Thirty-four years after the last D.C. baseball team slunk out of town, the Washington Nationals play their first-ever home game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at 7:00 p.m. (TV: UPN 20). As if that isn’t exciting enough, the Nats arrive with a stadium-warming surprise gift: a winning record (5-4) and a two-game win streak (all road games, no less (of course)). It’ll be no small task to keep those winning ways going: The Diamondbacks, even shorn of their Big Unit, are 6-3 and have won four straight.

So will they win? ANC Commissioner 6B08 Neil Glick did back-of-the-envelope analysis, which he sent along to another DCist:

I found that having a sitting President toss out the first ball, does not give the home team any benefit. Presidential Ball Tosses were an even split for all Opening Day Games — 29 wins for home teams, and 29 wins for visitors. Tomorrow’s game will change that 29/29 split. So, I broke it down a bit on party lines. Ever since William Howard Taft threw the opening day ball for the Senators in the teens, Republicans have had a slight edge over Democrats in the home team winning the opening day game. Reagan’s pitches only helped Visitors, and Wilson helped the Senators every time he threw the ball (granted, I am not taking how many Republican vs. Democratic Presidents we have had since this tradition started). Based on this, I predict that the Nationals will win tomorrow’s game!

That’s good enough analysis for us, though in this baseball-starved town, we’ll support them win or lose. For a while, at any rate.