The current line of thinking has Stephen Strasburg making his Washington Nationals debut during the June 8 – 10 series (nationals.com) against the Pittsburgh Pirates. For the last week or so, speculation by fans and media based on his schedule with the AAA Syracuse Chiefs made the June 4 game against the Cincinnati Reds a good bet for being Strasburg’s major league debut. Tickets for that game are nearly sold out based on that speculation. If Strasburg appears after that date, the Nats are going to need some serious damage control, even though they had specifically said that the date of his first start has not been decided.

To those who bought tickets, that’s tough luck, but expecting a sure thing is kind of naive. If Strasburg doesn’t start, you still get to go to baseball game — one more baseball game than I’ll be going to that night. Granted, I stand to benefit if Strasburg’s debut is June 8 because I have tickets to that game. However, I’m not going to be mad if that isn’t the day, if it is, that’s a bonus. If I were the team, I’d rather have Strasburg start twice on the homestand, so the 4th sounds like a good idea from the box office perspective. It would keep people happy for one thing.

There is some skepticism and cynicism out there about the Nats motivations for not committing to June 4. Some have said that June 4 being a near sellout has created the incentive to have Strasburg start on a different day and get another sellout. Now, maybe I’m being too forgiving, but I have trouble buying that theory. After all, if Strasburg pitches on June 4, that puts him in line to pitch on June 9, also at home. I’d like to to believe that the Nats are not that bad that they’d move the start a single day to get another sellout. However, given the problems the Nats have had over the years — most recently reaching out to groups of Phillies fans for Opening Day tickets instead of giving the general public a chance to buy them, the team stands to take a lot of heat even though they don’t necessarily deserve it. Their obligation is to the long-term goals of the team and the player and not the 15,000 to 20,000 ticket buyers hoping to see history. The backlash though, deserved or not is what happens when a franchise deals in bad faith with its fanbase as it did by recruiting ticket groups from Philadelphia for Opening Day. Hopefully, they will heed this lesson moving forward so that they don’t expose themselves to accusations.

The morals of the story — buyer beware and act in good faith all the time, so that people don’t assume its bad faith when it isn’t.