Wednesday, April 11, 2007

If It Weren't Funny It'd Be Tragedy

So I sat down with my gf to watch a movie while we ate dinner. As the closing credits rolled, I turned the DVD off, flipped to Channel 77 (Screw you, BookTV!), and what do I see? A 2-run Braves Homer.

I'm actually sort of enjoying the losses. It's like a good screwball comedy. The guys are trying hard. They just don't have the ability to compete with the big boys like Atlanta.

The offense'll come around at some point (it's desperately trying as I'm typing this), and they'll get some wins. But for now, I'll enjoy -- in a perverse sort of way -- all these losses, and how uncompetitive they are, despite their efforts.

If you're gonna lose, don't lose agonizingly or incompetently. Go out there, and play hard! But lose big!

Let's Go NAAAts!

  • Let's see... Fall behind early. Get no offense. Claw a little bit to think we're in it. Relief falls apart. Lose easily.

    How was this different from about 4 of our other losses?

    Part of me wishes that Hanley Ramirez had fielded Kory Casto's shot the other day. One more against Atlanta, three in NY, two with ATL and two with the Phillies. Feel reasonably confident about ANY of those?

    I haven't heard Stan Kasten break out that "The last time one of my teams was predicted to finish in last, we went to the World Series" quote lately. Have you?

  • 9 Comments:

    • Chris-don't you mean, "Let's Go NAAts", "Let's Go NAts", or even better, "Let's Go NgulfcoastleagueTS"??

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/11/2007 10:48 PM  

    • I love this blog, even though the news is terrible.

      I grew up in the D.C. area as a Braves fan, but baseball in the District was my No. 1 goal. (My parents wouldn't pay extra for Home Team Sports, so I rarely saw the O's.)

      I live in St. Paul, Minn., now. Thanks to interleague play I'll get to see my first three Nationals games in June. Maybe they'll win one of them. Fingers crossed.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/12/2007 12:05 AM  

    • Give Stan a break.

      He's very busy with a construction project in near SE Washington to be bothered by some nonsense concerning the 2007 Nationals.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/12/2007 12:27 AM  

    • I was prepared for a bad season...really I was. But I was expecting something like a .400 season not a .200, and this blows.

      By Blogger NatsNation, at 4/12/2007 3:44 AM  

    • The Nats are on a pace to win twenty games this season and Ryan Zimmerman is on a pace to knock in twenty runs.

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/12/2007 5:09 AM  

    • So we get to play the AL Central in interleague, but instead of playing the Royals (Central Cellar Dweller), we get to play the Blue Jays instead.

      I honestly thought 65 wins was realistic. Now, I think 6 wins is more likely.


      If the Kearns home run on Saturday would have been called foul correctly, we would have had a 34 inning stretch of scoring 1 run (instead of the amazing 2 we have now). And the saddest part of all of it is that we are actually hitting the ball ok, just right at people, and never with people on base.

      By Blogger Natsfan74, at 4/12/2007 7:48 AM  

    • Chris -- Thanks! I'm trying to convince my girlfriend that that'd be a perfect time to visit her family in MN. I've always wanted to see a perfect game.

      Brian -- Not only is he busily constructing the stadium that was planned for him before he took the team, but he's also probably wildly celebrating the success of the Atlanta Thrashers who are making their first playoff appearance (against my Rangers). He, undoubtedly, feels a swell of pride, since he assembled that core, much as he did the Braves. (Note to self: Rework to make sarcasm more clear)

      By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/12/2007 8:32 AM  

    • Not that a sports blog needs any esoteric platitudes in its comments (but this is DC not Balmur), but your header is pretty telling there.

      In this Shakespeare class I took (I can hear the groans) I learned that the fundemental difference between characters in a comedy versus a tragedy is that, in a comedy, the charcters truly believe things will work out in the end.

      Face it Chris. You may be a pragmatist. But you're, at heart, an optimist aren't you?

      By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4/12/2007 10:12 AM  

    • That's the first time that someone reading this blog has come to that conclusion, but it's basically right.

      I write a lot of negative things, but I always smile at the positive. And I fully believe that you need to suffer through the low periods because they make the mountaintops look all the higher.

      They're not playing terribly, which is what's making this so enjoyable to watch. They just can't compete. It's something else entirely, and it's freeing!

      By Blogger Chris Needham, at 4/12/2007 10:16 AM  

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