The Nationals (heart) New York!

Thanks in no small part to the amazing -- dare I say miraclous -- horizontal dive catch by Willie Harris of a fly ball hit in the ninth inning by Ryan Church down the left field line, the Nationals held on to beat the Mets, 1-0. Several commentators said that catch was the "play of the year" -- so far. The lone RBI in the game was a sac fly in the eighth inning by Felipe Lopez, allowing Jesus Flores to score. The Nationals also won on Wednesday night, 5-3, as Tim Redding got his fourth win of the season. Against all odds, the Nats took three of four games up in New York, hopefully getting their season back on the right track again.

I checked my records, and found that the Nationals have had much better success against the Mets in Shea Stadium than at home. Remember when they swept the Mets up there in late September last year? I'm sure the Mets remember -- they got knocked out of the playoffs! From 2005 until the present, the Nats have a 19-14 record against the Mets when playing in New York, and a record of only 8-22 when playing at home in Washington.

I heart N.Y.!

And so, in honor of the Mets' aging, soon-to-be-retired home, which has been so friendly to the Nationals, I have updated the Shea Stadium diagrams, adding lights and other details. Note that I have lowered my estimate of the total diameter of the stadium by about 40 feet, which works out to about seven rows. Basically, there is more overhang by the middle and upper decks than I had realized, so they are a bit more "squeezed together" than I had thought.

Watching the Nats-Mets games on TV (MASN!) was a great opportunity to see the construction progress on Citi Field, which looms menacingly over Shea Stadium's left-center field. The west side of the new structure is only twenty or so feet in back of the center field black screen.

UPDATE: For some great photos of Shea Stadium and Citi Field, see baseball-fever.com; hat tip to Mike Zurawski.

Nick Johnson on DL

Nick Johnson hurt his wrist the other day, and after an MRI test, it was found that he has a torn tendon sheath in his right wrist. He is expected to be out for four to six weeks, but has been put on the 15-day disabled list, presumably in case he heals faster than expected. The Nats really need him, as he is one of the highest on-base percentages on the team, mostly because of his ability to draw walks. (Patience!) See MLB.com. Coincidentally, the man who replaced him at first base last year, Dmitri Young, is just coming off the DL. In any case, Aaron Boone has been playing extremely well -- both as backup first baseman, and as a batter at the plate. It's another example of how the Nationals have acquired one of the deepest rosters in all the majors, with multiple solid players at almost every position. It's just too bad some of their first-stringers can't perform at All-Star levels on a consistent basis...

Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 16 May 2008, 3: 45 PM .

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My blog practices

My general practice is to make no more than one blog post per day on any one category. For this reason, some blog posts may address more than one specific issue, as indicated by separate headings. If something important happens during the day after I make a blog post, I may add an updated paragraph or section to it, using the word "UPDATE" and sometimes a horizontal rule to distinguish the new material from the original material. For each successive day, blog posts are listed on the central blog page (which brings together all topics) from top to bottom in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the order in which the posts were originally made:

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War
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* part of "Macintosh & Miscellanous" until Feb. 2007

The date of each blog post refers to when the bulk of it was written, in the Eastern Time Zone. For each blog post, the time and date of the original posting (or the last update or comment thereupon) is displayed on the individual archival blog post page that appears (just before the comments section) when you click the [LINK / comments] link next to the date. Non-trivial corrections and clarifications to original blog entries are indicated by the use of [brackets] and/or ~~strikethroughs~~, as appropriate so as to accurately convey both the factual truth and my original representation of it. Nobody's perfect, but I strive for continual improvement. That is also why some of the nature photos that appear on the archive pages may differ from the (inferior) ones that were originally posted.

The current "home made" blog organization system that I created, featuring real permalinks, was instituted on November 1, 2004. Prior to that date, blog posts were handled inconsistently, and for that reason the pre-2005 archives pages are something of a mess. Furthermore, my blogging prior to June 1, 2004 was often sporadic in terms of frequency.

Blog errata
(preliminary)

April 4, 2008: "Andy Ashby" should be "Andy Jones"

April 3, 2010: "Mike Morgan" should be "Nyjer Morgan"

: "" should be ""

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