Improvements to Nats Blog and Game Notes

At DM's request, your local blogmaster has added some features to Nats Blog in an effort to serve our constituency (meaning DM, Dexy's and myself) better.

First, you will note that I have, at long last, fixed the link to the Washington Nationals "clubhouse" on ESPN.com. The prior link was a dead one to the Expos clubhouse.

Second, I have added direct links to the Nats' hitting and pitching stats on ESPN.com. This is a further effort to turn Nats Blog into a hot portal site, which we can then sell to some dumb media company for $2 billion.

Third, I have added direct links to the stats pages for each of the Nats' four full-season minor league affiliates. If you want to check out what going on down on the farm, come to Nats Blog, where we will re-direct you to Baseball America.

Fourth, I have added a little feature I call the "10 game segment." For some reason, I started dividing the season up into 10-game segments back in 2000, when I was tracking the White Sox (7-3 and 9-1 so far this year). Anyway, I have explanations as to why I like the 10-game segment as a measure of a team's relative performance here, here, and here on Black Betsy, my White Sox blog. The bottom line is that good teams have four or five 7-3 segments, one or two 8-2 and 9-1 segments, and only one or two segments of 3-7 or worse. A bunch of 6-4s get you nowhere - ask the 2004 White Sox on that one.

Game Notes

DM, Dexy's and I had our second group outing to a game last night. As with the first one, there were some great moments, including a large number of "Buck Sez" bets. Perhaps the best one was when DM bet Dexy's that the Phillies would go 3 up, 3 down in an inning. After a debate concerning whether a double play would preserve a 3 up 3 down inning (we concluded it does), a Phillie promptly hit a one-out flyball with a man on first to Brad Wilkerson in deep center. The man on first tagged up, and the play was close at second - if he would have been out, it would have been one of the better "Buck Sez" victories of recent time. Regardless, I lost another "there will be a broken bat" Buck Sez, and DM continues to give his lunch money to Dexys. DM just can't turn down a Buck Sez bet.

Very excitingly, we had not one but 2 foul balls hit to within a 3 seat radius of us. Our 4th, a friend and client, got a piece of the first one, then actually had the second one in his glove before dropping it. It was a difficult, over the shoulder catch with his back to the infield, but if you get leather on it, you gotta catch it.

Also, I tried the Aramark Cheeseburger last night. I must have been hungry, because it tasted pretty good. They need to have pickles available though - a cheeseburger needs pickles. Next game (Friday night), I'll be trying the concourse on the 300 level. They've got chorizo there, which is intriguing, as well as a number of other interesting selections. It's going to take me a while to work around the stadium.

Out-Of-Town Scoreboard Update

It's working and working pretty well, thank goodness. It even was a source of a Buck Sez victory for me, as the Orioles managed to score three runs before the 6th inning (they made it easily). Early in the game, the Yankees-Angels game was listed as

*ANA 2
NYY 3

A-ha! A break in the code of honoring the ridiculous renaming of the Angels! [My personal opinion is that I was ok with LA Angels, but LA Angels of Anaheim is just moronic.] It was fixed by the sixth inning or so - someone must have called the league office or someting - and LAA were now shown as playing the NYY.

....and getting out of the parking lot was a mess.