Senators Singles: 2011 Topps Roger Bernadina

2011 Topps Baseball 84 Roger Bernadina

In my last Senators Singles post on Tyler Clippard I mentioned a second card that was promised but never mentioned. This one features Roger Bernadina. Roger made a spectacular game saving catch against the Astros in 2012 to end and save the game in the 12th inning. One of my all-time fave Nationals plays.

Most of the images in this tile were screengrabs from video. I didn't bother trying to edit brightness or anything else. The first image was from a blog but looks to be originally from the Washington Post. That photo is from a different better angle than the video which is from the original MASN broadcast. The straight on angle would show better continuity and wouldn't have the post block some of the action.

Oh and look who was pitching - Tyler Clippard.

Screengrab from MASN video. 07 Aug 2012 Nats @ Astros

Now the Senator's Singles Card:

2011 Topps Baseball 84 Roger Bernadina

When Bernadina was with the Nats he had the nickname "The Shark" because of the way he would hunt down and snatch the ball to make spectacular catches. The last MLB team Roger appeared in a game with was the Dodgers in 2014.He was last contracted in 2016 with the Mets for the minor leagues. In November of 2016 Roger signed with the Kia Tigers in the Korean Baseball League (KBO League) in December 2017 he signed a one year contract with the KBO Tigers.

Image from Bernadinakia on Twitter

Related Links:

Nationals vs Astros: Danny Espinosa has 3 RBIs - Washington Post

Washington Nationals Fans Begin to Ask "Could This Be Our Year?" - Washington Post

Why SI Why Oh Why?

NOTE: This post may or may not contain any card images.

My copy of SI March 26 - April 2, 2018 issue Yankees Cover
(I cropped out/color dropper mailing address)
They also made an Angels cover

As the 2018 MLB Season is about to begin* Sports Illustrated got out it's crystal ball and made their annual prediction for this season's World Series.

Who did they pick? I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count because I'm writing this post about the silly thing. Yep they picked the Nationals to win it all over those Damned Yankees. Oh and they also predict the Nats will go 100 - 62 this season.

Now just last year (2017) SI was very wrong with their pick of the Dodgers over the Indians as the actual result was of course the Astros over the Dodgers. Strangely enough though SI had a correct prediction back in June 2014 when their cover sported Astro George Springer and predicted The Astros to Win the World Series in 2017. Hmm I wonder why they had randomly picked three years in the future? However as I said they then in 2017 actually picked the Dodgers over the Indians. The 2014 Astros prediction was just an off-the-cuff statement as it related to the team rebuilding scope of that article.

The Nats fan in me wants a World Series win sometime soon preferably sooner than later and preferably several times over in my lifetime (which is at least half over and getting shorter all the time). The last time a DC baseball team won the World Series was 1924 with the Original Senators and their last appearance was in 1933 the same franchise that would become the Twins. That is two teams/franchises ago with a 33 year gap between the current team and the previous one. This, however is not the first time that SI has predicted the Nats to Win or at least go to The WS. Their first wrong ProgNATStication (play on the word "prognostication") was in 2013 when they picked my beloved Nats to win the whole enchilada over The Tampa Bay Rays the actual series was The Red Sox over the Cardinals (a rematch of the 2004 WS). The next year 2014 the magazine picked the Nats over the A's reality said it was Giants over Royals. Then the very next year 2015 they picked the Nats to go to the Series but picked the Indians over them the real result was Royals over Mets.

Related Articles:
Astro-Matic Baseball: Houston's Grand Experiment - SI.com
Sports Illustrated Picks Nationals to Beat Yankees in 2018 World Series - SI.com (has video):
Sports Illustrated predicts the Nationals will beat the Yankees in the World Series - Washington Post

All images in this post are from the March 26 - April 2, 2018 issue of Sports Illustrated

*The 2018 season has started. This post was originally drafted only a few days to maybe a week before the season began and is being published sometime in the afternoon of Saturday 31 March 2018 to barely make my personal posting quota of one post a month for each of my blogs.

Its Fun Being At Number One!

 To paraphrase Mel Brooks' movie "History of the World: Part I" - "It's Good to be number one!"

Something that has been absent from baseball's return to the Nation's Capital has been a Winning Season. Being number one in the division is something that hasn't happened for the Nationals except in the first half of the inaugural 2005 season, and maybe for one or two games at the beginning of some of the other seasons.

The 2012 MLB Season has been a very good one for the Washington Nationals. They have been first in the NL East for most of it. Since sometime in early August they have somehow managed to top most of the many internet "Power Ranking" lists, even when in a losing streak. On some of the lists they are still at number one but on a couple of them they have slipped down to number two or lower. The end of the season will tell all though. Many teams have enjoyed being on top all season long only to take a nosedive at the end of the season.

The current Montreal Expos franchise as the Washington Nationals has not had a winning season. The closest they have gotten was in the inaugural 2005 season when they went .500 with 81 wins 81 loses and last season 2011 when they had 80 wins and 81 loses with one postponed game that was never made up. Had that game been played and they won, which at that time of the season they were hot enough to win, they would have matched the 2005 season. The last winning season for the Franchise was 2003 (83 wins 79 loses .512 avg). As for Washington baseball history the Senators were in three World Series 1924, 1925, and 1933 but only won it in the 1924 Series beating the Then NEW YORK Giants, they would lose to those very same Giants in the '33 series and the Pittsburgh Pirates in '25. In all the rich history of DC Baseball there has been more losing than winning. You have to go back to 1969 for the Senators last winning season of 86 wins 76 loses.

From a Washington Post article earlier this year: "Even losing baseball was better than no baseball. This year marks the 79th year of major league baseball in Washington. In that time, area fans have been treated to just 18 seasons of above-.500 ball but only once in the past half-century"

So you can see that a winning baseball team in DC is a VERY BIG DEAL to the longtime area fans who went many years without ANY baseball. Forgive us if we are not very humble this season and remind you of Philadelphia Phillies Fans. Those fans are frustrated this year and should be humble because they are used to a winning team that is currently losing. They (The Phillies) have a slight chance of having another winning season so I guess that humility of theirs won't be around very long if they have it at all. The Nats on the other hand are almost guaranteed to have a winning season with only needing to win 4 of the next 33 games. So even if the Nats fail to make the playoffs, which is another subject completely, fans like me will be very very happy and proud of our team this season.

UPDATE: D'oh! I forgot to mention the biggest reason for this is that the Nats pitching this season has been phenomenal. The individual starters might not be the best five pitchers in all the league but the whole combination apparently is getting the job done. All season long the team has had the lowest runs allowed against them in the league, even with a few games getting away from them and being blown out.

GO NATS GO!

Yahoo Sports Power Rankings (first power ranking list to have the Nats in first place this season): http://sports.yahoo.com/news/power-rankings-nationals-yankees-rangers-bryce-harper-manny-machado-roy-oswalt.html
ESPN Power Rankings Week 22: http://espn.go.com/mlb/powerrankings/_/season/2012/week/22


Related Links:
http://www.citizensofnatstown.com/home/2012/8/10/riding-that-train.html
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1305776-washington-nationals-are-approaching-some-truly-magic-numbers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/veteran-nats-fans-enjoying-rare-winning-season/2012/06/17/gJQAup1zjV_story.html 

Images appearing in the photo collage are by Getty Images, AP, or Reuters except for image of Manager Davey Johnson by USPresswire, and the team photo marked DistrictSportsPage.