Zen Dayley: the Nationals disgrace

First off, in the NL Central, who do you have -- the Cubs, with two Canadian starters, or the Brewers, with Canadians in the GM's office?

The Nationals disgrace

• Bless you, John Brattain, for suggesting a suitable fate for the Washington Nationals owners. As previously noted, imagine the nerve it takes to refuse to pay rent on a $611-million ballpark that you were given for free:

  "... the whole lot of them should be rounded up and stuffed into a time machine set to 1789 Paris when they knew how to deal with people like them. Since they may struggle with the language we'll send along some bilingual baseball fans from Quebec to help them adjust. Never forget, these are the ones who decry greedy players; the players only want to paid what their talents are worth to the game. The owners want to be paid even though insofar as the public good goes, they are completely worthless and do not wish to work for their money.
  
  "The major league cartels are out of control; they abuse their monopoly power to the detriment of society at large."

• Hey, a team that gave Cristian Guzman a two-year, $16-million extension has to find savings somewhere.
• Dan Steinberg's rebuttal to a Washington Post reader who complained about the paper's coverage of the last-place Nationals holds up very well, two weeks later. God, it would be nice if more newspapers addressed whiny readers head-on.

Other business

• Jorge Costales, a Miami accountant, has a good go-to blog for anyone who wants to keep current on what's happening with the Florida Marlins stadium. It's looking like Jeff Loria will get his wish.
• It's possible Reds super-prospect Jay Bruce really is Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees -- a middle-aged man in the body of someone much younger and stronger. He shrugged off his strong start due to a "small sample size." Now ShysterBall has noted that his at-bat music is an Electric Light Orchestra song that's eight years older than him.
• Please read this Poz post about Stan Musial. Even if the story is part urban legend, it's still true that Stan the Man never got ejected once in 3,026 career games. Supposedly, he also never cracked a bat, even though he hit 475 homers (but never hit 40 in a season).
• Again, it's the 25th anniversary of the Pine Tar Game. Can you imagine being at that game and having to explain what was happening to someone who'd never seen a baseball game in her life?

Damn, the Jays

• Jesse Litsch is riding the shuttle to Syracuse. It's not a stunner. The Beep did call Lil' Litschy "the right-handed Chacin" at the outset of this season.
• The skinny on Gustavo Pierre, the 16-year-old Dominican shortstop that the Jays just finished singing, is that he's a power bat who projects more as a third baseman or outfielder.
• Here's an excerpt from Jeff Pearlman's profile of former Syracuse/Toronto folk hero Sal Fasano that appears in the August issue of Reader's Digest. It might be in the Canadian edition (note: check a newstand). There are plenty of Quadruple-A players who paid the price for not paying the price during the Steroid Era -- last season's Lynx cleanup man Gary Burnham was probably a prime example.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.