March 31, 2026 [LINK / comment]
Play ball! Opening Day Week, 2026
But first, a few words about spring training... Not much is expected of the Washington Nationals this year, since they traded away their ace pitcher Mackenzie Gore to the Texas Rangers, but they still had a surprisingly good spring training season. They finished the preseason with a 14-11 record, including a pair of games that they lost to the Orioles in Baltimore and then Washington on March 22 and 23. Their last game in Florida, against the Mets on March 21, ended on a walk-off home run by a new player named Joey Wiemer, who was released by the Giants last December.
The 2026 regular baseball season began with the New York Yankees playing an evening game against the Giants last Wednesday night in San Francisco, and it was a pretty lopsided affair. The Yankees scored 5 runs in the second inning, and added 2 more later, while the home team struggled just to get any hits. The Yankees swept that series, while the reigning World Series champion Dodgers did likewise at home against the Diamondbacks.
For most teams, Opening Day was on Thursday, and most of the games were in broad daylight -- the way God intended it to be played! Perhaps the most remarkable performance that day was by Cleveland Guardian [right fielder] Chase DeLauter, who led his team to a 6-4 win over the Seattle Mariners with a pair of home runs. He hit home runs in each of the next two games as well, quickly taking the MLB lead in the HR department, with 4. In Toronto, the Blue Jays swept the Sacramento* Athletics 3 games to none, thanks to a late comeback [in the Saturday game] that was resolved in the 11th inning. The poor A's lost their first 4 games, the only team to start that poorly, but finally managed to prevail against the Braves in Atlanta tonight.
* [Technically, the Athletics are avoiding any city affiliation during this awkward transition phase between their old home in Oakland and their future home in Las Vegas. To me that is disrespectful to their temporary host city, so I intend to make up for that by calling them "the Sacramento Athletics."]
Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals started the season on the road, and to the surprise of most people, they have been highly successful. On Thursday in Wrigley Field, Joey Wiemer got things started with a solo homer to left field in the face of a stiff wind. That youngster has some pop! In fact, he reached base in all 4 plate appearances -- 3 hits and one base on balls. With the help of home runs by Jacob Young and Brady House, the Nationals prevailed over the Cubs in that first game, 10-4. After resting on Friday, the two teams played again on Saturday, but this time the Cubs won it, 10-2. It was a disappointing outing for newly-acquired starting pitcher Miles Mikolas, who gave up 4 earned runs (and 2 unearned runs) over 5 innings. But on Sunday the Nats prevailed 6-3 as Joey Wiemer once again homered, and hit a triple and a single as well! Just like on Thursday, he reached base on every plate appearance, including a walk. I should mention that Daylen Lile has been getting some clutch hits as well, keeping up the pace from his very promising MLB debut late last year.
On Monday the Nats traveled to Philadelphia, and stunned the home crowd with a 4-run 1st inning. Soon it was 7-0, and the final score ended up as 13-2. New starting pitcher Foster Griffin managed to get through 5 innings, and was thus credited with the win. With a 3-1 record to start the season, the Nats were briefly tied for 1st place in the NL East -- with 3 other teams! What about Joey Wiemer? At every at-bat the tension mounted, as history was in the making. He was batting 9th, and with 2 outs he was initially called out at first on a ground ball to first baseman Bryce Harper. But after further review it was determined that he beat Harper's throw to the pitcher, and he was thus awarded with a hit to keep his streak alive! He also singled in the 3rd inning, making it 10 consecutive plate appearances reaching base -- the longest such streak to start an MLB season since Carlos Delgado of the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991! But in the top of the 5th he grounded out, putting an end to his magical early season. In today's game the Nats had a couple bad breaks and came up short against the Phillies, 3-2. The game on Wednesday will decide the series, after which the Nationals return home to face the L.A. Dodgers in Washington.
[UPDATE: I neglected to mention that I have updated the Washington Nationals page, which features the team's new regular position players and pitching rotation, as well as the Washington Nationals Annual page, which has such information and annual statistics going back to the team's (re-)founding in 2005. In the former case, I need to make a few more updates and corrections... ]
ABS system debuts in MLB
After getting tested in spring training, use of the new-fangled Automated Ball-Strike system has begun on a regular basis. Most people think it is a positive development, and I tend to agree, even though I wonder whether the technology can translate video images into precise trajectories. It won't end all arguments, but it will at least provide for a quick, smooth resolution of disputes.
Sunday Night Baseball on NBC!
For the first time since the year 2000, two of the games were broadcast nationwide on NBC. Fox has broadcast virtually all regular season MLB games on a more-or-less weekly basis since 1996, but on April 12 and most Sunday evenings from May 31 until early September, [NBC will broadcast games as well. It's too bad that semi-retired NBC announcer Bob Costas won't play much of a role, since he is known to be a big baseball fan.] The addition of a second network will bring baseball to a wider audience, something that is long overdue. For once, Major League Baseball has done something right!
Washington Post downgrades sports
Last month the management at the Washington Post announced that virtually their entire [staff of sports writers was] being let go, as the newspaper struggles to make a buck in this rapidly-changing world. That was bleak news for me, since I rely on the Post to provide scores and insightful analysis, in baseball and in other sports. No more Barry Svrluga, no more Chelsea Janes, no more Andrew Golden... Virtually all sports news items in the Post now are either from the Associated Press (no names) or from reporters working for other newspapers such as the Philadelphia Enquirer. It's all a dirty rotten shame.
Venezuela wins 2026 WBC title
In Miami's LoanDeport Park on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), the Venezuelan national team beat Team USA 3-2 to take the 2026 World Baseball Classic championship crown. It was a tense struggle in which the American bats were mostly silenced until the bottom of the 8th inning when Bryce Harper thrilled the mostly-American crowd with a game-tying 2-run homer. But the game was decided in the top of the 9th inning, when Eugenio Suarez hit an RBI double. This contest had an unusual political "subtext," in that U.S. military forces abruptly barged into the residence of President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, and whisked him back to the United States to face various criminal charges. President Trump used the occasion to suggest that Venezuela might want to become the 51st state, which is of course a virtual impossibility.
Among the notable outcomes of the 2026 WBC was the emergence of Italy as a serious baseball powerhouse. Seriously? Apparently there are a large enough number of American players with Italian surnames to make up a complete team. (As far as I could tell there were no actual Italian players on that team.) Another big moment was the showdown between the U.S. and Canada, another rivalry with political overtones. The failure of Japan -- the 2023 WBC champions -- to make it to the final round was a bit of a surprise, given Shohei Ohtani's supremacy in contemporary MLB competition. Anyway, congratulations (felicitaciones) to the Venezuelan national team!
Meanwhile, in Milan [ ]
A major sporting event took place last month in Milan, Italy or thereabouts. Congratulations to the American men's and women's hockey teams for winning their respective Olympic gold medal championship games! [ ]
R.I.P. Bill Mazerowski
One of the biggest clutch heroes in Pittsburgh Pirates history passed away on February 20: Bill Mazerowski, who played his entire career (1956-1972) with the Bucs. He was a solid second baseman, and hardly every missed much playing time, averaging 150 games during the 12 seasons when he was in his prime. Of course he is best known for hitting the walk-off home run that decided Game 7 of the 1960 World Series (against the Yankees), in the iconic palace of Forbes Field. Over his entire career he hit 138 home runs, plus two in postseason games, both of which were in the 1960 World Series. He got to experience a second World Series triumph in 1971, and then retired a year later. His career coincided almost exactly with that of revered team mate Roberto Clemente. In 2001 he was admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It happens that he was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, just a short distance downstream from Pittsburgh along the Ohio River. Pittsburgh fans will never forget him.
And so, while large parts of the world are enduring the flames of war and soaring energy prices, at least we have baseball to enjoy as the days steadily grow longer.