Let me just apologize in advance for Cooper Stadium. Its pushing 80 years of age at this point. I'm sure it really is better in Viera. Any way excited to see Hill and the Nats tomorrow. Best Wishes.

You know I love the blog Barry. It made for a wonderful spring training connection for those of us in distant lands. But I have very little sympathy with all this whining about Viera (especially considering that we have had only a handful of days over fifty degrees while you have been in Florida). Perhaps next year you should publish your restaurant review a bit later in the session - you might find the town more hospitable then.Thanks again - lamentations aside it is a truly great blog!

Yes, please, more from Columbus!

Don't stop please!

The most refreshing news is the Nats finally grew some broad shoulders (takes a Learner it seems not Stan the non-man) to admit the NATS are are responsible for the ticket Mess! Was that so hard Stan?

Enough with the winning about not selling out. Time to admit the Nats caused the problem by not spending any real Money this year. Bye Bye Alfonso and any hope of a winning season.....Time for a Learner to get real.....Don't blame fans for your lack of baseball sense to make sure fan felt 2007 was worth playing (paying).

Enough with the whole priority seating in 2008 scam....just put major league talent on the field and make winning a priority or go with the PLAN and cross your fingers anyome cares by the time draft picks develop.

Oh Barry. If you stop blogging once the season gets going, I'm not sure I'll be okay! My heart might break! Nothing has brightened my days like hearing about my boys down in Florida. Please don't quit on me now!

Barry,

According to the .35 cent paper, Stan Kasten claims they've only lost 1000 season ticket equivalents from last season. During the winter, when folks (like me) were trying to upgrade our seats, I know the Nats professed that options to do so were limited, and that the best seats were sold out. Well, I think we are about to see a very different picture of the current state of the franchise.

Go to nationals.com, and look for tickets for next Wednesday afternoon's game against the Marlins. You can get a pair of supposedly sold out Diamond box seats in the 6th row directly behind home plate, a pair of similar seats in the supposedly sold out MVP section, seats in the first row of the upper deck along the baselines, etc.

If I didn't know any better, I think they tried to keep people who were willing to renew in their current seats and left the new holes where they are, rather than shift the many folks who wanted to do so closer to the field and home plate. If I wanted to make a stadium look more full than it is, that's what I'd do.

I know they want to paint a rosy picture, but these facts seem to show that the organization may be covering up how bad things really are. That's all well and good, unless it kept folks who were willing to pay more for better seats out of those seats. Don't know if there's a story there, but I'd sure love to read about it if there is.

I think I'm just gonna forward my URL to your blog.... (laughing) Barry, don't stop.. please.. we love you... don't leeeeaaaave us :-) Just teasing! Excellent post, as always!

so thrilled that the blog will keep going throughout the season. keep it up! loved the section today and can't wait for monday!!

But Barry, what about Bizarro's???

Hey 'shocked' - I had the same experience trying to upgrade our seats from the $40 section. We just wanted to try to get closer to the field somehow...within the $40 or up into the $50 seats. The only effort the Nats made was a 2 minute phone call with them basically telling me that the only place they could move me to was along the foul pole.

I was skeptical that there were not two seats located closer to the field...and now it appears that my skepticism was warranted.

Shocked and DE -

You are telling my story. We are in $40 seats, in the last row of the 200 section, 2/3 of the way down the foul line. We were told repeatedly before 2006 and 2007 no better seats were available, not closer to the field, not closer to the plate. We, too, were willing to go up to the $50 seats.

Now there are dozens and dozens of seats on sale for single games that are MUCH better than ours.

Leaves a bad taste in my mouth, to be quite honest. Sure, the nats now have a better chance of selling the good tickets than they would of selling my mediocre ones, and they already had my money. Ah, the benefits of being a season ticket holder.

Love the work, Barry.

Shocked et al., do what I do - pay $6 and then go sit in those empty seats.

barry -- keep the blog going all year. don't feel like you have to post every day, but if, say, belliard breaks his nose after a mishap in the underground batting cages, you can post about it in the blog instead of posting a full story. actually, if he breaks his nose you should do a story, but if it's just a black eye or something maybe then a blog post would be appropriate.

I don't know how much additional work is involved in doing this blog, Mr. S., but keep it going if you can :-)

Enough with the griping. Are there things that could have been handled better (ticket dispersion, seat upgrades, etc)? Of course. But remember, the Lerners/Kasten have been in charge for only 8 months. They inherited a poorly run club. MLB did everything they could to eliminate/ruin this franchise. It's going to take more than a few months for them to fix everything (and believe me, there are a TON of things that need fixing). I realize ticking off the core fan base is not a wise move, and I'm sure it's one that the owners aren't doing on purpose. But, I do strongly feel that once they realize where all the problems are, they will go about and fix it. The Lerner family didn't get where they are by ticking off their customers. Kasten didn't build a dynasty in Atlanta by sitting on his hands. This is all going to take time, people.

As for not putting a winning team on the field this season ... yeah, it's going to be a LONG season. Am I happy to go to RFK to see the Nats lose? Of course not. But, I am excited to see young, hungry players get a shot and see if they can be an integral part of this club for years to come. The Nats have a decent nucleus of position players (Zimmerman, Schneider, Lopez, Kearns, Young Guzman and Johnson - when they're healthy). Not a lot of teams can say that. Add in guys like Casto, Marrero, Smiley, Flores, Colt Willems, Zinicola, Balester and others and there's a good possibility this team will be in contention for a few years. And don't think that after this season the Lerners won't open up the pocketbooks to add in the necessary one or two veterans that will help the team gel.

I'm ecstatic to know that the Lerners/Kasten didn't waste money on inferior free agents this year. Look at the list from this past offseason. Who should the Nats have tried to get? There was nobody on the list that was going to guarantee immediate wins. And don't think that someone like Jason Schmidt or Barry Zito would ever have come here this year. In a couple of years, maybe. Not this year. Otherwise, the list of FA's consisted mainly of overpriced, aging, average-at-best pitchers (Chan Ho Park, Aaron Sele, Gil Meche, etc). I'd much rather prefer to see Matt Chico and Shawn Hill get a chance and pitch to prove whether they're going to be a part of this team's future.

This franchise will get better and will be contending for the NL East in the not-too-distant future. The new owners and management will see to that. We just have to have a little patience. I know I don't expect miracles to happen overnight. It's going to take more than 8 months for everything to change for the better. As for the administrative side, this does need to be addressed and fixed sooner. Now that the Lerners know what they've been left with and have seen how the previous regime ran things (terribly), I have the utmost confidence that they will fix it and fix it quickly. If not, well, then there's going to be a lot of long and lonely summers at the new ballpark.

Sorry to ramble on. Thanks for your time.

You lost all credibility with that post when you called Cristian Guzman part of a "decent nucleus."

And who is this "Young" who is also part of the decent nucleus of position players?

Ha ha - maybe we acquired prospects Joel Guzman from the D-Rays and Chris Young from the D-Backs?

Um. Did I miss something? Has Guzman NOT been doing well? Funny, I thought a .425 spring training avg was considered ok.

I'm giving Guzman the benefit of the doubt. I'll drink the kool-aid and believe that 2005 wan an abhorration and due to shoulder issues and bad eyes. I don't expect Guz to hit .300 but I don't expect him to hit .220 either.

.425 Spring training average? Wow, when he warms up, I'm sure he'll hit .500 this year!

all you hecklers -- ignore Dimitri Young (Big D) as an important part of this team at your own risk.

I'll be the first to tell you that he's no Nick Johnson, but he can surely play.

The future is now.

Which way is the bar?

Trade Cordero and our 5 first draft picks for Manny!!! I'll get the helecopter.

MLB Power Rankings on Fox Sports--Nats rank 30th out of 30. I'm eating it up. Keeps the bar low so our decent showing (not saying excellent) at the end of the year "surprises" everyone. And I can't wait to say, "I loved them back when Patterson was actually the 'ace', where were you?"
In fact, everyone loves the underdog-rises-above story so in two, three years the Nats will be EVERYONE'S sweethearts.

Post Barry Post!!! What is going on? We want to know.
On another matter, if Guzman is "right", he should hit around .250.

But Danny, Manny Sanguillen is retired ...

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES... (reading that it almost sounds like a take from the deli scene in When Harry Met Sally) - you must post during the season - we depend on it...not only for the invaluable info on all aspects of the Nats, but also for the humor value - you write a mean blog, Barry and you are VERY much appreciated...

Czaban had Mr. X on this morning. The line on the Nats is Under 68 1/2.

If Guzman hits north of .260 this season, we should all kiss the ground in front of rfk. I don't think that's an insane expectation.

Optimism...a beautiful word. We should drink the koolaid. Dr. Stan has a track record that should not be ignored. I know we'd all like the Nats to be the 27 yankees this year, but, hey, it ain't gonna happen that fast. However, real Nats fans should give this film time to develope. I think a truly beautiful picture will appear in the not to distant future. Look, even Angelos knows that he now needs to spend some money in order to compete now that he has local competition for the dollar. About Guzman...05 was not the real Guz, you'll see a much improved player this year and for the next several years to come. Bowden didn't throw the money his way because he was a bad player in Minnesota. Let the farm system, which was a joke, have the time to grow the talent and presto...you'll see the wins add up. Again, the track record of the man in charge...don't take that lightly. Patience, people....patience.

Barry, I watched the live program and there seemed to be a bit of tension between you and Stan. I'd be interested in your take on the relationship with Nats management. The impression that I and others have is that the Post is more negative than positive when it comes to covering the Nats. I had a lot of trouble reading all of the negativity during the stadium debacle. If I just went by what was written in the Post, I'd write off our getting a baseball team. After watching the Live program, I was left wondering if the Post has been dissed by the Nats in any way? I do appreciate the fact that the Post is providing coverage, but you need to balance the bad with the good. It isn't all bad!