Go Nats!

How about those Nats! Stephen Strasburg debuted for America's Team last night and was really, really good. Some (Jayson Stark, Orel Hershisher, Tim Kurkjian) are throwing around words like great, phenomenal, masterful, historic, but I'll stick with really, really good.

It was delightful to see Nationals Park filled to capacity. Our nation's capitol deserves something like that. For the next couple of months they can own the sports landscape there. Wizards? Who cares. Capitols? It's too hot for hockey. Redskins? Too many question marks right now. The Nats have built a fairly competitive team and are only two or three games below .500. And they have some of the lesser lights on their schedule for the next four to six weeks. If they can get back to .500 for the remainder of the season, that will be some story for a ballclub that was really, really awful last year. They were as bad last year as the Orioles are this year.

I love being able to watch the Nats on MASN in Cecil County, especially since this means I can watch the Cardinals a couple of times a year. Washington DC deserves a major league franchise and now it appears that some hopeful signs are appearing- Ryan Zimmerman, John Lannan, Drew Storen, Jordan Zimmermann, Matt Capps in addition to Stephen Strasburg. And it appears that Bryce Harper, their newest #1 draft pick, is about as much of a lock for the big leagues as Strasburg was/is. Being bad for a decade has filled their minor leagues with good prospects so baseball could finally be returning to our nation's capitol.

And it appears that they finally have good, patient, not prone to panic leadership in Jim Riggleman, Mike Rizzo (GM), and Stan Kasten (president). Jim Bowden was a disaster and Mike Rizzo seems a whole lot better.

I still would have probably picked the name Grays instead of Nationals, in tribute to the old Washington Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues. But if they weren't going to use Senators, then Nationals is okay. Nats works for either name, and the curly W is nice. I love going to Walgreens and seeing their respectful homage to the Washington baseball club.