Can't wait for Wednesday...

[Guest Mosaicv2]

I'm in such high-anticipation for the very first spring training game being boardcast on ESPN, and being lucky for me it's going to be the very first ever game of the Washington Nationals... and better yet... it's against the Mets. And I wonder if Pedro going to pitch. Any other Mets fans or others in panic mode.

[The Czech Republic 0]

I hate the Nationals' regular season hats. They bug me. It's that stupid cursive W from the shitty 60s Senators-now-Rangers, because they wanted to "honor the legacy of Washington baseball," which consists of:

 

-Ted Williams as manager

-?

 

the interlocking DC they wear for ST/BP looks cooler and actually matches the rest of the uniform. Also, they're ripping off St. Louis's red at home, navy on the road, which is unoriginal. Stupid Nationals.

[Guest Mosaicv2]

I hate the Nationals' regular season hats. They bug me. It's that stupid cursive W from the shitty 60s Senators-now-Rangers, because they wanted to "honor the legacy of Washington baseball," which consists of:

 

-Ted Williams as manager

-?

 

the interlocking DC they wear for ST/BP looks cooler and actually matches the rest of the uniform. Also, they're ripping off St. Louis's red at home, navy on the road, which is unoriginal. Stupid Nationals.

So the MLB "creative" team ain't creative.

[iggymcfly 0]

When did St. Louis wear navy on the road? I'm trying to picture a navy Cardinals uniform in my mind and I can't see it at all.

[Guest LooneyTune]

I don't like either teams, but I'm also looking foward to this. Also, thursday is NYY v. Pittsburgh, and then friday is Atlanta v. LA (I think), so a few games is better than none. (all on ESPN)

[The Czech Republic 0]

St. Louis wears navy hats for road games, with the STL white w/red trim. Everything else is the same. They should wear "St. Louis" on the grey uniforms. That's a pet peeve of mine.

 

Take your pick

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

The Senators from the 60s also have "The Capital Punisher" Frank Howard

[DerangedHermit 0]

And I wonder if Pedro going to pitch. Any other Mets fans or others in panic mode.

Pedro isn't starting, it's Glavine starting Wednesday. I can't wait, I want to see Beltran in action, I want to see the Nationals, I want to see baseball and the Mets after 5 months. And I want to hear the familiiar ESPN baseball jingle (without it being a videogame - so what should I buy - ESPN 2K5 or MVP?)

[The Czech Republic 0]

So do the Nationals make it to 15th in attendance for the NL? I predict...no

[Art Sandusky 0]

Why are there so many friggin' different caps/uniforms? Whatever happened to home/away? Yeesh. I can understand different spring training uniforms I guess, but nothing much else needs to be done.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

So do the Nationals make it to 15th in attendance for the NL? I predict...no

They could lose 115 games and finish out of the attendance cellar. New teams are a box office boon.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Why are there so many friggin' different caps/uniforms? Whatever happened to home/away? Yeesh. I can understand different spring training uniforms I guess, but nothing much else needs to be done.

The Astros must have at least seven uniforms. White with pinstripes, white without pinstripes, grey, red with Astros, red with Houston, black with Astros, black with Houston, ST/BP, and the thing is, none look any good.

 

They could lose 115 games and finish out of the attendance cellar. New teams are a box office boon.

They're a horrible team in a horrible park in a city that's ambivalent, if not suspicious, of their existence. It's as if they never moved. They'll sell out most of their games in April, but by the time the Braves, Marlins, Phillies, and Mets have all beaten the Nationals down, the Washington fans, now with TWO teams that aren't all that good, will elect to drive the 35 miles to Baltimore, where the Orioles may not be any more likely to make the playoffs, but at least Camden Yards is pretty and Sammy Sosa plays there.

 

RFK Stadium will finish dead last in attendance. I can't see it being anyone else. The Marlins might be actually selling significant amounts of tickets for the first time in their existence, the Mets have enough major draws on the roster to keep people coming, Brewers COULD be in last if they have another bad year but they could be saved by Cubs fans driving north to Milwaukee for cheaper better Miller Park tickets.

[Styles 0]

Czech, as someone from the area, I can tell you, you will be wrong, at least for the first few years. The DC metropolitan area IS excited about having a baseball team they can call their "own", and they sold huge amounts of season ticket packages from the start of their sale. Merchandise is flying off the shelves too. They will not finish last in attendence at all. I agree though, once everyone realises how bad the team is, they'll either go back to the O's or just stop caring at all (with the exception of the Allmighty Holy Redskins who get 24/7 news covergae whenever the coach brushes his teeth, with the Wizards and Caps, the fans are really fair weather. When the team does well, the fans come out, if not, they stay home).

 

Here's a nice little article from the Washington Post:

 

Nationals Fans' Fervor Undented By the Facts

 

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post Staff Writer

Sunday, February 27, 2005; Page C01

 

Alan, the first caller to Marc Sterne's sports radio show last weekend, had a bold prediction about Washington's new baseball team: The Nationals will make the playoffs this season -- a feat they missed last year, as the Montreal Expos, by 25 games.

 

But then again, Alan added, it doesn't really matter. "If they're in last place, who cares?"

 

In baseball-crazed cities such as Boston and New York, such talk would be heresy and trigger the radio version of a riot. Whaddya mean, who cares?

 

But here, on SportsTalk 980 WTEM, Alan was just another gleeful citizen of Nationals Nation.

 

They are equal parts baseball-starved Washingtonians and transplants who grew up rooting for their hometown teams -- the Yankees, the Cubs, the Dodgers. They're so giddy about the idea of a team in Washington that they're willing, for now, to overlook mediocrity. Since 2000, the Expos franchise, which relocated to the District this year, has won 368 games and lost 442.

 

Sports commentators say this blithe attitude is perfectly normal around the birth of a baseball fan base. But in a few years, they say, the Nats franchise has to hope its followers care enough to gripe.

 

"Everybody who follows a team closely and passionately always is a back-seat driver," said another sports-talk jock, John-Paul Flaim of WJFK's Sports Junkies show. "When it comes to the Nationals, I think [there's] not that many people that have the ability to be a back-seat driver just yet."

 

As the Nationals prepare to play their first spring training game Wednesday, it's clear they have won some converts. More than 17,000 full-season ticket packages have been sold; fan clubs have formed; and Internet bulletin boards -- the sports bars of the 21st century -- are buzzing with Nats-related posts.

 

But many of the fans seem drawn by novelty or nostalgia; though the Nationals are descendants of the Expos, who played their first game in Montreal in 1969, they also represent a return of Major League Baseball to the nation's capital after a 34-year absence.

 

The nostalgia camp is epitomized by Jeff Simenauer, 46, a Montgomery County resident for most of his life. His love for the old Washington Senators curdled when the franchise moved to Texas after the 1971 season. For years, he refused to set foot in Baltimore because Peter G. Angelos, owner of the Orioles, lobbied to keep Washington teamless.

 

Now, Simenauer said, he's desperate for tickets to the Nationals' home opener April 14 at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. "I'm going to bawl like a little baby when I get into that stadium," he said. "And I know I'll have a lot of company."

 

The novelty camp includes fans such as Brian Oliver, 34, who grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox, an American League team, and now lives in Alexandria. Oliver said he is dying to see National League baseball, with its slightly different rules and strategies, up close.

 

But his attitude toward Washington's new team was made clear by his recent post on an Internet bulletin board, on which another fan had written: "We have a 5th place team. Deal with it people."

 

In his reply, Oliver edited that post to: "We have a . . . team.

 

"The only words that really matter," he wrote underneath.

 

A few Nationals fans are starting to take their first steps, gingerly, toward complaining about the team. One of them is Ryan Moore, a College Park resident who has created an Internet blog called "Distinguished Senators."

 

Moore has referred to the Nationals' Endy Chavez as "Inning-Endy," referring to the outfielder's struggles as a hitter. And he has summarized, sarcastically, the ups and downs of the past five years of pitcher Esteban Loaiza, whom the Nationals recently signed as a free agent: "Not bad. Eh. . . . WOW!"

 

"I'm not a fortuneteller," Moore wrote in the blog, "but I wouldn't lay any money on WOW!" in 2005.

 

In a telephone interview, Moore said he is trying to wake up other Nats fans lost in a baseball fantasy.

 

"They're not thinking straight. They're not seeing things for what they are," he said. "It's like this team was given to us by the hand of God."

 

Psychologists who study fan behavior say there is a distinction between a new franchise's buzz and the true bond that connects some teams and their backers.

 

This bond is built over years, with fans gradually becoming addicted to the point of considering the team's wins and losses as their own. Side effects include wearing foam pieces of cheese on one's head if in Green Bay, Wis., and wearing a dress and a pig's snout to Redskins football games (in honor of "the Hogs," the offensive linemen during the team's glory years) if in Washington.

 

Such a bond also leads, inexorably, to fans who complain. They do it to cushion the psychological blow, experts say, to salvage their faith in a team by blaming defeat on one bad decision, player or manager.

 

" 'I can still think of us as being the better team,' " goes such a fan's thinking, explains Christian End, a professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati. " 'It's just that we're managed by, you know, a dolt.' "

 

But for now, this kind of crankiness isn't coming naturally in the nation's newest baseball town.

 

Charlie Brotman, public address announcer for the Senators from 1956 to 1971, recalled a recent party full of Nats fans. They talked about baseball all night, he said, without ever really talking about the team.

 

"Nobody got into specifics," Brotman said. "The only conversation that anybody had was, 'Are you going to be there Opening Day?' "

[The Czech Republic 0]

They will not finish last in attendence at all.

Then who will?

 

But his attitude toward Washington's new team was made clear by his recent post on an Internet bulletin board, on which another fan had written: "We have a 5th place team. Deal with it people."

 

In his reply, Oliver edited that post to: "We have a . . . team.

 

"The only words that really matter," he wrote underneath.

 

Oh God. It's the print journalism debut of "edited for accuracy."

 

John Ashcroft, under increased scrutiny for his part in the USA PATRIOT Act legislation, tried to fend off reporters' inquiries by questioning their merit.

"When you're good enough to get the Best Ending, the Frog Ending, and the Secret Ending, then we'll talk."

Ashcroft added, "until then, keep on digging, media."

[Styles 0]

Then who will?

Pittsburgh, Florida and Milwaukee in the NL and Kansas City, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Detroit in the AL are all easy picks. The Nats will have packed houses almost every night. I'm not saying it won't wear off after a year or 2 of losing, but there is genuine excitment and a rush to get season tickets around here....

[Precious Roy 0]

What are the odds on Bush throwing out the first regular season pitch for the team then declaring war on Canada?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Then who will?

 

Pittsburgh. They finished 15th in the National League in attendance, drawing just 19,750 a game. They have made no improvements to convince fans to come out to the ballpark. The only reason they could draw anyone is because fans will need to buy one of those snazzy season-ticket packages in order to get first dibs on All-Star tickets in 2006.

 

For illustrative purposes, here is the first-year attendance figures of several expansion teams.

 

1998

Tampa Bay- 2,506,293 (7th of 14)

Arizona- 3,610,290 (2nd of 14)

 

1993

Colorado- 4,483,350 (1st of 14)

Florida- 3,064,847 (5th of 14)

 

1977

Toronto- 1,701,052 (4th of 14)

Seattle- 1,338,511 (8th of 14)

 

1972

Texas- 662,974 (10th of 12)

 

1970

Milwaukee- 933,690 (7th of 12)

 

1969

Seattle- 677,944 (10th of 12)

Kansas City- 902,414 (7th of 12)

Montreal- 1,212,608 (7th of 12)

San Diego- 512,970 (12th of 12)

 

1968

Oakland- 837,466 (8th of 10)

 

Thirteen teams have been founded or relocated in the last forty years. Of those thirteen, twelve finished under .500 (Oakland finished 82-80), and many sucked in spectacular fashion. Only one finished last in attendance.

[The Czech Republic 0]

That's a high number for the Rockies. But they started at Mile High Stadium, right?

 

Yeah I forgot about Pittsburgh. They won't draw well.

 

Al, which Nationals cap is better

[Precious Roy 0]

I like the W. When you see Tomo Ohka throw up the dub!

[The Czech Republic 0]

I dunno. They have all that blocky, angular gold-beveled lettering everywhere and they stick a pretzel on the cap. It looks like the Walgreen's corporate softball team

[Styles 0]

It's a real shame that Pittsburgh has such a horrible team and apathetic fans (go hand in hand?) because I visited their stadium last year and it was easily the nicest major league stadium I have ever seen. Just beautiful in every way and a wonderful place to watch a baseball game (and this is from someone who has attended Camden Yards for the past 13 years!).

 

On the Nats uniforms, I thought the home jerseys look too much like Anaheims

 

 

and the roads like San Fransisco.

 

 

The cursive W hats are ok, it's a nod to all the old Senators fans. The team logo is just awful though and will have to be changed in a year or 2 with new ownership. It looks like one of those major league baseball all star game logos or something.

 

I agree I like the spring training/warmup uniforms and hats. Hopefully they use them as alternates too.

 

 

 

 

Hey, I still bleed black and orange, but baseball is baseball, the more the better, and I'm excited to have a National League team close by to follow too!

[Precious Roy 0]

The Pittsburgh stadium is indeed awesome. Tickets are dirt cheap too. The Pirates have a ton of tradition, I'm always secretly rooting for them to get good again, one of the few NL teams I'll actually root for. The 'Spos were one of them, but I'm not feeling pulling for a team from Washington.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Holy crap the names on the back are gigantic

[The Man in Blak 0]

I wonder if ESPN is going to have a "Reyes Hamstring Cam".

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

That's a high number for the Rockies. But they started at Mile High Stadium, right?

 

Yeah I forgot about Pittsburgh. They won't draw well.

 

Al, which Nationals cap is better

 

Yes, they played in Mile High Stadium the first two seasons, and drew over 55,000 fans a game each season. Coors Field held around 50,200 at its inaugration. The Rockies still led the league in attendance through 1999.

 

And I'm partial to the road cap.

 

It's a real shame that Pittsburgh has such a horrible team and apathetic fans (go hand in hand?)

 

Losses do lead to drops in attendance, more than any other factor. If the Pirates put a decent product on the field, the fans would care.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Some bad Phillies news, as David Bell's back is barking, and Vicente Padilla has mild tendinitis. Polanco can easily move to third so the team is ok there, and if Padilla misses time, Gavin Floyd or Ryan Madson can fill the rotation.

[NoCalMike 0]

I am excited for baseball season, even though it is very likely the A's will miss the post season. I am very interested to see if the new young talent will show early signs of being the next Big three, rather then the busts of the mid-90's (Van Poppel, Karsay, Darling)....Also, watching Bobby Crosby develop further should be good.

[treble 0]

The Nationals' home jerseys look like All-Star uniforms.

[Guest sek69]

Just letting everyone know there is some buzz in Pittsburgh this year about the Pirates. People are starting to feel comfortable that the team's actually got some good young talent and there's hope for the future for the first time in like 10 years.

 

That, combined with the All Star thing, will probably mean the Pirates won't be last in attendance unless there's a complete and total implosion.

[Styles 0]

  the Pirates won't be last in attendance unless there's a complete and total implosion.

Which for the Pirates, usually comes around May.