If the folks in charge of marketing the Washington Nationals radio broadcasts are smart, they’ll put the play-by-play of Saturday’s bottom of the eighth inning and Sunday’s bottom of the ninth on a CD and distribute them to every household in the greater Washington area.
The dramatic come-from-behind victories over the Yankees gave Nats’ announcer Charlie Slowes his Russ Hodges moment on WTWP.
For those of you unsure what I mean, Hodges was the New York Giants announcer for many years and behind the microphone on Oct. 3, 1951 when Bobby Thomson homered off of Brooklyn’s Ralph Branca in the deciding game of a NL playoff series. Hodges’ call — “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” — gave him iconic status. We’ve all heard it countless times, even if we weren’t around when the game was played. (I was, though just 7 months old.)
Slowes proved, without a doubt, he’s the kind of throwback baseball play-by-play guy whose style will endure in this town for decades. I’m glad I hired him.
That’s right. It was me. Ask him. He’ll tell you. I told him he had the job well before the club did. After doing his penance with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for seven seasons, he was due for parole. I’m no psychic, but I knew he was the best guy for the job.
Though the weekend wins over the Yankees don’t guarantee anything — they did move the Nats into third place by themselves, ahead of the Braves — they’re exactly the kind of wins that guarantee the return to RFK for many of those fans.
I’m not kidding myself here. I’m aware a lot of Yankee fans inhabited RFK over the weekend. But it was remarkable in that many of them were wearing Yankee caps and Nationals’ shirts, or vice-versa. Not every Yankee fan drove down from New York or New Jersey.
Let’s face it, if there truly is an “America’s Team” in MLB, it’s the Bronx Bombers. But becausethey are in the other league, it’s perfectly acceptable to keep one eye on the Yanks as long as the other eye is on the Nats. It’s safe to say, based on the past weekend, the Yankees are the most popular American League team in the greater Washington area, which can’t be good news for the Orioles.
One other thing: I think I speak for a lot of area baseball fans when I say we really don’t care what this team did in Montreal between 1969 and 2004. References to “franchise records” held by guys who never played in Washington are of little meaning. (The Orioles barely acknowledge they used to be the St. Louis Browns.)
You want to talk about Washington records, great. But, as far as I’m concerned, whatever happened in Montreal should stay in Montreal.
The Lerner ownership group reportedly plans to pay more than just a passing nod to the history of baseball in Washington at the new stadium and I think that’s terrific.
Phil Wood has covered sports in the Washington-Baltimore market for more than 30 years.
