The Gripe Extract: 6-23-09

The Gripe Extract is a daily listing of high quality links that pertain to sports, stats, and randomness in the greater DC area.

-Hogs Haven- Dan Snyder is alienating die-hard Redskin fans...again

-Redskins Insider- Redskins Position Battles: RT and WR

-ComingSoon.net- 2012: same director as "The Day After Tomorrow"
- Looks to me like another expensive flop about the end of the world.

-BtB- AL East is still the best division in MLB

My Finale at Nationals Park: "Cito Sucks!!"

From Joe Guido: Blue Jays at Nationals

Cito Gaston is a horrible human being that has no respect for baseball or its fans. See 1993 All-Star Game to read the entire account of why all MLB fans, not just O's fans, should give him no respect.

Not only did he not put Mike Mussina into the 1993 All-Star game at Camden Yards, he was never even apologetic for his bonehead actions. He is a disgrace to America's pastime and should receive a lifetime ban from MLB for his unprofessional behavior.

I gave my loudest "Cito Sucks!!" when he was walking back to the dugout, but it was unfortunate that he probably didn't hear me. Somebody should have explained to him the meaning of the phrase "do onto others as you would want done onto you" before 1993 - things might have turned out differently if that had been the case.

The Gripe Extract: 6-22-09

The Gripe Extract is a daily listing of high quality links that pertain to sports, stats, and randomness in the greater DC area.

-Hogs Haven- Hilarious tracker of 400 lb Redskins player losing weight

-Bullets Forever- Rumors of Wizards/Knicks trade and why its stupid

-Hogs Haven- Redskins OL situation is not good

-Baltimore Sun- Simple Baseball Rule

-BtB- Is (base) stealing worth the risk?

A Night at Nationals Park

Laura and I were invited by our good friends Ed & Christina to attend the Blue Jays/Nationals game this past Saturday night. Ed is a huge Blue Jays fan (Christina seems to be adopting the team as well) and he does not get many opportunities to see his team in action. I felt it was my duty to go have a fun time with friends and root against one of the O's rivals (even if it meant rooting for the Nationals).

In terms of action, the game itself was lacking. I think it was 0-0 for the first five innings. A combination of 6 runs were scored by both teams in the 6th, 7th, and 8th to leave the game in a 3-3 tie. The 9th, 10th, and 11th innings went by with no score. We left at that point, considering that neither team was playing good baseball or seemed to care about winning.

Luckily for us, some uncommon things happened Saturday night in the stands...

Action in the Stands #1:

Brent Cecil's Family

The Blue Jays called up Cecil from their AAA team to pitch this game. He pitched quite well, but the Nationals hitting deficiency probably helped in this regard. Anyway, his entire, very excited family was around us plus many other Blue Jays fans (we were seated around the Blue Jays dugout). We eventually found out that Cecil is from SOMD and went to DeMatha, thus the huge fan base. This was entertaining for about 2 innings.

Action in the Stands #2:

The "Other" Umpires
I know you can't see the Umpires very well in this picture, but you can at least see that they are seated in the stands like any other fans, except that they are wearing catcher's masks! When the Blue Jays were pitching, these two guys (dressed in complete umpire's attire) would fake call all of the balls, strikes, and outs. They would even sweep the area in the front of them every time the real umpire dusted off home plate. Fanhouse has a really good picture of them. This was entertaining for most of the game - they also came out to umpire the president's race (they ejected George Washington for arguing).

Action in the Stands #3:

Free T-Shirt
During the 5th, Laura and I decided to go for looking for some frozen lemonade and ice cream. Laura expressed to me that she really wanted one of the free t-shirts that get thrown into the stands - since she never wins any contests. We had already missed out twice, but when the 7th inning stretch came up, the t-shirts started flying into the stands again. I failed on the first chance at the t-shirt. It was a long reach and I got a few fingers on the t-shirt, but it got by me, and some stupid blue Jays fan behind me got it. As I'm starting to get down on myself for missing the opportunity, another t-shirt is flying towards the right of me. I didn't miss it this time - full hand grab. So Laura got her t-shirt, but these Nationals t-shirts are weak (see above). The "Welcome Home" is the only thing on the shirt. The rest of the shirt is plain white - another epic fail by the Washington Nationals.

There was one other thing I had to accomplish before leaving the ballpark Saturday, but I'm going to save that story for later post...

All streaks must come to an end...

O's were 0-34 this year when trailing after 8 innings and went into the 9th inning trailing by one against arguably the best closer in MLB:




Not Clutch

A double, a walk, a favorable call, another walk, and a single by Huff (pictured below) add up to an incredible win by the O's.




Very Clutch

images via a.espncdn.com, a.espncdn.com