Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been full of opinions and anxious to spew them forth into the ether of the interwebs. Sadly, this week has not been condusive to doing such. It is hard to explain just how strangely this week has in fact progressed. Very strange indeed.

Thanks to Robbo your Maximum Leader found this wonderful article by David Hart at First Things: A Perfect Game. Hart is a little over the top in some of his platonic analysis of baseball, but all in all he does capture some inchoate feelings your Maximum Leader has felt towards baseball for some time now. Robbo quoted a portion of the article near the beginning. But this one struck your Maximum Leader:

Now, of course, when I speak of baseball’s “idealism,” it is principally Platonism I have in mind: Greek rather than German idealism. But I have to admit that, as I have just described it, much of the game seems to speak not only of the finite’s power to reflect the infinite but also of a kind of fated, heroic human striving against the infinite. There are few spectacles in sport as splendid and pitiable as the batter defiantly poised before all that endless openness. We know that even the most majestic home run is as nothing in its vastness, that even the greatest hitter is a kind of Sisyphus, proudly indifferent to the divine mockery of that infinite horizon; and it is precisely this pathos that lends such moving splendor to those rare Homeric feats that linger on in our collective memory: Babe Ruth in Detroit in 1926, Frank Howard in Philadelphia in 1958, Mickey Mantle in New York in 1963, Frank Robinson in Baltimore in 1966 …

Good stuff… (NB: Although your Maximum Leader will admit that the Homeric feat of Frank Howard in 1958 is lost on his collective memory. Your Maximum Leader seems to recall that Frank Howard (of the Washington Senators) had a great home run streak in 1968 (when Hondo hit something like 13 home runs in 20 at bats). Perhaps there is some other Frank Howard tale from 1958 with which your Maximum Leader is not familiar.)

Of course this essay by Mr Hart is made more wonderful by the fact that the Washington Nationals were able to pull out a win against the Red Stockings of Cincinnati this afternoon…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t in a particularly good mood right now. Where oh where to begin?

First off, your Maximum Leader is having a tough time seeing straight. That isn’t really true. He’s having a hard time seeing. Something happened to his glasses yesterday and they are causing him to have headaches if he wears them for more than a few minutes (as opposed to every waking minute - like normal). He went by the eye doctor to check up on his prescription and perhaps get some new lenses, but the eye doctor reminded your Maximum Leader that it has been 3 years since his last visit. It hardly seemed possible. Normally your Maximum Leader goes to for an eye exam every two years, but apparently the doctor’s office forgot to call and set up an appointment. Anyhoo… Your Maximum Leader will have to muddle through tomorrow without proper corrected vision. This is a pain in the arse.

When his eyes weren’t bothering him, his beloved Washington Nationals were bothering him. Sadly, they were bothering him right in front of his very own eyes (which were seeing just fine at the time).

Your Maximum Leader stopped blogging about the Nationals a few weeks ago. Around the same time he determined that he also would not view games on TV as religiously has he had from April on. He was going to try and be more casual about his fan-dom. Guess what happened then. The Nats actually would win games that your Maximum Leader wasn’t watching on TV, and they would lose games he was watching on TV.

As you surely know, baseball is a game of rhythms and streaks and superstitions. Your Maximum Leader determined that perhaps HE was the cause of some of the Nationals’ distress on the field. If he stopped watching then they might be better. That worked for a few games here and there, but that little streak came to an end. Then came this past weekend. Your Maximum Leader loves his baseball, but he rarely goes to games on consecutive days. This past Saturday and Sunday were the first time, in a very very long time that your Maximum Leader went to games on consecutive days.

Of course the Nats lost both games against the Giants of San Francisco. (Your Maximum Leader pointed out to his children that the only World Championship of Baseball won in the City of Washington DC was won by the Washington Senators over the then-Giants of New York.) The Saturday game was a real hard one. The Nationals led for most of the game 5-0. Then they started playing sloppy and giving up hits and then runs and next thing you know, they lose 10-5. Yesterday’s game got out of hand early (with a run in the first) and it was no looking back for the Giants. The Nats lost 6-2.

Oh yeah… Not only did the Nats lose, but your Maximum Leader got a sunburn. You might have seen him getting a sunburn on the TV actually, he was sitting just a few rows beyond Ryan Zimmerman. Mrs Villain (who was not attending yesterday’s game) mentioned that she thought she saw your Maximum Leader and Villainette #2 on the TV.

So let us recap a little shall we?

Glasses have had something go wrong with them and your Maximum Leader is having trouble seeing.

Your Maximum Leader has a sunburn.

The Nationals keep losing.

That just about covers the weekend situation.

Oh yes… One more thing… Although he doesn’t know how he did it, apparently your Maximum Leader has pulled a muscle in his back and it is causing a dull, yet constant, aching.

He’ll stop bitching now and let you get back to whatever you were doing.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that it is Spain versus The Netherlands in the final of the World Cup. It should be a good match. (To the extent that soccer has good matches.)

Of course, this matchup is, in your Maximum Leader’s mind, something of a grudge match between these two ancient combatants. In a way this soccer match is going to be just another skirmish in the wars that go back to the Thirty Years War and the Dutch Revolt.

Your Maximum Leader will be rooting for the Bourbon Dynasty - since it doesn’t seem possible to root for the Hapsburgs in this one.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader mused yesterday that he should, perhaps, give up the third person blogging style he’s employed here for just shy of 7 years. Our good friends Buckethead and Polymath suggested that we not give up the third person blogging, but instead add more villainy. In the immortal paraphased words of Larry the Cable Guy, “I don’t care who you are. That there is a good idea.”

So, in the interests of pleasing both Buckethead and Polymath let’s have a little villainy.

Most of you out there know who Michael Vick is. He was the standout quarterback at Virginia Tech who was drafted (1st overall) by the Atlanta Falcons. Vick was always the most entertaining player to watch on the field on any team. He would scramble and run and keep plays alive that one was sure were dead on arrival.

Then came the dogfighting.

Vick was involved in a dogfighting ring at one of his homes in Virginia. Many of his childhood friends were implicated in the dogfighting ring as well.

Now, as a particuarly old-fashioned villain, your Maximum Leader doesn’t object in principal to bloodsport. He does watch football afterall. He prefers his bloodsport of the gladiator type, not the animal type. Your Maximum Leader is a dog man, so he is actually quite put out by dogfighting and those who support dogfighting. Vick was found guilty of the dogfighting charges brought against him and served time in prison. Your Maximum Leader would have forgone prison for him and thrown Vick in a pit with a few of the hungry and maltreated dogs he bred for fighting to see how he liked it. But the American justice system just doesn’t do things the same way as your Maximum Leader.

Well… Upon getting out of prison Vick got a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles and a very short leash from football commissioner Roger Goddell. Many people thought that Vick would be able to stay clean and behave himself.

Of course, “many people” are not your Maximum Leader.

Your Maximum Leader was pretty sure that a stint in prison and some faux contriteness (coached by Tony Dungy - a man of whom your Maximum Leader repects) hadn’t changed Vick. He was going to be in trouble again. Your Maximum Leader was sure that we’d all see Vick’s name associated with something bad fairly soon.

Well… It is good to be right. Vick is denying that he was involved in a Virginia Beach area shooting that took place at a birthday party held in his honor.

According to the piece Vick is claiming that he left the club where the party was held before the shooting took place. The shooting victim is alleged to be one of Vick’s friends who was also convicted in the dogfighting incident. Apparently video shows Vick leaving the club and heading in the direction of the shooting about 3-4 minutes before the shooting took place.

Now… Your Maximum Leader isn’t going to hold Michael Vick up as an example of villainous behaviour. Vick is at best a talented henchman. To use a Shakespearian turn of phrase, Vick should be a pack-horse in the affairs of a great villain. To give you all the villainous breakdown of the best possible explanation of this incident… Vick needs a clean break with the past. He needs all the hangers-on and old posse members to disappear. But at the same time he needs some credibility on the street. He needs a repuatation. If he played his cards right (which your Maximum Leader doubts by the by) he was able to “convince” some wanna-be hanger-on that the former associate needed to be “dealt with.” The wanna-be took the hint and waited until Vick conveniently left the club do “deal with” the former associate.

From a villainous perspective, this is amateurish. If Vick really wanted to have this go down better he should have taken a page from history… He should have followed the example of Henry II of England… This is how it should have gone down. Vick should have been having a quiet get-together many miles away and days removed from the scene of the crime. At this quiet get-together Vick should have flown alternately into a rage and then into distraught anxiety all the while declaring that his former associate was the root of his emotional problems. Then he could muse aloud, “Oh if only something would happen that could rid me of this terrible problem I have.” At this point the wanna-be (who should have been carefully pre-screened for having a murderous temperament, lack of self-control, and shown a penchant for bad judgement - but no prior criminal record) would get a clue and later run off and do what needed to be done.

Sadly, Vick is just a thug and has no sense of history, drama or even self-preservation. Vick wouldn’t make the cut as a second-tier thug for your Maximum Leader…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that his good friend Robbo was able to take in the Nationals/Royals game last night at Nats Park. What a game it was! Your Maximum Leader feared (feared greatly indeed) that Matt Capps was going to blow it at the end. Thank goodness he did not.

That means that Nationals phenom pitcher Stephen Strasburg will start tonight with a chance for the Nationals to sweep the (mostly hapless) Royals.

Your Maximum Leader has decided to indulge himself… He’s going to the game this afternoon. Not only that… He’s sitting in one of them fancy boxes. That means he’ll have access to special food and drink. But most importantly, he’ll not have to be too concerned about any thunderstorms that might pass through. He will also have air-conditioning.

Woo-hoo!

Go Nats!

NB to Robbo: Google search results seem to show that Charles Caleb Colton said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I didn’t know myself…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has two quick sports related items this morning.

Congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks! The Hawks have won their first Stanley Cup since 1961. Since your Maximum Leader has a pathological hatred of Philly sports teams, he is very happy by this outcome. He watched the 3rd period and the OT last night. (He was true to his pledge to not watch any hockey games except for the Stanley Cup finals after the Caps went out. He watched game 1, 2, 4 and part of last night’s game.)

It is good from time to time to have an original six team win it all. (Unless that original six team is in the East, like Montreal, Boston or NYR.)

The second item is baseball related (of course).

As good as Strasburg’s game was the night before, last night’s game between the Pirates and the Nationals was tough to watch. So much sloppy play. Sure the Nats won (and we’ll take all the wins we can get); but it wasn’t fun to watch. Your Maximum Leader was sure that John Lannan was going to be pulled as early as the 4th inning. You know, your Maximum Leader hopes that John Lannan can relax a little and work on being the best pitcher he can possibly be. He has been “the Ace” for the Nats for the past two years. On most top-tier baseball clubs Lannan would be a number 3 starter. He’s had piles of pressure on him. We can hope that the pressure on him will be less now and he can focus on his game and doing what he does best (which is not getting Ks but getting guys to ground out).

So once again… Congrats Blackhawks and citizens of Chicago! Citizens of Natstown, continue to support your team on days when Strasburg isn’t pitching…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is impressed. Stephen Strasburg was really THAT good last night.

Your Maximum Leader watched one of Strasburg’s starts at AAA and felt he was really ready for the big show. But there was still a nagging thought in his mind that once Strasburg started facing all big league batters you might see a crack in his game.

Well… So far no cracks in Strasburg’s game.

Your Maximum Leader wasn’t too far off in his predictions. Nats did win. Strasburg got the win. And Strasburg’s ERA was 2.57 and not 3.1X. Your Maximum Leader didn’t believe that Strasburg was going to pitch a perfect game (or a no hitter even) in his first outing.

Strasburg struck out 14. He didn’t walk anyone (that was a feat that deserves a little more praise). His movement to the plate is short and quick. A little statistic people aren’t mentioning but should. That game last night was 2 hours and 20 minutes long. If it hadn’t been for commericals your Maximum Leader bets it would have been under 2 hours. It was a great start to what your Maximum Leader hopes will be a long and distinguished career (most of it in Washington).

All in all Nationals fans have a lot to be excited about. If Strasburg can pitch like this every fifth night, and if Drew Storen is able to move into that starting rotation soon; then the Nats will have two dominating pitchers and a good chance to pull out wins in 2/5th of their games.

If your Maximum Leader has been tenative up to now he isn’t anymore. That Strasburg kid can really pitch good. (NB: Your Maximum Leader isn’t ready to annoint him the second coming of Walter Johnson yet, but he understands the comparisons better now.)

Go Nats!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader imagines that you’ve heard the baseball news out of Washington by now. (That is unless you willfully don’t listen to sports news or you live under a rock.) Pitchining phenom Stephen Strasburg is set to debut tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park.

Yes, your Maximum Leader has high hopes for Strasburg. He believes that with a little time and maturity he’ll be a great pitcher. He’s not sure that Strasburg is the second coming of Walter Johnson or anything; but he should be really good.

That is he should be really good in another year or so…

Your Maximum Leader isn’t imagining a near-perfect outing for Strasburg tonight. He imagines that the jitters, anxiety and high expectations of a city wanting a winner will have an effect on the young man in his first MLB start.

Prediction?

Nats beat Pirates. Strasburg earns first win but ends with 3.1X ERA.

Go Nats!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is upset by the blown call in last night’s Cleveland Indians v Detroit Tigers baseball game. He’s sure you’ve seen the blown call by now. Your Maximum Leader was watching the Nats v Astros game when he got the call from his brother-in-law about what had happened. Your Maximum Leader went and switched to MLB network and saw what was going on from that point.

Your Maximum Leader really does feel awful for Armando Galarraga. Everyone knows it was a bad call. Them are the breaks sometimes.

Of course what this will lead to will doom the game of baseball forever…

First off Bud Selig (baseball’s big stupid idiot commissioner) will likely “feel bad” about the whole thing and will order the game recorded as a “Perfect Game” in the record books with an asterisk or something.

Then they will start on the replays… There will be instant replay in baseball in the next few years. It started with the replays for home run calls. Next season they will have challenges and a “booth official” to review base-running calls. Then you will have computers that sense balls and strikes on every pitch…

The up-side of all of this will be that there will never be a blown call again… The downside… Games will only last about 5 hours…

Your Maximum Leader should admit that he’s grown tolerant of replays for close home run calls. But he is still piping-hot angry about interleague play and all the stupid changes to the All-Star game.

Ugh.

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader didn’t think for a moment while watching yesterday’s game between the Washington Nationals and St Louis Cardinals that his beloved Nats looked like they were going to break their now 5 game skid. They (the Nats that is) didn’t look very sharp offensively. While the game’s score was close (3-2) the game itself didn’t seem that close while watching. There were some sparks, but the Nats seem to be in a slump.

That is okay. Teams go through slumps. The season is long. So your Maximum Leader isn’t going crazy. He thinks that the team will likely play consistent, if not always winning ball. When the season began your Maximum Leader knew that the Nats were not going to have a third 100+ loss season. He still believes that. He thinks that the Nats are still a season away from being a contender for a wild card spot. But this season is a sign of things to come.

Of course, your Maximum Leader hopes that the Nats can pull out a win against the Mets tonight. Perhaps a home stand is what the Nats need to get themselves going again.

Go Nats!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader didn’t stay up to watch all of the Washington Nationals at Colorado Rockies game last night. It was rain delayed and your Maximum Leader decided to just turn in and get a little extra shut-eye. Sadly he should have stayed up to watch the Nats put the 14-6 smackdown on the Rockies.

Last night’s win is one of those wins when you wish you could have a “run bank” and “bank” some of those runs you scored last night for a night when you can’t buy a run (and those nights happen in Baseball).

If the Nats continue to play well this season, and your Maximum Leader certainly hopes they will, will they still be called the “Natinals” by Neil Everett on SportsCenter? Your Maximum Leader wonders…

Your Maximum Leader has been getting some pressure from his offspring to become a “citizen of Natstown.” For those of you not in the area, “Natstown” is the fan-club component of the current Nationals marketing campaign. The team started to use the name last season when club VP Stan Kasten was referred to as the “Mayor of Natstown” during a press conference. The marketing campaign is working on the younger fans of the club apparently. The Wee Villain (aged 5) announced last year one time that he “wanted to go to Natstown” because “you can do whatever you want there.” To him Nats Park is a magical place where you can watch baseball, play video games, romp on a big playground, eat half-smokes, drink soda and eat ice-cream out of a little batting helmet. Obviously he doesn’t play close attention to his dad who shucks out all the money required to “do whatever” at Nats Park.

Anyhoo…

Villainette #2 sees the ads on TV during games entreating TV viewers to become a citizen of Natstown. She has asked many times that your Maximum Leader find out what it takes to be a citizen of Natstown. Your Maximum Leader’s exhortations that watching the team religiously and going to a number of games every year and buying t-shirts and stuff is certainly enough to be a citizen of Natstown. Villainette #2 wasn’t buying what he was selling however, so your Maximum Leader looked up what it actually takes to be a citizen. Here is the join Natstown page on the Nationals web page. As best your Maximum Leader can tell, to become a citizen of Natstown you give the team $19.95 and in return they give you some special web privleges, a single Thursday night game ticket, access to MLB Game Day (audio streaming of all MLB games to your PC) and some discounts at the team store. You also get a citizenship card.

No decoder ring? Harumph…

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t see how all that is worth $19.95. Sure the regular retail price of MLB Game Day by itself is $19.95, but your Maximum Leader already gets all the games on TV. He doesn’t get the games on radio.

(NB to Nationals management: What the hell is up with radio broadcast of the games by the way? You are on 1500AM and the signal strength of that station is crap. Your Maximum Leader can barely pick it up when he is in the Villainmobile and physically in DC! The signal starts to break up by the time on hits the Beltway! So down here in Fredericksburg your Maximum Leader is pretty much screwed in terms of picking up the games on radio. What makes this worse is that on some nights he can actually get a clear signal on the AM stations in New York City and Boston that broadcast the Yankees and Red Sawx games! That is pitiful. Please do something to get a better signal for the Nationals radio broadcasts. How about trying to do a deal with 106.7 FM. They are currently on an all sports-talk format - which really means all Redskins all the time. Perhaps putting some real games on the FM radio might be a good start.)

Your Maximum Leader doesn’t see the value of the Natstown membership. If he listened to more out-of-market games on the radio and knew that he could get away by himself to go to the Thursday night game it might be worth it. As it stands the $19.95 only gets you 1 ticket to the game (and a single ticket for a stadium tour). The game ticket value is $20 by the way.

Now… If the Nationals were to offer a “family” membership to Natstown your Maximum Leader might be more interested. He would be willing to pay up to $50 for a family membership with up to 4 tickets included. (Your Maximum Leader would still have to buy one more ticket to cover the whole family, but he understands that…)

So, your Maximum Leader will have to keep up the party line that as far as he’s concerned, we are already citizens of Natstown, even if we don’t have a laminated card…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader did something he shouldn’t have last night. He assumed the Washington Nationals could have held a 5 run lead over the New York Metropolitans and he went to the olde PC and started to blog the mess you will read below this post. When he was done writing (if you can call it that) he went back to watch the post-game show and see how it all ended.

It ended with the Mets scoring 6 runs in the 8th inning and beating the Nats 8-6!

Ack!

That is no fun at all.

At least the ESPN people are taking note that the Nationals are a much better team than they were last year.

If the Nats can keep up their play over the season then this will be a very (VERY) good year. Your Maximum Leader was tickled to hear Ray Knight say on the pre-game show before last night’s game that if the Nats can keep it up over the year the last series of the season will be great. Of course the last series of the year for the Nats is a 3 game stand against the Phillies. Your Maximum Leader thought Ray spoke a little too soon… But it would be fun…

Go Nats!

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader wonders if thou hast seen the lastest standings in the National League East? Well, allow your Maximum Leader to say that they might surprise you.

NL East
Philadelphia 15-11
New York (Mets) 15-12 (.5 GB)
Washington 14-12 (1 GB)
Florida 13-13 (2 GB)
Atlanta 11-15 (4 GB)

Who’da thunk it was possible? Last nights game was well played. Livan Hernandez seems to be playing like he did a few years back (like during his first stint with the Nationals). Let us hope that the Nats continue to play like professionals. Your Maximum Leader is concerned about the teams -17 run differential. That number shows that they’ve been lucky more than once.

Your Maximum Leader reads that the Nationals are promoting (phenom) Steven Strasburg to AAA Syracuse yesterday. Your Maximum Leader is of two minds on Strasburg. The first tells him that they shouldn’t rush him up. Indeed, Strasburg shouldn’t even be thought of in the organization as a possiblity to play for the Nationals until after the All-Star break. And even then it might be best to wait until very late in the season and let him test the waters (and even start in AAA next season). The second mind says that (presuming one will still limit his appearances and pitches) he could help the team sooner if they continue as they have, so there might be a strong financial and on-the-field rationale to bringing him up. Your Maximum Leader still is concerned that the Nats might try too much to fast with him and blow out his arm…

Of course, one has yet to see if Strasburg is really the great hope that he is rumoured to be. We will not know, of course, until he has to stare down someone like Ryan Howard or Albert Pujols…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader may now pay full attention to baseball season.

After performances like this, your Maximum Leader wonders why he invests himself so much in some sports teams.

Right now he doesn’t even want to think about his beloved Caps…

That will, of course, change… There always next year afterall…

Carry on.

Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has a few random thoughts to throw out there for your reading pleasure. Reading pleasure might be overstating the cast. How about he’ll throw out the random thoughts for your perusal…

First off… A note to Robbo. What the heck man? Every time you blog about the Nats playing well, they come back and get slaughtered. To wit. This post over at the Llamas is followed by the drubbing of last night. Ack. The Nats seem as they could show significant improvement over last season if they can get their pitching under control…

Secondly… Your Maximum Leader was polled last night on the subject of Governor McDonnell’s Confederate History proclamation. Sadly, your Maximum Leader’s opinions were not very well captured by the questions asked. They pretty much boxed you into either the Sons of Confederate Veterans camp or the we must remove all evidence of the Civil War that we don’t like camp. One of the questions, for example, asked if you supported keeping all of the monuments along Monument Avenue in Richmond that glorify various Confederate leaders as heros or if you support their removal. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t support their removal, but he also thinks a little balance is in order… Perhaps the lesson here is that your Maximum Leader shouldn’t participate in polls.

Lastly… Your Maximum Leader got a text from Joan yesterday that read: Am I the only southerner who finds it a touch scary when people from Boston or Nevada buy antebellum homes to “renovate”? Your Maximum Leader, although born and bred in Virginia, isn’t sure his “southerner” credentials are particularly strong. But as someone who actually does know something about antebellum homes his opinions are these: If the people coming to renovate the house are gay you have nothing to fear; they will do a great and accurate restoration. If the people coming to renovate are middle-aged empty nesters who are looking to retire, again nothing to fear. Pretty much anyone else from out of the area with no idea of the history of the house should be viewed with a wary eye. This opinion is formed by years of observation…

Carry on.