Spent a wonderful day in and around the nation's capital with my wife, my father-in-law and his girlfriend. Well, it was wonderful until Bobby Abreu took me deep to left.
It started out in Manassas, where we took in the battlefield and did the audio car-tour thing.
It ended with a walk through downtown D.C. that culminated in an 11 p.m. visit to the Supreme Court. I thought of many cases and the importance of the decisions that have come out of those chambers. Plessy v. Ferguson, Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., Bush v. Gore, Tyson v Spinks.
It wasn't until now that Curt Flood's case popped into my mind. Of course, Flood lost his case against baseball's reserve clause, but the Players' Union eventually won. All the evidence you need is to know a ticket to a Nationals' (14 wins) game costs $20 bucks.
The evening was spent taking in a ballgame at Nationals Park.
So, I bet you're wondering what the whole Bobby Abreu thing is.
Well, there's this cool little feature in the park where you can pitch to a machine that has a video simulation of a big league ballplayer.
It appears there are three possible outcomes: a walk, a strike out, a home run.
Last year I whiffed Barry Bonds with a 44-MPH curve that he swung over the top of.
Sports-writing colleague Greg Swatek witnessed the event.
On Saturday, I let my father-in-law go first. He also chose to pitch to Bonds.
He had him 2-2, but what appeared to be a beautiful pitch on the inside corner was called a ball. Apparently Eric Gregg is not the umpire in the simulation.
With the count full, my father-in-law again threw a beautiful pitch that would have gotten Pat Burrell, Jim Thome or Alex Rodriguez.
Not Bonds, he just watched it go by. This simulation is very accurate.
Next up was me, and this year I chose Bobby Abreu. Who stepped in wearing a Phillies uniform
So now we know the machine is at least three years old.
First pitch was low for a ball and 50-MPH. We'll pretend it was a curve. Second pitch was 56. And a strike. The Southpaw was dealing.
On one-and-one Abreu reached out and poked a down-and-away fastball.
It would appear I was pitching for the Braves, because the ball carried for a solo home run out of Turner Field.
The experience made me wonder why the Nationals don't get some old players - Wendall Magee Jr., Joey Cora or Bill Gullickson - to pitch and hit for the fans.
Seriously, what are those guys doing now anyway?
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