Something Cool That's Not Prince Related

Is anyone else getting tired of waiting? If you listened to the latest edition of Nats Talk On The Go (Now available on iTunes!), you heard both Joe and I talking about how we are bored to death talking about waiting for Prince Fielder to sign. Wake me when he signs somewhere, anywhere.

With things not quite ready to ramp up for Spring Training 2012, I just wanted to share with you something cool.

I recently moved to the Leesburg area, about a 45-50 minute drive from the city, and when I was at Target looking around for things we don't have for our new place I saw it... The most glorious canvas of Nats Park (sparse crowd included). I had to have it for my wall.

The price tag was a little bit much considering I had just dropped a good bit of coin on a(n?) U-Haul, various organizational supplies, and the fact that my rent went up considerably. But, I still had to have it...

Well, it so happens that I just had a birthday and I am a tough guy to shop for (Nats, Flyers, and beer is pretty much all I get or ask for - and some hip new argyle socks). So my amazing and beautiful fiancee surprises me with the very same canvas print of Nats Park that I so desired - and the first thing I said was, "I have to find out what game this is from" So, I did what any investigative blogger would do - went to baseball-reference.com.

Let me take you through my deduction process:
- It was a day game between the Nats and the FLORIDA Marlins and the Nats were up 2-0 after 4 innings, the runs coming in the 1st and the 3rd.

- Looking at the visible names on the scoreboard (both lineups), I saw that Adam Dunn was still a Nat. Boom - narrows down the window to 2009-10.

- It was pretty clear that it was early in the season, because the batter (who I found out to be Anibal Sanchez) had just a .300 average with 0 HR, 0 Runs, and 0 RBI - so it was obviously from early in the season. Also, Livan Hernandez (who was the Nats' Starter that day) had a 0.89 ERA - which is pretty low...

- I also remembered that Livan came over to the Nats (again) in late 2009, so that ruled out early 2009 as a target for the game.

- Armed with this info, I headed to the 2010 Nationals Schedule and found the dates that the Nats played the FLORIDA Marlins early in the season. They played a 3 game set at the end of April, but it was at Sun Life Stadium - but the next time they played them was at home; Friday, May 7 - Sunday, May 9th.

- Figuring that they would play a day game on Sunday, I checked there first. BINGO!

We have a winner! The game in question is from May 9th, 2010 - a game that the Nationals won 3-2 on an 8th inning Home Run by Josh Willingham. Tyler Clippard got the win while Matt Capps notched the Save.

And HERE is what Joe wrote in this space about that game. How cool is that?

So, if you are out at Target or Bed, Bath, and Beyond and you see the Nats, you can impress your friends/significant other/spouse/stranger with knowledge about said game - I'll even give you a sample conversation:

You: "Oh hey! Cool! Look at this awesome Nats canvas!"
Friend/Significant Other/Spouse/Stranger: "Yea, that is pretty neat, I guess. You sure do talk about baseball a lot..."
You: "Hmm, I bet you a beer that I can figure out the game from just looking at it"
Friend/Significant Other/Spouse/Stranger: "No way you can do that, you are on!"
You: "May 9, 2010. Pay up"
Friend/Significant Other/Spouse/Stranger: *Stunned Silence*

I hope you enjoyed this story of awesomeness and baseball geekdom. I can't wait to put this up on my wall. Now, will Fielder sign soon so I can write something about the current Nats???