Nats Begin Home Losing Streak
Yesterday was the Nats home opener, and, overall, kind of a strange day.

As we made our way to the stadium, we heard that legendary Phillies announcer and voice of NFL Films Harry Kalas died, as he was preparing for the game. After the game, I read that legendary pitcher and character Mark "Bird" Fidrych died during the day. I remember the days of Fidrych Fever; if you saw him pitch, you'd never forget him, he was the closest thing in baseball to a real-life Sid Finch.

The game was strange, too. Daniel Cabrera was on and off, and certainly not helped by his defense. Anderson Hernandez, who appears to the be latest in a long list of lousy second basemen for the Nats, didn't help by commiting two errors. Adam Dunn didn't field very well either, but that is to be expected.

The good news for the Nats, though, is that their offense appears much impoved. Guys in the heart of the order -- Zimmerman, Dunn, Dukes -- all have the ability to crush the ball, which they each displayed by homering yesterday. Nick Johnson hasn't done much yet, but he'll either warm up or get injured soon. Hopefully, he'll get heated. Christian Guzman is a singles machine. Unfortunately, yesterday he became the third Nat this year to hurt himself running to first base (along with Willie Harris, and Hernandez). Hopefully he'll be back soon.

There were a lot of home runs, a lot of errors, some actual good catches by Milledge and Dukes, a lot of hit batsman in a row (well, two, but you never really see that), and some questionable managing decisions by Manny Acta, who I expect to be fired any moment.

For me, though, the bottom line was that it was fun. The stadium was packed. I didn't notice a higher percentage of Phillies fans than at any other Phillies/Nats games. I actually was amused by the people that criticized Stan Kasten for inviting, last week, Phillies fans to the game. Kasten can't win. Anybody who's ever been to previous Nats/Phillies games, or Skins/Eagles games, or Caps/Flyers games knows that people in Philadelphia know how to get to Washington, and always make their presence known. Believe me, these folks had bought their tickets and made their plans long ago; I'd be surprised if even one person bought tickets because of Kasten's remarks.

Metro, unsurprisingly, let me down yesterday; we got to L'Enfant Plaza to make the transfer to the green line, and it didn't look like there were any more trains than on a usual weekday afternoon. So we caught a cab. There were long lines in some of the concessions, and I'm sure all of the city's great Nats fans have chimed in on that in various forums. But you could find shorter lines if you walked a little bit, or, you know, just try to go a few hours without eating junk food. Nats' management finally caught on to what every other stadium does, and gave their beer vendors bright yellow shirts so that they could be picked out in the crowd.

I'm not sure that it adds anything to the gameday experience to have two crappy bands playing in the stadium. Both played so loudly that you couldn't have a conversation if you were close to them, which resulted in the band by the Porch not having anyone within 30 feet of them. I guess that and the fact that at one point they were playing the theme from Cheers. (I think they were being ironic -- kids these days.) People standing in various food lines just kind of looked at them and looked at their watches, with a "Isn't it about time for them to break?," look in their eyes. I'd lean to bagging bands at the stadium altogether, although it would be awful cool if a band like the Nighthawks were playing as you walked into the stadium.

On the field, I think the Nats need to make some moves. They need to fire Acta, who doesn't even really seem like he'd mind. They need to do something with Lastings Milledge, I'm not sure that sending him to the minors is going to help his fielding. See if someone will take him in a trade, and hope he doesn't become the next Emilio Bonifacio. Get rid of Kearns. I was encouraged by the massive home run he hit last week, but he was back to his old self by Sunday, grounding into two double plays ("Kearnsies," as I like to call them). Put Dukes in center, give poor Josh Willingham a chance in right, and keep it that way for a while. Keep Willie Harris out of the infield. And see what happens.

I'm hoping that this stretch of poor pitching will end soon. Maybe call up Bergmann and Zimmermann and anybody else with two n's at the end of their name that seems like they may be able to help. Give them a shot, if they can't do the job, get someone else. I hear Nick Swisher may be available.

What I hope, is that at the end of the season, we'll be saying, "Well, it was a decent year, and it would have been even better if not for our poor start." But that will only happen if they win soon. Tomorrow would be nice.

Live from the Nationals Winter Caravan
I just returned from an extended lunch, spent at the downtown ESPN Zone, one of the first stops of the Nationals Winter Caravan. Manager Manny Acta, pitcher Mike O'Connor and outfielder Nook Logan were there, along with announcers Charlie Slowes and David Jageler, mascot Screech, and assorted p.r. and sales types.

I hadn't participated in previous such Caravans. My understanding was that this would be an autograph session only, so I expected to get to the ESPN Zone and stand in a line. It was much more civilized that this, though. They had a room set up for the session, and people were scattered at tables, having lunch and waiting for the festivities. I took a seat and ordered a burger.

I shared a table with a couple of other fans, both very enthusiastic about the Nats. They shared my excitement about the new stadium, along with my trepidation about formerly poodle-headed Don Sutton. I tried to start a movement to draft John Lowenstein, but that received blank gazes from my new friends. The crowd wasn't big, maybe 60 people, including some kids who were, I guess, enjoying a snow day. The kids flipped out for Screech, of course. My tablemates and I talked about how popular Screech is with kids, and they agreed with me that they don't really get the adults who indulge in Screech-bashing, particularly the guy who always participates in the Post's on-line chats, whining about the fact that Screech doesn't remove his hat, which seems to be sewn to his head, during the national anthem. Get another crusade.

About 2:00PM, the diminutive Charlie Slowes greeted the audience, and reviewed what was going to happen (one autograph only! -- which I guess was bad news to the hardcore autograph dealers planning to finance their kids' educations by selling Nook Logan's signature), and said they had time for some questions. Mike O'Connor was asked, if he had a free pass to give one hitter, who would he give it to. Like me, Mike didn't really understand the question, but he went with it, and said that he thought Miguel Cabrera would be one guy he'd rather walk than pitch to. Manny Acta was asked what the Nats rotation was shaping up to be. He responded that the Nats had petitioned the league to only play once a week, so John Patterson could pitch every game. That got a big laugh, even from projected starter Mike O'Connor, sitting next to his manager. I presume they had met before. I decided that it would be detrimental to the festive mood of the Caravan to follow-up that question by pointing out that even if they played weekly, they'd be screwed after week #3, which is when Patterson is projected to go on the DL. In any case, Manny was very entertaining, it's almost like they set out to get a new manager who was the anti-Frank Robinson.

After a woman proposed that Nook Logan should race her young son (Nook didn't look so thrilled) and, of course, right after my burger arrived, we were told to line up for autographs. As we went through the line, we were each given a red, white and blue Nats hats (with Bud Light logos on the back). Manny and the players were gracious, the kids in line in front of me posed for pictures with all three of them. Neither Logan or O'Connor are physically imposing guys, I think if he needs to keep them in line, Manny could easily put either one in a headlock. Nook Logan looks a little like Dave Chapelle.

Everything went smoothly, I was able to finish the rest of my burger and get back to the office before anyone knew I was missing. Next week at the ESPN Zone, there's some kind of cook-off involving O'Connor, Ryan Zimmerman and Screech. Screech is going to fire up some of his famous wings.

Wizards Win, and Some Nationals Stuff
I was at the Wizards game last night, which was their best game of the season as they didn't have much of a problem with one of the best teams in the league, the Mavericks, beating them 106-97.

Thanks to the eBay-savvy of my friend Greg, we had excellent seats, in the end zone, behind the media section. We saw Ed Tapscott, Lindsay from Channel 4, and Post columnist Mike Wise. Wise got to his seat after the game started, and he didn't seem to be around much during the second half. At one point, I headed out to the concourse for yet another drink, and heard him on his cell phone:

"I don't know, it just doesn't seem to be working out for me here. I can't get anybody excited about changing the name of the Redskins. Nobody believes that I played basketball in college. That's so unfair, nobody questions Kelli Johnson! Tony's still mean to me. And then I get to the game tonight, and Lindsay's there with a date!"

I felt bad for the guy.

Baseball's winter meetings are happening, and the Nationals seem determined to not make any moves at all, and just pocket the money that they'll save by not having to pay Alph and Jose Guillen. I guess Stan Kasten really is a genius. This lack of activity resulted in a strange article by Dave Sheinen, where he tries to make a story about the possiblity (denied by Nationals' management), that the Nationals may be a "conduit" in a Manny Ramirez deal. Seven hundred words into the article, he gives us a hint of what he's talking about, suggesting that the Red Sox need a shortstop or a closer, and Guzman, Lopez or (gulp) Cordero might be players that interest them. Getting rid of Cordero, who is one of the best and most popular Nationals (behind Zimmerman and the departed Alph), would be a big mistake. But it wouldn't be surprising, at this point. I've read some rumors about Chad going to the Red Sox for Wily Mo Pena, which is a move that Jim Bowden should make if wants to go back to Cold Pizza soon.

Barry Svrluga writes in Nationals Notebook that the Nats are looking to move Ryan Church, who decided not to play winter ball in Mexico, which might have helped him improve his hitting of off-speed pitches. Church's agent, Jeff Borris, defends his client, saying that he had nothing to prove down there. Ha. Borris is also Barry Bonds' agent, and I wonder how long into their relationships it was before Bonds and Church (not exactly known for their intellects) realized that they hadn't hired Scott Boras.

Finally, Dan Steinberg mentions, in dcsportsbog.com, that he saw Mike O'Connor at the BB&T Classic over the weekend, and O'Connor said that he hasn't heard from new skipper Manny Acta. That's not a good sign. What else does Acta have to do at this point that he hasn't had time to talk to someone who may be one of his starting pitchers?