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Washington Welcomes Baseball, Minus the Steroids Talk
Sunday will be a star-spangled opening night for the national pastime in Washington D.C., as the Nationals’ new riverfront ballpark hosts its inaugural regular-season game (March 30, 8 pm/ET, ESPN). The Braves and Nats square off just a few miles from The Capitol (its dome is visible from the upper deck), where offseason headlines were made in Congressional hearings on performance-enhancing drugs. "It’s a chance to make it about baseball and not steroids, although we’re certainly not out of the woods yet with steroid talk," laments ESPN analyst Steve Phillips. "At least among broadcasters, there will be an obligation to mention who was in the Mitchell Report and how they handled it, but the ongoing stories are Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds."
On the field, more attention can be paid to NL stars like Atlanta’s Chipper Jones, who hit a career-best .337 last season and anchors a team looking to make the NL East a three-team race with the Phillies and Mets. "In my mind [Jones] is a future Hall-of-Famer, and one of the most productive, maybe the most productive switch-hitter playing today," Phillips says. Chipper’s third-base counterpart Ryan Zimmerman heads the pesky Nats, whose 5-1 mark against the Mets in September helped Philly win the division for the first time since 1993.
While manager Bobby Cox enters his 19th straight season on the Braves’ bench, the Jon Miller-Joe Morgan duo begin their 19th season in the booth, with Peter Gammons also reporting. Seven of the next eight Sunday-night ESPN games involve playoff teams from last fall. —Roger Leister
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Mar 28, 2008 10:47 AM
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