Frank Robinson In The House!

August 1, 2008

Pardon the crappy quality of the photo. I’m hoping the official photographer for this event will email the awesome photo he took. But I was required to take one myself for my 365 Days quest, so I snapped this one with my arm held out with a point ‘n shoot. Frank wasn’t too impressed with my photographic prowess. “You made the top of my head flat!” he exclaimed as I flipped the camera around to review how it turned out. Oh yeah, did I mention I met Frank Robinson tonight?! Holy cow, that was amazing! Once I got over my shock that he really truly set foot in Nationals Park which had to be rather awkward for him. I think he warmed up to us, though. He didn’t bolt as soon as his part was done and even gave me a hug. Awww! (Although, that was probably more me misinterpreting his, “I don’t shake the ladies’ hands” comment and me throwing my arms around his much taller shoulders). Heh. How embarrassing!

I will have the exclusive on an upcoming “That’s Chat’s Nats” vodcast episode. It’ll probably be a few days as I really want to edit it well. He talked a lot about the evolution of the game, the players, the umpires…. just really good stuff. I also asked a couple pointed questions, which made quite an impression on the vendors hosting the event in a party suite at Nationals Park! The guy who gave the tech presentation earlier (that I had a hard time paying attention to because there was a tv in the conference room broadcasting batting practice that I would have rather watched) shook my hand as he was leaving and said, “I’m going to remember you!” Ha!

The game itself was rather depressing, but at least I had a nice granite countertop for my beer to drown my sorrows in as Ryan Zimmerman left the game after being hit by a pitch. I gave up scoring after four innings. The errors and weird plays were too much to keep up with while having conversations. I had seen Guzman on the field catching and throwing during batting practice and thought maybe he’d be in the lineup, but no such luck. (oh my iPhone went completely dead upon arriving, so I felt very cut off from news and twittering – I couldn’t even upload an iPhone-photo of Frank live). My boss and I noticed Paul Lo Duca never played the whole game and wondered if he’d been traded. I saw on the tv over our seats that the Nationals traded minor league pitcher Jhonny Nunez for shortstop Alberto Gonzalez. That was the extent of trades before the deadline.

Nope, Paulie wasn’t traded. On the way home I heard on the radio that Paul Lo Duca and Felipe Lopez were released outright. Wow. I mean, not unexpected, but no single team would trade a bag of balls for either of them? One more roster move will need to be made tomorrow as the Nationals will activate newly acquired SS Gonzalez, call up 2B Emilio Bonifacio, and activate Elijah Dukes from the disabled list (surprisingly early).

Oh yeah, and we were swept by the Phillies…. Lots of hit batters tonight on both sides. I was sure the ump was about to eject Jesus Colome after he hit Chase Utley, but I guess it was just a warning.

A big shout out to CA for putting on this great event and giving me the opportunity to meet and listen to Frank Robinson. Stay tuned for the video…

P.S. John Lannan appears to have shaved his head. I was dying for him to take his cap off so I could get a good look, but he never did.

Posted in Events, Gameday, MLB, Players, Washington Nationals