AP: Nationals 1B Nick Johnson put on disabled list

Nationals first baseman Nick Johnson was placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with a torn tendon sheath in his right wrist.

He is expected to miss four to six weeks. Washington plans to activate first baseman Dmitri Young from the DL on Friday.
...
Johnson was injured on a swing late in Tuesday night’s game.

The oft-injured Johnson missed last season while recovering from a broken leg. He is batting .220 with five homers and 20 RBIs this year. He has walked 33 times, however, giving him a .415 on-base percentage.

N.Y. Daily News: Lo Duca calls WFAN

Meh...I just found out that Rays honcho, Stuart Sternberg...used to call into John Sterling’s crapantheon sports radio show back in the early 70’s!

On Monday’s cheers in the dugout: “I wasn’t there. The last few games - I’m on the DL. They have a policy here, the Nationals, when you’re on the DL you stay home. But they let me come on this trip because I live here.

“I don’t know. I’m not a big fan of it to be honest with you. I’ll be honest with you. You know, we’re struggling. Guys are just trying to have a little fun. I think they saw Figueroa getting a little upset, so they amped it up a couple of notches. I do think it’s a little bush league. At first it started off as a little fun, until he got mad. I don’t agree with it. But, also, Nelson Figueroa has nine wins in the big leagues and he needs to keep his mouth shut.”

On being named in the Mitchell Report: “I apologized. It’s something I did a long time ago. The perception, and people think that, hey, he did it last year. No. I did it a long time ago. And it was a mistake I did. I wish it would have never happened. It’s something I’ll have to deal with. But, you know, I’m sort of glad. I think it was a monkey that’s been on my back for a long time that finally flew off. It was something that I’m not proud of, obviously.

“I don’t view myself as a cheater. Obviously it’s something I did. And obviously it’s something that helped me. But, you know, a lot of people don’t realize I got into a bad collision and got run over at home plate one year, in ’95 in Double-A. And I got it prescribed to me by a doctor. A lot of guys did it. There’s a lot of guys in front of me that did it. Like I said, I’m not making excuses. It was part of survival. You want to be at home or you want to be playing? That’s the way it was. I apologized for what I did, but that’s plenty true.”

After Mets’ loss, Nelson Figueroa calls Nationals ‘bunch of softball girls’

Hey...Don’t piss off Natalie Titcume!

Nelson Figueroa knows about bush league baseball. After all, he’s toured the world trying to resurrect his major league career. But not until Monday night did Figueroa witness a truly amateurish display, the Mets pitcher suggested. Incensed at the chants emanating from the Washington dugout during the Mets’ 10-4 loss Monday night at Shea, Figueroa ripped the Nationals afterward.

“They were cheerleading in the dugout like a bunch of softball girls,” Figueroa said. “I’m a professional, just like anybody else. I take huge offense to that. If that’s what a last-place team needs to do to fire themselves up, so be it. I think you need to show a little bit more class, a little bit more professionalism. They won tonight, but again, in the long run, they are who they are.”

Figueroa couldn’t pinpoint the culprits, but suggested the serenading peaked during the third inning, when the Nats loaded the bases and he forced in a run by walking Nick Johnson.

“Don’t care,” Figueroa said about learning the names of the perpetrators. “Truly unprofessional. “That’s why they are who they are.”

Federal Baseball: Chigliak: The Elijah Dukes “Story” Won’t Go Away

If I cement over my mail slot...will the mailman send my ESPN Magazine back?

What Dukes seems to be finding comfort in, the friendships, guidance and support provided to him by the Nationals, Mr. Jones sees, as he writes in the follow-up article, “Behind the Story: Elijah Dukes”, as, “All of these walls (that) have gone up around Dukes...the PR guy standing there...” during interviews, the “Supernanny” and the counseling, (which Mr. Jones claims, is, “...a subject so sensitive, no one on the Nats will talk about exactly what it entails,") which has left Mr. Jones feeling even more troubled, because:

“...here’s the strange thing: Some small part of me still feels sorry for him. Not for what he’s done—his mistakes are his and his alone—and not for his lost childhood—although it was almost unimaginably tragic, I don’t believe you’re bound by the sins of your father—but for how he’s being treated today.”

But, finally, I’m afraid that after having read the original article and the follow-up, and recognized, in my opinion, the intentional perpetuation of the portrayal, both in writing and visually, of Dukes as, “...The Most Menacing Player in Baseball,” and “...the awful stereotype of the angry black man,” I’m left with the impression that Mr. Jones ends up once again presenting Dukes in this manner because of the lack of access he was granted to Dukes due of the “walls” that Washington has placed around the outfielder, and I can’t help but wondering why Mr. Jones is so displeased with the franchises actions on Dukes’ behalf? Is it simply because it limited his desire for unfettered access to the subject of his story?

Mets’ (Ryan) Church has been a revelation

New York Mets fans never embraced Lastings Milledge, but many on the blogs and radio call-in shows made him out to be another Roberto Clemente after he was dealt for Church and catcher Brian Schneider over the winter.

They said that Milledge had five-tool potential and Church was just an above-average player.

Well, that above-average player has easily been the New York Mets’ most valuable player so far.

“He’s been great for us,’’ David Wright said. “I always thought he was a good player, but you don’t realize how good he really is until you see him play every day.’’

Could the Milledge deal be another one BTFers hated that Minaya actually got the better off?

Here are some relevant stats so far:

.328/.394/.541, .382 BABIP (30.9 LD%) .902 ZR as a RF for Church.

.256/.321/.352, .310 BABIP (24.2 LD%), .812 ZR as a CF for Lastings.

Too early to judge but this deal is hardly looking like Kazmir deal, part 2.

Onion: Nationals Book It After Foul Ball Accidentally Smashes Capitol Rotunda

Ain’t no use joking
Everything is broken

According to eyewitnesses in the Capitol, the ball smashed into the dome at about 3:35 p.m., tore through the Apotheosis Of Washington—a 150-year-old, 4,664-square-foot fresco painted on the inside of the rotunda—and broke the arm off of a National Statuary Hall sculpture of William Jennings Bryan. The ball then bounced into the Senate Chamber, where it interrupted a vote on a $542.5 billion defense authorization bill, and landed directly in the mashed potatoes of early-dinging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), covering him with gravy and prompting him to exclaim, “Zimmer-maaaaannnn!”

Although McConnell had no evidence at the time that Zimmerman was responsible for the damages, he was the chief suspect, as he is the only National able to hit the ball farther than 300 feet.

Capitol Punishment: Needham: Tonight’s the Night

The most prominent Nats blog ends its run. It was one of the first (established Nov. 2004), and it ran the longest. Those of us who read Nats blogs are sad. But it got me to thinking: what’s the longest-running blog for your team, and how long has it been active?

Yahoo: Passan: Weak attendance could be a National emergency

Well...who the hell asked Vincent Price to hang garlic crops on all Nationals Park entrances?!

The Nationals’ season-ticket base, though up from 15,000 last season to 18,000, remains significantly short of the 22,500 sold during their first season in 2005 after moving from Montreal. They’re almost guaranteed to finish with the worst attendance in all numbers – total, average and percentage – for a new stadium since Cincinnati opened Great American Ball Park in 2003. In Washington’s low point, the second game in Nationals Park actually had worse attendance than the second game at decrepit RFK Stadium last year.

“Sounds like you’re a lot more concerned about this than me,” Kasten said.

Perhaps so, though Kasten can’t ignore the games on television where it looks as though the Nationals are playing to a crowd of ushers. The President seats, positioned behind home plate, go for more than $300 apiece, and they’re selling like underwear at a nudist colony. Every pitch, the view is the same: hitter, catcher, umpire and about 25 of their unoccupied blue friends.

WaPo: Cristian Guzmán Reemerges in ‘08 (RR)

Which is probably the greatest reemergence since bloated Insp. Dan Clay sucked in all that wormdirt!

On Sept. 1, 2005, Guzmán was hitting .195. After yesterday’s 4-for-5 performance—one that delivered the Nationals’ fifth win in their last six games—the shortstop is hitting .303. Why even bring up the past?

“That’s three years ago,” Guzmán said. “Why do I have to think about 2005? We’re in 2008. Let’s think about 2008.”

It is, of course, so much more palatable. Guzmán has undergone two career-altering surgeries since the nadir of his career, the first to fix his shoulder, the second a Lasik procedure to fix his eyesight. That one he considers more important, and the evidence could be in his 46-game stint last season, when he hit .328.

“For me, I think that’s the biggest, my eyes,” he said.

..."He’s healthy,” Manager Manny Acta said. “He’s not walking a lot. But just being healthy, having that [eye] surgery a couple of years ago, he’s making better contact and really enjoying the game.”

WaPo: Boswell - Very Much Sold On New Home (RR)

Now, with the first month of the season complete, early fears of poor attendance, terrible parking, traffic snarls and Metro delays turned out to have been overblown. The Nats’ average attendance is up 40.1 percent over the comparable end-of-April date at RFK last season. Attendance so far is respectable though not spectacular for a new ballpark. It’s slightly better than the average attendance jump of 36.8 percent that 13 other franchises had in new parks that opened since 1992.
...
“So far, our (gate) revenues really, really are good,” one Nationals official said. This winter, if the Nats say they can’t afford a free agent, don’t believe them.
...
One set of swamped lines and crowding, however, delights [Kasten]. The restaurant and roof bar in center field, with adjoining beer rails, always is standing room only. “Do you realize that every one of those people has a ticket and a seat, but they’d rather stand in center field above the bleachers?” Kasten said. “That’s when you know you have a hot spot. We’re going to have to expand it.”
...
However, one problem is a huge eyesore that won’t be solved this season or maybe next either. In the metropolitan area with the highest per capita income in the country, more than half of the 1,900 best—and highest-priced—seats sit embarrassingly empty for every game. These amenity-gorged, steakhouse-access, padded seats sit directly behind home plate, cost $170 to $335, yet for TV viewers create the impression that the ballpark is almost vacant.
...
“The Presidential and Diamond seats will get filled over time. Supply and demand will fix it. Maybe prices come down. Maybe we win and those are the hot seats,” one Nats executive said. But it doesn’t look good, does it? “Not now.”

Fangraphs: Cameron: Nick The Unlucky Stick

And just where does Nick Johnson rank in a Sarrisonian-type Pantheon of Unlucky Players?

Johnson is posting a .216 batting average, so the easy narrative here is that he’s still getting his legs back under him after missing all of the 2007 season after a violent leg fracture in 2006. Perhaps the injury robbed him of some of his power, or he’s adjusting to a new swing that doesn’t allow him to drive the ball as far?

Or maybe he’s just hitting the ball on the screws, but it’s still finding it’s way into the defenders gloves? This is what his batted ball statistics certainly suggest. Johnson’s currently posting a 28.1% line drive percentage, fifth highest in the National League. Line drives go for hits 74% of the time, so if you’re smoking liners all over the field, you generally get a lot of base hits out of it. Not surprisingly, LD% correlates very well with batting average on balls in play, and as Dave Studeman showed four years ago, you can generally estimate a hitters BABIP by adding .11 or .12 to his LD%. Following this, and looking at Johnson’s line drive rate, we’d expect him to be posting a BABIP in the high .300s.

It’s actually .241, or about what we’d expect if he had a line drive rate of 12-13% - half of his actual line drive rate. Johnson is currently among the league leaders in LD% and simultaneously has one of the lowest BABIPs in the league. That’s pretty remarkable.

Ex-Ray Elijah Dukes cleans zoo cages, shortens probation

I used to go quite often to the Bronx Zoo when my former brother-in-law had the exciting elephant cannonscoop detail. Loads of fun!

To get his misdemeanor probation cut short by five months, former Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Elijah Dukes spent 25 hours during the past week cleaning out cages and mopping at Lowry Park Zoo.

Attorney Grady Irvin and a team official for the Nationals, who traded for Dukes in December, said the ballplayer also passed weekly drug tests for six months.

...Dukes, 23, removed large diamond stud earrings and tucked his silver chain under his T-shirt before standing before the judge. The former Hillsborough High standout kept his head down throughout the hearing, looking up and smiling only after the judge granted his request.

“You are in a wonderful position to be such a positive influence on so many young people that these are the kinds of things that prevent you from being that example,” Conrad said. “With great gifts I think you have great responsibilities as well. I’m hoping this experience, albeit for six months … will at least set a positive turn for your future.”

MLB.com: [Francisco] Cordero hurting for save opportunities

It seems almost ironic.

The Reds spent $46 million to land free-agent closer Francisco Cordero. And now they can’t give him any games to close.

Entering Tuesday, the Reds ranked 30th out of 30 Major League teams in save opportunities with two.
...
“I want to get some saves because it shows we’re winning, but you just want us to get back on track,” said Cordero, who signed a four-year contract in November. “You want to win, it doesn’t matter if I get a save situation or not. I’m sure it will come.”
...
“He’ll have plenty of opportunities, trust me,” Baker said. “I’m waiting for the day when you ask me ‘Dusty, are you really using him again today?’”

MLB: Dmitri Young complies with manager, cuts hair

But I dont care, I care, I really dont care
Did you see the injured infielder’s hair?

Nationals manager Manny Acta, concerned that injured infielder Dmitri Young’s big, curly Afro was becoming too much of a distraction, told the injured first baseman after Thursday night’s loss to the Mets to have his hair cut before he showed up for Friday night’s game here.

Young, who is protective of his locks, complied. He sported a more trimmed look when he surfaced at the clubhouse.

Acta’s order was not as sinister or arbitrary as it might sound. First, the manager knew Young’s “special barber” was in Miami. Second, he said that Young told him he planned to have a trim while here anyway.

“It’s not like you’re going to see him with a shaved head,” Acta said, smiling.

Acta said he requested the haircut in the interest of team “structure” with the Nationals.

DC Sports Box: Nichols: Where Is Everybody?

But let me tell you all something, gentlemen....if any one of you were confined in Nationals Park for three and a half hours, all by your lonesome without hearing a human voice other than your own, I’ll give you especially good odds that your imagination would run away with you too, such as his obviously did.

Like I said, I’ve only missed one game so far. And the thing that strikes me most about the crowds so far is the sameness of each crowd. I’ve seen the same faces and same groups of people at every game. I’ve got access to tickets in a couple different sections, and god love ‘em, the same people are there every night. So if the Nats are getting their best fans, the one that will be there no matter what (weather, other events, traffic, prices) at every game, then they really, REALLY, need to do a better job getting the privileged to the game, either by convincing them the area is safe to drive--because there are parking lots that are not even half-full surrounding the stadium--or by actually convincing them to use the Metro.

Because until they do that, attendance will stay right around where it is. Sure, when summer rolls around it’ll be easier to take the kids. But those seats behind home plate will still be empty. And if a casual fan sees that on TV on the highlights, don’t you think that leaves them with a less-than-happy feeling about what must be going on down at the old ball-yard? If the Nats can’t put people in the best seats in the house, how do you expect them to fill the rest of the place.

Maybe they need to hire seat fillers like at the Oscars.

Stephen Malkmus: Indie rock’s fantasy baseball king

(Do Not Feed The) Royster...mainly because he was a blasted DH for 4 games in 1987!

NP Frank Thomas was hitting up a storm last week.
SM I know. I didn’t pick him up either because he’s a DH. You can only put him in the utility slot. It was kind of frustrating that he didn’t have any position. But yeah, I prefer the National League, myself. To me, there are just a lot more young prospects that are playing. I don’t know the AL as well, of course. It just seems like all the hysteria’s over there for the young pitchers, in the NL. The rookie sensations and stuff. And besides the fact that I just don’t like the DH and just my complete disdain for the Red Sox and Yankees, and their shenanigans. They just sort of overshadow the rest of the league, from my perspective. I just can’t stand them.

NP Well, I’ll stop there, I don’t want to get you too riled up over it.
SM I know. I could go deeper. I can go really deep. But it’s a shame the Expos had to leave because you had a Canadian National League team.

NP And there’s no affinity in Canada at all to the Washington Nationals.
SM I know.

NP But I mean, I think at least a few people in Quebec followed the Colorado Avalanche.
SM Yeah, but that’s hockey, though. It’s OK, nobody cares about the Nationals in Washington either. Don’t feel bad.

WaPo: Nats Keep Skidding, Demote Bergmann (RR)

Yesterday, one member of the Atlanta Braves—right fielder Jeff Francoeur—hit two homers and drove in seven runs, which is more RBI than any National has for the season. That led the Braves to a resounding 10-2 victory at Nationals Park, where a healthy afternoon crowd of 32,532 took in the Nationals’ ninth loss in a row.

Break this one down—sloppy defensive play, downright laziness and an inability to come through with anything that resembles a clutch hit—and there is nothing worth saving. So afterward, General Manager Jim Bowden began something of an overhaul, sending struggling right-hander Jason Bergmann—who made a surprise, and ill-fated, relief appearance yesterday—to Class AAA Columbus, reinstating closer Chad Cordero from the disabled list and preparing to recall slugger Wily Mo Peña after a hasty rehabilitation assignment.
...
“The physical mistakes are going to happen,” Bowden said. “The mental mistakes or carelessness is what’s not acceptable. And it’s going to have to change—or we’ll make more changes.”
...
Bowden, and others, feel that change—at this point—can’t hurt.

“You could bring a squirrel in here and he’s going to do better than we’ve been playing,” said catcher Paul Lo Duca, who went 0 for 3 and is hitting .212. “Got to do something… We need to clean it up.”

MLB.com: [Dmitri] Young frustrated by misconceptions

A few days after being placed on the disabled list, Nationals first baseman Dmitri Young said he is upset that people in the media are insensitive about the way he looks in a baseball uniform. He doesn’t like that fact people are pointing out that he is out of shape and needs to lose weight.
...
“I don’t necessarily need to lose the weight. That’s what everybody is stressing on,” Young said. “Why does that have to be the key point of diabetes? Health is the issue, and insulin is a big part of it. You have to find the right mixture. Everybody is stressing on the weight, weight, weight. And that is what is wrong with the world today. Everybody has to be a beanpole. If everybody looked like that, it would be a weird-looking place. Everybody would look the same.

“I feel people don’t know the effects that insulin has. If I don’t take the insulin, I will die. I will be in a worst position without it. We are trying to figure it out. I’m going to the doctor. We are on a program right now to see what we can do about it. It’s a trial-and-error thing in order to figure out what’s right. This is about life, not about baseball.”

Former Detroit Tigers standout Denny McLain arrested

And no Mick around to help him out…

Former Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain is back in jail for failing to appear in court on a civil matter and told police he’s broke, authorities said Friday.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte said he spoke to McLain after he was arrested by sheriff’s deputies at 3 p.m. Friday. He said McLain told him he didn’t know what the missed court appearance in Livingston County was about, except that it centered on money issues.

Bezotte said McLain also told him he couldn’t meet the $175,000 bail - or 10 percent.

“He said he doesn’t have the money to post bail,” Bezotte said.

Bezotte said Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies showed up at McLain’s home in Hamburg Township with eviction papers and to seize some property. While doing that, police discovered a warrant had been issued for McLain’s arrest. Livingston County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the home to arrest him.

Baltimore Sun: Angelos says he hopes Nationals succeed

Yea...Just as I hope the Kajagoogoo reunion is a smasharooroo!

Orioles owner Peter Angelos, who once fought to keep a team out of Washington, said yesterday that he hopes the Nationals are successful and doesn’t mind if Orioles fans occasionally slip away to catch a game at the new stadium.

“There’s no law against visiting the other franchise,” Angelos said in an interview with The Sun. “One’s a National League city and one’s an American League city.”

“Originally, I said [Washington and Baltimore] were very close to each other,” Angelos said. “But nonetheless, it is the nation’s capital, and the team is there, and it ought to be supported, and hopefully, both franchises will provide successful baseball.”

..."We definitely want them to succeed,” Angelos said of the Nats. “We’re partners in the MASN baseball network, and we have an excellent relationship with the Lerner family [which owns the Nationals] and with [team president] Stan Kasten, who is an old friend of mine.”

AP: Stadium less than half-full for Game 2 at Nationals Park

With more than half the seats empty, Game 2 at Nationals Park got off to a bit of a rough start. The gigantic, high-definition scoreboard beyond the outfield at the Washington Nationals’ new $611 million stadium was only partially working in the first inning Monday night, with no ball-strike count and no scoreline. Just a much-much-larger-than-life photo of the batter.

The ribbon boards were out completely in the first inning, meaning the spectators there for the beginning of the game against the Florida Marlins—the announced paid attendance was 20,487 in the 41,888-capacity stadium—had no way of knowing what the score was.

The out-of-town scoreboard on the wall in right-center? That was blank, too.

“Ten years from now,” Nationals president Stan Kasten said, “you’re going to have nights when stuff like that happens.”

Also odd: Washington Capitals defenseman Mike Green was invited to call out, “Washington, let’s play ball!” before the first pitch, but the microphone didn’t work. He was handed another mike—and had no luck with that one, either.
...
“I’m very happy with tonight’s crowd,” Kasten said. “I mean, with the weather what it is, on a Monday night for Florida, second game of the year, cold weather, against an NCAA championship game.”

MLB.com: Redding stifles Phils in shutout victory

A week ago, one wondered if Nationals right-hander Tim Redding would pitch against the Phillies because of back problems. The pain subsided by the time he pitched in a Minor League game last Friday.

Redding was able to make Wednesday’s start, pitching seven-plus innings and giving up just one hit, as the Nationals blanked the Phillies, 1-0, at Citizens Bank Park. Washington has now won its first three games of the season.

The only hit Redding allowed came in the second inning, when Pedro Feliz singled to center field.

The only run of the game came in the top of the sixth, when Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman hit Cole Hamels’ 1-2 pitch over the right-field wall for his second home run of the season. It turned out to be Zimmerman’s second game-winning homer of the year.

WaPo: No Trip to DL For [Chad] Cordero, Not Just Yet (RR)

Washington Nationals Manager Manny Acta said the club is not yet considering putting closer Chad Cordero on the disabled list although he has tendinitis in his right shoulder and won’t throw until Wednesday—at the earliest.

“Right now we’re not even considering the DL—yet,” Acta said Monday, a day after Cordero felt pain in his right arm while warming up for the season opener against the Atlanta Braves. Cordero received a cortisone shot, and he was unavailable to close out what became a 3-2 win.

Monday, Cordero said he hoped the shot would alleviate the pain. He also said he doesn’t believe the problem caused him to lose velocity in spring training, something that scouts noticed.

“I don’t think so, but you just never know,” he said. “It might have been building up to where it was just going to give away. . . . I really don’t think it did, because at that point, I wasn’t trying to throw hard at all.”

WaPo: Kennicott: Nationals Park Gives Fans Plenty, But Its Bland Face Is a Muffed Chance (RR)

‘BONK’...who built this dump, Helmutless Jahn?

And so the dreary list goes on. The interior spaces, accessible only to the public that can afford more expensive seats, are covered in carpeting that looks as if it came out of a Courtyard by Marriott. The private boxes are so generic in their fittings and finish, they remind one of the inside of a recreational vehicle. Look out of one of the elevator lobbies on the top ring and you see the exposed mechanicals on the roof of the team’s corporate offices, a forest of metal junk.

All that for $611 million in public money. We have been trained to treat our sports teams, the industry behind them and the architecture that contains them with a grim sense of fatalism. Of course stadiums must be bigger. Of course the social space of an egalitarian sport will be distorted into a rigorous hierarchy of wealth and exclusivity. Of course the building will be crude and functional and inspire no one from the outside.

Of course? From the top of the stadium, look out at the skyline, toward the Capitol Dome. At first, it seems like a happy accident that it is most visible from the cheapest seats. But now look down into the neighborhoods where public schools have become dilapidated brick bunkers, their windows covered in forbidding metal mesh. It’s enough to make you weep. Not about the stadium, which is as generic as it goes. But rather the cynical pragmatism that governs our priorities, socially and architecturally. Washington is a city where people can stare straight at the most powerful symbol of their democratic enfranchisement, and still feel absolutely powerless to change the course of our winner-takes-all society.

And it didn’t have to be this way. It’s not just a matter of misplaced priorities, which we can all argue about. It’s also a matter of inept bargaining and bad planning.

Washington Post: Will: An 8-Letter Word for the Ultimate Sport (RR)

Opening Day and George Will does it get any...huh?...wha? (wakes up all sweaty).

Today, baseball arrives in the nick of time to serve an urgent national need. It gives Americans something to think about other than superdelegates. Think instead about:

1. Who are the four players with 10 or more letters in their last names who hit 40 home runs in a season?

2. Who are the 11 players who have four or fewer letters in their last names and hit 40 home runs in a season?

3. Which two players who hit back-to-back home runs have the most combined letters in their last names?

For you who wasted the winter by not studying such stuff, the answers are below. The rest of you probably are SABRmetricians. Tim Kurkjian of ESPN (do you know that more than 10 American children have been named Espn?) recalls a convention of the Society for American Baseball Research:

“ ‘Who from SABR might know where I can find the all-time list of pinch-hit, extra-inning grand slams?’ I asked the very first man I saw at the convention. The man smiled and—I am not making this up—pulled the list from his breast pocket. ‘I have it right here,’ he said.”

Luft On Deck: Lo Duca livin’ a lie

The law and Jake wade through the Lo Duca situation.

Eight years ago, Paul Lo Duca was a 28-year-old career minor leaguer. If you are 28 and still in the minor leagues, you’re closer to finding a second career than you are to becoming a major-league regular. You wake up every day wondering if you’ll be painting bridges for a living soon.

...Lo Duca has been candid in discussing his inclusion in the Report, and good for him for doing so. Seriously, the thing the public really can’t stand is a cover-up. If you did something wrong and you get caught, just admit to it and move on. We’re a forgiving people. But in opening up to an MLB.com reporter about his past, Lo Duca said something recently that caught my eye as a bizarre statement at best and outright contradiction at worst.

Said Lo Duca: “You see guys that might have done it or you suspected [of using it]. I was in the Minor Leagues for a long time and I thought this might get me over the hump. It’s just a mistake that I made [and] I wish I could take back.”

He can’t really mean that. He wishes he could take it back? Why? According to his baseball-reference.com page, Lo Duca has made more than $25 million during his major-league career. He’s due to make another $5 million from the Nationals for 2008. All that cash isn’t worth a little bad press from the Mitchell Report? He should have just apologized and left it at that. Insulting our collective intelligence wasn’t necessary.

Bless You Boys: Former Tigers Coach Billy Consolo Passes Away

Bless you, indeed.  Billy Consolo.

Here’s some sad news for long-time Detroit Tigers fans.  Former coach Billy Consolo, who was a coach for the team from 1979 to 1992, and again in 1995, passed away yesterday from an apparent heart attack.  He was 73 years old.

In addition to his coaching career, Consolo played for 10 years in the major leagues.  The six teams he played for were the Boston Red Sox, Washington Senators, Minnesota Twins, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels, and Kansas City Athletics.  He played at shortstop, second base, and third base throughout his career.

You know, Mike McClary and I were just talking about Consolo a couple of days ago.  I was telling him about the article in last Sunday’s Boston Globe, in which Joe Torre claims that he was the first to employ a bench coach when he asked Don Zimmer to join his New York Yankees coaching staff in 1996.

That couldn’t be, Mike said.  Consolo was Sparky Anderson’s bench coach, but maybe they just didn’t call that job “bench coach” back then.

WaPo: Acta to Catch Bush’s First Pitch (RR)

With President Bush slated to open Nationals Park by throwing the ceremonial first pitch Sunday night, new Washington Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca has assumed all spring that he would be the man to receive it.

But Thursday morning, on the last day of spring training, General Manager Jim Bowden informed Lo Duca that the honor instead will go to Manager Manny Acta.

The choice has symbolic implications. Lo Duca was one of the primary figures in the report by former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. Bush, in turn, is an avid baseball fan and former owner of the Texas Rangers who has publicly denounced the use of steroids, both in professional sports and by America’s youth.
...
Lo Duca said after Thursday’s final Grapefruit League game that he had no animosity about the situation.

“I’m not upset,” Lo Duca said. “I’m just not catching it.”
...
Lo Duca declined to speculate as to whether his role in the Mitchell report had anything to do with the decision. Bowden did not mention that in his conversation, Lo Duca said.

WaPo: First Base Job Seems To Be [Nick] Johnson’s (RR)

To anyone who has monitored the Nationals’ progress over the last six weeks in windswept central Florida, [Nick] Johnson’s comeback from a broken leg suffered in September 2006 now seems complete. There is nothing he hasn’t done, no test he hasn’t passed.

“Pleasantly surprised,” is how General Manager Jim Bowden put it Wednesday. “I think he’ll be 100 percent when he walks on that field Opening Day, and I would not have predicted that when we walked into spring training.”

Young, 34, is not expected to start the year on the disabled list, and indeed Acta said he would play Thursday against Baltimore, the Nationals’ final Grapefruit League game. But he arrived in camp weighing 298 pounds, and club officials still want him to lose more weight.
...
Even with his progress, Johnson is only beginning to allow himself to think about winning the job. He said Wednesday he was excited about getting to Washington to see his 2-year-old daughter, Brianna. The other day, Brianna fell at her grandmother’s house, ending up with a fat lip. Johnson smiled about it.

“She’s a Johnson,” he said. “She gets hurt.”

Statesman: Bush to pitch to substance abuser?

President Bush has been an outspoken critic of steroid and substance abuse by baseball players. His name came up once in the Mitchell Report that documented the widespread abuse of performance enhancing substances by baseball players.

...The Nationals’ starting catcher - and hence a natural choice to catch the cermonial first pitch - is expected to be Paul Lo Duca.

Lo Duca’s name comes up 37 times in the Mitchell Report, which said a former Mets clubhouse assistant who has acknowledged providing substance-enhancing drugs to players “estimated that he engaged in six or more transactions with Lo Duca.”

So here’s the potential opening-night visual: The president who is concerned about substance abuse in baseball winds up and throws the ceremonial pitch to a catcher linked to substance abuse. It’s all smiles and happiness as president and catcher pose for the post-pitch photo.

Would you call for somebody else to handle the ceremonial catching chore?

Only if the curled-up Thomas de Quincey owns a mitt.