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Awhile back, I appeared with Glenn Harris on NewsChannel 8’s SportsTalk to discuss my book “A Whole New Ballgame: The 1969 Washington Senators”. The segment includes footage of Frank Howard at the 1969 All-Star game at RFK, and his upper deck home run.

I am thrilled to announce that I will be making three appearances to sign and discuss my book, A Whole New Ballgame: The 1969 Washington Senators. Here’s the information and links. Mark your calendars!

One of the best baseball sites on the web is Retrosheet (www.retrosheet.org). They have play by play accounts and box scores of every major league game from 1954 – 2007 (excluding 1955). The data they’ve collected has allowed them to add lots of features. One of the best is data on how a batter or pitcher performed against his counterparts. At the click of a mouse, you can see who your favorite player wore out and who he couldn’t touch.

People mistakenly dismiss the men who played for the Washington Senators as losers, but a close look at the careers of the 1969 Senators reveals the opposite. Twelve of Ted Williams’ men, albeit with other teams, participated in post-season play.

For Washington baseball fans old enough to remember or wise enough to study the rich baseball history of the nation’s capital, the 1969 Senators hold a special place. Until the Nationals win their 82nd game in a season (let’s hope it’s in 2008), they remain the last team in Washington to play better than .500 baseball.

Forty years ago, baseball players rarely attended college, fewer earned their degrees, almost none earned advanced degrees. College boys just didn’t make it in baseball at a time when fewer than 50% attended higher education.

Before we examine the NL East managers and benches, I want to take the time to savor the pending opening of Nationals Park, the Washington Nationals new ballpark, scheduled to host its first regular season game this Sunday, March 30, 2008. The stadium looks breathtaking, poised to become a beautiful Washington landmark. I want to sit back, sigh and say “ahhh” thinking of the joyful summer nights there with my friends and family.

After a brief hiatus, let’s return to the breakdown of the NL East. Today, we’ll examine each team’s bullpen and rank them. In 2007, it’s not a stretch to say the Nationals’ bullpen saved their season. They logged more innings than any other team in the division, as the Nats’ patchwork starting rotation usually struggled. They likely will have to turn in a similar performance in 2008, especially if John Patterson and Shawn Hill, as they usually do, struggle to stay healthy. So, let’s look at the bullpens.

A few years ago, I wrote this short vision of what a new baseball stadium in Washington might look like for Nats News, the quarterly newsletter the Washington Baseball Historical Society (WBHS) publishes. A lot of this has come to pass, more awaits in the future. The statues of Walter Johnson, Josh Gibson and Frank Howard will be in place next season.

Just a quick note – Bill, my Philadelphia friend, challenged me on my CF ratings. He felt Victorino should be ranked ahead of Kotsay. I agree. So, that gives the Phillies 24 total points, the Braves 23 (see the earlier posts to figure out my simple ranking and scoring system). Now, we examine each team’s starting rotation. It’s an interesting mix. The Mets trumped everyone by getting Johan Santana from the Twins. The Phillies want to move Myers back to the rotation and they have a pretty fair young lefty ace too in Cole Hamels. The Braves have depth and experience now that Tom Glavine is in the mix. Florida has some catching up to do with Willis gone, but Mitre and Olson are fine young hurlers.

So, we looked at the infield and found the Nats lagging behind the big three. How do they fare in the outfield against their NL East opponents? Two excellent centerfielders, Aaron Rowland, formerly in Philly and Andruw Jones, in Atlanta left the division and the Nats picked up two youngsters, Latings Milledge and Elijah Dukes, the troubled young man who has not lived up to his Biblical namesake.