In the midst of this stinking run (the Nats are 14-23 since July 22), Nats fans can fall back on the fact that the Cubs (or anyone for that matter) would love to get a guy like Lannan and would trade more than a few prospects to put him on the mound. Which is the best reason to keep him and to look to next year — when (if the Nats have any kind of hitting at all), the young lefthander will be odds-on to be much better than .500. That is to say: a premium pitcher, the kind (with Balester) you can build a rotation around.

If Lannan continues to grow he will be a one of those unique pitchers — a lefthander with stuff who can dominate a game. He damn near does now. I wonder if Bowden knows what he has?

Victory, Defeat, Profits: Baseball and softball have been taken out of the Olympics, despite providing some of the most entertaining amateur contests in the history of the games. The U.S. won bronze in baseball and the U.S. women were upset by the Japanese in softball (a phenomenal game). But the most entertaining game was the Cuban-South Korean tilt, which provided a South Korean upset. It was a nail-biter: the Cubans had the bases loaded in the ninth with one out and grounded into a double play.

So why take both sports out of the games? IOC President Jacques Rogge (who berated Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt for celebrating his 100m and 200m wins — because, apparently, he can’t abide having black athletes celebrating), says that when major league players agree to be a part of the games the IOC will review their ban:  ”We have Federer, Nadal in tennis. We have the best cyclists. Rinaldinho is here in football. We want these guys in the game. We’re not saying its an entire Major League team, but we want the top athletes here at the Olympics.”

So much for amateur athletics. So much for the joy of victory, the agony of defeat. So much for up-close-and-personal. The Olympics are about profits — putting bodies in the seats, putting eyes in front of the television, and putting money in the bank. Exhibit A: In wake of the war in Bosnia, Olympic athletes asked the IOC to help them start a fund to rebuild Sarajevo. The IOC said ”no.” After all, the IOC isn’t a humanitarian organization. Rogge, a one-time yachtsman for Belgium, waves all of this off. “We’re a sporting organization,” he says, “not a political organization.”

The Big Train: For anyone following “Baseball Tonight’s” all-time franchise listings, the biggest surprise came on the night of July 31, when Tim Kurkjian (et.al.) announced that Kirby Puckett had outpolled Walter Johnson as the fan’s pick for all-time Twins franchise player. I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise: baseball fans rarely remember two generations back — and Walter Johnson (who pitched in Washington twenty years) isn’t that well known except among the die-hards. But Kurkjian (a graduate of Walter Johnson High School) got it right: “Walter Johnson is the greatest pitcher to ever play the game of baseball.” I’ve got nothing against Puckett, but let’s review the bidding.

Johnson won 417 games, of which 100 were shutouts. What is most shocking is that “the big train” actually completed more games than he won — 531 (vs. 417). How can this possibly be? I think what this means is that even the games he lost were so close it was counter-productive to remove him. He was all the Senators had. He won over 30 games a season twice in his career, over 20 twelve times (including ten in a row) and notched over 3500 strikeouts. He led the majors in strikeouts for 60 years, until Nolan Ryan passed him. And here’s the punch line: the Kansas farmboy was a Senator. In the twenty years that Johnson pitched, the Senators finished first twice. In 1912 and 1913, Johnson accounted for roughly one-third of all the Senators’ wins. In 1911, the Senators were pathetic. They won only 64 games. But Johnson was brilliant; he won 25 of them. His ERA that year was 1.90. He once pitched 369 innings without giving up a home run.  Ty Cobb said he had the most powerful arm in baseball.

Johnson went into the Hall of Fame with Christy Mathewson in the Hall’s inaugural season. He was clearly better than Mathewson, but there are still those who argue that he was only the second best pitcher in history — behind Lefty Grove.

Nonsense.

Let me make this clear: I would rather eat shards of broken glass than see Felipe back at second.  

The latest victim of the Nats’ “rebuilding” movement is Luis Ayala, who was unhappy with his middle inning role. Jim Bowden apparently believed that Ayala didn’t have much of a future with the club — something that any Nats fan could have told him after watching Ayala pitch in July. Mets fans have noticed. Mets Today had this question: “So why did the Mets give up someone with a pulse for this train wreck?”

Actually, it’s not that hard to figure out. Mets GM Omar Manaya used to be the GM for the Expos and saw a lot of Ayala — that is to say, back when Ayala was actually good. The Mets farm system is stocked with former Expos (guys that Manaya drafted). So New York is “Expos North” in the same sense that Washington is “Cincy East.” (Hey, seriously, I can’t wait to see Pokey Reese with the big club. Man, that guy is good! He’s hitting a torrid .169 with the Clippers.) Then too, in spite of the howls from fans of the “Amazins” (gag) the acquisition of Ayala is not a bad idea. The Mets are coasting effortlessly in first place and have only the Phillies to fear. And Ayala has a 3.7-something ERA against Philadelphia. 

So here’s the theory: Ayala is being counted on to salvage the Mets from a sure-sweep by the Phillies during the first week of September, when Chase Utley and company come into Shea for a key three game series. I will watch every minute of it. I will cheer mightily for the “Fightin Phils.” And I will watch closely as, in the middle of the 7th inning, everyone in Shea rises from their seats and screams lustily and in unison: ”Why the hell did we fire Willie Randolph?”

Shea South: It takes a long time to build a tradition and the Nats have only just started. I made note of this aloud during last Thursday’s loss to the Metropolitans, the Nats seventh loss in the row. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that there were more Mets fans than Nats fans in the stands. We (I was there with me droog, Tom) were surrounded: the four guys behind us sported tattoos and digital cameras, going on and on about how beautiful Nationals Ballpark was — too bad, they said, that we had such a lousy team. Mmmmmhmmmmm …

And did you know that the Capitol is right over there. Yeah, so hey, that was pretty impressive seeing that. “Hey, don’t get a beer now,” one of them told his buddy in the bottom of the fourth, “the president’s is about to run.”

The good thing about being a last place team, I told them, is at least you don’t have to suffer through an end-of-season collapse. Surprisingly, they were amused. Tom noted that the one thing about Mets fans is that they have a sense of humor. I agree, but then, they had better — because here come the Phillies.

Good luck Luis.

Tics: Speaking of which. During the recent Phillies series, my son asked me if I remembered the name of the Phillies outfielder who had such a terrible “tic.” A Phillies fan nearby answered the question: “Oh, you mean Jim Eisenreich,” he said. Yeah, that’s the guy. I always thought that Eisenreich was a hell of a hitter, when he wasn’t standing in the outfield talking to himself. Eisenreich’s tics (although, admittedly, that’s a pretty bad word for it) got so bad (and were the subject of so much comment — much of it unsympathetic), that he had to leave baseball for nearly three years, between 1984 and 1987. He was diagnosed and treated for Tourette syndrome. 

Eisenreich had a fifteen year career and was named the Royals’ most valuable player in 1987. After his retirement he and his wife set up a foundation in Kansas City to help children with Tourette’s. He’s more than an interesting man. He was the first recipient of the Tony Conigliaro Award, which is given each year to a ballplayer who has overcome a significant personal problem. Eisenreich now travels around the country talking about the disorder and raising money to help children who have it.

You know, I have this theory that the structure of baseball lends itself to the development of peculiar behaviors or the deepening of them – just take a look at Nomar’s little bat ritual, or check out “Jimmy Baseball’s” subtle at-bat head shake. Like I said, it’s only a theory, and does not apply to a guy like Steve Phillips. Phillips does not have Tourette Syndrome, he’s just naturally incoherent. 

Zink toiled in the minors for six years after being signed as an undrafted minor leaguer in 2002. The 28-year old knuckleballer looked good this year going 13 - 4 with a 2.89 ERA for the Sox Triple-A affiliate in Pawtucket, RI. The kid came recommended by none other than Sox great Luis Tiant so on Monday the Red Sox, having put knuckleballer Tim Wakefiled on the DL, ignored Zink’s pedigree (did I mention he graduated from the baseball powerhouse Savannah College of Art and Design?) and plopped him in the midst of a pennant race. But how bad could it be; the kid already had his own Wiki page.

The game began in a way which, if it were written for Hollywood, would have been laughable: the Sox posted 10 runs in the first inning including not one, but two, three-run homers by David Ortiz. The Sox offensive barrage offered up a new definition of the term “breathing room” for the uninitiated Mr. Zink. Now, it was up to him.

Having been untouched in the first Zink got rattled a bit in the second, giving up two runs but — given the pad — it was forgettable. You could almost hear Ortiz in the dugout approaching Zink afterward: “Forgehedaboudit man.” In the third and fourth Zink was on a roll: three up and three down in both innings. The kid might have something here.

But, in the fifth, the knuckler betrayed him. The first seven batters he faced went: double, ground out, single, single, double, double, double and then, he was done. Texas scored eight that inning to tie the game and the improbable appearance of the no-longer a kid from Carmichael, CA had ended. His final line for the night: 4.1 innings, 11 hits, 8 runs (all earned), one walk and one strike out. His ERA was 16.62.

Overall, a poor outing — one which might very well be his last in the majors — but for a few innings Charlie Zink lived a dream; Fenway Park in a pennant race with a 10-run lead and 38,000 people cheering his name.

Yeah, right.

As dugout fights go, the Fielder-Parra sparring match was modest: the Martin-Jackson confrontation of the ’70s was far worse, as was last year’s Zambrano-Barrett faceoff and the Ramirez-Youkilis contretemps earlier this year. In each of these cases, the main event was explained away by manager’s who preferred to keep the troubles in-house. Viz: Terry Francona told the press that the Manny-Kevin love fest was ”no big deal.” Brewers manager Ned Yost was even more outspoken when talking to the press about the Fielder-Parra face-off: ”If you want to know what happened or what transpired — blow-by-blow or what words were said — I’m sorry you’re not going to know. It’s private, it’s between us, and it’s not a big deal. And it’s not the first time it ever happened, and it won’t be the last.” 

Not going to know? Yeah we are. According to Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel sports writer Haudricourt (I will include the expletives he left out), Parra was headed to the locker room after giving up six runs when Fielder took exception to his retreat: “We stayed out there and watched your shit. You can stay out here and watch our shit.” It didn’t help that Parra baited Fielder when he nearly swiped him with his warm-up jacket on his way down the bench.

The problem is the Brewers are known for this kind of thing. The Fielder-Parra dust-up took place one year and two days after Yost became involved in an altercation with Brewer catcher Johnny Estrada and infielder Tony Graffanino — who were then (post-season) shipped out of Milwaukee. The Brew Crew was 8 1/2 games in front of the Cubs at the time, but in the wake of the Yost incident the bottom fell out of the Brewer’s season. Doug Melvin defended Yost, but a large portion of the Milwaukee fan base wondered if Yost’s volcanic temper was a good fit for the team. The doubts have only escalated since then – and now there’s a growing “Fire Ned Yost” club in brewtown. (I won’t say that I predicted this at the beginning of the year, but I did.) Let’s be clear: the problem in Milwaukee is not Fielder or Parra, it’s Ned Yost. He makes bad in-game decisions and he’s even worse in the club house. At least a part of a manager’s job is to keep the peace — not stoke the fires.

Of course Milwaukee management isn’t going to get rid of Yost in the middle of a pennant race, but if the Brewers don’t make the wild card, Yost will be gone in the off-season — as well as about $15 million of Brewers’ payroll. That is to say: this is their last shot for awhile. There’s accumulating evidence that even Milwaukee’s front office is tiring of Yost, and for good reason. Yost has a habit of saying the wrong things and, after awhile, you have to conclude it’s because he can’t control his mouth. Evidence of this came during a Yost interview on the end-of-July series with the Cubs, a must-win four game confrontation that could have showed-up the Baby Bear’s inability to win on the road. “Seriously, what this is is a dress rehearsal for September.” 

Exactly. The Cubs took the series by a combined 31-11 score. 

So if the Nats want to do baseball a favor they can stick a fork in baseball’s version of John McCain: they can take the three remaining games with the “Crew” at Miller Park and end the Brewers’ vain run for the Central Division crown. In fact, I’ll make this prediction now. The Fielder-Parra fight can mean only one thing. The Milwaukee Brewers are finished.

“See ya, Manny.”

After seven years of “Manny being Manny” the joke grew stale. The perennial whining about being traded, the showing up late for Spring Training and the goofy antics in left field could be, and were, ignored - for years. But this year those relatively minor irritants had given way to actions far more distressing: failing to visit the guys at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after a trip to the White House as World Series Champions, slugging a 64 year-old traveling secretary and, sitting out of games with a rare knee injury otherwise known as Mannyitis. Manny didn’t care who he hurt or dissed with his actions and so, the Sox no longer cared about Manny. It was worth the $7 million the Sox gave the Dodgers to take him plus parting ways with Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen (who went to Pittsburgh) to get Manny out of Boston. That’s how poisoned the atmosphere had become in the clubhouse. It was akin to a celebrity divorce where one partner says to the other: “Just take the Malibu house and go away.”

So how’s it gone since the trade? Well, Manny is on fire in Dodger-land (I guess his knee is o.k.). He’s hitting .625 with three dingers and five RBI. But Bay is no slouch either, hitting .429 with one home run and six RBIs before tonight’s game. Plus, the kid has shown he can play defense as demonstrated on Sunday by gunning out Oakland’s Mark Ellis trying to stretch a single. And as far as The Nation is concerned, well, they gave Mr. Bay four standing ovations his first night wearing the red and white. Manny who?

O.k., time to address Mark’s slam that the Sox seem adept at trading future Hall of Famers - the implication being that this was another dumb move by the Sox. No doubt the Sox have been ham handed in the past: Speaker was traded at the age of 27 having never hit below .309 as a starter and after refusing a pay cut in 1916; Ruth was just 25 but had already amassed a 89-46 record as a pitcher to go along with his (at the time) .289 average when he was sold to the Yanks - the result of bad investments by team owner Harry Frazee. But Clemons was 34 when traded to Toronto only to have his career extended by steroids. Fisk, who wore a Red Sox cap when inducted into the Hall of Fame, was 33 when sent to Chicago and not many would have bet he had 13 more years in him.

But to the point about Ramirez; the reason why dumping Manny was the right move is because he was a pain in the neck. It doesn’t matter what he does the rest of his career - he wouldn’t have done it in Boston. For whatever reason he had become the photo next to the word ‘malcontent’ in the dictionary. And at $20 million this year and probably more for the next several (agent Scott Brosius wants $100 million over four years) it would have been stupid to keep him.

That said, let’s look at what some of the best hitters in the history of the game have done after their 36th birthday (Manny will be 37 next May) as a possible guide to what we can expect from Manny over the course of his next contract. Using a list of what the 10 best hitters ever, according to Ted Williams, did from age 37 until their retirement, it’s unlikely the Red Sox will get less with Bay than they would have with Ramirez. To wit:

Player             Ave. after Age 37

Ruth                        .277

Gehrig                    N/A

Foxx                      .268

Hornsby                .316

Dimaggio              N/A

Cobb                      .347

Musial                  .290

Jackson, Joe        N/A

Aaron                   .270

Mays                   .255

Ramirez is no doubt a future Hall of Famer but is he Rogers Hornsby good? Or Ty Cobb good? Heck, if he’s as good as Ruth was from age 37 to 40 he’ll be in great company but won’t be doing anything Jason Bay can’t do for a whole lot less money.

The Sox got the best Manny had to give and won two rings. Which raises the question: When do you get better when dumping a Hall of Famer?

When his name is Manny Ramirez.

Both have been caught stealing once: Bonifacio in Cincinnati on Sunday (by the weak-armed David Ross) and Gonzalez (though, for some reason, the box score does not show it) on the same day. In both cases it wasn’t even close. To note the obvious — stealing bases involves more than speed and “Gonzafacio” have yet to show they have mastered the art. They had better. Barring a sudden surge of power (let’s call it a “Willie Harris moment”), the Nats will have to figure out how to come up with a 70 percent-plus success rate that makes stealing worthwhile – and that put singles hitters in a position to score. Good teams steal in excess of 90 bases each year and the really good teams have a better than 80 percent success rate. The Nats are currently at 48 stolen bases for 2008 and have been caught stealing 26 times. Not great, not good …

Deplorable.

The Nation: Manny Ramirez joins the long list of Red Sox (where hall of famers go to get traded) who just couldn’t make the grade in Boston and, alas, had to be traded away (or let go) because they just didn’t ”fit in.” Boston’s nationwide reputation as upholders of good citizenry, Puritan morality and fair play have a history of this, choosing to keep the peace, even if it means getting rid of great ballplayers. Let’s see: Tris Speaker was sold to Cleveland to teach him a lesson, Babe Ruth (who just wouldn’t behave) was sold to the Yankees because he wanted too much money, Carlton Fisk (that whiner) decided he’d rather play for the White Sox (the Bosox failed to postmark his new contract correctly), and Roger Clemens was let go to the Blue Jays because he was in his “declining years” — which lasted nine seasons.

Now, in case you haven’t noticed, Manny is being “Gammonized” — which is the attempt to scuff-up a player that you’ve been busy shining to a glowing hue for years. The Red Sox had “no choice” but to make the trade, Gammons wrote in the wake of the LA deal, “because there was no chance — none, zilch, nada — that Boston could make the playoffs with Ramirez on the team.” Okay, I get it. I mean really, how stupid can the Dodger’s be? Even Tommy Lasorda was upset.

Alberto Gonzalez is a good glove no-hit shortstop with impressive team skills. But whether or not he can make it in the Majors is an open question, and one that will undoubtedly be soon answered when he fills in at shortstop for the injured Cristian Guzman. The fact that he once wore pinstripes and has the same name as the former AG of the current crew should not be daunting, he has a better bat and is considered a good citizen by those in the Nationals Past Time who chart such things. The Yankees traded him because they are stockpiling pitching, no matter how modest, and because they seem set at shortstop for some time to come.

The more intriguing prospect is former Diamondbacks’ Emilio Bonifacio, the 11th best prospect in the D-Backs’ organization. Only 23, Bonifacio is known for his speed but, like Gonzalez, has yet to prove he can hit major league pitching. He’ll get a chance to find out: Jim Bowden has penciled him in as the Nats lead-off hitter and starter at second next year, despite the fact that Bonifacio has only swung the bat 35 times in two seasons.

The result will be a somewhat remade infield — with few guarantees that Gonzalez or Bonifacio are any more than better-than-average Triple A players. But then, Bowden had to do something, since scouring Columbus, Harrisburg and Potomac for top-level middle infield prospects failed to find one of any quality. Plus there’s this: if you can find a player that will hit over .250 on this team (a line that neither Lo Duca or Felipe could reach), then you’ve found yourself a starter.

Is Jim In Trouble? Could be. Major league scouts think that Bowden might have gotten more for Jon Rauch and that someone, somewhere, might have given up even moderately experienced prospects for Lopez and Lo Duca. Then too, we are constantly reminded that Bowden passed on a handful of prospects for Alfonso Soriano, though his signing with the Cubs yielded some draft choices. The heat on Bowden is now palpable: while he received draftees Josh Smoker and Jordan Zimmerman for Soriano, the Nats are unlikely to continue to fill the seats of Nats Park unless Bowden can pull off something impressive in the off-season — or before. Bowden supporters point out that Bonifacio has hit .452 since reporting to Columbus and (no doubt) that’s excellent. But Nats fans would prefer he hit somewhere above the Mendoza line when he takes his place at second base (probably tonight), for the first time. You don’t need a crystal ball to figure this one out. Jim is under the gun. And if either Gonzalez or Bonifacio appear to be a bust, the fans will lose their patience, the ownership will read the attendance figures … and Jim will be gone.

But here’s the real shocker: Rosenthal is also reporting that Jim Bowden is taking a close look at the Rockies Matt Holliday. 

Holliday is a veteran slugger, a team player with post-season experience and affordable. Holliday is signed through next season and he’s still young, with seven to ten years of good baseball ahead of him. But, while the willingness of Jim Bowden to trade Rauch for  prospects might be understandable, giving those same prospects (or virtually so) back to Colorado is more than a little puzzling.

Still it’s possible to forge an intriguing model for how this might work. After all, the Nats are competing in the same market as the Rockies, who are dangling reliever Brian Fuentes to the same teams – the Rays, Red Sox and D-Backs. My hunch is that the Rays are more in the market for Xavier Nady than Holliday and might prefer Pittsburgh’s Damaso Marte to either Rauch or Fuentes. Then too, it seems unlikely that the Rockies would trade Fuentes to the Snakes, a division rival. Yet, the Rockies are known to covet a number of Arizona prospects so  . . .  so Rauch goes to Arizona and the D-Back’s prospects go to the Nats, who then package them for  Holiday.

Or Not: The Rockies are known to be in the market for young players to round out the core that got them to the 2007 World Series. There’s only one piece missing: starting pitching. The Snakes might have sinker-baller Brooks Brown available, as well as RHP Hector Ambriz and Barry Enright, who the D-Backs think is the pitching equivalent of Ryan Zimmerman: he’s ready for the big leagues now. But the D-Backs would never trade these guys to Colorado and it seems unlikely the Snakes would send them to DC if they believed that Jim Bowden would turn around and send them to the Rockies for Holliday.   

But this begs the question. Why would the Nats be willing to give up prospects for Matt Holliday, when every piece of evidence we have is that the Kasten-Bowden tag team is doing everything they can to stockpile the young and unproven? There are three reasons:

– so long as Zimmerman, Balester, Lannan, Flores and Milledge are not included in any deal, everything is on the table. I would include Elijah Dukes and Garret Mock, very tentatively, in that mix;

– Now that interleague play is finished and the “Battle of the Beltways” is history, the Nats need to put people in the seats. Holliday could do that. And bringing Holliday in would silence those critics who claim the Lerner’s are more interested in padding their own pockets than providing a winner.

– Holliday provides a veteran presence in the clubhouse and in the outfield that is lacking. Milledge and Dukes could use someone like Holliday to show them how to play the game.

So if you really want Holliday, but getting prospects from Arizona and then trading them to Colorado is out of the question, what do you do?

Talk To The Nation: Bowden is considering trading Cristian Guzman to teams who need a shortstop. The line forms behind the Red Sox, who just put Julio Lugo on the 15 day DL. The Nats could trade Guzman (a “rental”) and Rauch to the Nation (where life with Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima is an adventure) and then ship some of those prospects to Colorado. The Nation gets a reliever and shortstop; the Nats get prospects and Holliday.

Nor should we discount the impossible. A 2009 team of Zimmerman, Guzman (who would return for a new contract), Milledge, Flores, Lannan, Balester, a healthy Johnson and Matt Holliday begins to look like a team that can win some games. 

So Jim: pull the trigger.

It was good to see Kentucky’s bat come to life and you have to feel good for Tim Redding, who finally notched a win after throwing his standard very good game for six innings. But while we’re focused on the bats and Timmy, let’s note that reliever Steven Shell looks like the (proverbial) real deal. Note to Jim Bowden: perhaps you should trade Shell to another team for some prospects! Oh wait, Shell is a prospect. Hey, I have an idea, let’s keep him.

Me Droogs: In an unprecedented show of friendship, the three writers of this blog met for an evening of baseball. We actually sat together during the Nats loss to the Tracy’s — an 11 inning 7-5 affair that the Nats should have won, and would have won, were it not for (in my humble opinion) a late game non-interference call by umpire Angel Hernandez. Every umpire misses a call, but Hernandez’s missed calls are famous — as are his temper tantrums. In 2001 he threw football player Steve McMichael out of Wrigley Field after McMichael (who sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame), had the temerity of questioning his competence. In another incident, Hernandez threw Dodger first base coach Mariano Duncan’s hat into the stands after Duncan threw it to the ground in arguing a call.

No kidding.

In any event, it was great to see the Droogs who, in the midst of the Thursday night loss, received news that Ryan Langerhans was being called up from Columbus and would soon be rejoining the club. We were thrilled. 

Buyer’s Remorse: The first assessment is in on who got the better of the Rich Harden to Chicago for Sean Gallagher, Matt Murton, Eric Patterson and Double-A catcher Josh Donaldson trade– and the nod goes to Billy Beane and the A’s. The common notion is that Gallagher was the key to the trade for Oakland, with early reports suggesting that outfielder Matt Murton would head to Sacramento, Oakland’s triple-A affiliate. But Murton has always been underestimated and it’s no secret that Lou Piniella never really took to him. So when Murton arrived in Oakland, they told him he would start in left field. A very smart decision. I always thought Murton would look good in a Nats uniform: he has a career .294 batting average, a .362 OBP and .448 slugging.

Yesterday, both Gallagher and Murton shined in the Connie Mack’s 9-2 drubbing of the Angels and over at Thunder Matt’s Saloon (named for the now-departed), fans of the Baby Bears were suffering buyer’s remorse. They weren’t the only ones: the Trib’s Fred Mitchell noted that 44 years ago the Cubs made a transaction that sent future Hall of Famer Lou Brock to St. Louis – a trade against which ”all other major Cubs transactions are measured.”  And just who did the Cubs get for Brock? This guy:

The Nation: Everything seems to be clicking in Boston, where Dustin Pedroia’s bat has come to life. The second sacker (and starting All Star) is hitting .311 and sending the Bosox faithful into paragons of ecstacy. There’s no question about it. He’s simply the best baseball player who ever lived. (And he will be …  until, that is, the day that the Evil Empire signs him for $140 million.) I know — let’s talk about Duston Pedroia on Baseball Tonight!

The Bosox are now the class of the AL, and godonlyknows just how good they can be when the get a little from the bullpen. Even so, I can’t help noting that “Red Sox Nation” has been notably silent on the one transaction they once trumpeted — the signing of this guy to a “no lose” minor league deal:

We here at the Dogz have recently learned that Bartolo is either on the DL or that he is the unknown in that song about “the man who never returned.” My bet? He is lost forever ‘neath the streets of Boston.

MASN’s viewer ratings are, in fact, more than disturbing; they could be pointing to an overall trend that would reinforce those critics who have always claimed that D.C. is simply not a baseball town. Even so, amidst this piece of bad news there is some good — modest though it might be. Nats fandom, for one, continues to support the team; attendance numbers are good, particularly considering the on-the-field product, and support for the team (an intangible) is growing. The NATS are sixteenth in attendance, averaging over 29,000 fans per game. The NATS are ahead of the first place White Sox and Rays, the second place Marlins, as well as the A’s, Rangers and Twins.

While it’s true that a continued poor showing of the on-the-field product could bring those numbers down next year, the Nats can be justly proud of taking the necessary first step in building a loyal following: the city has built a beautiful ballpark in a soon-to-be-booming neighborhood with a commitment to finding good young ballplayers. There are skeptics, but I believe the commitment. So … I am simply unwilling to follow the advice given by Ian Koskie, over at NationalsPride, who says he will not renew his season tickets. He gives eight reasons: reckless call-ups, unfulfilled promises, widely available individual game tickets, inability to give away excess tickets, sheer boredom, MASN HD, constant extortion and no hope.

Ian can make his own decisions and he has a right to, but I’ve made mine. I will be renewing my season tickets. Here’s five reasons why:

1. Fulfilled promises: The Nats promised they were going to build a team from the bottom-up, with young players who were committed for the long haul. They’ve kept that promise by putting Ryan Zimmerman, Jesus Flores, John Lannan, Collin Balester and Lastings Milledge on the field. They’re good ballplayers, not castoffs — and they could form the nucleus of one of the National League’s better franchises.

2. The Team Cares: I saw the D-Backs play the other night on MASN (I am one of those 9000 households). They looked like they didn’t care. Chad Tracy Buckner’d a ball in the 7th inning that he should have had and Micah Owings took himself out of the game. I have seen some pretty poor play in the 17 games I have gone to at Nationals Park, but I have never seen the team concede a game. I have never seen Manny Acta lose focus. So here it is: as long as they give a shit, so will I.

3. MASN: Don Sutton and Bob Carpenter are very, very good announcers. I like Sutton (I don’t like his love affair with Austin Kearns, but hey — he has a right) and the in-studio commentary of Johnny Holiday and Ray Knight is first rate. Ray Knight knows his stuff and I get the sense there isn’t a mean bone in his body. You want lousy announcing — go to Cincinnati or St. Louis or listen to a White Sox broadcast. They’re just plain awful. It’s like listening to NFL analysis: it’s all about character and leadership and “smash-mouth” competition. Waddabunchacrip. Not with Sutton, et. al. They think it through. Byron Kerr and Debbi Taylor are better than average, and I like Phil Wood. He’s clearly a fan who ended up behind the microphone and he talks like a fan. These people, it seems to me, are dedicated to doing the best they can. Someday, they’ll be rewarded with tens of thousands of viewers.

Or would you rather go back to the days of Ron Darling?

4. Nationals Park: I was standing outside the 1st Base gate one night (inhaling my lousy habit) and I started talking with another fan. Here’s what he said: “Isn’t this great?” and I nodded. “You know,” he said, “maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I just have to. These guys got this right. What a stadium — what fun it is to be here.” That’s right: this city can’t even build a decent convention center, but somehow they built a ballpark. Nationals Park is just a great place to watch a game. And the people in the stands are beginning to realize that. You ever been out to watch a Redskins’ game? I have. Once. I won’t go again.

5. Grow Up: What did we think would happen? I’ve been a Cubs fan since 1962. You know what that’s been like? If you’re a Cubs fan you regularly blame the drought on black cats and errant foul balls. But the truth is, for thirty of those years, the Cubs were owned by people who just didn’t care. No Cubs fan will say that out loud — but it’s true. So you learn to be a baseball fan, to root for the game, to appreciate a good play. And that’s what I’ve learned to do. The wins will come to the Nats. It’ll take a while. But they will come. And when they do, I’ll be in the same seats that I have now rooting for this team. Because that’s what being a fan means.

Now then, back to the sarcastic unfair criticism.