Josh Land

Patrick Reddington: An Expos fan at home in D.C. on opening day

Patrick Reddington: An Expos fan at home in D.C. on opening day
The closest I ever came to a sense of community as a fan of the Montreal Expos was when I would travel from my home in Johnson, Vt., where I lived after attending college in town, across the border in Richford, Vt., through Canadian farmland and small farming communities to Autoroute des Cantons de L'Est across the Jacques-Cartier Bridge to Rue Notre Dame East, down the Boulevard Pie IX to the Stade Olympique on Rue Pierre de Coubertin. There with the 10,000-15,000 fans who still showed up for...
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Josh Land

Matthew Taylor: Knocking at the door of franchise's all-time marks

Matthew Taylor: Knocking at the door of franchise's all-time marks
Happy opening day, Baltimore fans. I'm sorry to report that I won't be at Camden Yards for the opener. Nevertheless, I have taken the day off from work to watch the game at home. It's not an official holiday, but it should be. Each new season brings the promise of the unknown, so we start the year with predictions and projections that typically focus on expected team and individual totals. Given my interest in Orioles history, I decided to look at where some current players might end up on...
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Josh Land

Anthony Amobi: Roberts off to good start, but can it continue?

Anthony Amobi: Roberts off to good start, but can it continue?
It has been quite a journey for Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts for the past several seasons. Roberts is the longest-tenured member of the Orioles, having played his entire 12-year career with the team. However, he has spent more time as a bystander than on the field in recent years. Now the question for Orioles fans is this: Can Roberts still be a productive player, or is he no longer viable for the organization? So far, in a two-game sample, it looks like he can still play in the...
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Josh Land

Rachel Levitin: My first opening day was well worth the wait

Rachel Levitin: My first opening day was well worth the wait
For the first 25 years of my life, Major League Baseball's opening day was a romanticized fantasy played out in my head. It was an all-elusive game that one day I'd attend, though I didn't know when, where, why, or how. Growing up mere minutes from Wrigley Field was always such a tease, but I knew dad would never take us kids out of school for the game no matter how hard I begged. I'll also venture to guess that tickets to a Wrigley Field opening day game weren't exactly cheap even back in...
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Josh Land

David Huzzard: A rotation full of talent - and extra motivation

David Huzzard: A rotation full of talent - and extra motivation
The starting staff that general manager Mike Rizzo assembled for the 2013 Nationals is nothing short of remarkable. Up and down the rotation, there are pitchers who are, have been, or could be aces. The talent of Stephen Strasburg is obvious. If he hadn't been stopped because of an innings limit last season, Gio Gonzalez wouldn't have been the only Nat getting Cy Young votes. Strasburg's 11.13 strikeouts per nine innings would have been the 17th-highest in major league history - and this is...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: On opening day, an elegant masterpiece

Ted Leavengood: On opening day, an elegant masterpiece
Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg made a compelling case on opening day to be considered the two best talents ever to play Major League Baseball in Washington, D.C. Facing a depleted Miami Marlins roster, Strasburg seemed to hardly work up a sweat as he breezed through seven innings on 80 pitches without allowing a run. On a day when Ricky Nolasco had his good stuff, Harper hit two laser shots that bored through a slight incoming breeze to easily reach the right field stands. The final score...
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Josh Land

Zach Wilt: A few words about opening day

Zach Wilt: A few words about opening day
Opening day is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Second only to Christmas, if we're being honest. Yes, I know that opening day technically isn't a holiday, but for me it's the day that not only indicates that warm weather is around the corner (whether you believe it or not), but also a time of hope for 30 different fan bases across North America. I celebrate its meaning this time every year. Each team takes the field tied for first place on opening day, full of optimism about the the...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: The top five reasons the Nationals will live up to their high expectations

Marty Niland: The top five reasons the Nationals will live up to their high expectations
By any measure, the Nationals' 2012 season was an historic time in the nation's capital. It was the city's first winning season since 1969, its most wins and first postseason appearance in almost 80 years, and first postseason victory since the 1933 World Series. The 2013 season could be even more historic. Few people alive today can remember a season with such high expectations for a Washington baseball team. The pundits at Sports Illustrated and other national media outlets are picking...
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Josh Land

Domenic Vadala: In Buck we trust

Domenic Vadala: In Buck we trust
Greetings, MASNsports.com readers. On behalf of the Fansided Network and our great staff of writers at Birds Watcher, it's an honor to be back with you for the 2013 season. With the season beginning in earnest tomorrow afternoon in St. Petersburg, Fla., the big lingering question regarding the Orioles is whether or not they can repeat their successes from 2012. Before getting into that question, it's worth mentioning as a disclaimer that we have no clue what wild cards (is the use of that...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: What to take from a topsy-turvy spring

Ted Leavengood: What to take from a topsy-turvy spring
This spring has been a confusing one. The only cherry blossoms we have seen were the white puffs of snow clinging to the branches several days ago. Nationals spring training hasn't blossomed the way we thought either. The expectations are so different after winning 98 games in 2012. We want to win them all, even the ones in March. Like the osprey soaring on March winds above Viera, the Nationals have ridden Bryce Harper's bat on one day only to be grounded the next as the pitching staff is...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: Heart and soul

Ted Leavengood: Heart and soul
Nick Johnson finally hung up the spikes this week, according to MLBTradeRumors.com. Only 34, Johnson will be remembered as the backbone of the first Nationals team in 2005, and to those of us who wore his name proudly on the back of our first Nationals jerseys, he was the heart and soul of that team. The article highlights Johnson's ability to get on base, his "keen eye at the plate" that helped him achieve a "15.7% walk rate" that the article notes is "the 29th-highest mark of any...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: The long view with a short fuse

Ted Leavengood: The long view with a short fuse
The fuse running toward the 2013 baseball season has three weeks left. And then the powder keg of anticipation that has built since Jayson's Werth's walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Cardinals will explode into the 2013 season. History always provides a good lens for viewing the present, and a century ago, at the end of January 1913, Walter Johnson was still working on the family farm in Kansas. Lifting hay bales and doing the chores around his father's farm made...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: Dick Bosman talks innings limits and young pitchers

Ted Leavengood: Dick Bosman talks innings limits and young pitchers
As the roving minor league pitching instructor for the Rays, former Senators pitcher Dick Bosman has helped groom some of the best pitching talent in the majors. I asked Bosman, a recent guest on the "Outta the Parkway" podcast show, to comment on the Nationals' handling of Stephen Strasburg this season on our podcast show Friday night. His response provided one of the most well-informed perspectives on the issue I have heard or seen. Bosman was probably the best arm the expansion...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: A magical season, a boy and a lesson in life

Marty Niland: A magical season, a boy and a lesson in life
I got to be 11, all over again this summer, thanks to the greatest season in Washington Nationals history, and my boy, Mark. Growing up in the suburbs of Washington, baseball was not a huge part of my life. When I was 11, in 1975, I could still remember the Senators and their move to Texas. I followed the game, watched what was offered on network TV, occasionally read the boxscores in paper and knew the stars. I rooted for the Red Sox in the World Series against Cincinnati because my dad was...
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Josh Land

Matthew Taylor: Everything I needed to know about Jim Johnson I learned back in June

Matthew Taylor: Everything I needed to know about Jim Johnson I learned back in June
Jim Johnson's 51 saves in 2012 were the most in baseball and established a new Orioles record in the category. Despite all that success, Johnson's most memorable regular season moment for me was his first blown save, which demonstrated his resilience as well Buck Showalter's faith in his new closer. Little did I know at the time that it would also serve as foreshadowing for the American League Division Series. Johnson's blown save occurred June 5 at Fenway Park. He allowed a game-tying,...
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Josh Land

Marty Niland: It's all Werthwhile now

Marty Niland: It's all Werthwhile now
After Chad Tracy grounded out to end the eighth inning and leave the score tied at 1-1 in Thursday's National League Division Series Game 4, a friend turned to me and asked, "Deep down, in your heart of hearts, you really wanted a walkoff, didn't you?" Who would want anything else? Didn't every one of the 44,392 screaming, red-clad Nationals fans packed into Nationals Park want one? How could everyone watching on TV, listening on the radio or rooting for the Nats in any way, shape or...
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Josh Land

James Baker: In the cold air of the morning

James Baker: In the cold air of the morning
Last night was a bitter pill to swallow. It was a hard, swift kick to the collective bellend of the greater Baltimore area. For at least the next 10 hours, we will hear about the Yankee mystique and the majesty of the greatest franchise in baseball's history. The New York Yankees have had so many moments like last night's in their history that they could fill a library with the written accounts. I believe the New York Public Library, one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, does in...
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Josh Land

David Huzzard: The Nats have been here before

David Huzzard: The Nats have been here before
On the afternoon of July 21, Nats fans gathered and sulked in mass. The night before, the Nationals had blown a nine-run lead with their best pitcher on the mound. Nats fans watched helplessly as pitcher after pitcher was terrorized by Braves hitters and what felt like a safe and comfy cushion disappeared. It all went away when Michael Bourn tripled to bring in the go-ahead run in the top of the ninth. Danny Espinosa would tie it with a homer in the bottom of the ninth, but in the end, the...
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Josh Land

Zach Wilt: Power of the 'pen

Zach Wilt: Power of the 'pen
If the Orioles are going to be playing baseball next week, they're going to have to out-pitch the New York Yankees in the remaining two or three games of the American League Division Series. Despite the $116 million difference in the two team's payrolls, I'm confident that the Birds have the advantage when it comes to their arsenal of arms. Jim Johnson picked a tough time to have an off night, but the good news is that his rough outing was just that night. The Orioles' closer was charged...
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Josh Land

Ted Leavengood: Nats' first playoff win a Tilt-a-Whirl ride

Ted Leavengood: Nats' first playoff win a Tilt-a-Whirl ride
In the postseason, the highs are higher, the lows are lower. Like Tom Boswell said in his Sunday morning column, the playoffs are the "myocardial infarction games," a Tilt-a-Whirl ride that seesaws the emotions up, down and all around. True to form, when Jayson Werth came to bat in the first inning of the first playoff game ever in Nationals history, the hearts of the collective fan base were beating about 200 strokes per minute. Then Ian Desmond got the first base hit in the second inning...
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