August 6, 2007

Advice for the Nats

The Washington Nationals open a series in San Francisco tonight, with Barry Bonds on the verge of passing Hank Aaron for the all-time home run record. Here's my advice to tonight's Nats' starter, rookie John Lannan. Dish it up for Bonds. Not only are you a rookie, which means there is no guarantee that you will be remembered throughout history, you play for the Nats, which pretty much need all the attention they can get. So few people are paying attention to the Nats, including those in and around Washington, that no one realizes they are exceeding what miniscule expectations there were for them.

Plus, 10 years from now, the video clip of Bonds breaking the record will be useful for children who don't remember the Nationals.

blahblblahblahblahbh Will John Lannan be remembered?

"Daddy, who were the Nationals?"

"Before the Portland Beavers moved in 2013, they played briefly in Washington."

Everybody wins!

In other news, people think Bud Selig went back home to Milwaukee instead of staying with the home run chase as a silent protest of Bonds breaking the record. In reality, he just knew he couldn't sit through a Nats series.

6 Responses:

Seth said...

If you can't get on ESPN for your own merits, at least you'll have Barry to thank for getting your game (and maybe multiple games depending on when he hits 756) on the worldwide leader.

Jeff said...

The Nats have won 6 straight!!! It's no wonder that ESPN has come calling.

Anyways, I have never understood the "embarrassment" of serving up a record. How many people can pull the pitchers for Aaron, McGwire and Bonds? It's such a non-story.

The only acceptable way to pitch in these situations is evaluating what is best for the team to win.

J-Red said...

Unfortunately for Bonds the Giants are pretty bad too. If they were involved in more blowouts, Bonds would get more pitches to hit and more incompetent (or anonymous) pitchers who either don't care about giving up the record-breaker, would enjoy giving up the record-breaker, or want their shot to throw their heat past Bonds.

The way last night developed, with Lannan holding down the fort for much of the game, it's obviously not worth sacrificing a game for a little notoriety.

And Jeff, you clearly jinxed the Nats. That game was over twice but the Giants battled back.

Brien said...

You stole this from the Freakonomics blog

J-Red said...

I own the book, but I stopped reading the blog a long time ago when I noted four or five errors in one post, just from my own personal knowledge. I pointed them out, and the authors never responded.

Also, John Riggins' cronies just agreed with the gist of my post, that the Nats want the homer against them just so they have SOME history.

J-Red said...

Not that factual errors are a good reason to quit reading a blog. Then again, we didn't build a multi-million dollar empire off of using factual studies to illustrate unusual trends.

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