Tomorrow is Opening Day for our baseball team. Skip out of work, grab the kids, hit the stands at Nationals Park.
It will be a scene, a rite of spring, an annual ritual. Start now. Do it with your grandkids. Going to Opening Day could be the glue that makes memories.
Why am I making this naked plug to attend the first Washington Nationals home game of the season? Has Nationals President Stan Kasten been whispering in my ear and begging me to attend the game, as he has done on the radio in Philadelphia, whose Phils will oppose the Nats?
No, but I do believe we as a community need to get out and share the national pastime — even if our team looks as if it might be putting up lines of zeros in the hitting and winning boxes again this season.
Baseball teaches patience. And dealing with failure. And building slowly toward making a strong franchise.
I learned this two years ago when I first interviewed Ryan Zimmerman. The Nats’ third baseman was fresh out of the University of Virginia. The team had just signed him in hopes of making him the franchise player. Zim reminded me that batting is all about failing and moving on.
If a batter comes up three times in a game and hits a fair ball each time, and he gets one hit, that means he’s batting .333 for the game, which would make him a star. It also means he most likely struck out, flied out or grounded out the other two times.
Zim’s approach could help fans wrap their arms around a mediocre — occasionally pathetic — team. The Nationals are going to lose plenty of games this season. The Nationals are a work in progress.
The Lerner family understands patience. As real estate developers, they are known for buying property with the long view of developing it decades down the line. Their motto is: Buy low, hold for years, build quality, profit for decades.
The Lerners’ approach is exactly opposite that of Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who buys every expensive player in hopes of winning fast. It’s been a losing proposition.
This brings me back to Ryan Zimmerman. If the Lerners want to build a franchise, and they are willing to invest for long-term fan loyalty and profits, why did they not sign Zim to a long-term contract? He’s young, he’s a worker, he’s a sweetheart, he could be headed to the Hall of Fame. Yet the Kasten-Lerner negotiating team could sign Zim only to a one-year deal.
Perplexing, at best.
One thing we have learned about baseball — or any pro sport — is that free agency has created a transitory roster of athletes. Fans like to bond with players. We like their autographs, their names on our T-shirts, the familiarity of their faces and swings. When they leave or are traded, the bond is broken, with the player and the team.
If the Lerners want us to show up tomorrow and Opening Days into the future, they ought to secure Zim and a few others.
But that takes patience.
