R.I.P Ted Lerner

 Real estate tycoon and the principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team passed away at the age of 97. He was a founder in Lerner Enterprises which is the largest landowner in the Washington DC area. Forbes named him the richest man in Maryland in 2015. His family currently owns the Nationals but from 2006 when they arrived in Washington through 2018 Ted Lerner was the principal owner of the team. In a lot of ways, the man responsible for bringing baseball back to the Nation's Capital.

He won the Power of Baseball Award in 2022...

The world lost a wealthy, successful businessman. A person who bought baseball back to a city providing joy for thousands of fans. He gave back. He will be missed by his family and friends. 

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2022: Z is for Ryan Zimmerman

 Ryan Zimmerman recently from baseball and the Washington Nationals. Fitting to end the A to Z challenge with him. He was a World Series Champion, a two-time all-star,  who enjoyed a 16 year career.

A tribute to him:

I hope you enjoyed this years challenge, stay tuned for normal blogging returning tomorrow!

Congrats to Dusty Baker!

(Image via Wikipedia)

Congratulations to Dusty Baker for being named the manager of the Washington Nationals! Baker enjoyed a 19-year career as a player in the Big Leagues. As a manager he owns a record of 1671 wins and 1504 losses and has managed 45 post season games.

Dusty Baker on motivation through fun..

He takes over a team with a talented roster. I wish him luck at his new job!

Washington Nationals 2012 Rewind

What a season by the Washington Nationals! They had the best record in baseball, they had their first winning season, they won their division for the first time, they went to the playoffs for the first time, they had their first twenty game winner and their manager won a well deserved manager of the year award.

I put a list together of ten great moments from this season. You can read my list here. I limited myself to 10, but I am sure in the 167 games the Nationals played this year there are a lot of moments that deserve mentioning. See if you agree with my list, if you have moments you want to share please do so..

Washington's season ended so dramatically too. It was an interesting game to watch and I was rooting for them but the Cardinals come back was just heartbreaking, here is the ending....

This was the best play I have ever seen in person at a baseball game, Bryce Harper stealing home..

I have one more video on my article so check it out. Have fun and I will be blogging on until the storm hits then I might be in Kansas or Oz or somewhere...

October Baseball

This has been one of the greatest post seasons for baseball. I could be biased, I do have a family connection to the San Francisco Giants and two local teams to me the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Nationals were in the playoffs as well.

I think it all started on the last day of the regular season when the Oakland A's over took the Texas Rangers to win that division.

Then every divisional series came down to the wire going 5 games...

The New York Yankees beat their division rival Baltimore Orioles 3 games to 2...here are highlights from a game the O's win but the Yankees would win the series

Then the Detroit Tigers eliminated the Oakland A's 3 games to 2. In this series Detroit won the first two, then the A's won 2 before the Tigers won the last one.

Then the St. Louis Cardinals broke the Washington Nationals hearts in game five rallying back from a 5-1 deficit to win the series..

The San Francisco Giants lost the first two games to the Cincinnati Reds and had to win the last three to advance to the Championship series..

Okay the Detroit Tigers swept the New York Yankees to advance to the World Series..

Not much drama in that series.

The St. Louis Cardinals had a 3 game to 1 lead on the Giants but San Francisco won the next three in a row to advance to the World Series..

I'm looking forward to the World Series between the Detroit Tigers and San Francisco Giants, hoping for one more great series in 2012!

Published: A Pleasant Surprise

Writing has it surprises. I didn't know I had three articles published on Yahoo! Sports in August. All and all it has been a pretty good year for me on the writing side. More people are reading my articles. I take a lot of assignments but I have a lot of freedom to write about what I want to write about. I have done two interviews. I got my first press pass. I am writing poetry again, even if it is just Haiku. I am making more money from it. Not enough to quit my day job but enough to help out with the bills.

However, the coolest thing is to see my work published somewhere different than the usual places. It was neat when I had one article published on Yahoo! Finance in July. In August I had an article published on the WNBA's Crystal  Langhorne,  a stadium review on Nationals Park, and a MLS  Review of RFK Stadium. I have submitted some more articles and I am working on a few more that might show up on Yahoo as well.

Review of Nationals Park

Last weekend I was able to go to three games at the Washington Nationals new ballpark in Washington. DC. The stadium is nice. Washington has done a wonderful job with the stadium and the area surrounding the ballpark. The first night we had nosebleed seats, the view was good. You could see the whole field. The next two games we had lower level seats and they were even better. They had a fireworks show after the game on Friday. I have to say I have seen nicer firework shows after minor league games but it was a nice diversion. Saturday they showed a movie after the game on the big screen located by the scoreboard opposite the third base side. I thought this was pretty clever idea. It also gave a chance for fans to do something while the crowd thinned out. They also have a playground for children which was closed on Sunday. They also have a shaded playstation area as well. The ballpark is great. Ticket prices are more expensive than at nearby Camden Yards in Baltimore. Also food and drink inside the stadium was very expensive even for stadium food. Beers were $7.50, bottled water was $4, we had a BBQ dinner Friday night that was $34 for two. Saturday we had cheese steaks for $8.50 a piece.
All and all a good place to see a game but bring plenty of cash.