Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Best Fan In Baseball

Five in a row!? Why does everyone else get to see the good games? I've been to about 15 games this year, and I think I'm something like 3-12 on the season, including the single worst game in professional baseball history.

Despite what most of you who read regularly may think, I DO think that this team can be fun to watch, and tonight's a good reason why. When they're humming along, they play good, crisp baseball. And over the last two weeks, they've hit for power, fielded mostly crisply, and pitched the bejeesus out of the ball. (No coincidence that that coincides with the disappearance of ol' man Simo, huh?)

There's reason for some optimism, especially as players like Kearns, Zimmerman and Lopez regress (progress?) to the mean, given their terribly unswift starts. Dmitri -- for whatever personal faults I have with him -- is a fun player to watch, whose passion for what he does is contagious, not to mention my continued amazement at his ability to put EACH pitch in exactly the right spot for where it's pitched to him. It's away, he slaps it down the line. It's in, he turns on it. He's just locked in, spraying hits like the poor, fat man's Edgar Martinez. (Seems like he's put a bunch of weight back on, though, doesn't it?)

I've been frustrated with some of the pushing of the non-star players on this team, and disappointed by the team's inability to take a losing season to find answers about some of these players. But at the end of the day, we're finding out that Jose Flores is a keeper; Matt Chico's going to be a solid #3 starter some day, and maybe we're finding out that Joel Hanrahan can do it.

He wasn't spectacular tonight, but he misses enough bats to indicate that he could have some success. He still needs to command a bit better, but he's been good enough, so far.

But the real joy for the people who went tonight was watching Ryan Zimmerman pile up two long distance homers.

Here's video of the first one, an upper decker to left field.

Take a look at it, and you'll see one of my favorite fans of all time. It looks like the ball bounces and some lucky fan snares it while sitting. After nabbing it, he holds it up in one hand triumphantly. But look at the jerkwad in the red jersey behind him, bending over and trying to snatch it out of his hand! What a putz! Watch it a few times. The jolly ol' guy is smiling, standing there admiring the blast before his attention turns to the guy with the ball in front of him. He waits a beat or two and you can almost hear the hamster scrambling on the rusty wheel in his brain. Then he lunges forward and tries to steal it like a complete AHole!

Them's our fans!

9 Comments:

  • Heh, yeah, I'm familiar with those types of fans. Argh. (t-shirt lady, I'm thinking of you!)

    By Blogger Cathy, at 8/05/2007 1:10 AM  

  • for some reason I'm still up watching masn's replay of the game...it's pretty clear that what appeared to be an a-hole fan in the short clip was actually just joking...the guy who caught the ball deservedly kept it. Which doesn't answer why the game wasn't broadcast live!?!

    But at least that helps assuage the concerns about bad behaviour in the 400 sections...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/05/2007 1:17 AM  

  • I just like how toward the end of that clip when Zimm is coming home the backdrop of the fans. It looks like everybody is just sitting there. WTF?? Wake UP people!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/05/2007 1:21 AM  

  • Ah, but was he just joking, or was he joking after he realized what a stupid thing he was attempting?

    As far as the fans sitting, it was 1,000 degrees. I'll cut them some slack. ;)

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/05/2007 1:22 AM  

  • After all the times you've gotten on me Chris, I feel compelled to let you know the homer was to left field, not right.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/05/2007 2:34 AM  

  • That's what I get for watching through a mirror!

    By Blogger Chris Needham, at 8/05/2007 8:34 AM  

  • I will say this: in the few games I've been able to see in RFK the fans have been far better behaved than they are up here in Philly. I went to the very first new Nats' game on Opening Day 2005 and the fans were generally civil to us...for at least the first few innings. I'm almost fearful of going to CBP now, though I'd like to be there if Lannan gets a start again; he'll need the moral support ;-) .

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/05/2007 12:40 PM  

  • Natsva, you need to watch the clip again, or, if you had been at the game, you would know that nearly everyone not wearing a Cardinals shirt was indeed on their feet for both of Zim's homers. The crowd was great last night--one of the best nights at RFK this year.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8/05/2007 2:08 PM  

  • Sean's right. The crowd was pretty good. There were, though, a LOT of St. Louis fans in the stadium, and I suspect they weren't exactly serenading Zimm around the bases.

    By Blogger John O'Connor, at 8/05/2007 6:57 PM  

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