(Editor’s Note: Now to the second part of our Nationals opening day’s coverage)
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here, but go check the MLB standings. Your eyes don’t deceive you: The Nats alone hold first place in the NL East this morning.
And they got there by stopping the formidable Arizona D’Backs 5 runs to 3 in 8½ innings at RFK Stadium.
But before that, there was some schmaltz to get out of the way: First the reintroduction of some erstwhile Senators, the old (non-baseball) senator who threw the last first-pitch a generation ago, a fighter jet flyby, and the first pitch by the president. (Was he booed? From TV, we couldn’t tell.) He threw it over the plate, if a little high — maybe he was a bit too excited — but if he’d thrown that pitch in post-9/11 NYC, Fred Thompson probably wouldn’t have waxed poetic about it at last year’s convention.
Last night had to be sweetest of all for Anthony Williams, who risked his reputation on making this happen. He even did a little dance on the infield, and who can blame him? Also present were councilmembers Jack Evans, who (according to the Post’s resuscitated Nats Journal) got cheers, Carol Schwartz (“mild booing”) and Linda Cropp (“cascading boos”).
And then there was the game.
