"You never show up to work not wanting to play [unless your name is Felipe Lopez]...The weather is tough. But yeah, we want to play the last home game at Nationals Park, and it being Fan Appreciation Day, obviously. You can't control the weather."
(Manny Acta, via Nationals dot com, 9/25/2008)
Zimmerman's walkoff opened Nationals Park in 2008, Mother Nature closed it.
Washout. Home finale rained out, won't be made up. 100th loss will have to wait another day.
Seems fitting that on Fan Appreciation Day, the team was spared the ignominy of losing game #100 at home, and fans were spared the pain of watching it. There's always tomorrow (unless the rain doesn't stop in Philly).
Meanwhile...
- Goodbye, Strasburg? Mariners (58-101) take a commanding lead on the Nats (59-99) in the Battle for Worst Place with another loss.
- Thomas Boswell chimes in on the state of the Nats, points out how difficult it is for a team to lose 100 games, then gets some nice quotes from Stan Kasten like: "We've set the foundation. But what fans see is the tip of the iceberg. They don't see the 200 players below sea level [in the minors] where we're really strong. Next year, we need to improve the product here." There's a Titanic joke there for the taking, but we'll pass.
- Thom Loverro chimes in on the fitting end to the home portion of the 2008 schedule.
Onward to Philadelphia. Rumor has it The Nationals Enquirer will answer some questions on a Phillies blog (Balls, Sticks, & Stuff) later today.
[UPDATE]: Here's a direct link to our latest attempt to form complete sentences, via Balls, Sticks, & Stuff.
(AP Photo by Nick Wass)
Hey-feel free to drop by and enter my Nats 25-man-roster prediction contest. Winner gets bragging rights!
http://dcsportsplus.blogspot.com/2008/09/25-man-roster-contest.html
Posted by: Hoagie | September 26, 2008 at 02:06 PM