Category: baseball

19 Aug

Semi-Charmed Kind of Game

The long-running winning combination of me attending Washington Nationals victories before post-game concerts has come to an end.

After wins preceding concerts by Lifehouse and The Wallflowers, the Nats dropped their game before last night’s Third Eye Blind show. Thankfully, there’s nothing like an immediate concert to wash away the disappointment of defeat.

This was by far the biggest crowd for one of these concerts, all of which could have been held 10 years ago. Not surprisingly, it was also the loudest. The lead singer certainly seemed to be enjoying things:

Here’s a taste of the show:

The only letdown — which I never thought of before hearing this idea — is that the bands don’t hang out on the side of the field somewhere during the game and play the intro music for all of the batters. Credit for that, when baseball decides to be cool and make it happen, goes to former roommate Jon, who went to the game with me.

Third Eye Blind could have taunted a Mets hitter with “How’s it gonna be, when you gooo 0-for-4.” I would pay massive amounts of to attend a game like that.

By cjhannas baseball Uncategorized video
06 Aug

Greetings [Insert Name]

We all get plenty of emails from companies that immediately go in the trash, messages that arrive only because at some point we ended up their mailing list.

Usually it’s a promotion designed to get us to visit a website and buy something. But on Friday, my inbox started filling up with messages from corporate America wishing me “Happy Birthday!!!”

Some of these were of the expected variety, like the Washington Nationals offering me a special 15 percent off at their team store. A bank sent me a link to a video with a basic message that having friends is more important than having stuff (so maybe you should deposit more money in your savings account?)

The local rock radio station didn’t seem to have a message at all. In fact, they acknowledged exactly what they were doing: “Don’t you hate automated emails Chris? We do also.” (I also hate when you don’t properly punctuate your sentences, but I’ll let that go.)

The University of Maryland Alumni Association sent a nice message, including a push to update my information in their system if it wasn’t actually my birthday.

But by far, the most random was from an online forum catering to all forms of stereo systems. I signed up two years ago when I was fixing my grandfather’s reel-to-reel tape machine and had some sort of question about 1968 technology. Granted, this was useful information that led to finding some really cool audio, but I’m not sure they had to go out of their way to wish me happy birthday.

To all of the real people who did, thanks. It was a massively cool day that included sleeping late and going to a doubleheader at Nationals Park:

Our view while consuming Game 2 food

By cjhannas baseball Uncategorized
22 Jul

We Can Drive It Home

If you needed me this weekend, I was at Nationals Park.

In the course of about 29 hours I saw 29 innings of baseball, which included an absolutely wild 11-inning game Friday night and a day/night doubleheader Saturday followed by a post-game Wallflowers concert at the stadium.

The games were the main attraction, especially since I was there with my brother Pat, a diehard fan of the opposing Atlanta Braves. The Nats were up 9-0 Friday, only to lose 11-10. They lost again in the first game Saturday, but rebounded with an extremely entertaining performance in the nightcap. I even saw my favorite player (legally) dive into an ump and knock him down.

The concert was the second in the NatsLive series that I’ve seen. Last year, Pat and I saw Lifehouse play at the stadium (which, as I described in this post, was awesome). This time it was more of a blast from the past with The Wallflowers, who sounded good/exactly how I imagine they did in 1997.

They played a lot of new songs, but did the four that I recognized from back in the day:

In an odd twist of scheduling, Saturday was the first time I’ve ever attended a doubleheader…and I’m going to another one in less than two weeks. Add in another post-game concert with Third Eye Blind, and August is going to be a good month at Nats Park.

By cjhannas baseball Uncategorized video
07 Jul

I See You

There are many criticisms about our Facebook/social media society, but you can’t ignore some of the cool chance happenings it brings.

Last night, I saw the Nationals drop a game to the Rockies in sweltering conditions (still an enjoyable game). As my mom and I were going up an escalator to our level, I happened to look over at the adjacent ramp and saw one of my friends walking by at that moment.

That sighting in itself was interesting, since we had planned to get to the park much earlier, only to be delayed by major Metro issues. I wrote last month about how we can get mad about those kinds of delays, but you never know what might happen because of them.

My friend’s section happened to fit conveniently in the somewhat standard picture I take at all the games, and being a digital society, I tagged her basic location in the photo:

But after I got home from the game, another friend posted a comment on the picture saying that she was could see herself in there, too, about five rows behind the dugout on the right.

I had no idea she was there when I took the picture. I did, however, start to think about how long we’ve known each other, and since I’m ridiculously organized, I can confirm we go back to at least 1989. She’s in the upper left. Pretty sure you can identify me:

Of course this led me down a small rabbit hole of looking at other class photos, including an absolute classic from 5th grade that features a VERY confused-looking me and a miserable-looking roommate MR. Forgot to scan that one, but maybe I’ll make the effort soon.

By cjhannas baseball Uncategorized
20 Jun

Jersey Jinx

I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to Washington Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman.

This hasn’t been his best year at the plate, with just three home runs and a .229 average in 51 games. Compare that to last year, when he played 101 games and belted 12 home runs with a .289 average.

How is this my fault? Well, before this season I got his jersey. I don’t have a good history with jerseys.

It started when I was in high school and my beloved New York Giants emerged from years of suckitude to become a contending team. They had a star cornerback named Jason Sehorn. I got his jersey. He subsequently blew out his right knee (tearing both the ACL and MCL) and was never the same.

Even player t-shirts aren’t safe. Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom experienced my curse last year when he was elbowed in the head and missed 40 games with concussion issues.

Looking in this section of my closet, there’s another player I’ve put in jeopardy by putting his number on my back.

Of course, I was wearing this shirt when Eli won his second Super Bowl MVP. I guess that’s proof he can crush any challenge.

By cjhannas baseball football hockey Uncategorized
26 May

Put Me In Coach

I’m now one step closer to pitching in a Major League Baseball game.

On Saturday I warmed up in the bullpen at Nationals Park — never mind that it was just one pitch and the Nats were playing in Atlanta. It was the last stop on a pretty sweet tour of the stadium.

I went with my mom and brother Pat, who each stepped up on the bullpen mound as well:

If you live near a team that offers this kind of tour, I absolutely recommend you take it. It was really cool to see all of the different areas fans don’t get to go on game days and pick up some nuggets of info about the park along the way.

I put together a montage of photos and video from various parts of the stadium, including the press box, media room, home clubhouse (with a note to rookies Bryce Harper and Tyler Moore to remember their passports), the batting cage under the stands, and of course, the bullpen:

Inside the clubhouse, the Nats have years of team photos along with action shots from games. But one item I found fascinating (yet not enough to take a picture) was a set of yearbook-style photos titled 2012 MLB Umpires. I guess that’s to make sure you know the name of the guy you’re yelling at from the dugout?

I wonder if they get each ump to sign their picture at the end of the year. HAGS.

By cjhannas baseball family Uncategorized
24 May

Best Year Ever

This week, Washington Post columnist John Kelly has been sharing stories of people with interesting life goals — like today’s piece about a guy who has visited every county in the United States.

Seems like a good opportunity to at least partially take care of a blog topic that my brother can attest I’ve been meaning to tackle for more than a year.

My crazy goal — which would require winning the lottery for both free time and funds — is to see every Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Hockey League and National Basketball Association team play a home game…all in the same year (or a 12-month period). Plus see the championship-clinching game for each league and their respective all-star game.

I think this would be the greatest year a person could possibly have. I’d be going to games all the time, traveling to every major city in the country and gaining at least 700 pounds from eating delicious stadium food. Logistically, obviously it would be quite a challenge, but in a way I think it would be really fun to figure out how to get all the games in.

Certain sports would be easy. Baseball teams play the most games and also have a block of the year all to themselves. Plus with the way they play on back-to-back days, and at different times of the day, it’s not hard to imagine seeing the Mets play on a Saturday night, the Yankees at 1 p.m. Sunday and then the Phillies at 8 p.m. Sunday. That’s a good chunk of the league in just 24 hours.

Football is the real challenge. Without taking the risk of trying to guess which teams I think would end up hosting a playoff game, geography would be my biggest friend in safely hitting my goal in the regular season. I envision trying to hit 1 p.m. games nearest the city where the Sunday night game is being played — or at least in a city where there is an easy flight to that site. But the NFL also seems to be making the schedule even easier, adding more Thursday night games and continuing to have Saturday games later in the year. It’s like they know I’m coming.

When my Mega Millions numbers hit, this is happening.

[Some time I’ll actually do the long-awaited sports bucket list post featuring what I’d like to see at those games.]

By cjhannas baseball basketball football hockey life plans Uncategorized
19 May

We’re Going to Overtime

If you like your baseball games to end in nine innings, don’t watch one I attend.

Last night I went to my fourth Nationals game of the season — all of which have gone into extra innings (10, 13, 10, 11). Unfortunately, the 2-1 loss to the Orioles broke my winning streak to start the year.

Of course it was still a baseball game, and thus extremely fun. We saw the rare occurrence of two balls being thrown into the dugout within a span of five innings. The Orioles also got their first run after a ground ball up the middle hit off the pitcher’s foot and caromed 9382937 feet into the air.

AV, who was in attendance, took a picture of me:

Ok, so maybe she was taking a picture of the nice sunset and I happened to be sitting on that side of the stadium. But you can’t prove that. Um, unless maybe you ask her. In which case she is lying.

I also took a picture of her empty seat (before she arrived). You’ll notice Nats phenom Bryce Harper is in this one too, after hitting a foul ball to my right:

For your planning purposes, my next game is Friday June 1. I’m feeling 12 innings for that one.

By cjhannas baseball Uncategorized
27 Apr

Charting My Fandom

If you are a sports team, you do not want me as a fan.

I mentioned in a post back in February that I collect the stubs to just about every event I attend, which means I can go back and look up the results of any games for which I still have the ticket. The result — I know that the teams I wanted to win those games went 26-37-1 with me there.

Of course there are many variables that go into that result, and it certainly didn’t help that I back a baseball team that has had a few atrocious years. But in 64 games, I’ve never been to more than three in a row in which my team won. In a stretch starting with Capitals-Devils on February 27, 2002 and ending with Nationals-White Sox on June 19, 2010, I saw my teams lose 10 out of 11 games.

Beyond the nerdily interesting task of putting more of my life in an Excel spreadsheet, reading the recaps of games stretching back to 1993 was really fascinating.

Some interesting notes:

-Best pitching matchup: Greg Maddux and Mike Mussina at Camden Yards in 2000.

-Attended same games as Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

-Saw Orioles OF Larry Bigbie get traded during a game

-Went to a Nats game on the wrong day, got a free ticket and saw Roy Halladay pitch a CG 2-hitter to record his 21st win of the season.

-Watched Caps winger Alex Semin get in a fight. The video of his effort shows why this is a momentous occasion.

-Witnessed a Chicago Bears punter — on a fake field goal — throw a 27-yard touchdown pass to linebacker Brian Urlacher to beat the Washington Redskins.

-This season I’ve been to three Nationals games — all extra-inning wins, including a 13-inning game that featured two runnings of the illustrious Presidents Race. I saw that happen once last year, too.

We’ll see what happens next time. Stay tuned.

[Note: I found some non-game-related items as well. Covered in this post.]

By cjhannas baseball basketball football hockey nerdness Uncategorized
14 Apr

Take Me Out to the Ball Games

Baseball is back, and that means another fun season ahead at Nationals Park.

I went along with my mom and brother to the Nats home opener Thursday, which was a scrappy win that seems to be a preview of what is in store for the team this year. Here’s a little photo/video montage of the day:

I didn’t have a shot of it myself, but Gio Gonzalez getting his first Major League hit was a fun moment. You can see in the video here that he couldn’t help but hide how happy he was. He even tweeted a screenshot of his “BIG smile.” In a game played by millionaires, it’s easy to forget the fun aspect, so it’s nice to see someone let loose like that. Add in his great pitching and amazing attitude so far about playing in Washington, and I think I’m really going to enjoy having him on the team.

On Friday, my brother and I went back for the second game of the year — a 13-inning marathon that ended with Jayson Werth slapping a game-winning single. His first words after the game were thanking the fans for their support. He didn’t have very good numbers last year, but I can’t help but like his attitude too.

My brother and I wore our presidents shirts for the first time. For those who don’t know, the Nats have four presidential mascots — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abe Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt — who wear a jersey with their first name and the number of their presidency. This year Pat and I got our own shirts honoring some lesser-heralded leaders:

Note: I am not actually three times the size of my brother

At first we tried the conventional photo op, but quickly discovered Jefferson’s arm around your shoulder obscures the name. Plus with taking the photo from behind, it’s awkward to tell when to stop posing. We opted for this “stand near him” style, which means we also happen to be in the background of several other people’s pictures.

If you’ve made it this far, stick around for one more story from our Metro ride home Friday night.

A couple sat down in front of us — the woman immediately turning around in her seat to talk to my brother and I. To say that she was drunk would be a massive understatement. She apparently recently read a book about body language and set about examining us, giving such observations as “YOU’RE BROTHERS!” and “You have the same eyes, but a different face.” For the record, we have very different eyes.

After about 10 minutes, her male companion (probably boyfriend, but I didn’t ask) mentioned that high-fiving was “her thing” and how he was surprised she hadn’t asked us for one yet. We gave her one. And then, in the spirit of the fun we were having, I challenged her to high-five 20 other people in our packed train car.

There were tons of people around us, so I figured she would high-five all those within reach and be done in roughly a minute. Instead, she took off down the opposite end, high-fiving her way to meeting all sorts of new friends. She was gone for a while, her companions occasionally calling out to her and noting her laugh as a response. But with about five stops before they were set to get off, they didn’t hear anything, and went to look for her. The male companion came back with a look of frustration and said, “She…got off the train.”

He stepped off at the next stop to find her, while their friends shook their heads and laughed. Apparently this wasn’t the first time this kind of thing had happened with her. Who knew a simple high-five challenge would turn out like that?

By cjhannas baseball family metro Uncategorized video