Open Up Your Eyes

April 27, 2008

I love that song by Coldplay and after just hearing it, seemed an appropriate title for this post. My mom and I had very opposite emotions attending last night’s game. She was ecstatic to see the place transformed into Wrigley Field East, noting there were more Cubs fans everywhere from the Metro to inside Nationals Park. She laughed with glee as many of Matt Chico’s pitches skipped on the ground ahead of the plate, while I cringed as each National struggled to do anything against Carlos Zambrano, trying to get photos of any interesting plays between the arms thrust in the air in cheers for the Cubs in front of me. [Photoset]

Hmm.. I don’t have anything funny, patient, or positive to zero in on from last night. The most interesting events were when a woman a section over from me was nailed in the face by a screaming line drive foul ball. Yikes! I sure hope she’s ok and it didn’t break her jaw or anything. Response to aid her seemed slow. Teddy, leading the Presidents Race, was attacked by a Rodent of Unusual Size who found his way to the new ballpark from RFK, causing him to lose the race. Oh wait, apparently that was a panther!

There are some interesting stats on Ryan Zimmerman’s pitch selection at the plate in today’s MLB Sunday section. Conclusion: He’s definitely not been selective so far compared to previous seasons. Thankfully, while Chad Cordero’s velocity is still down, he was at least effective.

The “official score” part of the scoreboard is awesome, but doesn’t appear capable of showing backwards ‘K’s. The game seemed to be going on so long last night, that the scoreboard operator tried to speed it up by skipping the 8th inning, going straight to the 9th and filling in a 0 for the Nats’ 8th ahead of time. He didn’t fool anyone and the 9th did eventually play out. Very confusing for me since I usually take a picture of the scoreboard when each inning starts so I can sort the photos into innings easier after I offload them! I had to look around and find an 8. (This will change once my new camera arrives and I can create custom folders during games to split the innings up – I can’t wait!)

The first month of baseball ends in a few days. When will the Nationals open up their eyes, relax, and stop pressing? Please? At least start winning games I attend. So far this week they’ve won when I’ve been at home and lost the games I’ve attended.

Posted in Gameday, MLB, Washington Nationals