I came across this on Yahoo!’s Shut Down Corner:

Hilarious, and really really well done. It got me thinking though, you never see commercials like these for any Washington D.C sports teams. Kansas City isn’t the only team with funny commercials either, the Colorado Rockies are famous for funny team ads.

Here’s a great spot from the Rockies last year:

Surely if the Nationals had commercials like this it would only help them with their already poor attendance.

It wouldn’t seem that hard to do either, at least for the other D.C franchises. Our city certainly has its share of characters; Gilbert Arenas, Chris Cooley, Clinton Portis, Antwan Randel El, and Alexander Ovechkin.

Sure, we have Eastern Motors:

But lets see some effort from the teams.

The Brewers ruined Steven Strasburg’s coming out party last night as they handed the Nationals their fourth loss in a row, and their 79^th of the season.

The Brew-Crew got right at it Friday night as the Nats were probably still in a daze from the Strasburg madness. Fielder rocked a two run bomb to center knocking in fellow slugger Ryan Braun to give the club an early 2-0 lead.

The Nats battled back in the bottom half of the first with a sacrifice grounder by Zimmerman to score Nyjer Morgan and a solo blast by Adam Dunn to tie it up.

From there…it was only a matter of time.

Despite solid pitching from J.D Martin he allowed four earned runs in 6.2 innings pitched. The rookie showed excellent control while he struck out four and walked none. Unfortunately his eight hits included two homers.

Down 4-2 in the top of the 9^th, the Nationals brought in Jorge Sosa to hold the Brewers score so the Nats could make a potential comeback in the ninth. That was probably a mistake….

Sosa allowed three runs on four hits while walking one. Despite a Ryan Zimmerman solo shot in the 9^th, the Nats could not overcome the deficet and lost 7-3.

Sosa, who had been very effective since making his debut at the start of August, looked absolutely lost this last week. Wednesday against Colorado, Sosa couldn’t hold the Rockies from piling on the lead as they scored the run that put them out of reach in the Nats 9^th inning comeback. Now he absolutely got crushed by the sub .500 Brewers.

Former National Felipe Lopez went 2-5 last night for the Brewers, and is batting .310 on the season. With 62 runs scored.  The switch-hitting second basemen is batting .371/.405/.429 against the Nats this year with four runs scored.

Despite the loss, last night was a special night for Nats Park. The National media was out in full form to document this potential franchise-changing introduction, the unveiling of Washington’s first overall pick, Stephen Strasburg.
 

Bill Ladson of MLB.com talked to current Nats about what they thought about the kid becoming a National. Jesus Flores said:

"I'm really excited with the team, the front office for getting the deal done, I'm real excited to start catching this kid. I hear he can throw a 100-mph fastball and he has a nice curveball and good breaking stuff. That's the kind of pitcher you love to have."

Duk’ from Yahoo’s Big League Stew covered the story and jested:

“When it finally came to pass on Friday afternoon, the arrival of Stephen Strasburg in Washington was not greeted by flying doves, trumpeting elephants, a lifting of the Redskins Tweeting ban or the Teddy Roosevelt mascot coming armed with a copy of a healthcare solution everyone can agree on.”

The New York Times asserted that it was news fit to print, and of course, Miss Chatter took some great pictures.

Before the Brewers clinched the Wild Card in 2008, the last time they had been in the playoffs Ronald Reagan was only in his second year of his first term.

It was a struggle for the Brewers from 1982-2008, filled with 16 years of embarrassment, futility, and well, Bud Selig-ness. The low point came in 2002 when the Brewers finished the season in last place with a record of 56-106. Brewers fans had had-it, following the 2002 season the club hired a new General Manager, Doug Melvin.

Under Melvin’s tutelage, the Brewers developed and grew arguably the league’s best home grown talent.

First came pitching phenom Ben Sheets. Sheets had been drafted in 1999, 10^th overall by the Brewers, and by 2000 he was an Olympic hero for the American Baseball team. He soon rode his newfound fame to the Major Leagues, however many speculated that he may have been rushed. For three years sheets produced mediocre results, which were interrupted by shoulder problems.

In 2004 however Sheets broke out in a big way. In 34 starts the hard throwing righty posted a 2.70 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 264 strikeouts to only 32 walks in 220 innings pitched. Those numbers were good enough for the leagues best strikeout to walk ratio and for a second All Star appearance for Sheets.

Then for the Brewers came the young home grown hitters we all know today. And as Sheets combined with Fielder, Braun, Weeks, Hart and eventually Sabathia the team rose to the top of the standings in 2008.

In the second half of 2008 Sabathia and Sheets were sensational for the Brewers. Sabathia recorded seven complete games and three shutouts. In 130 innings the big fella went 11-2, posted a 1.65 ERA and struck out 128. Sheets matched his brilliance with three shutouts of his own, along with a 3.09 ERA.

However the team met their downfall in the playoffs when Sheets could not pitch due to yet another arm injury. They lost 3-1 in the NLDS to eventual World Champions, the Philadelphia Phillies.

While the Brewers learned an important lesson about homegrown talent in 2008, that it needed to be supplemented by outside help, they also found that with Sheets Health, went the season.

Sheets arm troubles came from years of over work in a time when he should have been developing. By the time the Brewers needed him to be the Cy Young caliber pitcher he was, his arm was already on the fritz. The Brewers were in a bind in the early part of the decade and they needed their phenom young stud to pitch in the majors, whether that would result in success or failure.

If the Nationals are lucky, newly introduced pitcher Stephen Strasburg may someday reach the level of Ben Sheets at his best. Like Sheets ,Strasburg pitches above 95 miles per hour, has great breaking pitches, and tremendous strikeout potential.

Sheets and Strasburg both hold the distinction of striking out 20 batters in one Division I college baseball game, and of course they both hold the distinction of being anointed the savior of a franchise much in need of saving.

Both young starters pitched for team USA and both were considered at that time, essentially MLB ready.
  

Today however, the two stand very much apart in their careers, as Strasburg was just introduced into the league, and Sheets is currently on the outside looking in. Yet another shoulder surgery in the 2008 offseason left Sheets without a team for 2009, and while he will likely be back someday, neither he nor the Brewers will find the form they had in 2008 for a while.

The Nationals must learn from the Brewers cautionary tale and protect their investment. While we all may be itching to see number 37 in uniform, lets remember that number 15 no longer is.

Patience; it’s the key to hitting, it’s the key to pitching, and it’s the key to long careers.
 

1 Stephen Strasburg + 1 Ryan Zimmerman = 1 bright future for the Washington Nationals

Stephen Strasburg will be introduced as a Washington National this afternoon in what promises to be the most exciting day at Nationals Park since opening night.

To celebrate the anointment of the young pitcher, the Nationals are offering $1 tickets to the first 1,000 walk up fans between noon and two this afternoon. While that may be an indictment on how terrible Nationals tickets are selling, it is at the least an gesture from the ownership that perhaps things will start to turn around in the way this club is run.

The Nationals also offered $1 tickets to order on Wednesday, and within three hours 6,000 tickets were sold. I’m starting to think this may just be ploy to convince Strasburg we have regularly attending fans.

Everyone is excited for Strasburg’s arrival, EVEN JIM BOWDEN:

The Strasburg excitement has hit twitter as well. Here are some of the best under the thread “Stephen Strasburg is so good that:”

DArkMEATHOOK #strasburgissogood he will strike out the side in 9 pitches, 9 times during his first game

kevin_reiss #strasburgissogood he convinced his death panel to kill themselves

mstovall RT @NatsEnquirer: #strasburgissogood #nats will change name to Strasionals. Dunn will take the field wearing a "Strasinals" jersey.

andreekless #strasburgissogood that somehow Teddy is actually leading in the 2009 President's Race standings..

dougchapinjr #strasburgissogood that Smiley Gonzalez will actually be sixteen again

Manny_Acta #strasburgissogood That I could competently coach a team with him on the roster.

Lastly, check out Adam Dunn’s overwhelming excitement for the debut of Stephen Strasburg. Mr. Personality can hardly contain himself:

For three consecutive nights the Washington Nationals came up just short at home against the Colorado Rockies.

Gone however are the Rockies of the 1990’s, comprised of sluggers from end-to-end of the line up. There is no Andres Galarraga, Vinny Castilla, Larry Walker, or even Dante Bichette’s. Instead all that remains in this new, revamped Rockies club, is a reformed, powerless Todd Helton, a great pitching staff, and one hell of a defense.

It was that pitching staff and defense that carried the Rockies over the Nationals this week at Nats Park. Despite the Nats recording 24 hits in the three game series, the club was only able to score eighty runs. The solid defense of the Rockies was too much to overcome as every potential rally was turned into an inning-saving catch or a double play to take the wind out of the Nationals sails.

Ryan Zimmerman and Adam Dunn combined to only go 4/22 on the series, with no runs scored and two RBI. Willingham went 1/12 with no runs and no RBI. It’s no mystery to see why the Nationals couldn’t score a clutch run all series.

This lack of clutch hitting (if there is such a thing) was on display each 9^th inning of the series as the Nationals had a chance to tie it up in each game. Alas, the Nats came up short each time against Rockies closer Huston Street. Street earned 3 saves but surrendered two runs in three appearences, a high rate for the young fireballer.

Rockies Starting pitching this series:

• Ubaldo Jimenez- 8 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 5 K, 1 BB
  
• Jason Marquis- 6 IP, 9 H, 3 ER,  1 K, 1 BB
  
• Jason Hammel- 7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3K, 2 BB
  

Nationals last place standings:

(Mike Rizzo was introduced as the Nationals General Manager today)

Manny Ramirez pre-suspension:  27 Games .348/.470/.622 6 HR 20 RBI 21 R

Manny Ramirez post-suspension: 41 Games .278/.378/.500 7 HR 25 RBI 19 R

Most people’s initial reaction to these numbers will obviously be that his numbers are down significantly due to him being off of the illegal substances he was previously on.

This may be true but there are likely other major contributing factors. First, as a 36-year-old who didn’t sign until spring training, and then missed 50 games in the middle of the season, it’s reasonable to believe that he is somewhat out of routine. While Ramirez has been on the DL in the past he has never had a huge injury to miss 50 whole games, and is usually well known for his pre-season preparation.

Another possible answer is that the suspension just took the wind out of the sales of a 36-year-old getting close to the end of his career anyways. It may be hard for him to mentally overcome.