Is spring training just field day?

Throwing out a runner on first base from left field is damn near impossible. Bryce Harper tried to do it anyway.

Sure, Stephen Strasburg might be getting a lion’s share of the attention during the first week of Nationals spring training. But what about our good friend Chien Ming-Wang? Wang, pursued vigorously by the Nationals last winter, is back to work after injury struggles that have kept him on the shelf for over the last two years.

The man upon whom many Nationals fans have placed all their future hopes, rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg, is set to make his spring training debut today in an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers down in Viera, Florida. The game will be broadcast live at 1 p.m. on MASN and MASN HD, as well as online at MLB.TV, with no blackout restrictions. It will also be shown a second time on MASN at 7 p.m….

Photo by Shaun Barrows Much like my weekend cohort, I too have meditations guiding me through Washington’s tiring decent into the snowbound life. Namely, it’s remembering that baseball, inevitably, will return. Last-minute dirt cheap admittance, that first cold beer, hot dogs with everything on them, sunsets, grass, dirt, the sweet line of sweat that burrows under the brim of your cap on a hot summer day, that sigh of relief that rolls around the…

Another wild week awaits area hoops fans. The madcap, non-stop college hoops action of Thursday and Friday represents the pinnacle of sports viewing for many fans. Sneaking out of work, bracket in hand, for an extra hour of lunch is an annual ritual for many a weary office drone. At this point next week, our brackets will be hopelessly crumbled, highlighted and marked with cryptic marginalia. Right now, however, hope springs eternal. Don’t forget to…

As a baseball writer, I am suppose to fill you with platitudes of hope, spring, and optimism around this time of year. Pitchers and catchers report to spring training today, with them come visions of…see there I go. The Nationals are starting what will probably be the most important season of the team’s young existence. This is first year that the team will play in its new stadium, which is coming along nicely. The team…

Well, we are reaching the end of the season. The Nationals stand two games away from their stated, and admittedly pathetic, goal of 72 wins — one better than last year. They have 5 games remaining, two against the Mets and three against the Phillies, all on the road. Given that the Nats are 30-46 on the road this year, these last two wins should be tough. That said, the Mets seem desperate to see…

This entry was written by DCist contributor Benjamin Kabak. With Ryan Church providing some much-needed ninth-inning heroics during the Nats’ Easter Sunday win over the Marlins, the headlines nearly write themselves. Church, who struggled during Spring Training and hit even worse during his first week playing at AAA New Orleans, came up big with a two-run home run in the top of the 9th as the Nats overcame a 5-4 deficit to top the Florida…

One of the joys of Spring Training is supposed to be taking a break from the icy darkness of wherever you’re from to head south and dream of the warm summer nights that must be around the corner if baseball’s begun. This winter, of course, we’ve all been able to keep our tans, and the kids never had to quit their stickballing in the alley, but it’s still pretty exciting to think that it’s nearly…