The same ol' Natinals. Only worse, says the Washington Post's Chico Harlan, whose game stories get more fabulous as the team gets less. From Harlan's latest truth-telling gem:

"If anything, the first four games of [new manager Jim] Riggleman's tenure introduced an even lower grade of achievement and fortune. At least during the typical Manny Acta homestand, the Nationals could count on the occasional rainout to spare them from a loss."

A guy riding to the stadium in the same Metro car as me to yesterday's game was wearing a Cubs jersey and carrying a broom. And if security let him into the stadium as is, he got to use the thing.

The four-game (!) reverse sweep was all but completed shortly after Nats SS Alberto Gonzales muffed an easy grounder in the 4th inning. Chicago scored 7 runs in about the next three minutes. Nats castoff Alfonso Soriano hit a monster homer to key the rally.

But the heaviest blow in the scoring binge came when Cubs starting pitcher Kevin Hart faked a bunt, then pulled his bat back while Garrett Mock was in mid-hurl and slapped a run-scoring single to left field. This ultimate show of disrespect brought giggles from the Cubs fans, and groans from the Nats'.

In other words, there were more giggles than groans from the mostly blueshirted crowd at Nationals Park.

Bottom line: The home team needs some Thunderation!

(AFTER THE JUMP: Sally Jenkins gets grounded and pounded by anti-Lance crowd? Snyder to buy up the competition AGAIN? Brock Lesnar brings the heat to MMA Nation?

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Sally Jenkins Gets Mugged In Our House?" »

After decades a couple weeks of rumors, this afternoon at the Verizon Center WJFK-FM brass will officially announce the station's flip from man talk to sports talk.

All the highlights of the new lineup -- eight hours a day of Mike Wise and LaVar Arrington --  and the date of the switch, July 20, have already been leaked.

***

On the team's downest day of the season, the Wall Street Journal kicked the poor Nats in the nads. Here's the lede of the paper's coverage of the Sonia Sotomayor coverage, a story titled "Hearings Reflect Broader Struggle":

Much like the Washington Nationals baseball team, which has known since springtime that it has no realistic chance of winning a pennant this year, Republicans in the Senate knew before they took the field Monday that they had no realistic hope of defeating Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

So GOP senators, like the Nationals, are left to ask themselves: What are we playing for here anyway?

"What are we playing for here anyway?"

They're really asking themselves that? Well, if the GOP Senators are at all like the Nats, specifically .196 hitter Austin Kearns, then they could answer themselves: "We're playing here for $8 million a year!"

(After the jump: Six Flags goes with mayo substitute? Jim Riggleman's high school cheer? DC Divas back on top?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Six Flags Recommends a Condiment to Go With Your Mattress!" »

Pop Cesspool is mighty impressed with a letter from the Nationals which explained the firing of Manny Acta and gave a blunt assessment of the team's failings. After running down the season's few highlights, the Nats letter states:

"Much of the season, however, has been defined by weak relief pitching, poor defense, and youthful inconsistency. We have tried to work through this period with patience and focus but now we are faced with mounting losses which are beginning to take a toll on our entire roster. Clearly, some changes are required as we prepare for the second half of the 2009 season and, more importantly, build for a competitive future."

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: Nationals Offer Blunt Letter To Fans" »

Mere hours after the Washington Nationals named a new manager, local genius and longtime City Paper person Dave Nuttycombe sent me some photos from an old Richard Montgomery High School yearbook of the small, tough kid known around Rockville as "Little Jimmy Riggleman."

Apparently Riggleman, a jocky sort, grew enough right after his 1970 graduation to make everybody drop the "Little" in his nickname.

Best of all, back in Riggleman's day, the school baseball team, called the Rockets, had an awesome rally cry. The climactic couplet:

"Thunder, Thunder, Thunderation, we're the Rockets Delegation/When we fight with determination, we create a soul sensation!"

After the jump: Check out the Richard Montgomery team photo (with Little Jimmy circled) and try to tell me that "soul sensation" doesn't come to mind!

Read More "Breaking News: New Nats Manager Is Former ‘Soul Sensation’!" »

Sally Jenkins rides with Lance Armstrong again this morning. Jenkins, who has written several books with Armstrong, references the druggie rumors more here than in the scads of her previous columns on the most accused drug cheat in the history of sport.

"It's what [Armstrong's] whole comeback is all about really," writes Jenkins, "coming face to face with things, especially the doubters. 'Am I doping now?' his body language seems to say."

And the world, in all sorts of languages, seems to be answering: "Hell, yes, you're doping!" That March incident, where Armstrong stalled French drug testers who'd surprised him as he trained for the Tour de France and asked for urine samples, crushed the odds that the comeback would change anybody's mind. By now Armstrong has the same chance of clearing his name as Michael Jackson.

Dirty pee or not, Armstrong's amazing, ain't he? To paraprahase the old lady in the diner in "Sleepless in Seattle" "When Harry Met Sally": I'll have what he's having.

***

Joel Hanrahan got his first win as a National yesterday, a week after he joined the Pittsburgh Pirates.

AFTER THE JUMP: Chico Harlan lights up the Nats? The Hogettes aren't dead, just broke? Do the Baysox fear the ACLU after MattWietersCollectibleFigurineNightGate™?

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Joel Hanrahan Gets Nats a ‘Victory in the Win Column!’" »

Let's get right to the issue of the day. The winners of the first three AT&T National events at Congressional:

2007 --- KJ Choi

2008 --- Anthony Kim

2009 --- Tiger Woods

The liberal media doesn't want you to know: There's an Asian bias to Tiger's tournament!

***

Woods exploited this bias to beat a field that included upstart white guys Hunter Mahan and Bruce Boudreau. (What? The Capitals coach wasn't in the AT&T National? I coulda sworn I read 10 stories about him playing Congressional, saw some video even. My bad.)

AFTER THE JUMP: Another Nats fireworks snafu? Why do tennis players carry their own sweaty shit? Is Manny Acta the new Norv Turner?

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Asian Tiger?" »

The Nats bullpen gives away another game. I heard a post-game interview with Manny Acta last week after another bullpen-blown game saying he'd pulled the starter not because of the percentages or some righty/lefty matchup, but because the guy had thrown "108 pitches." Somebody should tell Acta he ain't managing a minor league team, protecting bonus babies for the big league club. This IS the big league.

Bob Feller threw 38 complete games in one season, and he played forever! And walked through five feet of snow just to get to the mound!

Butt seriously: This pitch count crap has gotten totally out of hand. Taking Scott Olsen out in his first outing back from a shoulder injury, like Acta did last night, is one thing, though Olsen was rolling and had given up one hit in his last four innings before getting yanked.

But whenever there's a question of whether or not to go to the bullpen, Acta errs on the side of a new arm, as much as those decisions have burned his team and its fans. If he wanted to protect limbs for a living, he shoulda become an arborist.

And 108 pitches is all a guy's good for anymore?

(AFTER THE JUMP: COOLEY'S DEAD MEAT, NO NATS POSTGAME SHOW? UP-TO-THE-MINUTE WATERSPORTS COVERAGE THAT THE WASHINGTON POST DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT, KOBE DOES SIX FLAGS, JUST GIVE ME A HOT DOG...)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Manny Acta Saves Limbs, Loses Games" »

Welcome to Freedom Friday! I'm briefly redefining libertarianism to include things that are interesting. As in...

• Dan Froomkin canned! Intensely weird Bush-hating shut-ins mount campaign of angry comments on blogs read only by other intensely weird Bush-hating shut-ins. A neocon powerplay, or the political-commentary EQ of JazzTimes folding?

Read More "Noon Roundup: Oh, Hell, Riggs Wanted ME to Do the Roundup Edition" »

Did John Feinstein save Manny Acta's job?

I think so. While buzzards circled over Acta yesterday, Feinstein, continuing the Washington Post's If You Get It You Don't Get It strategy of alienating all subscribers, wrote a web-only feature that included about the only defenses of the Nats' Dead Manager Walking to appear in the MSM.

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Acta Alive? Feinstein Rips Dibble Another New One to Replace the Old New One? Vestige of the Turner/Shuler/Frerotte Era Quits?" »

Troy Mathieu has quit as athletic director of DC Public Schools. He didn't last a year. Mathieu had replaced Allen Chin, who had the AD job for decades but was an early sweepee of Michelle Rhee's broom. Based on limited exposure -- mainly the flip-flopping and bungling I witnessed from her office while she was trying to install a five-year eligibility rule in DCIAA -- I've never got the sense that Rhee takes school sports very seriously.

***

The streaking Nationals captured their seventh loss in a row. The long skein was in jeopardy until Joel Hanrahan's bases loaded wild pitch in the top of the ninth.

I'm no Casey Stengel, but does anybody get why Manny Acta keeps throwing Hanrahan out there as the closer? How many dead will it take 'til he knows that too many people have died?

I, for one, miss Charlie Slowes' "Curly W!" calls on the radio.

***

DC United took a four-goal lead and didn't blow it all in beating HATED RIVAL the New York Red Bulls, 5-3, at RFK. The game was billed as a play-in for the U.S. Open Cup, a tournament that goes back to 1914, and which United won last year. I always thought the defending champion automatically qualifies in major soccer tournaments -- World Cup, Champions League, etc. Only about 5,000 fans showed up for the game, so maybe United fans figured the same.

***

DeMatha's own Danny Ferry has been named NBA Executive of the Year by the Sporting News. The Cleveland Cavaliers GM, Bob Ferry, won the same award twice during his days as general manager of the Washington Bullets, despite making these first round picks over his years here: Tom Hammonds, Mugsy Bogues,

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Trouble at the Top of DC Schoolboy Sports, Nats Keep Hopelessness Alive, United Wins in Front of Nobody, Danny Ferry Wins GM Award" »