The Washington Nationals are a Major League Baseball team that plays its home games at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. They just moved to DC from Montreal (they were the Expos from 1969-2004) in 2005. This the city's third major league baseball team since 1899, but first in the National League. Their average attendance in Montreal was around 9,000 fans a game, which paled (understatement) in comparison with their average 2005 attendance, at around 30,000 a game. The announced attendance each game tends to be in the 20-30,000 range, if not higher, but the stadium appears much emptier. Since the team is so young, the fan base is rather thin, mostly because there aren't generations of fans to back up the team. Many of the spectators are out-of-town fans/root for the other team. The team is currently owned by the Lerner family, headed by Theodore Lerner. His family owns Lerner Enterprises, a major development company that has built many shopping and housing projects in the DC area and elsewhere. They bought the team from Major League Baseball, who assumed control of the team after it was announced that the Expos were moving. The Nationals will be moving into a new stadium near the Navy Yard, which is southwest of the current one, RFK stadium, in 2008. The President of the team, Stan Kasten, has been very involved in running the team. The Nationals have been involved in controversy from the start, notably from Peter Angelos, the owner of the Baltimore Orioles. He feared that the Nationals would drain his Orioles fanbase, and take too large of a market. There was also a large broadcasting controversy, as a deal was struck by MLB to appease Angelos. This created MASN (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network), which broadcasts Orioles and Nationals games on 2 channels (MASN and MASN2). Unfortunately, cable providers such as Comcast did not make this network available for almost 2 full seasons. They did this because they had Comcast SportsNet, their own network that had rights to broadcast Orioles games, which would now be moved to MASN. The Nationals have not yet had a winning record in Washington, but are doing much better in 2007 than critics predicted. The current roster includes Mike Bascik, Matt Chico, Chad Cordero, John Lannan, Jon Rauch, Brian Schneider, Ronnie Belliard, Robert Fick, Felipe Lopez, Dmitri Young, Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Church, Austin Kearns, and Nook Logan. Their games are broadcast on TV on MASN, and on the radio at 107.7 WTWP FM and 1500 WTWP AM, also known as Washington Post Radio. The Nationals Minor League affiliates are the AAA Columbus (OH) Clippers, AA Harrisburg (PA) Senators, advanced A Potomac (VA) Nationals, A Hagerstown (MD) Suns, short A Vermont Lake Monsters, GCL Nationals, and the VSL Nationals. Strangely, all of the Nationals' current affiliates that they didn't already have came from New York teams. Also, except for Vermont, all of their Minor League teams are rather close by, especially compared to other teams.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Nationals:
The Montreal Expos joined the National League in 1969, along with the San Diego Padres. After a decade of losses, the team became a winner in the early 1980s, winning their only division championship in the strike-shortened split season of 1981. That team lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 in the National League Championship Series. After several mediocre years in the late 1980s, the team rebounded in the early 1990s. In 1994 the Expos, led by a talented group of players including Larry Walker, Moisés Alou, Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martínez, had the best record in major league baseball when the 1994 Major League Baseball strike forced the cancellation of the remainder of the season. After the disappointment of 1994, the Expos began to lose players, money and fans. Ownership squabbles, the decimated fan base, a difficulty in selling broadcasting rights, and numerous other issues led to the team being bought by MLB in 2002.
Washington is a city with a rich baseball history. The Washington Senators, a founding member of the American League, played in the Nation's Capital from 1901 to 1960. These Senators were founded and owned by Clark Griffith and played in Griffith Stadium. With notable stars including Walter Johnson and Joe Cronin, the Senators won the 1924 World Series and pennants in 1925 and 1933, but were more often unsuccessful and moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season. A second Washington Senators (1961-1971) had a winning record only once in their 11 years, though bright spots such as slugger Frank Howard earned the love of fans. The second Senators moved to Texas for the 1972 season, and Washington spent the next 33 years without a baseball team.
After several years in a holding pattern, MLB began actively looking for a relocation site for the Expos. Some of the choices included Oklahoma City; Washington D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Northern Virginia; Norfolk, Virginia; and Charlotte, North Carolina. In the decision-making process, Commissioner Bud Selig added Las Vegas, Nevada to the list of potential Expos homes. On September 29, 2004, MLB officially announced that the Expos would move to Washington, D.C. in 2005. The move was approved by the owners of the other teams in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote). In addition, on November 15, 2004, a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, ending legal moves to keep the Expos in Montreal. Although there was some sentiment to revive the name Senators, political considerations factored into the choice of Nationals, a revival of the first American League franchise's "official" nickname used from 1905 to 1956.[1] Politicians in the District of Columbia objected to the name Senators because the District of Columbia does not have voting representation in Congress. Another reason is because the Texas Rangers (the second Washington Senators team) still owned the rights to the "Senators" name. The move was announced despite opposition from Peter Angelos, owner of the nearby Baltimore Orioles. Since 1972, the Orioles had been the only MLB franchise in the Baltimore-Washington area, which he considered a single market in spite of vastly different cultures and populations in the two cities. Angelos contended that the Orioles would suffer financially if another team were allowed to enter the market. Critics objected that the Orioles and the Washington Senators had shared the market successfully from 1954 through 1971. This reasoning disturbed many in Washington who recalled that it was the Griffith family, owners of the Washington Senators, who allowed the St. Louis Browns to move to Baltimore in 1954 in the first place. On March 31, 2005, Angelos and Major League Baseball struck a deal to protect the Orioles against any financial harm the Nationals might present. Under the terms of the deal, television and radio broadcast rights to Nationals games are handled by the Orioles franchise, who formed a new network (the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network) to produce and distribute the games for both franchises on both local affiliates and cable/satellite systems. MASN was not, however, immediately available on all cable providers, adding to the frustration of Nationals fans. In fact, most in the DC area missed almost the entirety of the Nationals first two seasons. The deal with Angelos makes the Nationals the only major league baseball team which does not own their own broadcast rights. The team's relocation to Washington was contingent on a financing plan for the Nationals' stadium — this plan quickly became the subject of much debate on the D.C. Council. Three Council members who supported Mayor Anthony Williams's plan were ousted in September 2004's Democratic party primary. In addition, an opinion poll conducted by the Washington Post during the peak of the controversy found that approximately two-thirds of District residents opposed the mayor's stadium plan. Much of the controversy centered on the fact that the city would be helping finance a $581 million stadium without state or county support, despite the fact that a large portion of the team's fan base is drawn from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs. [1] During December 2004, the move to Washington itself was called into doubt when the D.C. Council sought to change details of the stadium's financing. When the Council voted on December 14 to require 50 percent private financing for any new stadium, MLB ceased promotional activities for the Nationals and announced that they would consider looking for a new market. Eventually, the council passed an amended plan on December 21, 2004, that proved slightly more financially favorable to the city, while remaining acceptable to MLB. Mayor Williams signed the stadium financing package on December 30. During the 2005 season, a private financing plan for construction of the stadium was negotiated between the city and a syndicate of bankers led by Deutsche Bank. The negotiations of the details ran into another problem in November 2005. The bankers requested a letter of credit or other financial guarantee of $24 million US, $6 million for each of four years, ensuring payment of lease revenues against various risks including poor attendance and terrorism. The city requested that Major League Baseball provide this guarantee, which they were unwilling to do. On December 22, 2005, the Post reported that Major League Baseball had specifically instructed prospective owners not to offer to pay cost overruns on the stadium if they were selected as the owners. Bidders were also told not to communicate with the press about these issues. In February 2006, the DC City Council imposed a $611 million cap on the stadium. Finally, on March 5, Major League Baseball signed a lease for a new ballpark, agreeing to the city's $611 million cap. MLB also agreed to contribute $20 million toward the cost of the stadium, although it did not agree to cover stadium overruns. Further, MLB added the condition that excess ballpark tax revenue earmarked for debt service for the bonds to be available for cost overruns. Two days later, on March 7 the DC City Council, by a vote of 9 to 4, approved a construction contract for a state-of-the-art stadium with a contemporary glass-and-stone facade, seats for 41,000 fans and a view of the U.S. Capitol, and affirmed its demand that public spending on the project be limited to $611 million. The votes were the final actions needed to satisfy the terms of the deal struck in September 2004, paving the way for the sale of the team. Major League Baseball had agreed at the time that the franchise was moved to Washington, DC, to sell the team to an owner or ownership syndicate. Several dates for sale of the team were set and missed due to the legal wrangling regarding the building of the stadium. The delay was harshly criticized by city residents and leaders as reported in the Washington Post. Selecting from a finalized group of three potential ownership syndicates, Major League Baseball announced in July 2006 that it had chosen the Lerner Enterprises group, led by billionaire real-estate developer Theodore N. Lerner. The final sale price of the team was $450 million and the transfer of ownership was completed July 24, 2006. In late September 2006, Comcast finally agreed to broadcast the Nationals games. Notable firsts from the 2005 season- On April 4, 2005, Brad Wilkerson (after being the last player to ever wear a Montreal Expo jersey) had the honor of being the first batter for the Washington Nationals and he promptly responded with the first hit in the new team's history. Nevertheless, Kenny Lofton hit a three-run homer and Jon Lieber pitched 5 2/3 effective innings, leading the home team Philadelphia Phillies to an 8-4 victory over the new Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. (Lieber was credited with the win for the Phillies and would also score a win for Philadelphia in the last game of the 2005 Nationals season.) Outfielder Terrmel Sledge hit the Nats' first home run in the April 4 contest.
- On April 6, 2005, the Washington Nationals recorded their first-ever regular season win by beating the Phillies, 7-3. The win came in their second game of the season and was highlighted by Wilkerson's hit for the cycle.
- On April 14, 2005, the Washington Nationals won their first regular season home game at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C, by a score of 5-3 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. President George W. Bush kept up a tradition of sitting U.S. Presidents by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch on opening day in Washington, exactly 95 years after William Howard Taft started the tradition at Griffith Stadium. There were 45,596 fans in attendance, including former Senators players and Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig. Liván Hernández threw eight shutout innings, and Vinny Castilla was denied the chance to hit for the cycle when Diamondback reliever Lance Cormier hit him with a pitch in the bottom of the eighth; Castilla needed only a single to complete the cycle. Chad Cordero recorded the save for Washington.
- On August 4, 2005, Brad Wilkerson became the first Washington Nationals player to ever hit a grand slam, against then Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher, Duaner Sanchez. The Nationals won the game 7-0, on a four-hit complete game shutout by John Patterson.
- During his August-September callup, Ryan Zimmerman recorded 23 hits in 58 at bats. He thus became the first member of the Washington Nationals to complete the season with a batting average of at least .300 in at least 50 at bats.
- The Nationals led all National League teams in interleague play in 2005, recording 12 wins.
[edit] Notable moments from the 2006 season- On Father's Day, June 18, 2006, the paid attendance was 45,157, the second-largest ever to see a single baseball game in the history of RFK stadium. In that game, the Nationals beat the New York Yankees 3-2 on a two-run walk-off home run by rookie Ryan Zimmerman. A 1962 doubleheader drew more spectators, as did the Nationals' first-ever home game with Arizona. [3]
- September 2, 2006, the Nationals rally from three runs down in the first game and from five runs down in the second game to take a day-night doubleheader sweep from the Arizona Diamondbacks, the first day-night doubleheader in Washington Nationals history.
- On Labor Day, September 4, 2006 Ramon Ortiz takes a no-hitter into the ninth inning vs. the St. Louis Cardinals, yet gives up a single to Aaron Miles on his 2nd pitch in the 9th to break up his no-hitter. Then he gave up a home run to Albert Pujols, which ended his chance to get his second ever career shutout. Ortiz himself also hit a home run in the 8th inning into the bullpen beyond the left-field fence at RFK. The Nationals won 5-2.
- September 16, 2006, Alfonso Soriano becomes the fourth player to hit 40 home runs and steal 40 bases in a season when he steals his 40th base in the first inning of a game vs. the Milwaukee Brewers. Soriano follows that feat on September 22 by hitting his 40th double vs. the New York Mets, becoming the first member of the "40-40 Club" to also hit 40 doubles in the same season.
[edit] Notable moments from the 2007 season- On May 12, 2007, the Nationals hosted the Florida Marlins. Tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth Marlins pitcher Jorge Julio faced Ryan Zimmerman with the bases loaded and two outs. Zimmerman hit the 2-2 pitch over the right-center field wall for the walk-off grand slam. [6]. The game is notable for ending at 1:42AM after two separate extended rain delays.
- On August 7, 2007, Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik allowed Barry Bonds' 756th career home run, giving him first place on the career home run list.
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