Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Big Time in the Old Town

Rich Galen

Wednesday June 9, 2010

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Note: I was going to write about politics and oil spills but I am not. I am at Nationals Park where I have been for (as I type this part) the past two and a half hours awaiting the start of the game between the Nats and the Pittsburgh Pirates where Stephen Strasburg will make his first Major League start.

If that's not your cup of tea, press the DEL key and we'll get back to knock 'em sock 'em politics on Friday.

The hype leading up to tonight's game started 364 days ago when the Nationals selected Strasburg as the first player in the draft. At every stop, he performed as advertised, leading to additional hype as he moved up the ladder.

The hype had become almost suffocating coming into tonight, and it wasn't just in the DC metropolitan area.

During a normal game there are about 25 media types in the Nationals press box. The Nats press wranglers issued 200 - two-zero-zero - media credentials for this game.

In an informal press conference before the game, Nationals president Stan Kasten was asked if this was the first time anything like this had happened with the Nats.

"I've been at this a long time," said Kasten who at one time was the president of the Altanta Braves, the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA, and the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL - simultaneously. "This isn't just the first time for us, this is the first time ever. We're selling standing-room-only tickets and the media requests are at World Series levels."

The paid attendance was at World Series levels, too. The Nationals have been averaging about 21,500 paid per game. There were 40,315 paid in the stands tonight.

I saw Strasburg pitch in spring training and he looked like he could have been the opening day starter. But the Nationals had a development plan and they stuck to it: 3-5 starts at AA Harrisburg, 3-5 starts at AAA Syracuse then, if he looked like he was ready, bring him up to the big club in early June.

If June 8 still counts as "early June" Strasburg was right on schedule.

Strasburg threw his first pitch at 7:06. It was called a ball which the sell-out crowd booed lustily. Not to worry. Strasburg got the first two batters on infield grounders and then faced former Nat Lastings Milledge. Milledge had been quoted as saying he didn't think all that much of Strasburg, so he was booed as he stepped in.

He struck out, which caused a roar in the stands that may have registered on the seismograph at the Smithsonian.

We didn't know it at the time, but that was the first of 14 strikeouts Strasburg would throw, setting a new Nationals record.

In the bottom of the first, the original "Face of the Nationals," Ryan Zimmerman, came to the plate with two outs and smacked his 12th homer of the year over the centerfield wall. The fans went crazy.

On his 21st pitch, Strasburg hit the 100 MPH mark on the scoreboard radar. To show the strength of his arm, his last two strikeouts - numbers 13 and 14 in the 7th inning - were each on 99 MPH fastballs.

SIDEBAR

During every home game, between the third and fourth innings, the Nationals salute a dozen or so military personnel who are introduced to the crowd; some are in wheel chairs, the rest stand an wave their red Nats caps.
In every game, the cheers build as more and more people realize what's going on.
By the time Lee Greenwood had finished the single verse of "God Bless the U.S.A." the full-house crowd was roaring its thanks.

END SIDEBAR

In the fourth inning, Strasburg left a pitch up and the Pirates' rightfielder Delwyn Young made him pay with a two-run homer to center.

I said to the guys around me that I thought the early-innings adrenaline might had worn off, and he hadn't gotten into his regular game rhythm.

When he did he was untouchable. Young was the last Pirate to reach base.

Official Scorer Dave Vincent pointed out that in the top 6th, Strasburg struck out the side on 11 pitches. The minimum number of pitches needed to strike out the side is nine. The reporter sitting next to me added that the half inning took three minutes.

Going into the bottom of the 6th, the Pirates' pitcher Jeff Karstens was ahead 2-1, but was facing the heart of the Nats order: Zimmerman, Adam Dunn, and Josh Willingham.

Single-homer-homer. 4-2. See ya. New pitcher. The Big Bats had come to the rescue.

Strasburg stuck out the last seven batters he faced, eight of the final nine batters. He struck out every batter he faced at least once.

The Nationals paid $15 million for Strasburg. If this one appearance means anything - they made a pretty good investment.

On the Secret Decoder Ring today: A few Mullfotos from the game.

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