OPINION:
It was the home opener Monday at Nationals Park against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and that’s not something any Washington baseball fan should ever take for granted.
We are not that far removed from those ugly 33 years when baseball was gone from the nation’s capital and fans had to drive up Interstate 95 to Baltimore, baseball carpet-baggers begging to share in the excitement of an Orioles’ home opener.
So all home opening days here take on a special meaning — some more than others.
Let’s face it, you have to call on a lot of “Field of Dreams” emotions to get excited about a lineup with Jesse Winker and Ildemaro Vargas running out on the field at Nationals Park. Nationals fans have seen their share of spare parts lineups over the last few years.
Trey Lipscomb in the lineup, though, that’s something else. That’s what you’re paying your money to see — the future.
Lipscomb, the 23-year-old who lit it up in spring training with his bat and glove — the Nationals’ minor league defensive player of the year last season — is a member of that group of young position players with promise and potential that Washington acquired through the draft and trades while its major league roster was ripped apart.
Lipscomb wouldn’t even be here if not for divine intervention — he is stepping in at third base after one of the spare parts, Nick Senzel, broke his right thumb in pregame warmups before opening day Thursday in Cincinnati.
Lipscomb was called up from Triple-A Rochester as a replacement, and he picked up where he left off in spring training with a hot bat and flashy glove play in his debut Saturday in Cincinnati, where Washington dropped two out of three.
Lipscomb has five hits in 11 at-bats in three games with a stolen base and a home run. He had two hits in Monday’s 8-4 loss to the Pirates.
“Obviously, it’s what you dream of,” said Lipscomb, who is from Urbana in Frederick County, Maryland. “It was pretty special. Being able to play in front of my hometown fans is special.”
Seeing Lipscomb standing at third base next to another foundational building block, shortstop C.J. Abrams, felt special. It felt like how an opening day at Nationals Park should be.
It feels closer to the days of All-Star lineups and quality major leaguers that filled out the Nationals lineup during the 2012 to 2019 championship run.
It’s a feeling of hope, not an illusion of pretending that bad teams have when the season starts. And when you are a club trying to offer more than illusions, it may not come all at once.
Some fans feel like it should — James Wood, Dylan Crews, Robert Hassell, and Brady House, who, along with Lipscomb whose lockers made up the section in the Nationals’ spring training clubhouse called “Hope Row” — should all be here now. But that’s not happening. It will happen one day here, another day there …
Think of it as multiple opening days.
It’s the same experience Nationals fans went through in the construction of the team that won four National League East division titles and one wild card position.
In 2010, the Nationals’ home opener was an 11-1 beating from the Philadelphia Phillies. Nyjer Morgan was in the lineup. So was Adam Kennedy.
Washington fans sat on their hands and waited for Stephen Strasburg to arrive. When he did on June 8 and struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates in seven innings, it felt like opening day all over again, the way it should be.
In 2012, there was more anticipation after a strong finish in 2011 with manager Davey Johnson at the helm. A lineup with Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth delivered a 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds.
But it felt like opening day all over again when Bryce Harper made his first appearance at Nationals Park on May 1, 2012. The outcome didn’t match the anticipation — Washington lost 5-1 to the Arizona Diamondbacks, with Harper going 0 for 3 — but the feeling of another new beginning was in the air.
Lipscomb and Abrams gave Nationals Park a whiff of that Monday. It will feel that way again when Wood arrives, and Crews, and the others.
Monday was the opening day at Nationals Park for 2024. There will be more this year.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
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