Bad Nationals Nostalgia / "Lean Years" Memories thread (merged)

[KnorrForYourMoney]

The '06 and '09 teams might have had two of the worst pitching staffs in MLB history - certainly in franchise history.

The '09 team was still at least fun to watch for me at times because the heart of the order had some guys who could rake (Zimmerman, Willinghammer, Dunn, and--amazingly--a healthy-ish Nick Johnson).

Early in the year, one of those guys (I think Dunn?) got totally robbed of a HR at the new-at-the-time Citi Field.  A normally cool-headed Adam Dunn got visibly angry with the ump who made the call.  Professional loser Manny Acta trotted onto the field and politely told the umpire he disagreed with the call, and then offered to buy him dinner at Morton's. 

You still can't convince me that moment didn't cause the team to completely quit on Acta.  They were a bad team, but they had talent, and they'd go on to play much harder, with a more respectable record, under Riggleman.

So in a word, thank goodness for those awful outfield quirks ib the earliest rendition of Citi Field, which have since been removed.  They probably spared us of an awful, soul-crushing, third full season of Manny Suckta.

[Five Banners]

I remember refusing to drive to DC to watch a live game, and even refusing to go to Shea with my daughter to see the Nats. Posted either here or a previous Nats fan board that the '08 and '09 teams were the worst Washington baseball teams in my lifetime, which included the mid-50's teams and the early '60s teams.

IIRC, they drove payroll below the level of when MLB had them in caretaker status prior to the sale to the Lerners.

[Minty Fresh]

Khalil Greene. 

The anti-Christ!

[rileyn]

John Patterson and Shaun Hill were going to be Scherzer and Strasburg, before any of us had ever heard of Scherzer and Strasburg.  I was sure of it. 

Ryan Church was Juan Soto.
Nick Johnson was a hit machine like Rendon.
Vinny Castilla and Zimmerman are a comp.
Jose Vidro and Howie.
Brad Wilkerson hit for the cycle in the first week of the season, so he was Trea Turner-esque.
Schneider was a combo of Suzuki and Gomes.
Termell Sledge and Christian Guzman were..........pathetic that year.
Jose Guillen was a maniac.
Our bullpen was somehow effective Cordero, Majewski, Rauch.

Come to think of it, how did we not only win 81 games that year?


 

[Smithian]

John Patterson and Shaun Hill were going to be Scherzer and Strasburg, before any of us had ever heard of Scherzer and Strasburg.  I was sure of it. 

Ryan Church was Juan Soto.
Nick Johnson was a hit machine like Rendon.
Vinny Castilla and Zimmerman are a comp.
Jose Vidro and Howie.
Brad Wilkerson hit for the cycle in the first week of the season, so he was Trea Turner-esque.
Schneider was a combo of Suzuki and Gomes.
Termell Sledge and Christian Guzman were..........pathetic that year.
Jose Guillen was a maniac.
Our bullpen was somehow effective Cordero, Majewski, Rauch.

Come to think of it, how did we not only win 81 games that year?


 

I have posts from 2009 where I was convinced a Zimmermann/Detwiler/Stammen/Lannan/Martis rotation was the future. Dark times.

[UMDNats]

That 2005 team defies all logic. There was no reason for us to be so good in the first half.

[nicefellow31]

I remember when we got Lastings Milledge for Ryan Church and Brian Schneider and thinking that he could be the one that was prophesied

Back in 2008, I was on an Air Force assignment at Cheyenne Mountain, CO.  I was a shift worker and had the day off when the Nats came rolling into Denver to play the Rockies.  I took advantage and got a ticket for the getaway game that was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.  I then got lucky, because the Wednesday night game got rained out and they announced that a true double header would take place.  So for the price of 1 ticket, I got to see two games.  During the 1st game I was absolutely convinced that we found the next Rickey Henderson in the form of Lastings Milledge.  He had a 4 RBI, 2HR game, one of which was a monster shot.  Second game he was 5-2.  Some other notes from that game was that a National's picture injured himself shagging flies during batting practice and somehow the Nats won both games 6-3.

The box scores.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200808071.shtml
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200808072.shtml

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

That was our very first Storenism. 

The anti-Christ!

[Mathguy]

Raleighnat - can you get MASN and watch the Nats games in Raleigh ?

Also - some memories:

- Being excited the Expos were moving closer to my North Carolina home....but also watching Omar Minaya eviscerating the Montreal club (under MLB ownership) before they could good here
- Being there at RFK for the Rick Short hit
- Loving Livan - he couldn't break glass with his fast ball but what style
- The first half of the '05 season when we were like 18 games over .500 before a second half collapse
- Drafting Zim
- Lavalle Speignor beating Johanne Santana
- Bascik humiliating himself with his post record homer given up to Bonds "road tour" (I remember several interviews he gave - I found his enthusiasm for that moment of failure to be appropriately degrading for the Nats at that time)
- Thinking Dukes and Milledge were the future
- Trying to build a rotation in my mind around John Lannan that I was rationalizing could somehow compete
- Signing Werth, drafting Stras and his opening night
- And then it turning in 2012 - with Michael Morse and his walk up song
- Trying to like Harper because he was our guy but always preferring Stras' keep your mouth shut and do your job style
- Drafting Rendon and signing Max
-  All the great seasons with October collapses
- AND NOW - A chance to win the world series with a great group of players - led by Zimm - that you can root for without reservation
 

What a ride!  Let's do this!

[vernon337]

Great thread guys.    It's nice to look back on those years and think of the fun we have had here going back and forth over this team. We're not there yet but we have talked about how sweet it will be to see the Nats swarm the mound in ultimate victory after the years we've endured watching what at times was a circus. I may end up crying when that happens and I hope I'm at Nationals Park when it does. About ten years ago I made a bet with a yankee fan who insisted that the curse of the bambino is real and that the Red Sox would never win the world series. It wasn't much of a bet since I had nothing to lose but he promised me world series tickets to any world series of my choice if boston ever won a world series. After the sawks won their first pennant I decided to hold off on collecting. I'm hoping this is the season I collect.

I'm not all the way through this thread, but I have to ask, did you get your tickets?

[spidernat]

I'm not all the way through this thread, but I have to ask, did you get your tickets?

   I had forgotten that. But no because the Nats have never made it to the WS. When we made that "bet" he was a yankee fan. He abandoned the yankees to become a Nats fan in 2005. He and I have lost touch over the years and I have not talked to him in almost three years. I should hit him up before next weekend.

[RobDibblesGhost]

Can we make fun of Bill Ladson? I know he had health issues, but isn't he okay now?

Sure. He’s an idiot.

[tenken627]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/fourteen-years-after-baseballs-return-to-dc-the-original-nats-love-what-theyre-seeing/2019/10/17/d9e0f4a0-f10a-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html

They watched in all corners of the country, Brian Schneider and Jamey Carroll in Florida, Chad Cordero and Nick Johnson in California, Gary Bennett in the heartland outside Chicago, certainly others elsewhere. They have nothing to do with these Washington Nationals and everything to do with baseball being back in the District. And some combination of them should throw out a World Series first pitch.

“You get goose bumps,” said Schneider, the catcher. “You see the Lerners. You see the fans. They went through a lot — not just to have a team taken away, but when it came back they struggled for all those years. It’s the whole picture: playing at RFK, opening the new stadium. Then you watch them celebrate, it’s awesome.”

“To see the joy on the fans’ faces when we came back, that’s what it’s all about,” said Cordero, the closer. “Seeing how happy they were back then and seeing how happy they were [Tuesday] night, it honestly made me tear up a little bit. To see them go through all those down years as fans, all the hard times and all that heartbreak, it made me so happy to see everybody enjoy it.”

Kind of makes you wish Frank Robinson were around to oversee it all.

“I loved Frank,” Cordero said.

“I loved Frank,” Johnson said.

When Robinson, the Hall of Famer who managed those Nats, died in February at 83, Schneider, who was then the catching coach for the Miami Marlins, took two days off from spring training and flew to Los Angeles for his funeral. Carroll got out all his old Montreal Expos gear and wore it to his son’s Little League practice so he would be asked about it, so he could have the opportunity to talk about the man he once played for.

“You’d knock on his door,” Schneider remembered, “and he’d yell, ‘What do you want?’ and say to get out and start cursing. Then you’d sit down in a chair, and before you know it, an hour later, you’re still talking to him.”

“From a personality and different-characters-in-the-clubhouse perspective, it was a wide spectrum,” said Bennett, the backup catcher. “That was another unique part of that season. You’d have somebody over here, and across the clubhouse you’d have a complete 180. I think that made it a lot of fun.”

Even more reason to bring them back. You remember Guillen, the snap-at-any-moment slugger. But there was Joey Eischen, the say-anything lefty reliever. Carlos Baerga, the veteran infielder, had so many quips that Carroll printed up T-shirts with all his favorite sayings. I’m not sure Johnson took off that shirt all year.

“Baerga was the biggest character of them all,” Carroll said. “He reminds me of what Parra’s bringing to the team now.”

They carry pieces of it to this day. Bennett has his batting helmet, some jerseys and a couple of bats signed by the boys. Carroll has a poster of the first pitch at RFK, issued by The Washington Post, hanging in his office (the same poster I have in mine). They all have ties to one Nat: Ryan Zimmerman was a 20-year-old third baseman when he was called up that September. Now he’s a 35-year-old first baseman in uncharted waters.

“To see Zimmy,” Schneider said, “I can’t get a smile off my face when I see him on TV.”

Find them. Bring back as many as want to come. Give them a ball. Tell them to pitch. The 2005 Nationals understand Washington as a baseball city in a way no other group does. In a weird way, this pennant matters to them. They should be made to feel like they matter, too, because they do.

[raleighnat]

Raleighnat - can you get MASN and watch the Nats games in Raleigh ?

Directv - not cable.  I have satellite at home and beach condo for just the Nats.  Only reason I haven't cut the cord.

[spidernat]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/fourteen-years-after-baseballs-return-to-dc-the-original-nats-love-what-theyre-seeing/2019/10/17/d9e0f4a0-f10a-11e9-b648-76bcf86eb67e_story.html

[CoryTheFormerExposFan]

Ahhh the mighty Ryan Church...

I used to be on a Expos message board where Ryan Church would post some when he played.  I was a kid and asked how he trains and he suggested Muscle Milk. I am drinking one now actually.  Thanks Ryan!

[CoryTheFormerExposFan]

Nats first opening day line-up:

1. Brad Wilkerson CF
2. Cristian Guzman 2B
3. Jose Vidro 2B
4. Jose Guillen RF
5. Nick Johnson 1B
6. Vinny Castilla 3B
7. Terrmel Sledge LF
8. Brian Schneider C
9. Livan Hernandez RHP

Actually not a bad lineup thinking of the best times for each guy.

[Smithian]

They really need to bring back Guzman to throw an opening pitch one regular season game.

[Baseball is Life]

You’re still a freaking pimp and he’s a loser like BiL.

Thanks for allowing me to live in your head rent free. And the place is so spacious, too.

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

Perhaps someone else remembers his handle ("Hiller-something"...whatever it was I can't find it now, perhaps he went incognito into 2006 Nats Starter Protection Program) but I seem to recall Shawn Hill posting here after he pitched in a game.  Maybe I'm mindfacting.

[spidernat]

he did

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Colin Ballester.  I rooted for the guy independent of Spinman and him and his wife posting. The whole mustache growing charitable fundraiser thing too. Had the build and the velocity when he came up.  Stuck around here and elsewhere for a few years but never the big breakthrough.

[rileyn]

In 2005, we opened with a 9 game road trip as RFK was being prepared.  I remember the first TV games I watched (MASN televised less that half the games that year) was a getaway day game against Atlanta.  Brian Schneider hit a bases clearing double in the late innings to bring us home at 5-4.  I was at the RFK opener against Arizona, and my best memory is once I got through the insanely long security line (George Bush), seeing the bright green grass just captured me.  I hadn't been there since the Skins moved out and it felt so right.  Like home.  I went to tons of games that year after work and just sat up high in the yellow centerfield seats.  Those were the days.  I was hooked.

[Baseball is Life]

I've been an avid fan since 2005 and I don't remember much of this. Kudos to you guys for the long-term memory

[spidernat]

In 2005, we opened with a 9 game road trip as RFK was being prepared.  I remember the first TV games I watched (MASN televised less that half the games that year)

Not true. They covered all of them. The problem was that it took so long for carriers to pick up the channel so the games in early April were not being seen by anyone. Mel Proctor said he gave out his phone number on the air during one game and asked anyone who was watching to call the booth.   I had DIRECTV at the time and they were the first carrier to pick up MASN and that was sometime in late April. But let's not forget that a local DC channel (channel 9 maybe?) showed some of those early games.