Sure, his session was still full of cliches, but delivered in an endearing manner and always giving props to his teammates, both pitchers and position players (they’re all hitters). He also admitted he can never turn down an autograph or hand shake, so chooses to wear headphones with music as his subtle way of letting people know he’s not willing to be distracted at the moment, generally while preparing for a start. Starting pitchers are funny like that – teammates don’t usually talk to them in the dugout between innings during their start and media do not talk to them before the game.

Another tidbit Gio revealed is that he does not want scouting information on hitters he’s facing. If he knows a hitter generally misses one particular spot, he will try to be too perfect hitting that one spot. He prefers to let his catcher, who knows the hitters and their strengths/weaknesses, do the studying and call the best game he can. “If I give up a homerun, it’s on my catcher. It’s not on me.” Ha.

Thanks to a tip from a little birdie, as well as questions from the audience, he broke away from the cliches. Did you know Gio gets his hair cut before every start? That’s a hair cut every 5 days, even on the road. No wonder his hair is so short!

Thanks to doubleuefwhy for manning my Flip cam so I didn’t look like a doofus holding it up while asking a question.

Video (YouTube):

Interesting! I’m definitely curious to see how this works out and fan interest.

I’ve got a little Strasburg in my pocket going jing-a-ling-a-ling… Okay, so it’s a USB keyfob with the ESPN video on it from yesterday’s debut, and somehow that put the old karaoke standby in my head. Anyway, for your voyeuristic workday pleasure in case you missed it yesterday, here are the “live look-in” clips from Sports Center. Sadly, they do not include the whole two innings like I thought they would. Yup, there’s “Strasburg returning to the dugout.” Exciting!

Amy Shipley from the Washington Post was there and wrote a descriptive story. There’s also an MLB.com article and short video with Noah Coslov (same footage, looks like). Nationals Farm Authority posted a link to another video, although it won’t play on my Mac for some reason.

[ Photoset ] I got a sneak peak at Nationals Park today while the transformation from Major League ballpark to concert venue was in progress. On Saturday, July 11, 2009, Elton John and Billy Joel will appear “Face 2 Face” on the stage in center field for fans seated both on the field and in the stands. The event is the first major concert in Nationals Park since it was built. I’ve been looking forward to this concert for a while, so seeing the setup in progress was a real treat! I also had a strange experience of noting the overtaking of the stadium for the concert. I’m quite accustomed to “baseball activities” going on and that’s pretty much it. The warning track is covered in plastic connecting walkway pieces and seeing a sign outside the visitors’ clubhouse in the tunnel with “Billy Joel Band Dressing Room” and a picture of a motorcycle on it was quite cool! (Unfortunately, the dressing room manager did not think it quite cool when I tried to photograph the sign – again an odd experience. I guess she didn’t understand my perspective of being wowed by a clubhouse becoming a “dressing room”). So I wonder if Elton John earned the home clubhouse?

The first thing I noticed upon arrival was the conglomeration of semi trucks blocking off Potomac Avenue south of N on the back side of the stadium. The volume of supplies they must hold seemed impressive, but once I saw the stage on the field, the sight made more sense. The sheer amount of scaffolding, chairs, lights, speakers, port-a-potties(!!), and equipment going into the construction is impressive, particularly during the limited time available. Plus, they’ll need to disassemble it all before the Nats return home.

Tickets are still available. Also, expect traffic in the area to be jammed, so the Nats are suggesting planning for an early arrival. I’m mostly hoping for an early escape as we have to leave our house at 4 AM Sunday to head to BWI for a long-awaited VACATION! I actually planned our flights around this concert!

Speaking of opening day – Snuggie Tailgate Party?! The only problem I’m having is where? We have a parking pass, so I’m sure people will be scattered. So how about ponying up $7.50 a beer and meeting at the Red Porch? (ah, the parking situation is making Stan’s plan come together on people getting inside the park). We’ll probably get there around 1 PM after sneaking the kids out of school early.

Now I have to go put some baskets together and hide eggs before the kiddos get up!

I also tried to get a money shot of him putting food in his mouth – I mean, that’s what the day was all about, right? He implied that would be rude and unprofessional. Darn (I certainly don’t want to be considered rude!). Then he popped a raw bell pepper slice into his mouth after I dropped the camera to my side.

Besides the giant bobbleheaded mascots, the other way cool item at Nats Park in my opinion is the display of Topps baseball cards on garage B to represent the starting lineup. I hope yesterday’s blank frames are filled for tonight’s game.

Thanks to Kristen of We’ve Got Heart for helping out with video camera duties! Otherwise, half this video would not be possible.

I’m long overdue for a TCN episode, so this will have to do for now. I think I’m getting a little better especially at following the rapid fire change of topics, and I realize I’m my own worst critic, but there were a couple awkward moments there. Like, how many times could I say Jordan Zimmermann?! (not that there’s anything wrong with that) At least it was relevant as he pitched yesterday, successfully working out of jams for the first time this spring — because it was the first time he’d found himself in one. I’d love to see the kids continue that consistency and poise, but I am curious to see how long it takes for hitters to figure him out at the major league level? Also, I totally brain-farted and forgot to mention that seeing a healthy Nick Johnson at first base and hitting home runs was definitely cause for optimism! Elijah Dukes has been hitting the ball well too, but I didn’t actually see him play much while there, so he didn’t pop into my head either.

Believe it or not, I had the idea for this before I learned that Joel Hanrahan’s brother Mark was having a spread done in the Des Moines Register’s “Juice” Magazine on his “Man Cave” (or Manctuary as he calls it). But it did give me more chit-chat fodder for my first video victim, closer Joel Hanrahan! The idea struck me over the Christmas holidays as I tried to clean out my “sports” closet and realized much of my collection needed a new and proper (larger) display home. I only got as far as moving most stuff into a room of its own and have since been pondering how to make it look sporty and become my (wo)man cave! Instead, it also serves as my lighthouse stuff room, photography equipment room, and assorted miscellaneous crap room.

So I asked Joel Hanrahan and Manny Acta about their collections and man caves when I saw them at the Martinsburg, WV Mall on the Nationals Winter Caravan ’09. They very graciously answered. Hanrahan says his brother took his best stuff haha! Manny Acta takes the more sentimental approach. So watch the video to hear more! Many thanks to the two of them for sharing!

I apologize for the ho-humness of the silent video portions. YouTube can apparently now identify little clips of songs as being copyrighted by their owner! Wow. I do have someone writing me new original music (in the works before I discovered this little nugget!), but for now, I already had this pieced together with the music and had to delete the music out of the YouTube version. So I highly suggest you click the little link below to watch here or download!

Also, I’d love to see what others have in their collections and/or see their “wo/man caves”. I’m also shamelessly trying to get creative ideas for what to do with mine. So if you’d like to display yours proudly on our new website — I’ll do a special gallery; send photos to me at misschatter at gmail and I’ll do a special edition on the new website when it launches in a month or two!

Whew, now I need a rest. I’m not quite in baseball-following spring training shape yet, apparently. I’m pooped after the last three days and I still have more video to edit! Oooh this’ll save me some! Here’s MASN’s video from last night’s ESPN Zone Celebrity Cookoff!

Where were my index cards?! Ok, first off, the taking on Chico Harlan bit was all in jest! He did a fine job in his first season of covering the team for the Post and we obviously serve different functions. I’m a Mac to his PC (I totally wanted to use that line and it slipped — along with others). Seriously, I think Post writers do use PC laptops for work while I use a Mac, so there is some truth to that! I think for my first TV appearance this went pretty well, although the time flew and my 10 minutes was actually 7 minutes, so I wasn’t able to go very in-depth into anything. There was so much more I wanted to say, but I also didn’t want to talk over anyone. Feedback? Critiques? Applause? Heh.

I would totally do that again! Kim, the hair and makeup woman, was so flattering! Who can resist getting made up and fawned over? What’s not to love? I just wish I had turned more toward the cameras. All you can see is my pointy nose in the profile shots! And wow, my hair is short. Thanks much to Littles, Russ Thaler, Dan Steinberg, and Jamie Mottram for having me on the set. I was so nervous, but now that I’m not a virgin, if they ever have me back on, hopefully I won’t be shaking! But look Dave, I didn’t freeze up!

The adventure started when I left work early to make the drive up to Bethesda. My goal time for arrival was 4:15, but I ended up leaving work later than planned (as usual), so arrived just before 4:30 PM, thankful every time I got through three green lights in a row up Wisconsin Ave. I first ran into a suit-clad Mottram and after hugs and congratulating him in person on his new fatherhood status, realized I was terribly under-dressed in comparison! Since Steinberg hadn’t arrived yet, I sat in the makeup chair while Kim worked her magic. Poor Steinz! I probably ran into his time as he was scheduled for the entire show from the beginning and my spot didn’t come up until half an hour into it, so he had very little time for makeup.

LaVar Arrington took the set first with the guys, and I sort of met him after his time was done. Seems like a really nice guy. Pretty cool to meet him in the green room, which for the record, really is green. I watched the show on a television in there while trying not to get nervous and try to remember everything I could about the Nats season, with no idea what I would be asked. I wanted to Twitter from my iPhone pictures and one-liners, but found it said “No Sim Card” for the second time this week. I frantically searched my bag for a pin or something to pop it out with and came up empty. Kim to the rescue! Although, by the time I got it working, the sound lady arrived to wire me up with an ear piece during a commercial break. I was next!

I had never seen the set – darker inside than I expected! I took a seat at the table with the guys while my mic was clipped on, and in 5-4-3-2-1 boom goes the dynamite! Weeee! Hopefully I didn’t say anything too off.

I’d love to expand on some things… Like about how I work when I interact with everyone and am not hiding behind a computer keyboard. For me, that’s been more difficult than it probably is for beat writers. The team has no choice but to deal with whoever the papers send, whereas I have had to gain trust or risk getting frozen out. Luckily, I think one of my greatest attributes is my ability to get along with pretty much anyone, as well as be judicious in what I post. Plus, I like to kind of lurk and use my honed observation skills to just kind of get a feeling for what’s going on. I have struggled this season with the line I straddle between media and fandom that Russ mentioned — kind of an odd identity crisis as I’m just doing my own thing which doesn’t fit within any defined criteria or guidelines. If I’m media, I shouldn’t really be getting autographs, right (of course, the one autograph I got this year was actually for my husband, not me!)? So what am I?! Hee!

Other things I would have loved to talk about more are what makes Manny a good manager and how he stays positive (beyond the books) and his philosophy, particularly since he worked with the players he was given. I think another positive would be if Ryan Zimmerman is locked up for multiple years before the fans lose faith in the longevity of their favorite players on the team or Zimmerman himself sours on his desire to remain here long-term.

I also missed my “You betchya! (wink)” opportunity! Thaler gave me the perfect lead-in too! Just call me regular Cathy six-pack.