Kuzul

The Washington Nationals are shrewd.

In the midst of a letdown season, the team is set to allow season-ticket holders the opportunity to earn their subscription to next year’s games for free. All they have to do is hit a home run.

Sounds easy enough, right? 

Scott Allen of the Washington Post explained the promotion:

One person per ticket plan is eligible to compete in the “Swing for Your Seats” promotion. … On or about Oct. 5, the Nationals will notify the primary account holder for every eligible plan with information about how to register for the event.

Fans will stand at home plate and receive up to one swing at up to two pitches from an automatic pitching machine. The Nationals will provide wood bats and batting helmets and they’ll have the final say if there’s any dispute about whether a batted ball clears the fence in fair territory.

Anyone who hits a home run will receive the full payment amount of his or her 2016 ticket plan, not to exceed $10,000. A $10,000 credit will be applied toward the cost of the seats for winners with ticket plans that exceed that amount.

Allen also noted that when the San Diego Padres ran a similar promotion in 2014, none of the 1,000 fans who gave it a try cleared the fence.

Hm, interesting. Are the Nats, nine games back in the National League wild-card race, really looking to give out free tickets, or are they trying to add an extra bat to the lineup?

Seems like this is a two birds, one stone type of deal.

[Washington Post]

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Former President Jimmy Carter was put on the Kiss Cam at the Atlanta Braves game Thursday night.

He delivered.

The 90-year-old is undergoing cancer treatment, but it was great to see him having fun at the ballpark with his wife and former first lady Rosalynn Carter despite Atlanta’s 5-0 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.

[MLB]

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If you load the bases for Mike Trout, good things are going to happen.

In the second inning against the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night, the Los Angeles Angels did just that—and the reigning American League MVP delivered.

Trout took A.J. Achter’s pitch deep to right-center field and gave his Angels a 6-5 lead. It was his 37th long ball of the season.

[MLB]

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Retractable roofs are big, cool and expensive, and like any other big, cool and expensive thing ever made, they’re prone to some annoying hiccups.

In the case of the retractable roof at Chase Field, it has some problems with its “being a roof” function—or, more specifically, the part where it shields those beneath it from the elements. 

Gaps in the roof’s structure made their presence known thanks to a heavy rainstorm that dumped down on Phoenix during Monday night’s game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres.

The rain trickled through the roof and fell predominantly on a section of unlucky fans seated behind home plate. 

Now, I don’t exactly know how to rate this type of phenomenon on the spectrum of retractable roof fails.

While it’s not great that the giant moon roof you dropped millions on isn’t doing its job well, it may not be as bad as stubbornly refusing to use your expensive roof until rain begins pouring into the stadium, as the Miami Marlins did earlier this year:

At least the Diamondbacks used the roof—that’s what it’s there for.

Also, I don’t envy the guys who have to go up there and find the breach in the roof’s armor. It’s made of 9 million pounds of steel, according to the Diamondbacks website, so it could take a while to find and patch things up.

Dan is on Twitter. It’s a tarp!

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Tsk tsk, Mets fans.

All it took was one—one decent regular season for you to go full Bawston.

You get a couple of good pitchers on your team and all of a sudden you’re Ben Affleck stumbling around outside O’Flannigan’s and pounding your chest on social media.

All poor Bryce Harper wanted was to share a moment of light he found in the dark, dark hole the Washington Nationals have slid into, and you couldn’t even let him do that.

Just take a look at Harper’s Instagram. It’s not a photo page anymore—not after New York completed its three-game sweep of the Nationals on Wednesday night.

Now it’s just a parking lot where Mets fans come to do wheelies and ram shopping carts into parked cars:

Maybe one out of every 20 comments isn’t “#LGM” (“Let’s go Mets”):

Got ’em!

The thing is, I get where Mets fans are coming from. Their team is exciting. I’d watch Jacob deGrom throw fastballs until the sun burns out. He’s like a giant Cocker spaniel with unpredictable action.

But still, maybe pump the brakes a tad. The Nationals are already dead. You can’t kill them again.

Dan is on Twitter. Never go full Bawston. 

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Chicago Cubs outfielder Chris Coghlan took a brief trip into the stands at Busch Stadium on Wednesday afternoon in pursuit of a foul ball off the bat of Tommy Pham.

He ended up making the catch and tumbling into what’s more or less the St. Louis Cardinals’ splash zone—an area of seating directly on the other side of the super low wall along the right-field foul line.

Coghlan’s catch gave the Cubs their third out and provided the rest of us with some high-resolution fan turtling:

I also like how one woman kept her hands up for so long after the catch.

Nothing bad happened, but she’d be damned if anyone confused her for having a hand in this tomfoolery.

I’ll never not find joy in you, weird baseball fans.

Dan is on Twitter. Foul ball adventures are basically a cottage industry in sports.

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Matt Williams had some questions waiting for him after the Washington Nationals’ 8-7 loss to the New York Mets on Tuesday night.

The concerns were over a number of baffling late-inning calls Williams made against New York that effectively lost the game for Washington, not the least of which was his decision to have Anthony Rendon bunt on a 3-1 count in the bottom of the ninth with Jayson Werth on first.

Moves like this, combined with the team’s continued inability to catch up to the division-leading Mets, have left Nats fans exasperated.

In this spirit, some sneaked into the Nationals’ postgame press conference Tuesday night and booed as the manager left the stage.

NBC Sports’ Craig Calcaterra spotted video of the incident. The fans were at least polite enough to wait for him to finish shrugging to start the jeers.

Despite this run-in, Williams is trying to stay positive, per Sporting News’ Travis Durkee. 

Speaking with 106.7 The Fan in Washington on Wednesday morning, Williams called the team’s fans “fantastic” and noted their passion when asked about their recent anger.

“They’re avid supporters of all of us,” Williams said. “And we’ll leave it at that.”

Well, he’s not wrong. Avidness is characteristic of a fanbase that will drive a coach out of town by torchlight and make managing expectations a very difficult task.

Then again, no matter who your fanbase is, it’s never a good sign when its booing spills over into the press conferences. That’s a pretty reliable mineshaft canary when it comes to a coach’s job security.

Dan is on Twitter. Boo him there on his lunch break.

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On Friday, Ben Revere experienced the type of nightmare that causes outfielders to wake up in a cold sweat.

Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieters belted a ball deep to left in the sixth inning of his team’s 10-2 win, and the Toronto Blue Jays outfielder got on his horse. He leaped and got some leather on it but accidentally knocked the ball over the fence.

Without some help, the bomb definitely would not have cleared the wall. The Orioles loved it:

Revere won’t be able to sleep for quite some time after this.

[Major League Baseball]

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Marcell Ozuna of the Miami Marlins started his first game in right field Friday night, but he didn’t look like a first-timer out there.

New York Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson belted a ball deep to right at Marlins Park, but the 24-year-old got a bead on it and clung to the wall while making the snag for the game’s first out.

Now, this ball was certainly not headed for the seats, but Ozuna’s superhero-esque play definitely set the tone.

Miami beat the Mets 6-5.

[Major League Baseball]

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Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has bounce.

After poking a grounder up the middle in the bottom of the sixth of a 10-2 loss to the visiting Baltimore Orioles on Friday night, the 30-year-old overran first base following an errant throw.

Backing up the bag, though, was O’s catcher Matt Wieters, so Tulo was in trouble. The Jays star sprinted back to the base, but Wieters had him beat.

So Tulowitzki, being the acrobat that he is, decided to casually leap over his diving opponent and land safely on the base.

No big deal.

[Major League Baseball]

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