Roll Call: Introduce Yourselves Y'all

Personally, I was a Mets fan growing up in the NYC ‘burbs. I moved to DC about 10 years ago, and I enjoyed attending some of the early games at RFK. I was a big Soriano fan during his year here. I faded a bit during the barrage of losing that followed. I think it was during one of the 100 loss seasons that I started attending minor league games and scoring games. Once that happened, I finally could start understanding more of the nuances of the game and when I wandered into the FB community last year full time after lurking and sporadically posting the season or to before, I was hooked. FB is by far the site I spend the most time at on the interwebs. I’ve enjoyed getting to meet some of you folks in person and sitting with you during games. Last year, during the last month or two I started covering minors box scores for FB. I’m wrestling what level of time to put into that given current responsibilities and the stronger content at Nationalsprospects.com since Brian game up Nationals Farm Authority.

Outside of FB, I’m an educator college graduate from a pretty selective college. I’ve taught in the past with pretty frustrating results. Currently, I do some private tutoring as I’m working on putting together a nonprofit that can make elite tutoring accessible to more of the students that need it.

Once upon a time I was an actual souldrummer. I played gospel and jazz semiprofessionally and played paid gigs during college. Nowadays, I’m a souldrummer because I think rhythmically and I view “soul” as kind of an engaged way of living life. There’s a whole bunch of soul in baseball. Soul music, black culture, and baseball history kind of fuel the soul aspect for me. I’m very interested in seeing baseball used as a tool to engage students who are resistant to math and to serve as much needed counterbalance to the destructive professionalizing of amateur athletes, especial black athletes in football and basketball where AAU is such a parasitic educational institution.

I’m a big reader. I’ve been burning through baseball books. Joe Posnanski’s The Soul of Baseball is heartily recommended as is Nye’s book on Satchel Paige, which helped inspire the Brookland Monarchs name for my Fantasy Team. I enjoy getting book recommendations from other FB people, Suttree is a highlight there. Currently, I’m reading The Death and Life of the American School System on the nonfiction side, Brave New World on the fiction side, and getting ready to start my $1.00 paperback copy of The Boys of Summer that I got from the Wheaton Library in Montgomery County.

Anyways, that’s a good start for what I’m about. Any questions or shared interests I’ll be happy to respond to. Looking forward to learning more about some of you good people if you choose to share.

I lurked around sbnation for a while then followed closely after the yahoo partnering. While I spend a fair amount of time reading HH or JR I often feel intimidated by the size of those communities which is something nice about FB.

I’ve lived various places but consider fairfax county as my hometown since that’s where I went to school. I moved to richmond a while back to go to vcu then settled in midlothian to start a family. I was also a percussionist in a different light though i prefer a good march or some rock to gospel.

im far too young to remember the senators but i always wanted a dc baseball team. the skins were pretty good when i was a kid (i don’t blame you if you can’t remember) but the caps were terrible. a really bad injury prevented me from playing any contact sports growing up but i played baseball as long as i could and i consider it my sport of preference to spectate. being a mindless supporter of dc (at least until marion barry got re-elected) i loathed the orioles and hoped for a relocation. i apologize to expos’ fans but inside i was shamefully happy to see their collapse as it was the best way for a team to come to the district.

i didn’t follow the nats very closely the first two seasons since i was working dayshift as a county firefighter and nightshift as a city paramedic almost every day of the calendar trying to keep the family going. once things calmed down some i got to enjoy some really bad baseball for a few years. at least i knew that i was getting into nats fandom on the ground floor, no place else to go but up.

nowadays i work in ems management since ive had a knack for computer programming and statistical analysis since i was a teen and am now putting it to use in a field i already had a passion for. i still get my patient care fix working part time in a local emergency room. i don’t read as much as i used to but am still drawn to the classics and some historical fiction. faulkner’s imagery is probably my favorite

as far as the pg atmosphere, i actually was a sailor for a while and had a dirty mouth to start with. anybody thats worked in public safety knows that we have a language that would make george carlin blush two years after his death. nonetheless, i’ve never had the feeling that i couldn’t get my point across on a messageboard without being crude and that dates back to bbs’s in the 90’s

currently in my second year of college. I was around for the second half of last season on this website. I’ve been into baseball since I was very young because my dad works Sports Weekly(formerly Baseball Weekly). I was an all-star SS/Pitcher from Little League to Babe Ruth where we went to States twice, I only played my freshman year in high school as I got burned out from year-round baseball.

I was born in Ohio and grew up here in Arlington. Growing up I was a Reds and Orioles fan. I’m still a Reds fan, but after Angelos bought the team, Ripken retired and Mussina went to the Yankees, I lost all feeling of connection with the Orioles. Living in the area my whole life, I had hoped for baseball to return to DC for as long as I can remember, so I have been a Nats fan since day one at RFK.

Hi all! So great to read up about you all. I am Texan gal and my dad who is a huge baseball fan (more football fan now) got me to love baseball. I was originally Astros fan but since I moved to DC (now 5 years), I’ll come to love the Nats and can’t get enough of them (well they have broken my heart few times with their loss). I played intermural softball in college and my dad helped me out a lot by playing catch or just helping me with the throwing the ball properly. I came across FB when I was reading up anything Nats related and awaiting baseball season to start. It was great pleasure to follow the Nats this spring training on FB! Thanks for a great treads & posts. It’s so nice to meet y’all (that’s my Texas root coming out. :) )

I am a Chicago girl – born and raised and was exiled to Georgia in the early part of this decade. I grew up a hockey fan since my Father and his friends had season tickets at the late great Chicago Stadium. It was a wonderful way to be introduced to sports and is the main reason I can get a little raucous on this site from time to time.

Since my husband is the original Diehard Cubs fan I was literally dragged kicking and screaming into the wonderful world of baseball. My family is from the south side of Chicago but my Dad took my sister and I to a doubleheader at Wrigley Field when I was 5 years old. My only memory of that experience was that the sky turned green, the game was rained out and we had to go home rather than see both games. When my family moved to the northern suburbs I was surrounded by Cubs fans so my descent into that annual misery was inevitable. My family routinely lives and dies with the Cubs but I have had several breaks with them over the years.

I abhor incompetent front office and ownership of sports franchises but my favorite teams have always been plagued with bad management so my fascination with the Nats is a perfect fit. My husband and I have ties to the DC area due to the nature of his job and we know many Nats fans. When the Nats hired an ex-Cubs manager I was hooked! LOL

I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for this wonderful community here at FB and I hope that my passion for this game hasn’t ruffled any feathers in the past. I will try to keep it in check this season.

In closing I would be remiss if I didn’t speak about the absolutely amazing job Patrick Reddington does with this amazing blog. I realize that none of this is possible without his tireless (and often thankless) work to make Federal Baseball such a wonderful place. I so enjoy talking baseball not to mention movies and music with such a wonderful group of regular posters. I look forward to hanging out with you guys this summer. Bring on Opening Day and here’s to MOAR WINS for the Nats.

And thanks to Souldrummer for starting this thread. It’s a pleasure to meet everyone.

Long-time VA Braves fan still trying to make the transition to the Nats. Sorry I have to make a choice who to root for tomorrow. I always dreamed of a team coming to DC, but old habits die hard. Now that all my childhood Braves’ icons (except Chipper) have retired, this may be the year. But it’s hard not to get exited about Julio Teheran and friends coming soon.

I dig the FB community, very well-informed and mild-mannered fans here, much like TC. I really need to bone-up on my knowledge of the Nats’ farm system. I don’t have a grasp of how soon they can realistically compete, I just know the farm is ranked pretty mediocre.

Amazin Avenue is easily the funniest of all SBNation sites. Fishstripes is a graveyard. I’d best not speak about TGP.

PS. Please fire Mike Wise and JP Flaim.

Based on my avatar, I think it is obvious I am a proud graduate of the University of North Carolina. Basketball (particularly college but also NBA) is my favorite sport, but I also enjoy baseball (although I am just getting into the advanced metrics for baseball after having used them in basketball for a little while).

I am a lifelong Red Sox fan because my mom’s side of the family is from Boston. I have been in the DC area for about 10 years, and casually followed the Nats since their arrival. That changed when I found out my wife was pregnant. I figured that my kid would be a fan of the Nats and so I decided to follow them closely last year and get a feel for them. I stumbled upon FB trying to find news sources and lurked for a while. The group here helped me really get into the team, and I appreciate the PG-rated sarcasm when I make statements with no basis in fact.

Besides posting here and slavishly following my Heels, I work as a project manager for a government contractor. I live in western Fairfax Co and offer a rec to the first person to guess where.

Although raised and living in Illinois (never in Chicago, though), I was born in DC. Used to return to visit relatives (from my father’s side of the family) while growing up and love the city. My late mother was life long Cubs fan who also loved the Dodgers, thus introducing me to concept of having two National League teams to follow. Unlike my mother, I only sort of followed baseball for much of my life, but about ten years I started following it seriously and naturally I chose my mother’s team, the Cubs. I didn’t have a second team until baseball returned to DC and I knew I would make the Nationals my second team because they play in the city I love.

Wandered into Federal Baseball a couple of years ago, looked around, and joined in since they’re a friendly bunch who don’t mind having a Cubs fan in their midst.

And I believe Jason Marquis is going to have a great 2011! I believe!

Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – I went to sea my first ballgame…

With apologies to Melville, that’s how the voyage begins, always, and for us all: every red-blooded American male (it’s a guy thing) will remember the precise moment when he first set foot inside a major league ballpark, and beheld the scene. Remember it now…I’m sure you do.

It was like entering a cathedral. Never had you seen a space so vast, grass so green, uniforms so white, and lines so straight and perfect and true. And out there upon this flawless landscape, the ballplayers warmed up – god-like in their power, grace, and fluidity of motion.

And man, were they cool. To my little boy’s eyes, nobody in the whole wide world could possibly have been any cooler than a big-league ballplayer – not Gary Cooper, not Tarzan, not even Davy Crockett (and that’s some serious cool). Y’see, I grew up poor, with no father around, but when my mom dragged me to that first ballgame, little did she know that this would solve all her problem-child’s problems. I was a bad kid, fighting and in trouble, y’understand, but when I looked out at those ballplayers I saw, in person and for the first time in my life, what a man was supposed to be.

And I was instantly hooked on baseball. I have been ever since, and will remain so while I’m alive, but that’s irrelevant because I’m grown now – and nobody gets hooked on a thing the way a little kid gets hooked. As a pup, I watched baseball, in person and on TV, I listened to baseball on the radio, I read baseball in magazines and newspapers, and books – I lived, ate, slept, and breathed baseball.

But mostly, I played baseball. God, did I play baseball. I day-dreamed in school until Spring rolled around so we could all get out to our little diamond, where the ground-rules were immutable. I played from sun-up to well past dark. I played in every league I could play in. Sometimes I’d play for one team in South Arlington, then hop the slow-moving freight-train to get to North Arlington, and play for another team. Sure, in the cold of Fall and Winter, I played other sports too – football, basketball, and I boxed – but baseball was my first love. Baseball changed my life. Maybe even saved it.

My favorite team (although “favorite” don’t really cover it – I loved them) was the utterly hapless Washington Senators, and in this respect, “wreckhouse” and I are joined at the hip. Many’s the time my buddies and I transferred from the AB&W Bus-line at 12th & Penn to DC Transit, then rode up 7th St to Griffith Stadium. It cost 75 cents a pop for bleacher seats – a tidy sum, in them days – but if we got there early, the ushers (the ones who knew us, at least) would look the other way while we sneaked over to the box seats, just for batting practice and infield. Nothing compares to watching big-league ballplayers take batting-practice and infield – especially when you’re ten years old.

One time, Jimmy Oldham and I were there, hanging over the low wall at Griffith during a pre-game warm-up, when Harmon Killebrew jogged past, not ten feet away. Unable to control ourselves, we burst out, “Hi’ya Harmon!” He turned and looked at us – then he smiled, said “Hi’ya,” and disappeared into the dugout. The moment was semi-frozen in time. Jimmy and I looked at each other and could not speak – didn’t need to, because we both realized that it was a thing that we would never forget – and, to this day, neither of us has.

Fast forward a few decades. After I realized I wasn’t going to make a living playing baseball, I busted my skull through the curriculum at VA Tech, and became a civil engineer. Since, I have lived, worked, and travelled all over the world. I have also been a soldier, a spy, a teacher, and a baseball and football coach. When I lived in LA, I followed the Dodgers. In Chicago, I followed the Cubs. When overseas, I followed nuttin’ (hell wid’ soccer).

I returned to my native DC, and discovered, to my enormous chagrin, a concerted effort to convert all of DC to stinkin’ Orioles fans. It was like watching somebody screw your sister. I wrote a scathing letter to the Washington Post – which, to their everlasting credit, they published as an article. I am forever disgusted with the American League, and I owe them not a shred of loyalty. When a National League team moved to DC, I was delighted.

I’m a Nat’s fan through and through. I love the players and the fans. I love our new ballpark. I could do without the stupid sound-effects and exploding scoreboard, and the price of beer will damn near make a man quit drinking – well, damn near – but it’s my team’s home park, and it’s a beauty. I enjoy bumping elbows, drinking, cussing, hollering and acting a fool with my friends – but I also like to take it easy, look around and see the families with their kids, the next generation of fans to come.

Sometimes, I’ll look down by the low wall at somma’ those kids hanging out, wearing their red jerseys and hats, and clutching their gloves. I watch them standing there, all big-eyed and gaping, and I sure hope that the stars and multi-millionaires out there on the field understand how much it means to a kid if they just look over sometime, smile and say, “Hi’ya.” But aw hell, how could they not? They were kids once too.

Thanks for welcoming me to Federal Baseball. I’ll be at the park this Sat. April 2 – Sec 129 JJ 17. Fall by, if ye’ve a mind.

I’m 24 (25 on April 10) and a part-time student at Georgetown. I grew up in DC as a diehard Orioles fan, and stayed an Orioles fan with a side of Nats and Indians in my four years of college in Ohio. Upon returning here, though, I quickly discovered that my beloved Orioles had been brutally slaughtered by Peter Angelos, and my allegiance slowly shifted. I’m now a Nats fan with a nostalgic love for the O’s, a few fond Indians memories, and an even greater dislike of the New York Yankees than of the Phillies.
I actually did play in both middle school and high school, classed as “that super-utility guy who can’t hit and who we need on the bench because he’s the only one who knows how to keep a scoresheet.”

They would call me a lurker around here because that it what I do, but I guess this is a good place to say “Hello!”

I’m from the MD burbs and I’m graduating from college in May, unfortunately moving away form DC to Rockies country, but I will remain a Nats fan. I’ve been a Nats fan since the Post reported that the Expos were moving, and I have that Post cover page on my wall to this day. The background on my computer is of Ryan Zimmerman trotting around the bases on Opening Night of Nats Park a couple years ago, celebrating his walkoff homerun.

I found FB because I read a blog for my college sports that was recently bought out by SB Nation, which led me to poke around on the established pages on this site. I like reading the stuff on this site and find myself adopting some of the silly player nicknames in regular conversation, to the confusion of some of my family.

I love baseball. I love going to baseball games, major league, minor league, college, Bethesda Big Train, you name it. (Holler for Big Train). Two summers ago I spent July 4 at Nats Park in the afternoon and at the P-Nats at night.

Hate me for it, but my favorite Nats player was Wil Nieves, because I did get to meet the guy and talk to him for a little while, and he was a really nice guy with a great attitude. If you ever heard a single fan in the lower bowl at Nats Park stand up and shout his name very loudly, you heard me. I was sad that he wasn’t retained for this year, but I am fine with Pudge and Ramos.

I’ll be at the Park tomorrow! Go Nats!

Hop on that bandwagon everyone! Anyway, I’ve been a regular at Federal Baseball for a couple of years now, ever since I found the site when I was going a little overboard creating a draft kit for a fantasy site I used to write for. While I grew up in New York (Long Island, host to many of our hated Mets fans!), I never much cared for the stylings of the Mets or Yankees. My family used to go up to Montreal for a weekend every summer, though, and we’d see at least one or two Montreal Expos games every time we went.

For one reason or another, the Expos grabbed me as a fan immediately. I was a kid, so maybe the team colors had something to do with it… Maybe good old Youppi had something to do with it. Tim Raines, Andre Dawson, Tim Wallach, and The Terminator coming in for the 9th certainly played a part. Though I don’t speak a lick of French, maybe it’s that I fell in love with the city of Montreal every time we went up there. Or it could be the fact that, in over 30 years as a baseball fan and patron, the only foul ball I’ve ever caught was in the old Olympic Stadium. It was by a player from the road team, who happens to be one of my favorite all time players for the team in the city in which I now live…. ET Willie McGee of the Cardinals.

Anyway, yeah… I was, am, and ever shall be a Montreal Expos fan. While it was frustrating to see how MLB handled the Expos situation as a whole (predominantly sitting on their hands for four years), my allegiance remained with the franchise upon their move. Unfortunately for those who like to associate Nats’ history with the previous incarnations of baseball in DC, I will always consider the Expos the Nats’ heritage. That’s just the way it is.

Anyhow, I now live in St. Louis, and I’m most excited about Opening Day because I can now watch our beloved Nats play every day. Extra Innings is a beautiful thing! It figures to be another year where they’re building towards contention, rather than a year where they’re actually going to contend. Still, the future is looking brighter and brighter as some of the young talent (both in the majors and coming up through the pipeline) gains experience.

I look forward to partaking in the usual banter of the gamethreads, which are admittedly a lot more interesting to partake in when you can see/hear what’s going on in the field (not to mention the games actually meaning something) and busting out the occasional article or fanpost. Just be warned… I have a tendency to ramble. While I’ll try and be here for the Opening Day game and drop the occasional comment, I figure to be quite busy today and may not be as vocal as I usually am. In fact, strike that I’ll be really quiet for about the first three weeks of the season, as I’m heading out on the road on a (gasp) 6 AM flight tomorrow morning to help open a new restaurant in New Jersey. In the middle of April, bluelineswinger will again start bringing the heat.

Go Nats!

Jim

Hi all! I am new to the site, but have posted a few times in the past. My name is Tim (my wife is Anna – hence tim-n-anna) and we live in Springfield.
I have 6 brothers and we were all Cowboys (still am and still hate the Redskins) and Orioles fans growing up in Rochester, NY, where the Red Wings were the AAA team for the O’s. I watched Cal and Billy Ripken and Mike Boddicker play at Silver Stadium in Rochester and rooted for my favorite player, John “T-Bone” Shelby as a kid. I had a huge thrill in 1983 meeting Joe Altobelli, who is a native Rochesterian, after they had won the world series.
In 1984, my allegiance changed to the Yankees because of one man – Don Mattingly. He was and is my favorite player to this day (don’t worry – I won’t become a Dodgers fan). My dad, who was ill and mostly bed-ridden at the time, and I used to watch every Yankees game on WPIX, which was carried on cable in Rochester.
I remained a Yankees fan through college, grad school at George Washington (the reason I now live in the DC area), marriage and the birth of my 2 sons. However, in 2005 when MLB finally put a team back in DC, I decided I was going to raise my kids as fans of the local team. I was at the 3rd game at RFK with my oldest son and my family were hooked as Nats fans, although Anna continues to root for the Yankees (I saw and loved Zim’s walkoff at RFK against the Yankees).
I love the direction the Nats are taking and will be patient as they build the winner they are destined to become. It does make it hard to explain to my kids, though, that we are going to root for a team that has little chance of winning the title. So moving this along slightly would be helpful. Looking forward to the season.

and I’m a recovering Yankees fan. My father was a big Yankees fan, so I followed them from the days of Horace Clarke & Gene Michael until the mid-80’s, when Steinbrenner fired Yogi Berra and I had enough. I then focused on the Mets (had followed them in parallel, as a good LIer) until moving to MD in 87, when I picked up the O’s. I became more and more disenchanted with Angelos, however, seeing in him Steinbrenner’s interference and free-agent misfires. When the Expos moved to DC, I happily switched allegiences to the Nats, and haven’t looked back since. I sometimes despair of Boswell’s “we need to sign free agents NOW” threads, and the Lerner’s long learning curve (no pun intended) on how to run/finance a baseball team, but like the signs.

I followed Rob Neyer to SBNation (don’t always agree with what he says, but like the though and approach he puts into it), and now go to the DisneySportsNetwork to read the occasional chat only.

I just have to add what I accidently posted in another thread:

It’s Rabbit Season!
It’s Duck Season!
Rabbit Season!
Duck Season!
Rabbit!
Duck!
It’s Baseball Season!!!!!

Play ball.

That sums up how I became a Nats fan, and I was happy the day I stumbled across this blog. Truth be told, I was worried I wouldn’t find any active Nats blogs, but I came here and lurked for a while before finally posting. I think my first post was deleted due to site decorum as I dropped an “s” “p” and “f” during a gamethread. Been on the straight and narrow ever since.

Freshman in college in RI. I’ve been all over the place when it comes to rooting for baseball teams. When I was very young I loved the Tigers because they were my favorite animal, then it was the Orioles because of B.J. Surhoff. As I got older I started to like the Phillies because everyone around me did but I was never a “true” fan. Around the time of the Montreal to Washington transfer I started joking around that the Nats were my favorite team eventually I was drawn in. The first season I really didn’t follow the Nats but when they acquired Alfonso in 06’ I got more and more into it. Each season increased my following and my hate of the Phils. I never knew that I would turn into such a passionate fan. Coming from a place of obnoxious Phillies fans I take a lot of crap but I know the Nats will be my team for life.

I joined the FB community last year before the beginning of the season, I believe and love it. This is the best blog I have ever followed. It is always updated with fresh news and links even if the Nats are not playing (Thanks to Patrick and the others). I hope to contribute as much as I can back to this blog.

One day I will become a Nats season ticket holder and attend every game in D.C. Can’t wait for those days.. There is something I’m missing but I can’t remember it haha.

I’ve lived in New Jersey for most of my life. I spent 5 years in northern-northern-Vermont during and after college, where I studied literature and secondary education and also rediscovered my love for the Montreal Expos, the team I’d followed and cheered for since I was a kid. I was far enough north in VT that it was just under an hour to get into Montreal and my brother and I made yearly road trips up there especially when the threat of relocation surfaced so that we would make sure to see the final Montreal/Atlanta series since we’d each cheered for those two teams since we were kids.

How did I become an Expos fan? Single mother with no interest in sports + the best uniforms in baseball + Gary Carter + Tim Raines + Andre Dawson + Mark Langston + Pedro for a time + Randy Johnson + Spike Owen + Tim Wallach + Vladimir Guerrero + Orlando “Woop Woop” Cabrera , etc.

Though it broke my heart to see the Expos leave Montreal in part because it meant the trips to Montreal would likely stop, I was ready to embrace the nation’s capital when the franchise relocated and became the Nationals.

I started writing about baseball honestly just as a way to get myself to sit down and write every day since it was something I was doing every day anyway and was passionate about. It started as a tribute to the Expos, a way to keep the history alive and turned into an admittedly-obsessive hobby.

About a year and a half after starting a site called DC Daily at MLBBlogs.com, the SB Nation came calling when Basil, the original author of FB decided to move on. A writer with the Cards blog Viva El Birdos approached me and convinced me to give it a shot.

There was no promise of doing this for a living at the time, just a bigger platform, so I figured I’d give it a try. It was awful at first, I’ll admit that, I had no idea how to build a community or how ofter to post to keep people interested, but the SB Nation folks were patient and helpful and since taking over in 2007 the site’s traffic has essentially doubled each season, growing larger than I (and likely the SBN folks) probably imagined considering my start.

Last year the Nationals (they are a lot more progressive in ways they don’t often get credit for) decided to credential a group of writers (I’m all about getting away from the term “blogger” sorry, it has a nasty connotation to a lot of people and in much the same way Wil Eisner changed comics to the more-respectable graphic novel i think it’s time to ditch the term) and myself, Dave from NNN, the Nats Daily News crew (Hendo and Ian) and the good folks at We <3 DC set about attempting to earn the online-only media covering the Nationals some respect. It sorta worked…

We just learned this week that we’ve been given media credentials again this season, and I’m looking into relocating to the nation’s capital so I can take full advantage of the access unlike last year when I had to essentially commute to Nats Park from NJ whenever I could string together a few days off…

As for non-baseball activities, I don’t honestly read a lot about baseball, I’m a bit of a literary snob as a lit major and since I spend most of my time watching and writing about baseball reading is a break from the game that is necessary for my sanity. I read/write non-baseball stuff (screenplays, some comics search around the internets for Ed Chigliak and you just might find some of them out there), I’ve studied Buddhism and practiced meditation for the last decade. I’m obsessed with Marcel Proust, Jack Kerouac and J.D. Salinger, the films of Alain Resnais, Wong Kar-Wai, David Lynch, David Gordon Green, Michel Gondry and others, I listen to copious amounts of Beatle and Beach Boys-esque pop music (think orchestral pop/60’s garage) and swear by Brian Wilson’s teenage symphonies to God (his description)…

I love Federal Baseball, the way it’s grown and all the great people it’s allowed me to meet online and in person. Heck I even got to interview Dawson and Carter last year, and got to ask Livan Hernandez a question (though I think I annoyed him a little (I’m soft-spoken and it was loud on the field). I still get excited every time I see a comment on the site and love it when new people join the conversation.

Thanks to SD for posting this link and for everyone who’s commented. That’s my story.

It is very late, so I will wait till tomorrow to make a post, but wanted to comment on how wonderful this post has been to read, which has me thinking that FB would be a great location to learn more about one another…..I have no problem friending any of our regulars on this site. I think I saw a FBB facebook page, but I did not pay a lot of attention to it…..is it pretty active from our regulars on here?

It’s part of my genetic makeup: born in NC, father and sister went there before I did. Basketball will always be my first love, and I live and die with each Tar Heel game. (Can still name the starting lineup of the ‘57 Championship team, but haven’t gotten over last week’s loss yet).

No particular baseball team as I was growing up because there was none to follow in NC. My folks jumped on Unca Ted’s Braves once they could watch the games on TV. I later cheered them during the Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz era because those guys were amazing.

Meanwhile KRON moved me out to SF so I had the choice of the mostly woeful Giants or the rocking A’s. Most of the newsroom would stop to watch Ricky Henderson steal base while yelling “Run, Ricky, run!” Best lead-off batter ever! Then the Bash Brothers showed up along with Eck and Dave Stewart. The later trio of Hudson, Zito and Mulder was pretty special, too. Fun times.

Moved to San Diego and got on board with the Padres especially during their World Series run. I will always be a huge Tony Gwynn fan. And who wouldn’t love Trevor Hoffman…all Hell’s Bells and high kicks…and a zillion saves?

Still, I didn’t truly appreciate the nuances of baseball especially pitching…still geared for the speed, athleticism and defense of basketball. (Heh.) I know people are groaning thinking how could she be a fan and not understand pitching. But I just didn’t pay that much attention to the game before that Series because I didn’t slow down to watch it play out.

But, during the 1999 NLCS between the Braves and Mets, wild fires in the area kicked my asthma into overdrive. That slowed me down so much I actually listened to Joe Morgan explaining pitching tactics. Yeah, he’s mostly a jerk, but somehow he explained in a way that got through to me in my diminished state!

I moved back to the east coast just in time for the Expos’ rebirth as the Nats and was hooked during that first magical season. Still think Frank Robinson was the best manager to date. A couple of years ago I discovered Federal Baseball and was hooked right away. I am truly thankful for the wit and wisdom here…and of course, all of Ed/Patrick’s hard work and “Family-friendly” rules. It is so refreshing to have intelligent discussions here. Plus you even encourage my goofy graphics!

I was born in Germany, and lived there for the first nine years of my life. My dad was not in the military, he is simply German, but my parents eventually decided to try out this America thing my mother had enjoyed growing up, and we ended up on the West coast near Los Angeles. At this point I had no idea this thing called ‘baseball’ existed. I knew a little about football, but to me sports mostly meant soccer.

My first baseball experience came, I believe, in ‘95 when my dad took us kids to a game as part of a church group. I remember being awed by Dodger Stadium, and thrilled when the Dodgers beat the Marlins. I still don’t know how my family got sucked into baseball of all things, but I do know that Vin Scully played a big part in the journey. We had no TV, but my dad kept a radio in the kitchen for when he was doing chores such as the dinner dishes, which incidentally is when most Dodger games happened to be played. We used that radio a lot. Anything about the Dodgers in the morning paper was always devoured on sight.

Suffice it to say, by the time I finished high school, baseball was a deeply engrained part of my life. When I made the decision to go to college in Virginia, something inevitably had to change. At college, I was cut off from radio. All I had was Gameday and its competitors, and I quickly discovered that following night games that started at 10 p.m. ET was really hard. Inevitably, my diet of baseball dwindled and for the next few years I lived the life of a normal person who ignores most games and just reads the recap the next morning, if that.

I discovered my first Dodgers blog about four years ago. It was written by a newspaper man, a beat reporter covering only the Dodgers, and it was eye opening. It opened to me the world of baseball that cannot exist in the morning recap or in the play by play account of the game. I was introduced to prospects who were going to be stars next year, or the year after. I quickly became hooked again.

That reporter eventually got laid off, and I moved over to the blog of another newspaper’s beat reporter, whose blog had a community of followers who commented and such. It was during this time that SB Nation was starting to grow, and the Dodgers version TrueBlueLA was no different. In fact, some of the contributors at TBLA were regulars at the blog I was already reading. I eventually added this new blog to my daily reading, and the quality of that site is a big part of what drew me here when I became a Nats fan.

How does one become a Nats fan? It’s not easy, I can tell you that. My first Nats game was at RFK Stadium. The Nats lost, but I didn’t care, because I was there to experience baseball. I’ve lived in Northern Virginia for over eight years now. The Nats were there, but they stunk and besides I believe in team loyalty. What suckered me into Nats baseball was the physical act of attending baseball games at Nationals Park. Over the past two years, my consumption of baseball games has risen. I love baseball. I have friends that love baseball. We go to baseball games now and then. I went to see the Dodgers play. I went to see Randy Johnson’s 300th win. I went just to hang out with friends. I got to know some names, like J.D. Martin and Elijaaaah Dukes. I started paying attention when the Nationals were mentioned. I read articles about the Nats when I happened across them. I did not become a fan. Last year, things heated up even more. Strasburg mania came to town. Suddenly there were lots of Nats articles to read, and I learned more. I didn’t go to any Strasburg games though, and it didn’t make me a fan. I had an mlb.tv subscription to watch the Dodgers play. I don’t change easily.

I realize that many of you have a long distance relationship with the Nats much like what I had with the Dodgers. Websites and communities like this are what make that possible. I realized, however, that I wanted more.

The change for me came this offseason. I began reading more and more that this Nationals team had a brighter future. Baseball in D.C. is very accessible, but I realized that unless I invested time and effort into what was here, I would never be able to fully appreciate D.C. baseball. I realized that my amazing knowledge base about the Dodgers was nice, but I was missing out on so much because I knew nothing about the players I actually got to watch when I went to a ballgame. One day, I simply decided I wanted to get to know the Nationals, so I created an SB Nation account and went and found Federal Baseball and dove in.

Am I a Nats fan for life? Who knows? At this point, I still have so much to learn, and maybe it is a journey will take a lifetime. What I do know is that I love baseball, and this community has given me the opportunity to do and learn everything I wanted about the team that for better or for worse is my home team. I do still love the Dodgers, and if Kershaw ever pitches against the Nats it may bleed through just a little bit.

Oh yes, I am also a lazy bum. This is not entirely by choice. I was laid off several weeks ago, and yesterday I gave myself a day off from looking for a job in honor of opening day. It was a wonderful holiday. Aside from finding a new job, I fully intend to make it to many Nats games in person this summer. I look forward to sharing a wonderful year of baseball with everyone here at Federal Baseball!

Baseball started with my Dad for me. He grew up in NYC loving the St. Louis Cardinals. He and three of his sister were born in St. Louis and when he moved to NYC at age 3 he take the love all things Cardinals with him. He was a pretty good Baseball player himself but choose college/military life over an offer to a NYY farm team. So as you can figure I’m an Army brat but no matter where we’ve ever lived, if we were close to a NL team, we went to see all the Cards games. We also saw a lot of minor league games, as well. I can still remember my Dad making his owe charts for the Cards stats. He had it down to a science y’all. Well, around the time I’m 13-14 we move to DC (Arlington), which in fact for true believers of NL baseball really sucked. Never got into the O’s. I love Cal R, Jr don’t get me wrong but I have my extreme biases against AL baseball and their wimpy pitchers who can’t bat. We’ll leave that alone. Personally I grew up with baseball but my one true love is music. As of today, I can play about 5 instruments well and several others I can fake noise out of them. My main instrument is my voice and I studied voice for 2 1/2 years in college. I dropped out to be a rock star. Which means I got a job at a hotel and got into management and than at 29 I quit my band and music to be a Dad. Bored a year later I joined and Acappella group (music with no amps to lug around) and we had a nice 11 year run, 7 of them full time. My second kid has asperger’s syndrome so I came off the road to help my wife. To this point (which was 2005) my one and only hobby, carreer and asperation was to be involved with music. Than I saw Nats baseball and started watching baseball again. 2006 I took my boys to see the Nats vs Cards and the Nats got shut out 6-0. I was bummed and I felt robbed. That was the day I knew I was no longer a Cards supporter but I Nats fan. What a ride. This growing obsession was pushed along with the emergence of FB and other website dedicated to the Nats. I know I don’t add a lot about stats and stuff. Baseball life music is a feel thing for me. You fall in love with a players story and you watch him lived out the baseball side on the field of play. Win or lose it’s the story that counts.( Winning doesn’t hurt though) I love what Rizzo is doing with the prospects his drafted and I’m glad Bowden is doing a radio show and is out of baseball. Soul we got to jam one day. Thanks for this forum. Patrick you’ve done and continue to do a great job…

I’m also a fan of another team (the Giants) but live and work in DC. I’ve lived in DC for about five years now and kind have fallen for the Nationals. They have great young talent that I want to see in the future. So I root for the Nationals every game except when they play the Giants.

I also love the work of this blog and all of the authors.

Born and raised in Hell Paso Heck Paso El Paso, Texas, which as you may or may not know, is precisely a million miles from anywhere of interest. In particular, Major League baseball was not of concern to me: I spent my formative years watching the AA El Paso Diablos. I really starting appreciating baseball around the time I reached 8 years old, which coincided with the assent of the Cincinnati Reds to “Big Red Machine” status. So I became a west-Texas Reds fan.

I makes perfect sense to me anyway.

I am a mathematician and I do statistical analyses for a DoD think tank nowadays. I never lived in a ML city (El Paso, Austin for undergrad, Bloomington IN for grad, and a few other places at the start of my career) before I moved to NoVa in 2006. The moment I solidified my new job in the DC area, I proceeded to buy season tix for the Nats’ second season. Truth be told, I was not much of a Nats fan (I was a BASEBALL fan) and it took me a long time (more than two years) before I really started liking the team (those 2006 – 2007 teams were REALLY hard to watch, quite frankly). However, I did take to them pretty well over time and I now consider them my favorite over the Reds.

I occasionally post over on Nationals official site, and sometimes I comment on Kilgore’s stuff in the Post, but nothing compares with Federal Baseball. People here are not crude and they’re not rude (for the most part, those that do go down that direction apparently get taken out back behind Patrick’s shed for a virtual swatting.) This all helps to keep things interesting. I like that people here are smart, thoughtful, provocative, and funny.

OK, that was the short version….

Was a Dodger fan as a kid (grew up in S. Cal), then drifted away from baseball after college. Moved to DC for work, went to RFK to see the Nats in 2005 on a lark, and got hooked. Since I’m a numbers guy in my day job (I’m a trained scientician), I got into baseball stats, and I occasionally muddle together some numerological foolishness here. Stumbled across FB in 2008, back when Patrick was Ed and dreaming of someday having a game thread with 100 comments… Turns out I’m harder to ban than 100 spammers offering “Channel” handbags and “Guchi” sunglasses. It’s been a delight to see the FB community grow and evolve in the short time I’ve been here, and I enjoy the goofy nicknames and inside jokes just as much as the thoughtful, passionate discussions about the players and the game. The DH is an abomination.

I worked on the Hill and followed the Nats b/c I was a struggling grad student making pennies working in the capitol and I the loved underdog nature of being a Nats fan b/c I related to it as it pertained to my career and life at the time. Now post mid term elections I am back in education working as an outdoor educator in Western MD. ( hagerstown here I come :) ) and I live in SW DC 2 blocks from the park….those 5 dollar tickets are the cheapest date in town and my little lady likes going to ball games so it works out pretty good. Thanks to FB I have a stronger addiction to the game and NATS ! Thanks Patrick and all the regular posters.

Since I’m in the “Ministry of Plenty” I guess I’m part of the crew, though most of what I officially post here at Federal Baseball is press release related and almost exclusively when Patrick can’t get to it or is on the road.

Otherwise, I’m a commenter and reader just like everyone else.

I grew up in northern Virginia and central Maryland, so I’m a local. I was a Colts fan until they moved and and Orioles fan until 1997 when Angleos fired Davey Johnson the same day he won manager of the year. Though I came up an O’s fan, I always waited patiently until D.C. had a team to call our own.

I pitched growing up and into college and I did four years in radio in Hagerstown as part of the Orioles, Redskins and UMd radio networks. I read news and sports on our AM station and was board operator for all the games, and was a DJ on the FM station. I was a broadcasting major with a minor in technical English, and writing has always been part of me. I wrote my senior thesis on expansion of Major League Baseball to Denver and Washington, D.C. — in 1989.

My career goal when I was a younger man was to do play-by-play on the radio and got a small taste of it, but realized very quickly that every MLB team has 25 players but only two radio guys.

Today, I (with my wife, Cheryl) write Nats News Network and Caps News Network, both credentialed by the clubs we cover. Cheryl is an accomplished photographer and writes our “Off the Field” column. I started with a general baseball blog five years ago, and made a pretty quick transition into covering just the Nats. I also co-host a live internet radio show on the PrimeSportsNetwork.com called “Nats Weekly”, and occasionally do spots on 106.7 The Fan’s HD2 channel, mostly on the hockey side.

My signature line says “Your voice of gloom and doom”, and I’m often accused of being a killjoy when it comes to the Nats. But what I try to do is evaluate things in a realistic, constructive manner. I am fairly stat oriented, and am a true disciple of the Earl Weaver school of managing. On Base Percentage is the most important stat with regard to hitters, and the only stats that matter when evaluating a pitcher are walks and strikeouts, because those are the only things they can control.

I detest the hit-and-run, sacrifice bunt, and most stolen base attempts. These old school notions of “playing the game the right way” only reduce the chances of scoring, something that has been proven — yet mostly ignored — over the 100-plus years of stats that have been compiled.

I strongly urge any baseball fan to read “The Book” by Tango, et al, Baseball Prospectus, and Ron Schandler’s Baseball Forecaster. Shandler’s publication is geared toward fantasy baseball, but the most important aspect of his philosophy is pertinent to all valuation of baseball players: “Buy the skills, not the stats.”

Sadly, most MLB GMs don’t take that advice.

Keith Law, Rob Neyer, Joe Posnanski and Buster Olney are my favorite MLB journalists that don’t cover the Nats beat. My favorite baseball movie is “Eight Men Out”.

Professionally, I’m a litigation manager for a law firm in D.C.. When I’m not covering the Nats or Caps, I play in a semi-retired “modern” rock band, and my favorite music growing up was The Eagles, The Police, Van Halen, Kiss and Judas Priest.

I guess many would hesitate to call me a lifelong baseball fan, since I did not attend my first professional baseball game until I became an adult! However, I grew up absolutely loving the Atlanta Braves….my hometown is nearby Auburn, Alabama (actually Opelika), but I’m an Alabama fan (Roll Tide). I loved the Braves while growing up, but we were too poor to ever attend any games….besides, Atlanta was 100 miles away! So, no special stories of “dad” taking me to opening day games, getting autographs, etc…..mom and I had it pretty rough in a single parent home. I also never played baseball above the Babe Ruth level…..I was a much better football player; but come on….I lived in Alabama! What else would I be somewhat good at?! I also liked the Pirates a little, because my first Little League team was…..the Pirates! So, since my Braves were pretty bad back then, I also enjoyed the days of Willie Stargell, etc, and remember the 1979 World Series as my first most memorable moment in baseball.

The first MLB game that I ever attended was a Baltimore game in old Memorial Stadium….I THINK it was against the Twins, and one of the last games to ever be played there. I actually attended a few games during that last season at Memorial. The O’s quickly became my favorite AL team, and I often wished for a Braves-O’s World Series. I suffered through some tough moments as a Braves fan, but obviously enjoyed the early 80’s (Dale Murhpy and Bob Horner days) and the 15 year divisional dominance that began in 1991. Yes Souldrummer…..I despised your Mets, and hated your “Larry” chants at my beloved Chipper Jones! lol A friend of mine at Nationals Park yesterday reminded me of how big of a Braves fan I used to be, and hysterically thought I would be torn yesterday….NOT! Die hard Nats fan now!

I live here because the Air Force brought me here, and I decided to remain even after I finished my obligation. I served a total of 27 years, actived duty and reserves combined, and I literally bleed Air Force Blue! Now, I am a 16 year vet of law enforcement, and I serve as a mid-level manager at a local agency. 9 more years till retirement, when I hope to become a collegiate professor, as a retirement job…..I want to teach until I am no longer physcially and mentally able to do so. How did I become a Nats fan? Well, I have lived in the local area since 1989, and have slowly adopted all local sports teams, except the DC NFL franchise. First, I adopted the Caps…..that was easy, since I had never been a hockey fan before! Second, I dropped the Hawks for the Wizards when Atlanta fired Lenny Wilkens. When DC started to fight for a MLB team, I vowed to become a supporter if it came about. It was tough at first…..I only went to Braves games at first, mostly to cheer for the Braves, because hey, I HATED THE EXPOS! The Expos always gave the Braves fits!! But something magical started to happen. I started to really like what the Nats were doing, and players like Zimmerman also made it easy. I finally became a season ticket holder for the last season at RFK, my first time ever being a season ticket holder of anything, so the transition had taken place. I have been a season ticket holder since, and have improved my seats each season…..I wanted to transition to the Club area this year, but they won’t sell a 20 Game plan there, and I would have a very difficult time making 40 games with my demanding schedule. I will surely upgrade many of my tickets though, but I am disappointed now that RobBob has moved on to a better area, so I won’t see him up there! Still haven’t met Rob, or anyone from this site yet…..maybe this season! If you are wondering about my avatar photo, that is little Sully, who I am trying to turn into the next coming of Zimmerman! We are struggling in that category so far though! lol I also have another little guy, a little older, who LOVES the Nats….tough getting him down to get autographs though, because he depends on a wheelchair, making it tough to get around at Nats Park. He plays in a “Bambino Buddyball” league for disabled youth, and will be buddied with Southern Maryland Blue Crabs for a couple of games again this upcoming summer in Waldorf. The Blue Crab players do a great job helping the disabled players realize their dreams. My little guy is also a fantastic competitor at the annual PG County Special Olympics as well….he won two silver medals last year!

I like reading, but I usually stay away from sports related material….I figure I do too much sports stuff as it is. My favorite book has been “Once An Eagle” by Anton Myrer…..a fantastic read! A very long book, but highly recommended. I have a dry sense of humor that I think is sometimes taken as sarcasm on boards such as these…..although, I know I can sometimes be a pain in the backside. So, when I poke fun at you Stat Geeks, it is all out of love….and the fact that I KNOW I am not a math wiz myself! There have been, however, a few moments when I wished I could delete a post or two….but I imagine we have all had one or two of those moments. Patrick does a great job on this site at keeping peace, and letting folks have an opinion…..that is not the case on other sites, such as Testudotimes, the UMD site…..disagree with that moderator, and you will have your posts deleted, and you will receive a warning. I’ve seen many comments over there that support that belief, and I have even experienced it myself. So, my hats off to Patrick…..great job here on Federal Baseball. Patrick has facilitated more than just a great site to get and share sound Nationals information…..he has facilitated a remarkable venue where I feel all you guys are FAMILY! As I was sitting in Nats Park yesterday, after nearly every big play, I was wondering what members such as RobBob, Patrick, Souldrummer, Dave at NatsNews, Doghouse, DC Roach, Princess Jazzy, etc, etc, etc, were thinking! You can’t spend over a year on a site like this, interacting with great people such as you guys and gals, and not start developing a strong bond! Hope to eventually meet you guys one day or another!

Hello My Good Friends due to certain restricting factors of my life i go by the name Mr.Popout. I am a college student At Old Dominion University, and an avid baseball fan. I have been playing baseball almost all my life and love the game. I reside in Woodbridge when im not down in Norfolk and attended Forest Park High School. You will see me often not sneaking down to the lower levels at Nats game wink wink. I am an avid sports fan and go to about 25 games a year between the Nationals and High Single A, Potomac Nationals. I play piano and do stand up and improv comedy, and am also an avid disney fan. I am writing this half asleep so i apologize for any grammatical mistakes. Any more questions or things you would like to know about me just let me Know!!!! LETS GO NATS!!!

I’m from Québec, born and raised just north of Montreal. Started following the Expos in the late 70’s-early 80’s thanks to my older brother who was also a fan. My favorite player back then was Tim Raines. I remember doing an oral presentation in school where I quoted stuff from his baseball card. Later on I was a big fan of Larry Walker and then later still of Vladimir Guerrero. Possibly the most talented player the Expos ever had.

When the Expos moved to Washington I became a fan of the Nats. Most of my friends think it’s weird but to me it felt totally natural, especially at first when some of the players I knew from the Expos were still with the team.

I hate the Marlins for obvious reasons (obvious for anyone familiar with the Expos’ later years at least) but I hate the Phillies even more.

Finally, I found out about this site from Yahoo! and have been lurking since last season.
Recently posted for the first time and I intend to do so on a regular basis now that I’ve broken the ice.

Call me Sweetpea.

I grew up on the snowy north coast of Michigan to a family that did not understand sports, but patted me gently on the head as I threw myself headlong into tomboyish escapades. If it was played with a ball, I knew something about it. I was fed the Cubs on WGN and the Braves on TBS, as many kids of the late 80s and early 90s were. However, basketball was my passion. My heart belonged to the Chicago Bulls and I longed to be the first female player in the NBA.

All of these dreams were smashed by reality by the time I hit middle school and realized that I had not the speed nor the athleticism nor the body type for sports of any variety. Heartbroken, I decided I just hated all sports, so there, who needs ‘em? I made an exception for NASCAR in high school but there’s a huge argument over whether that counts as a sport or not. I grew up, graduated from college, didn’t ever really give sports a second thought. That’s where it ends, right?

Nope.

I moved to DC for graduate school in 2007 and decided to stay after graduation. Here, I met the guy you now know as Jorgath. When we started dating (which was around this time last year), he told me, rather apologetically, that baseball was “his thing.” I figured I’d deal with it. When he started coming over, plopping himself on my couch, and pulling up Nats games on my computer, I couldn’t help asking questions, if only to engage and humor Jorgath. “Who’s that guy? Well, who’s he, then? What does he do? What does that mean?” As time passed, my disguised apathy slowly transformed into genuine interest, then rabid, hissing, foaming-at-the-mouth fandom.

I’ve got a number of theories as to why I ended up following the Nats. Maybe I’m simply a sports girl, as much as I denied it as a teenager, in love with excitement and displays of grace, reflexes, and brute force provided by sports, even though I can’t participate in them. Maybe it’s the game of baseball itself, which attracts not just stereotypical jocks but nerds and geeks and awkward folks of all varieties – people that I feel I can fit in with. And maybe it’s the team itself, a group of wide-eyed underdogs straddling the fine line between brutal honesty and grotesque optimism as they struggle to achieve a dream – again, something I can relate to.

This post has already gone past TL;DR status (“too long, didn’t read”), so I’ll wrap up by saying that I’m an adult fan who is fairly new to the sport and excited to learn all I can. I’m self-conscious about my lack of knowledge, so I tend to just do my best to provide comic relief as needed. I enjoyed reading (and participating but mostly reading) threads last year and hope to have as much fun following the site this season, too!

Ik spreek Nederlands is my random fact.

I became a Nats fan after watching MASN2 daily (and thus Nats games) after work, and hopping the FB bandwagon after my self-imposed eviction from the Padres’ SB Nation blog.

Souldrummer is legit.

I’m Jeff and I’ve been lurking here at Federal Baseball for a couple of years now…
I grew up loving baseball but had fallen out of love with it in the early ’90s.

I’ve been following the Nats since they arrived in DC and have high hopes for the team in the very near future…

I grew up around baseball with a dad who grew up listening to the Senators on the radio. I was never that good but my brothers were, so I’ve been around the game my whole life. I became a Nats fan because I was raised to hate all things Baltimore. DC fan all the way! I came about SBNation a couple years ago, through Yahoo, reading up on the Skins and have enjoyed Federal Baseball, cuz I have more optimism for this team than the Skins. Anyways, as long as the Nationals are in Washington, I’ll be here! The game threads are great for keeping up with the games, living in San Antonio doesn’t leave many opportunities to watch unless we play the ’Stros. Anyways, Go Nats! Looking forward to a good season.

I’m Travis/Thor, whichever is whatever. I’m a long time Japers’ Rink poster from before they made the move to SBNation, and at the time, I remember emailing JP and posting that the move was a mistake. I have to admit that I was stupid for thinking that, as it’s led me to find several other blogs I either lurk, read, or post at.

I’ve never really been a baseball fan. We moved to the States when I was young, and I got to Woodbridge, VA when I was 6. I kind of fell into enjoying the Prince William Cannons with my folks/school when we went, but I was a hockey fan, and a hockey player. I have family near Alton, Illinois who we visit yearly in the summer, and when I was 12, I spent a few months there. My grandmother had just remarried, and her new husband would watch every Cardinals game on the TV that only got 4 channels. As a result, I became a Cardinals fan, and I was elated when we went to the park the first time, and I saw the Prince William flag waving in their stadium. When I was 15, I worked for the Cannons as an usher, and it was the best job I’ve ever had. I still have my shirt somewhere, even if it and my ball cap don’t fit. I would follow whoever the Cannons were affiliated with, but never really seriously.

At 16, I started really hearing rumors that DC might get a team, and the prospect made me excited. I was even more excited hearing they might award it to Northern Virginia. I signed every online petition I could find, and I started stocking up on Expos merch. I watched as many of their games as I could, thinking somehow I’d be making a difference and helping pave the way for the team to come down.

The day they announced the Expos were moving to DC was the same day I was accepted to college. They started playing after my freshman year, and I took in every game I could find on TV.

Long and short, I now work in Northeast DC, and I help tutor and mentor high school kids at risk of dropping out. I try and take in as many games live as I can, but I make no money, so when I went to last Sundays game, it was a big deal.

Go Nats.

I’m an SBN harlot a wandering baseball fan, and proprietor of Frankenstudios – a fictitious yet terrible imaging source .

NOT A TROLL

If you’re old, like I am, you might remember the Chambers Brothers.
A verse from their song “Time Has Come Today” will do as representation of me.

The rules have changed today
I have no place to stay
I’m thinking about the subway
My love has flown away
My tears have come and gone
Oh my Lord, I have to roam
I have no home
I have no home

NOT A TROLL

Now, that’s not entirely true…currently there are no subways in the greater metro Phoenix area.
Except those funky sandwich joints.
 What I meant was I do not have an SBNation site that I am based in. So bear with me as we share a series or two.

I thank you.

NOT A…oh. it’s over? OK.
/takes off troll mask

P.S. Livo is innocent until proven weighty. Er, guilty.