‘the lord is come’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

“Wait and See” is a mantra that Nationals Fans have been familiar with since last August, when newly minted Nationals Hero Stephen Strasburg went first on the disabled list, and then underwent Tommy John surgery to replace the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm. As the storm clouds, remnants of Tropical Storm Lee, pummeled the DC area all day, the scheduled debut was less than certain.

“Wait and See,” the team said, along with the meteorologists and amateur weathermen alike. At 4:30pm, the rain began to taper off, and by 5:30pm the tarp was draining into left field as we all awaited the word of the weather and the start of the game. Manager Davey Johnson had said in the pre-game conference that in the case of a rain delay, Strasburg wouldn’t be coming out, and instead we’d have the MLB debut of Brad Peacock instead.  The storm held off, passing just West of the District line as each wave of the storm came through.

Continue reading →

‘Danger’
courtesy of ‘Jarrod Bruner’

Many thanks to Helder Gil on Twitter, who pointed out this editorial from last week that concerns the construction at the CityCenter DC site between New York Avenue and H Street in the middle of downtown. The site was the focus of a ruling recently that has possibly put the District in a very difficult position of reimbursing developers for millions of dollars of labor charges.

At question here is the Davis-Bacon Act signed into law in 1931 by President Hoover. The law states that buildings, and other projects, constructed by the federal government as public works, are governed by certain rules, including wage rates that are no less than the prevailing rate of pay for that job elsewhere in the city. The Department of Labor ruled that the CityCenter DC project was subject to these rules because, though the development is being paid for by private developers, and financed outside of the city, because the land is leased to the owners for 99 years, one administrator at the DOL has declared that enough to apply to the developers.

You’d think that this sort of thing would come out of the pockets of the developers (in this case, according to the developers, that could be $20M), but according to the ruling official, Nancy Leppink, it’s the city’s responsibility to reimburse the developers to the tune of $20M for the difference in wages.

More interesting is the result that this might have at the Walter Reed development site, which the city owns and would likely lease to developers. At stake could be another $20M in potential revenue in taxes on the businesses in that space, which could be jeopardized by this ruling.

‘Wind up of the first pitch’
courtesy of ‘BrianMKA’

It’s time for the young talent to get their chance. That’s what Nationals Manager Davey Johnson has said and continues to say about the upcoming crop of homegrown pitching. It’s September. Therefore, based on previous trends of calling up the younger guys to play ball in the big leagues, Johnson is correct.  With that said, right-handed starter Livan Hernandez made his final start of the 2011 season Sunday. Washington lost 6-3 versus the New York Mets.

Hernandez was informed by Johnson on Friday that we would not start again in 2011. The team would like to get a look at Stephen Strasburg and other pitching prospects during the final three weeks  And, although the outcome was not desirable, Hernandez approached his final appearance as a professional. Continue reading →

Oh Bar Code.

I know you’re excited about the celebration for the end of Ramadan, and that you want nothing more than to offer awesome celebrations to those partying it up for Eid al-Fitr, but you maybe want to do something other than offer free jello shots and a free bottle of Belvedere for groups of six ladies.

Do you also have a bacon and pulled pork bar for guests to frequent? Or maybe a “Draw the Prophet” contest planned?

Well, at least there wasn’t a scantily clad girl on the flier? Thanks much to Elahe Izadi of WAMU for pointing this out.

The day before yesterday, I ran across a hilarious review of Ford’s Theater courtesy of one “Abe L.” who gave Ford’s a 1-star review back on the 10th of August. This afternoon I went looking for the original and spotted instead a 5-star review courtesy of one “John B” that made my afternoon:

Listen notte to the imposters which have so frequently left a commentary here!  They are frauds and charalatans, and ah demand JUSTICE.  In the meanwhile, as the judicial system rolls about and persecutes the charade which those before me have so delicately tried to balance themselves within, ah thinke ah wille leave a brieffe description upon this place’s experience with me.

Sometimes, I just love the Internet.

‘The bullpen looks on’
courtesy of ‘randomduck’

Thurdsay night’s game versus the first place Arizona Diamondbacks didn’t go the way starting pitcher John Lannan wanted it to. The left-handed pitcher gave up seven hits and two runs in six innings against the top team in the National League West, including a two-run bomb homerun to center fielder Chris Young.

That at-bat weighed heavy on Lannan’s mind after the game which ended in an 8-1 loss when a bullpen implosion followed his exit.

“You’ve just got to bear down and keep it as close as you can,” Lannan said. “You can only control what you can control and that’s just throwing strikes. Right now, I’m not thinking too much about what’s going on offensively. I know that these guys are going to come through but you know you just got to do what you can do and that’s what I’ve been doing.” Continue reading →