Here’s the footage of Manny Acta and Elijah Dukes going at it in the dugout after Lastings Milledge hit a homer to give the Nationals the league. Needless to say, they are not happy with each other for some reason.
What is going on here? Was it the celebration after the home run that has the normally mild mannered Acta on tilt? Dukes, never one to back down from a challenge, didn’t take his dugout dressing down by the manager well, yelling back at the skipper and refusing to high five him after the game.
Does anyone else smell a suspension coming? What happened here? Is this the alarm ringing on the ticking time bomb that is Elijah Dukes or just a young man not willing to back down when his coach goes after him. I wonder what set Acta off that bad?
So, Washington DC has built the Lerner family-owned Nationals one hell of a shiny new stadium to the tune of $650,000,000. It even opened on time. I seem to recall Ryan Zimmerman hitting a game winning home run on opening night!
Apparently, though 45,000 fans packed into the stadium handing the Lerners $8 for a beer doesn’t mean the stadium is “complete”. See, the team offices in the stadium still need some spit and polish, so the city is letting them use the old RFK offices for free until all the “Hang in There Baby” posters can be leveled. Do the Lerners say “thanks for the new home, looking forward to the new offices”? Of course not, that wouldn’t be up to the high standards of DC-area sports owner douche-bagocracy. Nope, instead, they try to get another $100k/day out of the city and its taxpayers. Hmmm, wonder what they would do with that extra money. Players who can hit the ball? Pitchers who can actually get it over the plate? Or maybe they’ll just squeeze in a few more seats behind home plate that noone wants to pay for.
Here is a screen grab of the Washington Nationals tickets page, click on it if you want it full size. Did you see May 22nd there and notice that the Nationals are playing Indiana Jones that day? What the hell is that? Its not just the Nationals either, if you look at all the MLB games that day on MLB’s team ticket sales sites, they all have an Indiana Jones background on May 22nd, which happens to be the opening day of the fourth installment of the franchise. Want a closer shot of him? Here you go:
I’m not sure why, could be because I’m a sensitive blogger who gets touchy about a lot of things, but I’m kind of upset about this. I mean, i’m sure MLB got paid a pretty penny to stick Harrison Ford on every team’s schedule, and that’s good for them, but really, this has NOTHING to do with baseball. Its just a pure and blatant cash grab. Sure, MLB schedules are not some sacred thing that never have advertising along with them, as a matter of fact they always do, but this just seems a little too much to me because its pretty obtrusive. Most online ads you can do away with with an AdBlocker or just by not looking at the sides of the computer screen, but for this, you just cannot avoid Ford’s mugshot there which kinda sucks.
So, kudos, I guess to MLB for finally figuring out a way to guarantee it’s fans pay attention to their ads. I sure did and I even gave it a freaking blog post…wait…maybe this is what they wanted all along?!?! Curses!
Wow. There wasn’t a whole lot of offense but there was a whole lot of drama as the Washington Nationals opened their new park by beating the Atlanta Braves 3-2. Ryan Zimmerman, he of the many game winning hits in his 2 seasons in baseball hit one for the ages. A walk-off, frozen rope, home run to left center field that started the season in style and opened the new Nationals stadium with a memory that none of the fans or players will ever forget.
After George Bush got more boos than cheers during the ceremonial first pitch and the Atlanta side was retired in order by opening day starter Odalis Perez, the game started off with a bang for the Nationals, getting two runs in the first inning against Braves starter Tim Hudson. Sadly, that was all the offense they could muster against the veteran as he retired 19 straight batters before being sent to the showers.
Cristian Guzman got the first hit in the park off a broken bat single and scored the first run off a Nick Johnson double. Johnson would later score off a Kearns single to right field. Larry “Chipper” Jones hit the first home run in Nationals Park getting the Braves to within 1 run in the fourth inning. A mishandled Jon Rauch pitch by Paul Loduca allowed the Braves to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the 9th, but a 2 out home run by Ryan Zimmerman against Peter Moylan allowed the Nats to take home their first win ever in Nationals Park.
Overall, the Nationals pitched well, had more good defensive plays than bad and were a little overmatched at the plate against a crafty veteran pitcher. In the end, they won in very dramatic fashion but the real story of the game was that ballpark looked and played great. Hopefully Trapper John, who was at the game, will write up his game day experience in the blog, but watching it on TV, I have to say I cannot wait to see this place in person. I’m sure there will be plenty of stories today that will talk about the food lines, the high prices, the horrible traffic, the congestion at the metro stations, etc. but for now, lets just savor the Nats win and the opening of the new digs. Baseball season has started folks, and I, for one, cannot be happier.
I won’t stand for this. No way Elijah Dukes goes straight now. I am a Nats partial season ticket holder and I demand that the crazy continue. The Nats have Elijah, Da Meat Hook, Lastings Milledge and Paul Lo Duca on the same team and now they want to make everyone walk straight? Sheeeeeeit. I’ve paid too much money and invested too much hope in this potential train wreck. Just think of the potential Eastern Motors commericals that will never see the light of day. By Thor’s Hammer, please don’t take this away from us.
Here’s the footage of Manny Acta and Elijah Dukes going at it in the dugout after Lastings Milledge hit a homer to give the Nationals the league. Needless to say, they are not happy with each other for some reason.
