NATIONALS ARE WALK OFF WINNERS The Washington Nationals opened their new ballpark with a bang the Nationals face the Atlanta Braves on March 30 2008 It When they moved to Washington in was the season opener From the 2005 the Nationals played at RFK top of the upper deck fans could Stadium It was a drab old building see the Capitol dome That left no that had seen better days In recent doubt that this was Washington's years it had been used mainly for stadium President George W Bush football and soccer was at the game He threw out the ceremonial first pitch In 2008 the Nationals moved into Nationals Park They finally had a ballpark to call their own A sellout crowd poured The crowd had plenty to cheer about right away The Nationals took a 2 0 lead in the first inning They led 2 1 going into the ninth inning But then Atlanta tied the game in to see Nationals Park before the Nationals 2008 home opener
Ryan Zimmerman celebrates his walk off home run With the score in the 2008 2 2 in the home opener bottom of the ninth Nationals third baseman Ryan Zimmerman stepped up to bat Zimmerman was already a fan favorite He had hit a team high 24 home runs the year before His picture was on a big billboard outside Nationals Park He was the face of the franchise Zimmerman lined a pitch to left center field The Braves center fielder raced back He looked up Home run The Nationals won 3 2 Zimmerman circled the bases as the crowd roared Nationals owner Mark Lerner called the walk off home run a storybook ending 39 389 THINK ABOUT IT Attendance at Nationals Park for the 2008 season opener How much do you think fan support affects baseball players Do you believe Ryan Zimmerman would have hit that home run had the Pitcher Odalis Perez started the game for Washington Closer Jon Rauch recorded the win even though he gave up the tying run in the ninth Nationals been playing in their old stadium What if they were playing on the
MONTREAL JOINS THE MAJOR LEAGUES The Washington Nationals did not Montreal Expos It was the first begin in Washington The team did Major League Baseball MLB team not even begin in the United States located outside the United States In 1969 the Nationals began as The Expos went their first 10 years an expansion team in Montreal without a winning season But by the Canada They were known as the late 1970s things began looking up In 1977 Expos outfielder Andre Dawson had a memorable debut He hit 282 with 19 home runs He was named the National League NL Rookie of the Year Dawson and 23 year old catcher Gary Carter were cornerstones for a team on the rise In 1979 Montreal went 95 65 Montreal Expos catcher Gary Carter salutes the crowd after a playoff win in 1981
52 It was the team's first winning season Games won by the 1969 Montreal Expos It remains the worst season in team history In 1981 the Expos enjoyed another first a trip to the postseason That season had been interrupted by a labor strike For two months no major league games were played The strike ended in August Because of the long break the season was split into two halves The Expos won at least 90 games in four different seasons but didn't make the playoffs in any of them Gary Carter and Andre Dawson were both inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame The Expos won the NL East second half with a record of 30 23 They faced the NL East's first half champion the Philadelphia Phillies where they lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers But playoff baseball had in a Divisional Series The Expos come to Montreal won the best of five series three games to two They advanced to the NL Championship Series NLCS JACKIE ROBINSON IN MONTREAL Baseball was in Montreal long before the Expos In 1946 Jackie Robinson played for the Montreal Royals They were the top minor league team of the Brooklyn Dodgers Robinson who was black became the Royals star player He led the team to the International League title The next spring Robinson broke MLB's color barrier and joined the Dodgers The people of Montreal were warm and wonderful to us Robinson recalled years later
