With no owner, a major league baseball team can have no real discernable “plan.” That’s clearly the case with the Nationals, who struggle to display any real consistency this season. The ownership situation should be settled within days — I actually believe them this time — but I suspect the remainder of the 2006 campaign will offer more of what we’ve seen thus far.
Frank Robinson knows bad baseball when he sees it. He certainly recalls the 1988 season when he replaced Cal Ripken Sr. as Orioles’ skipper when the club was 0-6, and presided over another 15 losses before they eventually won a game. Yet, despite going 54-107 that year — a .335 winning percentage, 34.5 games out of first — Frank had the Birds in contention the following year. It turned out to be a fluke, in retrospect, but it shows that, in this game, miracles can happen overnight.
The ’88 Orioles are a worthy comparison to this year’s Nats. They had stars like Cal Ripken Jr., Eddie Murray and Fred Lynn. But they also were forced to use never-weres like Jeff Stone, Wade Rowdon and Ken Gerhart. Pitching was a crapshoot, with three pitchers sharing the team lead for wins with 8. The farm system was in disarray, and the emerging star that year was reliever Gregg Olson, who made a rapid jump from the college campus to the mound at Memorial Stadium. They couldn’t score runs — they tallied only 550 (last in the AL) — and they couldn’t keep the other team off the board, giving up 789 runs (also last).
Any of those things sound vaguely familiar?
Frank persevered that year, despite the early hole the club dug for itself. He’ll do the same this year at RFK. (It’s funny, but I wonder if the thought ever crossed his mind in 1988 that someday he’d win 1,000 games as a big league skipper. Probably not.)
The most remarkable thing about that 1988 season up the road was that a club that couldn’t play .400 baseball managed to attract 1.6 million fans. The Oriole faithful — which by 1988 included many Washingtonians — never deserted the flock.
Nationals’ attendance this year will easily surpass that 1988 Baltimore figure, but a lot of that is based on advance sales. Let’s be honest, there’s been a lot of no-shows this season, and the prospects for finishing above .400 aren’t that great. But it’s important to put everything into perspective.
There will be an owner — and soon. There will be a new organization, which may take some time. The farm system will rise again. A new ballpark is in the offing, and with it, the “gotta-be-there” mentality that will drive ticket sales for a few years. After that, they have to be competitive, and continue to send their fans the message that they’re in it to win it.
In the big picture, wouldn’t you rather be a Nationals fan than, say, a Kansas City Royals supporter? Think about that for a minute.
Phil Wood has covered sports in the Washington-Baltimore market for more than 30 years.
