The road to a losing season worthy of history: 121 losses

You hear the word “wretched” a lot when reading about the Nats. In the Washington Post, Barry Svrluga manages to use it only once, but after a 1-6 start, you have to imagine the temptation was great. The best quote belongs to Austin Kearns, speaking on not “pushing the panic button yet”:

It hasn’t gone good. We know that. But if we hit the panic button after the first week, come August, I guess [outsiders] would expect to see guys hanging themselves in here. It’s a long year.”

No suicides by the home stretch? It’s good to have goals.

Up in New York, Kurt, a the displaced D.C. sports fan at Thirty Stories Up ponders the wreckage of another Caps season and looks forward to being tormented by a feat of reverse physics:

[Nationals management] actually managed to assemble a team that is far, far worse than the sum of its parts, which are themselves scraps the rest of the league wouldn’t even put on a AAA payroll.

Over at Nats320, Screech’s Best Friend (I guess there’s someone for everyone) misses Livan, disagrees with Manny Acta bringing in Dmitri Young instead of Chris Snelling to pinch-hit Jesus Flores, but mostly marvels that Tom Jones’ “It’s Not Unusual” won the XM dance contest even though none of the 17,224 in attendance made any noise about it. “Who is deciding this, and ARE THEY LOOKING AT THE RESULTS!!” Screech’s Best Friend writes. “Is not the sole reason for this segment to get fans up and involved. Sometimes you have to trust your fans instincts.”

Finally, BallWonk‘s been AWOL since Friday’s loss, having been reduced to writing poetry:

The Nats give up runs willy-nilly
They’ve taken away Hard Times chili.
As the bad news sets in,
DC fans can grin:
At least we’re still leading Philly.

Sadly, Philadelphia won on Friday. It’s going to be a long year, BallWonk—better keep that rhyming dictionary handy.