Nats Don't Even Need a Hit to Reach Fan Base

Just how bad have the Nats been this year? Entering their home game against the Mets Tuesday night, they had the worst record in baseball and a .217 batter hitting cleanup, and one of their only feats is leading the league in getting hit by pitches.

The Nats could assemble a better lineup than their current one from the disabled list, which includes two pitchers, two outfielders and three infielders, one of whom was dismissed to get in shape and stabilize his blood sugar. But perhaps third baseman Aaron Boone is their player who has sunk the lowest.

Boone was supposed to be the one appearing yesterday at the ESPN Zone. He has had free time since injuring himself in early July when he strained his left calf not playing but jogging to first base to insert himself in a game as a pinch runner (to replace another injured player). "Please, no questions on how much I can take," manager Manny Acta said afterward -- but it wasn't even the oddest injury in the cosmic career of the 35-year-old Boone.

In Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series between the Yankees and the Red Sox, Boone hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to clinch the pennant for the Yanks, thus perpetuating the Curse of the Bambino. Boone became known as "Aaron [expletive] Boone" in New England and a legend in New York. Then he quickly dropped from hero to zero.

Playing pickup basketball in the off-season, in violation of his Yankees contract, which also forbade logrolling and luge, he busted his knee. The Yanks cut him, and, to replace him at third base, traded for Alex Rodriguez, whom the Red Sox had tried to get.

The rest was karma: The Sox reversed the curse, winning the 2004 American League Championship Series after the most improbable comeback in history against the Yankees, who haven't won jack with A-Rod, who started carousing in New York, thus resulting in the end of his marriage and a spiritual liaison with Madonna.

So Aaron Boone wound up with the Nationals, scheduled to appear in the ESPN Zone. But then he injured himself again, and had a rehab game Tuesday, and now here is Lannan, 23 (yes, the Nats have to use backups even for PR appearances). Lannan was ejected from his Major League debut, in pure Nationals style, for hitting two batters in a row.

The talented young southpaw, in jeans and less Nats apparel than his fans, takes his seat in a blue-and-red leather Nats recliner.

And the men ask questions and answer some, winning tickets to a game they would have attended anyway.