After Stormy Offseason, Nationals Lack Electricity

"Me, my wife and two sons get all decked out and will go to a half a dozen games this season," Fraber said. "So I'm psyched to be rooting for my team, but still frustrated and disappointed with no owner, no television and all that kind of thing."

On the field, the team has been surrounded by controversy as well. A turbulent offseason began with another six-month contract extension for General Manager Jim Bowden, the man enlisted with building the roster. But it wasn't until mid-December that the team rehired its most well-known face, Manager Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer as a player who will turn 71 this summer.

At baseball's winter meetings, Bowden found that some of the best players available in free agency -- such as pitchers A.J. Burnett and Kevin Millwood -- were wary of Washington's situation, and the Nationals missed out on all their top targets.

"You're entering into a situation where basically there's no assurances, no certainty to any aspect," said Darek Braunecker, the agent for Burnett, who eventually signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. "It's a tough battle for them. It's an unfair battle for them, is what it is."

Unable to improve the team significantly through free agency, Bowden made the move that defined the team's offseason, trading popular outfielder Brad Wilkerson and two other players to the Texas Rangers for Soriano, a four-time all-star at second base. The Nationals already had an all-star, Jose Vidro, entrenched at second base. Soriano, in turn, said definitively that he would not move to the position where the club needed him, left field.

The situation grew to such an impasse that the Nationals took the field for one spring training game with only eight men, a stunt meant to highlight Soriano's apparent insubordination. Two days later, Soriano finally followed the team's orders, but the tone had been set. The spring was filled with injuries and left the Nationals feeling unsettled.

"It was the worst spring I've ever been through," Bowden said. "I've never seen anything like it, things blowing up all the time. But we have to move on. It doesn't matter if we play well during the season."

Last year, the Nationals thanked the crowds at RFK Stadium -- where the stands along the left field foul line bounced with excitement during a Washington rally -- for providing the energy that got them off to a superlative start. The team stood in first place in the NL East for two months, and the fans, players and coaches said, were a significant reason why, especially considering the team was accustomed to competing in front of crowds of 8,000 or so in Montreal.

"It's what you want as a big league ballplayer," said Vidro, a 10-year veteran who has spent his entire career with the Montreal-Washington franchise. "To have those fans cheering for us, it was special. We need that again this year. I hope they're back."

Yet as of yesterday morning, a fan could still purchase four seats in RFK's lower bowl for today's opener, and even with a significant walk-up crowd, the game isn't expected to be sold out.

"That's a little surprising," Robinson said. Robinson is at the start of his 51st season in baseball, and the first game at RFK last year -- when Bush threw out the first pitch and Nationals right-hander Livan Hernandez masterfully handled the Arizona Diamondbacks -- ranks among his greatest thrills. He knows it can't, and won't, be duplicated.

"There's no rush to go out there," Robinson said. "The excitement has worn off a little bit -- the newness of it. . . . I think a lot of it this year is going to depend on how we play."

Yesterday evening, the Nationals packed up and left Houston after a seven-game road trip in which they won twice. They headed north, an uncertain future in the standings and at the gate ahead of them.

Svrluga reported from Houston.