My Opening Day and RFK Stadium finale tickets arrived yesterday in the mail. Sadly, they are not printed on Nationals stock since I ordered them online. Still, a Tickets.com stub is better than the paper tickets you can print at home. I might have to buy an extra at the gate just to have the “real” thing.
Today, the Nats get on the bus (Florida Today) and head down I-95 to Vero Beach to take on the Dodgers. This is the penultimate season (USA Today) for Dodgertown (Florida Today) since the Dodgers plan on moving spring training to Glendale, Ariz. in 2009. It is a shame the Nats are locked into Viera for so long given this development.
Shawn Hill will be on the hill today for the first two innings or 45 pitches. Chris Michalak, Luis Martinez, Felix Diaz, Jesus Colome and Emiliano Fruto are expected to pitch as well. The starting lineup will probably be Felipe Lopez, 2B; D’Angelo Jimenez, SS; Ryan Zimmerman, 3B; Austin Kearns, RF; Ryan Church, LF; Alex Escobar, DH; Brian Schneider, C; Larry Broadway, 1B; Nook Logan, CF. It looks like the DH will be used for most spring training games.
Two more stories highlight (The Post) the changes in attitude (Florida Today) at spring training with Manny Acta as manager. Every time one of these articles gets printed (or parsed into fields for export to online) the likelihood of Frank Robinson getting “his day” from the Nationals probably decreases. Enough about Frank though, Manny’s the man now and it will be interesting to see how much of a players manager he is when the team is being swept by someone like Colorado.
Since two papers took care of the obligatory Acta stories, The Wash. Times has the obligatory rotation story.
The Wash. Times notes that Travis Lee is going to sit out the first several games with a strained right oblique (The Post). This can only be seen as a blow to his chances to play first while Nick Johnson recovers. Larry Broadway, Dimitri Young and Robert Fick are all in the mix for the spot. In addition to noting the Lee situation, The Post’s Nationals Notebook also notes that Jerome Hruska is the new p.a. announcer; he filled in for Jim Clarke last year — I think I was at his one of Hruska’s games because I noted the different announcer.
Malevolent Angelo$’ Sports Network spent yesterday filming ads with players to promote the games, something noted by The Wash. Times as well as a couple of entries on The Post’s Nationals Journal blog.
Tickets to the Nats vs. Balmer exhibition in Norfolk sold out in 30 minutes (Virginia-Pilot). I am still bitter Angelo$ got his AAA team there.
Lastly, Nationals Farm Authority is in the Sunshine State taking a look at over 100 players.