Know Your Washington Nationals

With the spring sports now finished, we are entering the dog days of summer sports. With the NFL and even the NBA locked out now, we are left with only baseball of the major sports on SportsCenter. With MLB at the all-star break, there’s no better time to catch up with the Nationals.

Washington enters the second half of the season at .500 after being a couple games above this late in the season for the first time since 2005. They are winning due to their pitching, which is 10^th in ERA, and fielding, which is 12^th in the majors. The Nat's batters need to improve in the second half though, since they are 27^th in average, 23^rd in runs, and 25^th in OBS. As for the stars, Werth and Zimmerman are only batting .214 and .254, while fortunately Strasburg might be pitching next month and Harper was promoted to AA.

In the days before play resumes on the team’s bright future, try to test your knowledge of the team’s past to pass the time. Can you name the Nationals all-time stat leaders in 5 minutes? Can you name the Nationals opening day lineups in 8 minutes? Or you can just read up on these guys.

So Far, So Good for UVA Baseball

Virginia’s road to Omaha got off to a great start this weekend as the Cavaliers baseball team won all three games in the regional round. In three straight routs, the Wahoos crushed Navy, St. Johns, and ECU by a combined 29-3. In addition to their offensive prowess, UVa pitchers struck out 42 batters out of the possible 81 outs. #15 UC-Irvine comes to Charlottesville for the Super Regional this weekend after upsetting UCLA. The Anteaters hosted Virginia two years ago, when the Cavs made it all the way to the College World Series.

In addition, UVa got some other good news, when pitcher Danny Hultzen was surprisingly selected second overall by the Seattle Mariners in last night’s MLB Draft, the highest ever for a Hoo baseball player. I was hoping he was going to fall to sixth to the Nationals, but it looks like there can only be one Cavalier playing close to home.

DC Sports Stars at thier Finest: TV Ads

Now that we are nearing the election, I am no longer fast forwarding through tv commercials as fast to actually notice the political ads. In the process, I’ve come across some sweet local sports celebrity ads. While typical local sports ads are for car dealerships and are poorly acted, some can be funny with high production values. I’m not talking about Peyton Manning for MasterCard or Nike, but the backup qb making some bucks on the side for the local bank. Here’s the evolution of some local DC ones through the years:

First you start off in a big group:

A catchy jungle helps:

Then you move on to singular speaking roles, albeit not in English

Now closer English (luckily never aired):

Even the fluent speakers still need their jerseys or name recognition:

Sometimes the coaches cash in as well:

And then the English improves:

Eventually you get a commercial with the main local star before even playing a game:

Finally after all the bad acting, staring into the teleprompter, you get some actually well- produced funny ads:

Hopeful Days for the Nationals

June 7th and 8th are going to be two key dates for the future of the Washington Nationals franchise. Not only is Stephen Strasburg making his major league debut on Tuesday, but the Nats have the first pick in the draft on Monday.

This time a year ago, Strasburg was drafted first overall and eventually signed at the deadline to the highest rookie contract ever. After going 6-2, with 1.30 ERA in his 11 starts in the minors, “Baseball Jesus” is making his long awaited debut on Tuesday, or Strasmas. Once his starting date was announced last week the game was sold out before it had a chance to go on sale. Cities are even trying to change their names to him, and his last minor league start was nationally televised on Versus. With the Nats only a couple games under .500, only 6 games out of first, and have decent run support this year, Strasburg’s 100 mph arm will be needed on a possible wild card push this season.

Meanwhile on Monday, Washington will be making another #1 overall pick, due to back to back 100 loss seasons. The runaway favorite choice for the Nationals is 17 year old power slugging catcher Bryce Harper, who took the GED early in order to play sooner. He has been highly touted since SI dubbed him the Lebron of baseball last year, but comes with some baggage of being an immature teenager. DC already has the polite face of the franchise and a silent hurler, so a cocky slugger might be needed.

Hopefully Harper will be catching the first pitch from Strasburg in a World Series in a couple seasons.

Yes, UVA is Good at Sports

The old saying goes, if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound. Well the same can apply to UVa’s spring sports. Currently, Virginia’s baseball, men’s lacrosse, and men’s tennis teams are all ranked #1 in the nation, but since they are not the popular money makers, like football and basketball, does anyone even notice?

Due to last year’s run to the College World Series last year, UVA’s baseball team started the season ranked #2 in the nation. After a 10-2 start, they are now the #1 ranked team for the first time in the team’s history. The program has also recently produced two Major League stars, Mark Reynolds, who hit 44 homeruns last year (4th in the league), and Ryan Zimmerman, who is the face of the Nationals, and was an All-Star, Silver Slugger and Gold Glover last season.

On Sunday, the men’s tennis team defeated #4 Texas 9-4 to maintain it’s #1 ranking and move its record to 17-1. Regular season losses are rare to the program in recent years. In the past three seasons, they have a 81-3 combined record, including a 63 regular season game winning streak. The program’s best player, Somdev Devvarman won two individual national titles and made the 2^nd round of the US Open last year. Despite their success, the team lost in the national championship tournament each year.

Also on Sunday, the men’s lacrosse team defeated #1 Syracuse to take over the #1 spot in a 11-10 nail biter. The program has had a winning tradition for many years with four national titles, including three in the past decade. They’ve made seven of the past ten final fours, and had a perfect season in 2006.

Unfortunately for UVA, these successful programs and sports do not get the recognition they deserve compared to the big money making sports, basketball and football. Virginia’s football and basketball programs could be called mediocre at best recently. The football team has only made one bowl game in the past four seasons while the basketball team has only made the big dance once in the past nine seasons. The football team has not even finished a season ranked in the top #25 since 2004. Both programs made coaching changes with Mike London is starting his first season at the helm of the football team this fall, while Tony Bennett just finished his first season as the basketball coach after Dave Leitao’s brief four year stint.

Meanwhile these two losing programs are the money makers, garnering the negative attention. Looking at the average attendance of each stadium, average tickets prices and average number of home games, basketball and football rake in $15-20 million a season even with falling attendance, while the max the successful spring sports can do is barely a million. In addition, the television coverage is greatly skewed contributing to the lack of pub. All of the football and two-thirds of the basketball regular season games are televised, while only half of the lacrosse, 5% of the baseball and zero tennis games make the airwaves.

Hopefully fans will learn to appreciate the national championship caliber spring teams that keep getting honored during the commercial breaks during football game blowouts.

Let the Strasburg Hype Begin

Today, #1 overall pick Stephen Strasburg makes his spring training debut for the Washington Nationals. The young pitcher out of San Diego State hasn’t even thrown a pitch in the majors, but has already been compared to Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden. He signed the biggest rookie contract ever last July for $15 million with only seconds left before the deadline. A quick google search produces more hits for him than Ryan Zimmerman, the current all star player/captain on the team. The Nat’s website already has his jersey on sale for $260. CBS Evening News even ran a piece on him last week.

Unfortunately, the Nationals need all the pub they can get. Since moving from Montreal, the Nat’s have a 343-466 (.424 %) in five years, including back to back 100 loss seasons. They are already on their third manager, second general manager, and couldn’t sign their first round draft pick in 2008. The owners had trouble paying their rent and couldn’t even spell the name on the jersey correctly. Now all the hope is on the shoulders of a 21 year old in a position that history has not been kind to. From 1990-2002, five pitchers have been drafted #1 overall, none of which made an all-star team, and one never even made the majors.

Now management needs to balance the progress of their prospect with the fan demand to see the phenom. Overworking his young arm can cause injury and ruin a pitcher’s career, while attendance drops waiting for his 100 mile per hour pitching display.

At least the Nationals have first dibs on this guy in June.