Reporting from Space Coast Stadium, Viera FL
by Richard Holwill
Spring Training is a great escape — a day of baseball, a day of golf, a day at the beach. Take a breath and repeat the sequence. Over the next few days, we will send notes to THIH to discuss The Game behind a game of baseball. A game normally has nine innings. The Game starts when the World Series ends and teams start shopping for free agents, trading for prospects and trying to hold on to stars.
It’s called the Hot Stove League, an image that conjures up a bunch of guys in a snow-bound winter cabin huddled around a pot-bellied stove telling lies and trying to out fox each other by dumping over-the-hill players who want too much money and picking unproven prospects who may or may not have what it takes to succeed in the “Bigs.”
The essence of The Game is summed up in a meter given to Ted Lerner, principal owner of the Nationals, by one of his grandchildren. It swings between “Cheap” and “Foolish.” Cheap when he failed to sign Adam Dunn and foolish when he overpaid for journeyman outfielder Jayson Werth. Finding the balance between cheap and foolish is what makes The Game so much fun.
To understand The Game, start with a book called “Moneyball.” Or, if you want a comic-book version of the book, go see the film by the same name. It is entertaining and essentially correct, even though it takes liberties with many facts. But back to our Nats and our story.
The buzz around baseball is that the Nationals played Hot Stove as well as anyone and could be a playoff team this year. We’ll see if this buzz is on target as Spring Training gets underway. We’ll follow the New Guy, Gio Gonzalez, a lefty with a wicked curve ball and a $42 million contact. We’ll hold our breath each time The Phenom, Steven Strasburg, throws a 100-mile-per-hour fastball. We’ll watch carefully as The Prospect, 19-year-old Bryce Harper, tries to prove that he has the maturity to make it in the majors.
We’ll also look at the holes in the line-up and what may be weaknesses as the season wears on. Our goal is not to knock the Nats. Rather, it is to celebrate The Game as well as every game played here where the Hill is Home.