Dick Heller: Nats still at a loss, but now it’s seven

Another Opening Day, so to speak. Ho hum.

That happens when you take the field oh-fer the season and the season is a week old.

Reeling under the figurative weight of their 0-6 record, the Nats pretended that Monday's first game at Nationals Park was something special.

Try specious instead.

In their infinite lack of wisdom, commissioner Bud Selig and National League schedule-maker Katy Feeney have decreed that the Nats and Orioles will alternate holding a real Opening Day, which makes about as much sense as juggling the Inauguration between the nation's capital and Charm City. On Jan. 20, 2013, will President Obama or his successor be sworn in under the shadow of a giant crab cake rather than the Capitol dome?

Of course, most of the Nats had more pressing problems as they lurched into the ballpark - surprisingly, perhaps, not under the cover of darkness.

In a corner of the clubhouse, however, newcomer Adam Dunn mourned the early schedule as well as the early results. Dunn, you see, is a refugee from Cincinnati, where opening the season at home remains an unsullied tradition because the 1869 Reds were baseball's first truly professional team.

“I've never played an Opening Day game on the road,” the blond slugger said. “This is very strange, very weird.”

A man standing nearby said he wished the Nats had opened at home this year and would do so every year.

Dunn nodded. “Me, too.”

A short time later, manager Manny Acta was insisting he “still feels good about our young guys” when a listener inquired whether Acta feels comfortable sending out his laundry. It was a legitimate question because, as someone once noted, it's easier to fire the manager of a losing club than to dispatch 25 players.

“I put [the question of job security] out of my mind,” Manny insisted. “I know how our fans feel because I was a fan once. But now I can't think or react as a fan because I'm not one anymore.”

(Insert your own wisecrack here.)

“I'm a blessed human being,” Acta continued. “My hope is to be here for the next 20 years.”

In that case, the Nats had better start winning. Someday soon.

Story Continues →