#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Starting with a midweek doubleheader

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Starting with a midweek doubleheader
While taking nothing for granted in a COVID-ravaged world, we can reasonably assume that the sight of Spring Training 2.0 and a shortened - but certainly sweet - 2020 season on the horizon is not a mirage. With the target window now in the Independence Day/All-Star break vicinity, we can almost smell the hot dogs and the horsehide. In the meantime, we'll tide ourselves over with Nationals baseball from seasons past. Not a bad deal, really, considering that many of those seasons produced...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Worth the wait for late heroics

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Worth the wait for late heroics
When you watch a baseball game - whether in person or from the comfort of your basement recliner - there's a certain end game at play. Simply put, you want your team to win. You don't really care how they do it, as long as they have more runs than the other guys at the end of the game. Sometimes it takes nine innings, sometimes more. Sometimes it's a stellar pitching performance that does the trick, other times it's a fortuitous piece of offense that's the catalyst. Sometimes, weird things...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Extras! Extras! Read all about it!

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Extras! Extras! Read all about it!
If you can get up at (or stay up until) 4 a.m., you can now watch live baseball. It's on the tube at that hour because it's coming to you live from South Korea, where COVID-19 precautions have eased up enough to permit the Korea Baseball Organization to play ball, albeit without fans in the stands. It's a little surreal, watching players you don't know in ad-emblazoned batting helmets and umpires in surgical masks, all rattling around in an empty ballpark at a time of day when the vast...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: More memories from yesteryear

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: More memories from yesteryear
For many years, Mother's Day and baseball were irrevocably intertwined in my life. The first baseball game I ever attended was on Mother's Day 1966, the day Frank Robinson hit a home run out of Memorial Stadium, making him the only player to ever accomplish that feat. Of course, we didn't know it until the next day, when my dad read it in the morning paper. After my dad passed in 1985, mom and I would usually spend Mother's Day at a ballpark. She particularly loved the intimacy of Harry...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Slugfests and nailbiters

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Slugfests and nailbiters
Guess you'll just have send your mother a card this year. If she's like my mom, she'd probably prefer that you take her to see a ballgame, but sadly, that's not an option this Mother's Day. The good news is that if you happen to be living under the same roof during the Great COVID-19 Shutdown of 2020, you and mom can park yourselves in front of the TV on Sunday (or any other day this week) and enjoy Nationals baseball together. True, we can only bring you the exploits of seasons past, but...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: The first title, Jones' last game as an Oriole

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: The first title, Jones' last game as an Oriole
If the 2020 season had started on schedule, we might have had several postponements already anyhow, given the wet weather we've had this April. But as those of us who suffer from hay fever are especially aware, those April showers bring May flowers. We here at MASN would, of course, like nothing better than to be bringing you live Orioles baseball, but as we all continue to hunker down to fend off the coronavirus as best we can, it looks as though we may have a May without it this year. That...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: A trio of tripleheaders on tap

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: A trio of tripleheaders on tap
Back in the days before I smartened up, the notion of a tripleheader was quite intriguing. Doubleheaders of my youth meant glorious Sundays spent at Memorial Stadium, figuring how best to stretch five bucks so that it lasted two games. And if the nightcap went more than the regulation nine innings? No worries, since Dad was listening on the radio and knew exactly when to head to the bus stop on Wilkens Avenue to pick us up for the return trip home. Speaking strictly as a baseball professional,...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Youngsters shine

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Youngsters shine
Our long national nightmare continues, and we continue to go without the national pastime. We take comfort in knowing that our baseball heroes are stepping up to the plate to help the heros who are giving their all for our communities, but as we endure a public health crisis and steel ourselves for its economic repurcussions, we can't help but wish we could at least take in a ballgame. As we've been reminding you throughout the unpleasantness, you indeed can catch some exciting baseball...

Why the Nats' team Zoom chat captivated us so much

Why the Nats' team Zoom chat captivated us so much
What would you have thought if someone told you a month ago you'd be spending four hours on the night of April 14 watching two dozen players, coaches and others from the 2019 Nationals hold a video conference call with each other while (sort of) re-watching Game 7 of the World Series? Or that it would be the most enjoyable thing you've watched in the last month? In these strangest of times, it's the strangest of entertainment that is captivating us. And, more importantly, bringing us all...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": 15 years' worth of memories

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": 15 years' worth of memories
With 15 years of history, the Nationals have created plenty of memories. Last year's World Series championship was definitely the pinnacle, but even the most pedestrian of Nats campaigns offers a highlight or two. This week's smattering of "Nationals Classics" on MASN is a trip down memory lane, a look at nine noteworthy games from the past, from the Nats' debut season in 2005 through a Max Scherzer strikeout record in 2018. We know you miss baseball - the real-time kind, which mandates a...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: O's torpedo Mariners

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: O's torpedo Mariners
We're all (Adam) Jonesing for Orioles baseball right now, but you're not missing it on this particular day because April 16 was scheduled as an off-day to begin with. How's that for rationalizing? If not for this pesky pandemic, the Birds would have just hosted the Cubs for a pair, the Wednesday game coming on Jackie Robinson Day. That's the one day during the season when you can't tell the players even with a program, since everybody's wearing No. 42 in honor of the great Dodgers...

What makes for good baseball or sports viewing right now?

What makes for good baseball or sports viewing right now?
At a time when there are no live games to watch, what are baseball fans and our blog readers doing to get a sports fix? Have you found something fun to watch involving sports or the Orioles that you stumbled upon? If yes, feel free to share with all of us today. Maybe we'll learn something or find something to enhance our stay-at-home viewing options. I've watched a few old O's games or parts of them. We are used to tuning into MASN's "Orioles Classics." Even though the end result was...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Walk-off this way ...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Walk-off this way ...
Social isolation is a lot more palatable when you have "Orioles Classics" on MASN at your fingertips. And you don't even have to stay six feet away from the TV screen, though the oft-repeated warning from my youth - "You'll ruin your eyes!" - springs to mind. This week on "Orioles Classics," we've got some of the best walk-offs in recent vintages of Orioles history, including the final game of the storied career of Cal Ripken Jr. There are some other special games in the rotation: a...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": The moment you've all been waiting for

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": The moment you've all been waiting for
You've been spending way more time at home than usual and your television set is working overtime. Normally at this time of year, MASN would be bringing you live Nationals games, but maybe you've been catching some of the wide variety of sports competition (taped back before the world went on lockdown) that MASN presents daily: auto, motorcycle, air and speedboat racing, Bundesliga soccer, PBA bowling and poker tours, to name a few. Of course our bread and butter is baseball. So while our...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Marathon wins for long-term isolation

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Marathon wins for long-term isolation
Getting tired of jigsaw puzzles yet? You've cleaned the house to within an inch of its life and you're down to binge-watching the first (and final) season of "My Mother the Car." About this time, of course, you should be doing the heel-of-hand-to-forehead move as you remember that MASN continually brings you the best moments in Orioles history. So as most of us - apart from the grocery clerks, the first responders, the medical personnel and others who still venture into their regular work...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Let the championship run begin

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Let the championship run begin
We should be getting ready for the Nationals' home opener against the Mets today. We should be preparing to hoist a championship banner on South Capitol Street. We should be choosing our most favorite t-shirt, jackets and caps from the World Series run, and high-fiving random fans we run into on the Metro, in line at the ballpark or in the stands who are our baseball twins. While the coronavirus might have robbed us of that for the time being, it can't erase the memories of a great postseason...

MASN to rebroadcast every Nationals win from 2019 postseason

MASN to rebroadcast every Nationals win from 2019 postseason
If you want to re-watch the Nationals' dramatic run to their first World Series title on television, here's your chance. MASN will be broadcasting all 12 of the Nats' postseason victories, plus the championship parade, during the first two weeks of April. It all begins Thursday at 1 p.m., exactly when the Nationals were supposed to raise their banner before facing the Mets in their 2020 home opener. Instead, MASN will be showing the entire National League wild card game, capped by Juan...

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Cal Ripken Jr. takes center stage

"Orioles Classics" #TBT: Cal Ripken Jr. takes center stage
We should be celebrating the start of another baseball season today, packing Camden Yards for opening day the way only hard-core Orioles fans know how to do. What's that old adage about best-laid plans often going astray? Baseball is in a holding pattern and we're really not sure when the 2020 campaign is going to start. Luckily, we've got a treasure trove of "Orioles Classics" on MASN this week, and there's a theme of sorts. Cal Ripken Jr., the greatest shortstop of a generation (sorry,...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Things get wild

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Things get wild
We're just six days away from April 1, and the ballfields are empty. No fooling. We only wish it was a joke. Today, the Nationals were supposed to be in New York to open the season against the Mets. A week from today, following a swing through Miami, the Nats were supposed to host the Mets for their home opener. None of those things are happening. You know why, so we're not going to use the C word. We're all sick of hearing it, if you'll pardon the expression. But you can count on MASN to...

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Milestones, memories and some newer vintages

#TBT to "Nationals Classics": Milestones, memories and some newer vintages
Regular readers of this space are familiar with our recaps of "Nationals Classics" on MASN. Usually, all winter long, we stoke the hot stove and feed your need for baseball with rebroadcasts of memorable games from past seasons. Well, in the middle of a coronavirus pandemic that has short-circuited the national pastime, we're back with more "Nationals Classics" to keep you satiated. Whether you're working at home, sheltering in place or planning your next strategic grocery store run for...