Thursday, June 26, 2008

I love the Jesus Flowers almost as much as I hate the Orioles

I made it to the game last night. What a game, it was good to win one but even better to win it with a walkoff single from one of our young stars. Jesus Flowers is probably my favorite player on the team. He's gutsy, gritty, young, and hitting right around .300. He's the epitome of this team's future if we are lucky. If we can keep Blastings and Dukes in line, get Zimmerman back healthy, and make a good faith move for the fans and sign Guzapalooza (he's a festival of hits) for at least 2 years we have a nucleus. Everywhere else, let's see who can play and hopefully win a title, say 2010 or 2011 or so.

On Tuesday the Nattos played the most unbearable game since they arrived in town. We went down 6-0 2/3 of an inning in. Hill is a hell of a pitcher but needs to hang it up for the year. He elected to not have surgery, but he just doesn't have the same stuff as last year. In addition to the horrific pitching, we had Lo Duca, catcher, in left field, Willie Harris, left fielder, at second base, Belliard, second baseman, at third base, and basically a DH, "Voodoo Fingers" Young at first. Lo Duca got woozy and left the game. So did most of the fans. So let's pull some guys up. Marrero's already done for the year with a broken leg, lets not waste more young talent. Lets see what they can do in the bigs. The whole philosophy of the Nats should be if you aren't playing here in 2010, you shouldn't be playing here now. We have the Flowers, ZimZam, putupyourDukes, and Blastings, not to mention how awesome Lannan has been along with Redding and Rauch. Everyone else should have to fight for their job, just like Jesus Flowers and Lo Duca did. The winner of that spot worked out pretty well last night.

As a sidenote, I have been negative On Lo Duca. He is actually a good guy. He was excellent in the booth for MASN when he was on the DL and I think he has a career in broadcasting. But last night he was the first guy out of the dugout to laud Flores, and was the last, hugging him by second base as the rest of the team headed back to the lockerroom. Steroid accusations aside, Lo Duca is a good guy and a team player.

As a further aside, the Orioles come to town this weekend. The team owned by Peter Angelos. The guy that kept the national pastime out of the nation's capitol throughout the 90s and half of this millenium's first decade. These are the guys that wanted us to struggle two hours through traffic on 95 to go watch a DH strikeout. I hate them. We haven't gotten into a tight pennant race with the Mets, Phillies, Braves, or even Marlins. I dislike them but do not hate them yet. I hate the Orioles for depriving me of nights like last night. Beautiful weather in a brand new park with the smell of Ben's chili, cotton candy, and Budweiser wafting through the air while hanging out with the pops, your brother, and one of your best friends as one of our 23 year old stars hits a walk-off single to score another 23 year old star to be. God forbid someone in the seats next to me this weekend screams oooo during the NATIONAL anthem.

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