Capital Games

The baseball curious here stood and cheered an 0-and-2 count ... against them.

They set off fireworks, one stream nearly igniting their unsuspecting but elusive catcher, and had a band, and invited the president.

When the smoke cleared, and the catcher was safe, and President Bush having thrown high and tight to a stealth right-handed batter, the District of Columbia took its third swing at big league baseball Thursday night, and its first in 34 years.

In the press box, the public relations man leaned into the microphone and described Livan Hernandez’s first pitch thusly: “Baseball returns to Washington, D.C., at 7:06.”

Having provided the markets of Minneapolis (1961) and Arlington, Texas (1972) with previous incarnations of D.C. baseball, the Washington Nationals played host to the Arizona Diamondbacks, 10 games into their inaugural season, and won, 5-3.

They had been the Montreal Expos since 1969, and had been virtual nomads since 2002, when the other 29 owners bought them out of failing economic circumstances in Canada. By the time of their home opener at a dressed-up RFK Stadium, the Nationals still sought an owner and a future ballpark, but were tied for first in the National League East, and had a full house. As is customary at nearby Camden Yards, where the Baltimore Orioles play, the crowd amplified the second “Oh” in the national anthem (for O-rioles), a habit that brought boos from the National fans, freshly militant.

When the new National players arrived at their positions they were greeted by old Senators, Frank Howard in left field, Mickey Vernon at first base, Ed Brinkman at shortstop among them.

Well above and beyond Howard’s still-hulking figure, three white seats specked the streams of yellow in the stadium’s upper deck, marking three of Howard’s signature home runs. He drew the loudest applause, answering with a wave, as he did at the same ballpark on Sept. 30, 1971, moments before the departing Senators were run off the field by a riotous crowd that had come over the railings.

Left-hander Joe Grzenda, who had thrown the Senators’ final pitch (to New York Yankee Bobby Murcer), on Thursday handed a baseball to Bush to throw to catcher Brian Schneider.

“Thank you for everything,” Schneider said he told Bush.

“Lots of luck,” Schneider recalled Bush’s saying.

Several minutes later, Hernandez threw strike one to Craig Counsell, Washington cheered, and baseball was back, in red-on-white uniforms, on a checked-green infield, in a red-on-blue town. Bush watched from a box behind home plate that he shared with Commissioner Bud Selig and National President Tony Tavares, who had overseen the Expos’ move from Montreal, where they had drawn more than a million fans one time since 1997.

On a cool night, 45,596, some waiting as long as two hours, pushed through the bomb-sniffing dogs and metal detectors to watch their Nationals. A year ago, playing their home games in Montreal and San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Expos averaged about one-fifth of that.

A half-billion-dollar stadium is expected to be ready by opening day 2008, the U.S. Capitol as the hitters’ eye.

Normalcy, or something close to it, resumes Saturday, after the Nationals take today off.

National reliever Joey Eischen grinned and said, “It’ll be nice to show up here and not be strip-searched.”

A Secret Service agent had dressed in full National uniform and stood in the dugout with the president, the only inconsistency a coiled wire running from his shirt collar to his right ear. Another agent stalked the clubhouse and was, according to Eischen, “full-on, straight-up Kevin Costner ‘Bodyguard.’ ”

Interim General Manager Jim Bowden, weary from the eight-week dash to the home opener, had just spent only his second night in Washington. To last season’s 95-loss Expos, Bowden had signed shortstop Cristian Guzman, third baseman Vinny Castilla and pitcher Esteban Loaiza, and traded for right fielder Jose Guillen.

On Thursday afternoon he stood on the top step of the dugout, beside his son Chad, and admitted he hadn’t slept much.

“I’m an interim GM staying in an interim hotel,” he said, laughing.

They had moved the franchise, opened with nine road games, and were the last team to play a home game. But, the Nationals, nee Expos, nee Senators, would play on 12,250 days’ rest, at the end of an almost 34-year trip, and on a hill where people will gush over them. The fans cheered Castilla, who homered and drove in four runs, and Hernandez, who pitched into the ninth inning, and forgot all about the decades without the game.

Eischen looked to a Washington reporter and explained, “Y’all’s baseball fans never left. Baseball did.”

And then it came back.

“It’s amazing, just amazing,” Bowden said. “You know what’s great? Sometimes it’s worth the wait.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

1901-1960

* After winning only one World Series in its history, the team moves to Minnesota. Washington is given an expansion team.

1961-1971

* The new Senators never finish higher than fourth place in the AL, move to Arlington, Texas, and are renamed the Rangers.

2005-

* The Washington area gets a third chance at baseball when the struggling Montreal Expos move there, becoming the Nationals.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Capitalism

The trail of major league baseball in Washington, D.C.:

* January 1886: National League admits Washington Statesman franchise to begin play in the National League for the 1886 season, replacing the Providence franchise.

* March 1900: Washington is one of four franchises contracted as the National League reduces its membership from 12 to eight clubs.

* January 1901: Former Western League President Ban Johnson formally organized the American League with eight franchises, including the Washington Senators.

* Oct. 10, 1924: The Senators defeat the New York Giants, four games to three, to win their only World Series in franchise history.

* Sept. 21, 1934: The Washington Senators clinch third and final American League pennant.

* Oct. 27, 1960: Calvin Griffith, president of the Washington Senators, is granted permission to move the franchise to Minneapolis and name it the Minnesota Twins. The American League also gives an expansion team to Washington, keeping a Senator team in place.

* Sept. 20, 1971: American League owners approve franchise move to Arlington, Texas, for the 1972 season, when it is named the Texas Rangers.

* Sept. 30, 1971: The 10,852nd and last game played in Washington ends in a forfeit victory for the New York Yankees. The Senators led, 7-5, with two out in the top of the ninth when fans stormed the field and tore it up. The field could not be cleared, and the umpire called the game.

* Sept. 29, 2004: Major League Baseball announces that the Expos will move to Washington in 2005. The franchise is named the Washington Nationals.

Source: mlb.com