G'day everyone

I'll give you a bit of background of myself, so that you can be understanding of my ignorance.

I was born in England and my family emigrated to Australia when I was 10 and I have lived here ever since.

My parents bought me some shorts with a Redskins logo on them when I was a kid, so always having a faint interest in the NFL I adopted them as my team.

Years later at the start of this century the internet saw me get more and more obsessed with US sport, particuarly the NFL, since 2005 I have adopted all of the Washington area sports teams, which as you all know, has not been a lot of fun.

But things are looking up after recent pain, so that whilst I spent last year waking at 3am to listen to the Radio Broadcasts of Skins games over the net (and caught the couple of games that were telecast here on TV) and it was awful

Then the Caps imploded (tho Hockey is the one US sport I really cant get excited about) Arenas ended the dream of the WIzards once agian becoming the Bullets thanks to idiocy in the locker room.

BUT NOW!!!!

2 days ago I was at work, watching the MLB.com GameCast/Pitchtracker thing on my computer at work, those last 6 or 7 Strikeouts I was doing the full on Umpire Strike OUt signal every 3rd Strike right there at my desk, my boss a RedSox fan thought it was hilarious but it was joyous.

Anyway I mentioned this on Hogs Haven and SOuldrummer suggested I come on here to meet my fellow Nats fans.

I found HH taught me a lot about the NFL, by letting me converse and ask questions of fans, who are remarkably well educated about the game, HH also has very little childish name calling and the like that can often infect internet message boards, and I hope here is the same.

Speaking of learning, can somebody explain something that has confused me about Baseball

With Stras they I heard them refer to a potential issue re: 'Pitching from the stretch"

Now I understand pitching from the Stretch relates to pitching with a man on base, but what exactly does it mean.

Is it actually a different physical action, does it prevent a full wind up cos a full wind up makes stealing bases easier, or is it just a mental thing

Can someone please explain what exactly pitching from the stretch means, I would be very grateful.

Anyways thanks to Souldrummer for his kind invitation to join the site and I look forward to getting to know you all.