Pirates/Nats Series

I never thought that I would get tired of going to baseball games, but I'm ready to take a break. It's not the games themselves (although I'll get to them shortly), but the hour (or more) it takes to get to and from the stadium and the 2+ hour rain delay in last night's game can be really exhausting. Here are my notes from the past three games, where the Nats won all three:

- As with any Pittsburgh game, there were many Pirates fans throughout the series.

- While I support Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon and defended him in a discussion with a friend who does not like McClendon on Tuesday night, I realize that my friend makes some valid points, particularly after this series. In the three games, the Pirates started three different catchers and three different third baseman. In fact only Jason Bay in left field, Daryle Ward at first base and Jack Wilson at shortstop started in the same position all three games, and only Jack Wilson batted in the same spot of the batting order in all three games.

- I actually liked seeing McClendon get ejected in today's game. Kip Wells and David Ross were both extremely frustrated with the umpires calling of balls and strikes and Lloyd was sticking up for them. How he got ejected was even better. When walking towards the dugout after visiting Wells on the mound, he said something (who knows what?) that really upset the ump, who promptly kicked him out of the game. Then came a heated argument and that was that.

- The Pirates managed to have a player thrown out at home plate in all three games. Is this a record?

- As Dejan Kovacevic of the Post-Gazette wrote, "The grounds crew at Washington, so clumsy its work...had failed to spread the tarp over the entire third-base line during the long rain. When the delay ended, they poured bags of sand over it to try to compensate. It apparently was not sufficient." This probably caused Rob Mackowiak to be thrown out at home.

- RFK stadium has to work on the in-between innings entertainment. Not only do they have a car race on the scoreboard between George Washington, Abe Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton (there are only three races programmed, so either Washington is going to spin out, Hamilton is going to stop at an ATM or Lincoln is going to stop to take pictures), there is also a scoreboard race between a bottle of Miller, Miller Lite and MGD. Not very exciting.

- I'm getting hungry so it's dinner time. Maybe the Pirates will get better. Maybe not.