Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

Well, here we are at the All-Star Break, a week of pure media spectacle which has never had any appeal for Ol’ Robbo.  Indeed, even though the festivities are being held this year at Nats Park and Middle Gel had been after me for a long time about getting tickets to the game itself, I simply have/had no desire to go.  Indeed, I probably won’t even bother watching it on the teevee.

In fact, the only really good thing about this week to me is that it gets my beloved Nats off their feet for a few days and maybe gives them the opportunity to figure out just what the hell is going on with their season. With a final win over the Mets this past Sunday, they staggered into the break at 48-48 and in third place – hardly what we were hoping for back in April, when many folk predicted we were finally going to go deep in the playoffs and even had a shot at taking all the marbles.

Yes, we’ve been plagued by a lot of injuries this first half, but that goes with the territory.  From what I’ve seen, we’ve just been sloppy and unfocused, making stupid mistakes, leaving runners stranded all over the bags, and just seemingly not “hungry for it” as my old crew coach used to say.  I think often of the line by that old southern radio announcer in “Bull Durham”: “Ah dunno whut these boys are thinkin’ bout, but it shore ain’t baseball!”

Watching all this has been very, very painful so far this season.

Anyhoo, with 60-something games left and no sign of collapse yet by either the Braves or the Phils, we sure as heck better come screaming out of the gates next week if we hope to have a shot at the division title even a wildcard berth this year.  And if we don’t make it, somebody bring me the head of Dave Martinez!

Grrrr….…

And speaking of “Bull Durham”, obligatory: