The honeymoon is over for the Washington Nationals.
Five seasons after relocating from Montreal, NatsTown needs to start looking like something more than shambles. The stadium waterfront that was supposed to be revitalized remains a construction chaos.
Even in a town of promise makers, it’s time to show something. The Presidents Race should not be the game’s highlight. The bullpen isn’t for matadors. Seats aren’t for visiting fans. The gift shop shouldn’t sell opposing team’s merchandise.
Washingtonians have been more than patient. Fans have endured two straight major league last place flops at 59-102 and 59-103. They’ve forgiven bad defensive teams, awful pitching staffs, long losing streaks and trades that make government contractors selling $100 hammers seem like good deals.
The Nats say that’s in the past. The offending manager and general manager were fired last season. The team now knows what it’s doing. They have a plan.
OK, show us a respectable team.
Oh wait, what’s that Nats are saying? They’re still young. Gonna be a couple more years?
Sorry, this is a town that no longer gives a new president 100 days to succeed, so adding a few more seasons to the five-year plan isn’t acceptable, comrades. Attendance dropped 500,000 last season and it’s not like those absentees were watching games on TV because of the recession. Fans are simply tired of a bad product.
The ballpark will be filled for Monday’s season opener, but there won’t be another sellout until June when Stephen Strasburg debuts. In between will be a lot of foul balls caroming off empty seats.
Fortunately, the Nats seem like a better team. Strasburg could win 10 games in his rookie season. Fellow 2009 first-round pick Drew Storen may make a difference in the bullpen later this summer, too. Overall, it’s a much better mound staff than last year’s decimated kiddie corp. There’s even Livan Hernandez, the second coming of Luis Tiant who’s a delight to watch.
A healthy Nyjer Morgan in center field adds energy to the top of the order. Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn are as strong a 3-4 punch as there is, especially now that Dunn isn’t worrying about continuing his 40-homer streak.
And at least the Nats have a solid GM in Mike Rizzo and a hometown manager in Jim Riggleman. Manny Acta wasn’t a bad manager last season, but the situation was tired. The Nats showed improvement when Riggleman took over on July 12.
The sixth season of baseball begins in Washington. It’s time to move past the “Gee, just glad baseball is back” and onto “Gee, maybe they have a playoff chance.”
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com and Twitter @Snide_Remarks or e-mail [email protected].
