 4, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- Major League Baseball denied Wednesday a protest by the New York Mets, who felt the grounds crew at RFK Stadium performed poorly during a rain-shortened loss to the Washington Nationals.

Mets manager Willie Randolph protested Saturday's 5-3 loss based on Rule 4.16, which reads: "A game shall be forfeited to the visiting team if, after it has been suspended, the orders of the umpire to groundskeepers respecting preparation of the field for resumption of play are not complied with."

Rain fell steadily from the fifth inning on, and there were two rain delays before the game was called in the eighth inning. In the eighth, the grounds crew took about half an hour to fully cover the infield because the tarp had been folded improperly. The team brought in people working in the stadium's parking lots to help.

"We never said that they did anything intentionally. We felt that the grounds crew was trying its best," Mets general manager Omar Minaya said. "You never know when you file a protest."

Watergate and the Big Stage

Aside from the Nationals surprising start and the general hoopla surrounding the return of baseball to the District of Columbia the biggest story in this Washington baseball season is the conditions of the playing field at RFK Stadium.

The Nats loss to the Braves a couple of Thursdays ago on Christian Guzman's error was blamed by many on the rain and the abysmal field conditions with water collecting on the infield dirt. Mets manager Willie Randolph protested Saturday night's game on based on Rule 4.16 stating: "A game shall be forfeited to the visiting team if, after it has been suspended, the orders of the umpire to groundskeepers respecting preparation of the field for resumption of play are not complied with." Randolph concedes that he doesn't expect to win the protest but wanted to take the chance and, apparently, make a point about poor field conditions. Now Nats president Tony Tavares is defending the playing surface while Frank Robinson, who played at RFK before managing there, questions RFK's suitability for baseball.

Robinson: "Water doesn't drain out of here as well as it should," because the stadium sits lower than the Anicostia River.

Tavares: "The field's fine. Any field at any ballpark that would take as much rain as that field took both times would have been just as flooded. In fact, this field drains extremely well compared to a lot of other fields I've seen."

Stay tuned.

Meanwhile it was great to see RFK and enthusiastic fans on ESPN's Sunday night baseball. John Miller and Joe Morgan seemed absolutely giddy in the broadcast booth with Miller saying several times that this was the first broadcast from Washington in the 16 years that he and Morgan have been doing the Sunday night telecast. Miller, a former Orioles radio broadcaster, has ties to the area. Unfortunately, the stadium wasn't as full as it could have been. The Nats drew less than 30,000 for the prime time game after drawing more than 40,000 on Saturday. The Post reports today that the Nats rank 13th in the league in attendance to this point.

Nats on the Map

In the Post today, Tom Boswell writes about the Wilkerson and Vidro learning the DC map. And John Patterson is the second coming of Greg Maddox. Nats win, 3-1.

Nats Speak the Truth

Not all of what I love about baseball happens on the field. To a life long baseball fan like me, the regular quotes and cliches after games are as comforting as a home cooked meal. If I didn't regularly hear or read that a player was "just trying to make good contact," after a games winning home run; if a pitcher didn't admit that he "actually felt terrible in the bullpen" before pitching a three-hit shutout; if the manager didn't allow that "this kid is a good hitter and he's going to come around" after his starting shortstop starts the year in a 6 for 52 slump I'd take it as a sign that something was terribly wrong in the universe.

After Nats fans were treated to an uplifting 11-4 win against the Mets yesterday here are a few truths spoken by our local heroes:

"It wasn't a must-win games." - Frank Robinson. That's right, skip, you're not in the playoffs yet.

"For any pitcher, when the team makes some runs the game's more easy." - Livan Hernandez, who understands that the team with the most runs after 9 innings wins.

Brad Wilkerson noted that "when you score early it just carries throughout the whole game," aware that hard as Christian Guzman tries, nothing he does at the plate will cost his teams runs that they have already scored.

And our favorite leadoff hitter also reminds us that "now we're going home." That's right, Brad. The homestand begins tonight with the Phillies.

Thursday at the ballparks

I'm kind of jittery because I haven't seen a single pitch of major league baseball in about 18 hours after seeing exactly 599 of them from Nationals, Braves, Orioles, and Red Sox pitchers yesterday in games both at RFK and Camden Yards. It was 5 hours and 35 minutes of baseball all told.

Come to think of it, I've probably have seen about that many pitches thrown in a single game -- I remember going to Tiger Stadium a number of years ago and seeing a 16-10 affair (or something like that) between the Tigers and the Royals.

Yesterday's games were both pitching duels. All four starters -- Patterson, Smoltz, Lopez, and Clement -- were fantastic. Hitters were off balance all day and the starters were hitting their spots. It was a happy diversion from the steroid/andro/supplement/expansion-bloated scores of, say, the past decade.

I took the train out to RFK, walked up to the gate and bought a $7 ticket to sit in upper left field bleachers. The announced crowd was over 30,000 but the park looked fairly empty, though not terribly so for a weekday afternoon with rainy weather. The crowd was enthusiastic and knowledgeable enough it seemed and the much maligned food service at RFK was fine. As for the game, the weather played a serious factor. I was sitting under the overhang and was dry for the duration, but the infield collected puddles from about the fourth inning on. The funny thing was that the rain didn't appear to be coming down too hard. The infield dirt, however, looked as hard as clay and post game reports indicate that there have been a lot of complaints about the condition of the infield.

Patterson took a 1-0 lead through seven and Hector Carrasco pitched a scoreless eighth before Frank Robinson brought in closer Chad Cordero in the ninth. Cordero promptly loaded the bases with no outs but then struck out the next two batters. He then induced a hard grounder to short which Christian Guzman fielded awkwardly to his right and threw away into the first base dugout for a two-run error. Dan Kolb retired the Nats in the bottom of the ninth. Final score: 2-1.

Guzman looked confused at the plate all day as he has all year. He swings late, weekly, and looks uncomfortable in the box. And he didn't make himself available to the press after the game -- not a great way to endear yourself to fans in your team's first homestand in a new city. How long is Frank going to stick with him?

Going to Camden Yards after an afternoon at RFK is like watching HD TV at my parents house after watching games on my 13-inch RCA at home. The seats were better for one thing, and the field was in spectacular shape. I've been to see the Sox play the O's on their first home stand each of the last four years and am always reminded why the Boston Dirtdogs call the place "Fenway South". When the usher showed us to our seats he said to our section, "Sorry guys, more Sox fans".

Despite the park and the general knowledge and passion of Orioles fans, yesterday, at least, I preferred the crowd at RFK. Seven games into the first homestand and the passion for the Nats, as expected, is still there.

The next opportunity for an afternoon evening two city double header is May 1. Who's going?

Let's play two!

I've been to a double header before, but never one like today. Yes, today I attended two major league baseball games in two cities.

This afternoon I took the metro over to RFK for the Nationals-Braves match-up, a 2-1 loss for the Nats.

This evening I saw the Red Sox blank the Orioles 1-0 at Camden Yards.

More details and observations to follow. Needless to say, it's been a very good day.