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With New Home, Nationals Work on a Foundation

By JOE LAPOINTE
Published: June 27, 2005

WASHINGTON, June 26 - As the Washington Nationals left the field with their 12th consecutive home victory Saturday night, the sound system at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium played the theme music from "The Natural," a movie about mystical and magical occurrences in baseball.

Liván Hernández, the starting pitcher who raised his record to 11-2, had taken the same walk to the dugout in the previous inning and waved his red cap to the 39,881 customers applauding him.

Now, Marlon Byrd, the left fielder who was also cheered, was congratulated by his teammates for his two hits, his two runs batted in, his stolen base, his throw to cut down a runner at second base and his diving catch.

But Byrd got more than pats on the back when his teammate Jose Guillen sneaked up and smacked his face with a pie made of shaving cream. "It means you played a good game," Byrd said with a smile over the blast of salsa music coming from the clubhouse stereo. "I hope to get a whole bunch of those."

The Nationals have played many good games in this surprising season, their first here. Despite a 9-5 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday, Washington is in first place in the National League East, three games ahead of Atlanta.

With modest hitting - the Nationals are second to last in the majors in runs - they use pitching, defense and the managing of Frank Robinson to win, often coming from behind. "A lot of people don't believe in this team," Hernández said, referring to those outside Washington. "I like it like that, because you can show people."

He recalled playing in Canada last season, when the team was the Montreal Expos and fans were few at Olympic Stadium. "It's good when you've got 40,000 people screaming for you," Hernández said. "It's different than 5,000 people. Everybody is happy about the fans and wants to say, 'Thank you.' "

Hernández and the Expos spent last season in last place while playing most of their home games in the province of Quebec and some of them in the territory of Puerto Rico. Now they are thriving in the District of Columbia, but their franchise transfer still has many loose ends.

The team is still owned by Major League Baseball, which bought it for $120 million in 2002 and is brokering a sale among nine bidders. The Nationals play in a 43-year-old stadium that has many problems, including vandalism and theft from some players' cars in the parking lot when the team was on the road last week.

"Somebody's got to do a little better job," said Byrd, whose Cadillac Escalade was stolen.

Referring to other problems - including long concession-stand lines and turf disfigured by D.C. United, the Major League Soccer team that is a co-tenant - Tony Tavares, the team president, called R.F.K. "an old dog."

"We've put a lot of lipstick on this pig, but people have fun," he said.

President Bush and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, were among the 110,127 who attended the three-game weekend series and pushed the season attendance total to 1,166,717, the ninth highest in the N.L.

According to Major League Baseball, the sale of merchandise bearing the Nationals' brand is among the top 5 of the league's 30 teams, even though it was introduced after the Christmas season, the peak period for such sales. With a new stadium expected to open in 2008 and located in the prestigious market of the nation's capital, the franchise could be sold for as much as $400 million.

Despite legal problems that limit their television exposure, a scattered and inconsistent radio network, a low payroll and few star players, the Nationals are outdrawing the Baltimore Orioles, their American League neighbors about 40 miles away.

The Nationals are averaging 32,409 fans a game. The Orioles, despite spending most of the season in first place in the A.L. East, are averaging 30,756, down from 33,165 at the same point last season, when their team was not as successful.

Monica Pence, the communications manager of the Orioles, said it was too early to judge the impact of competition in overlapping markets. "We feel we've already said all we wanted to say," she said. "We expressed concern the Nationals would have a negative impact on our revenue and attendance."

The Nationals have already surpassed the single-season attendance record of the old Washington Senators, who drew 1,027,216 fans in 1946. They could threaten the Expos' best attendance of 2,320,651 in 1983. Last season, the Expos drew 748,587.

The Nationals' interleague games against Toronto this season were vestiges of their geographic rivalry, when both were based in Canada. The Expos' transfer was approved late last fall, and the schedule was already made. Next season, the Nationals and the Orioles will meet.

But, even with the Nationals in first place, skeptics wonder whether M.L.B. will be able to sell the team quickly, have a new stadium built with public funds and maintain two viable teams in the region. How will the commissioner's office handle the finances this summer if the Nationals want to make trades to compete for a postseason spot?

Bob DuPuy, the president and chief operating officer of M.L.B. and the overseer of the Nationals, said the commissioner, Bud Selig, hoped to have a "firmer feel" about the sale of the team before the All-Star Game break, in about two weeks.

"You're never convinced a stadium is a sure thing until they throw the first pitch of the first game," DuPuy said.

"We've said all along there's room for two teams in that marketplace," he added.

The Nationals' payroll of less than $50 million is among the lowest 25 percent in the majors, according to Tavares. DuPuy said he expected them to have more money to spend because a profit of $20 million is projected this season.

Jim Bowden, the general manager of the Nationals, was more emphatic. "There's no question that if the right deal is out there, we'll be able to increase payroll to get the piece to win," he said.

He added: "This is a great defensive team, one of the best defensive teams in the league, and one of the best bullpens. And when you have pitching and defense, you usually win pennants. We have that combination, and we are getting the breaks."

Bowden said Nick Johnson, the first baseman and cleanup hitter, "is having his breakout year," with 8 home runs, 42 runs batted in and a .320 batting average. He said Ryan Church, who injured his shoulder Wednesday when he crashed into a wall with a game-ending catching in Pittsburgh, was a contender for rookie of the year; he is batting .325.

Chad Cordero, who leads the majors in saves with 25, said: "We like to be under the radar, but I think a lot of people are noticing now. They're taking us seriously."

Robinson, a Hall of Fame player who was baseball's first black manager 30 years ago in Cleveland, is a serious man. He will turn 70 on Aug. 31, and his patience is short with many people, including pitchers who disagree with his maneuvers. Tomo Ohka was one who objected, and he was traded for doing it.

"I can rub the players the wrong way," Robinson said. But he has helped the team win by arguing successfully with umpires for a reversal of an opponent's home run and by challenging the pine tar on the glove of an opposing pitcher, as he did with Brendan Donnelly of the Los Angeles Angels two weeks ago.

When Angels Manager Mike Scioscia confronted Robinson over Donnelly's ejection, Robinson challenged Scioscia, who is 23 years younger. "I wasn't going to let him intimidate me," Robinson told reporters a day after the incident. "I am the intimidator."

The managers' confrontation prompted Guillen to rush to Robinson's support in what almost escalated into a fight. Since then, Guillen has broken out of a slump. He twice hit two homers in a game last week, and he gave the Nationals a 2-1 lead in the third inning Sunday by diving home headfirst on an infield grounder.

"Jose is a very emotional kid," Robinson said. "That may have got his adrenaline flowing a little more." Guillen leads the team in home runs with 15 and is batting .301. In nine major league seasons, he has played for seven teams, often leaving behind hard feelings.

"He's been given a bad rap," said Bowden, who traded for him. "The guy's a winner. He's emotional."

Now, like his new franchise, Guillen seems to have ceased his wandering and landed in a comfort zone. The Nationals have the best home-field winning percentage in the majors, .722.

Guillen, referring to the pie-in-the-face celebration, said: "Winning is always fun. You always try to do something to make the players happy. Trust me, this happens only when you win and you have the year we're having. So far, so good."