I should give credit to one of the newest Nationals, Marlon Byrd, who helped the Nats win today and got some clutch hits in other recent games. Endy Chavez seems to being doing well in Philadelphia, so it seems to have been a good trade.May 30, 2005 [LINK]
Their batting remains anemic at best, but the Nationals managed to eke out wins against the Cardinals yesterday and the Braves today, back home at RFK. In both cases the score was 3-2. Well, at least they're consistent. Livan Hernandez won his eighth game [yesterday], tying him (with three other guys) for the lead in the majors. Attendance for the Memorial Day occasion was nearly 39,705 -- not bad! I plan to join an old friend up at the game tomorrow...
UPDATE: The game was decided on a questionable call by the second-base umpire, who ruled that an apparent home run hit to the left field corner by Brian Jordan in the seventh inning was a foul ball. See mlb.com. The game was broadcast nationwide on TBS but it was blacked out here in Virginia, so I didn't see it until the local TV sports. On the replay the ball appeared to have hit the foul pole and bounced foul, but it's impossible to say for sure. That foul pole moves along with the movable part of the grandstand when the stadium is reconfigured for soccer games. It so happens I took a photo of that foul pole and the bullpen last time I was at RFK, so I'll have to post that one soon. I should give credit to one of the newest Nationals, Marlon Byrd, who helped the Nats win today and got some clutch hits in other recent games. Endy Chavez seems to being doing well in Philadelphia, so it seems to have been a good trade.
Latest stadium update: Three Rivers Stadium, sponsored by Mark London. Thanks to a detailed seating chart from an old program Mark sent me, I was quite surprised to realize that this stadium, like Busch Stadium II [the diagrams of which have just been updated], is slightly oval in shape. That necessitated a bit more graphical tweaking than would otherwise be the case. All's well that ends well.