We jumped on StubHub yesterday, and grabbed tickets for the Bucs Nats game for $15 bucks.  Front row.  Crazy.  We just had to do it, we told ourselves—need to see how all of these politicos handle some sports buzz in person.

Washington D.C. is an amazing place for most everything, except sports. The city hasn’t had a positive sports buzz for quite some time.

We can’t dig up anything that matches the buzz created by this rookie outfielder named Bryce Harper.  It’s a buzz of Cheech and Chong-like proportions. We tried to see when DC was more abuzz… the biggest sports moment would have to bring up John Riggins and the year 1983.

So yeah, it’s been a while.

We have a feeling that the stands in D.C. will empty out by the seventh inning or so.  Sure, the die-hards will remain, but Washington is having a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that their team, despite some serious injuries, is tough as hell.

We will tweet some pictures to prove our hypothesis. If anyone from D.C. wants to challenge this hypothesis, leave a comment. If  you can figure out how to respond on a sports website.  We’re not sure you read these fancy things yet.

768 tickets were still on sale to see the first place Nationals.  Maybe there is something to that old saying that there is a reason they lost a team in the first place, so why are they trying this again?   One great reason is the ownership.  The Nationals are blessed with a family with deep pockets; perhaps the deepest in MLB.  The Lerner family has a great thing going on – we would have to think the crowds will eventually show up.

We remember when Stephen Strasburg made his debut.  The tickets were hotter than hell.  Below is the screen shot from the broken Nats site when “Strasmas” happened.

But how long will this last?   After Strasburg got rocked in San Diego yesterday, and with all the talk about the Nats shutting him down, will Nats fans commit to the 2012 season?  The big question for us is this: will the Nats shut down such a powerful ticket selling machine in mid-August?

We started to wonder if their strategy to think long term with Strasburg works in a way to drive ticket sales this season?  Is this an example of providing a small supply—- a limited number of home starts by Strasburg to create high demand (people buy extra game tickets just to get the Strasburg tickets.)?

Or, maybe, this is a very smart strategy to take with their phenom? If anyone asked us,  we would want to get all we could out of Strasburg.  Shutting down ‘The Stras’ is considerate in terms of player development, but isn’t the championship window limited?   Selfishly, we think the Nats should just let it roll.

Washington DC needs a winner.  We couldn’t remember any big winning tradition, so we hit the Internets.  Sure enough, Washington hasn’t won a World Series since 1924.  Almost 90 years since the Washington Senators actually did something*.

*The ball team, not the politicians–the blowhards’ streak continues

That Series victory was fluky, too.  It took a Game Seven Earl McNeely bad-hop single in the 12th inning to plate the winning run for the Senators.

The Nats were the worst team in baseball just a few years ago.  Everyone threw them around, even during the Pierogie Race.  Back in 2009,  pierogie Potato Pete gave Teddy some #Peteitude, when he ran onto the field and leveled Teddy, taking him out of the race.

Over the past couple years, the Nats have overpaid for some nice acquisitions and carefully developed their young players and now find themselves hanging around the top of the NL East.  We guess it’s the #Natitude.

One thing is for certain: it’s painful to think the Pirates are still sort of stinky, but didn’t stink bad enough a few years ago to get ultra-talented players like Strasburg and Harper.

Nothing is definite in the pure truth known as baseball. But this seems damn close:  Strasburg made his impressive debut about 24 hours after Bryce Harper was selected by the Nats as their first pick in the 2010 draft.  Now two years later, the nation’s capital has the most hyped baseball talent ever rocking ten stitches under his Nats hat, playing the outfield behind a pitching staff that has led the Nats to the top of the hill in the NL East.

The Nats have talent all over the roster (and all over the DL, too).  It’s only going to be harder to imagine the “what ifs” as their success continues.  But it seems when looking at the attendance numbers, some in DC still don’t believe it.

In 17 games the Nats have sold just over 432,000 tickets, or 61.2 percent of the available inventory over those 17 games.  The Pirates have sold 60.6 percent of their seats, good for about 395,462 fans through the turnstiles.

With their 2012 success on the diamond, and an in-your-face ad campaign off the field, you might think it would be hard to get a ticket.  Maybe they know we’re coming.

Natitude Park: Forty percent empty.

Bryce Harper is a hair thief

Bryce Harper does a lot of things very well. He has all the tools.

Well except one.  His hair.

Maybe he was due for a cut when he got the call?  But he’s superstitious.  His hideous raccoon cap has provided him with knock after knock as a big leaguer, including another double last night against A.J. Burnett, so we doubt a cut is coming anytime soon.

But just in case Erik Bedard sends him into a slump at PNC Park tonight, we wanted to see what a new look might ‘do’ for him.

The Snoop?

The Bieber?

Bieber and Mayweather by HollywoodGrind.com

The Brady?

Bryce Harper with the new Tom Brady 'do?

The Grandma next door?

Bryce Harper. Washington Nationals. You like this 'do?

The Coolio?

Bryce Harper as Coolio/Weird Al

Why in the hell did we think we could help Harper? Let’s just call it what it is…

Bryce Harper Hair Thief

2009 Seems Like Just Yesterday

It seems like it was yesterday that the Pirates and Nationals were the two laughing stocks of the league. They were the worst teams around and everybody loved to play them. When these two teams got together to play, both team’s fan bases were filled with optimism that they could have a winning series due to the other team’s horribleness.

Both teams have improved since those days. Neither team is a pushover anymore. The Nationals have improved a lot faster than the Pirates, however, and they have the best record in the National League right now. While nobody expects the Pirates to finish last this year, they certainly don’t look much like a playoff team right now.

The difference between these two teams right now is the Nationals prospects getting to the big leagues faster, and Washington’s offseason spending. Free agent signings Edwin Jackson and Gio Gonzalez have given the Nats a big boost this year. For as good as they have been, Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper are the faces of this franchise and they have been the storyline all year. The whole league watches Harper nightly and Strasburg looks like a Cy Young candidate.

Oh yeah, and they still have a star in Ryan Zimmerman plus a few really good young pitchers in Jordan Zimmermann and Ross Detwiler. This team is much better than the Pirates.

So do the Pirates have a chance in this series? The answer to that is always yes, just because we’re talking about baseball. Anything can happen in a given game. There’s not much of a chance for the Pirates to win more games than the Nationals this year, but there’s certainly a chance for them to win more this series.

Here’s the pitching match ups for the series:

Edwin Jackson (1-1, 3.69) vs. A.J. Burnett (1-2, 8.04)

Sure, the numbers favor Jackson. However, Burnett has been very good in two of his three starts and the Nationals offense isn’t that great. Burnett could very well throw another gem, and it’s not like Jackson is unhittable. He has some really good nights and some not so good ones. If the Pirates get one of those not so good ones they could win this game. In fact, I might even go as far as to say the Pirates should be favored. They won’t be, especially with Adam LaRoche and Ryan Zimmerman returning tonight to give the Nats a boost, but this is a very winnable game for the Pirates.

Ross Detwiler (3-1, 1.59) vs. Erik Bedard (2-4, 2.65)

Just a really good pitching matchup. Bedard has been very good for us and has put the Pirates in a position to win every game he’s pitched in. Detwiler has had a very good start to the year but hasn’t always been dominant in his career. He’s young and talented, but he’s not a Strasburg. You can score on this guy, although he’s only been scored upon in three of five starts, and two of the starts he did get scored on he gave up just one run. The Nationals have to be favored here, but it’s not a huge differential. The Pirates will have to score a few runs, but with a healthy Andrew McCutchen and a new and improved Pedro Alvarez, it could happen.

Stephen Strasburg (2-0, 1.66) vs. Kevin Correia (1-2, 3.38)

This one is a different story. If there’s ever a game that you feel the Pirates don’t have a chance, it’ this one. Correia has been bad in his last two starts and Strasburg is a huge strikeout pitcher, just the type that absolutely dominate the Pirates. Correia faced on with Clayton Kershaw earlier in the year and kept it close but the Pirates just couldn’t score – which is all too common this year. I don’t what the line is going to be, but if I were in Vegas on Thursday I’d certainly be putting some money down on the Nationals. 

The Pirates are sitting at 12-16 and 1-2 on this home stand where we were all hoping they would make up some ground. A three game set with the Nationals doesn’t give us the best odds to push our record closer to .500, but baseball is an unpredictable game. Anything could happen in this series, but the odds certainly don’t favor the Pirates. They are going to have to play some really solid baseball to get a win or two out of this series. Either way, it should be fun to watch. Bryce Harper is an electric talent and there aren’t too many pitchers around like Strasburg.

At the end of the day, win or lose, the Pirates get rewarded for their efforts this weekend with a three game set with a team more on their level – the Houston Astros. If the Pirates can squeak out a series win over the Nats and sweep up the ‘Stros, we’ll be sitting at 17-17. Yeah, let’s go with that.