Nationals Notebook
Gustav Brings Back Memories For Bergmann
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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Before yesterday's game, Jason Bergmann sat in front of his clubhouse locker, eyes glued to the nearby flat-screen television. The news coverage told Bergmann, at that moment, that Hurricane Gustav was 63 miles away from landfall on the Gulf Coast. The coverage also transported Bergmann to what happened three years ago.
As Hurricane Katrina blitzed toward New Orleans in 2005, Bergmann was a pitcher for the Washington Nationals' Class AAA affiliate. The day before Katrina hit, the New Orleans Zephyrs were supposed to take a bus ride to Oklahoma City. But Bergmann got a phone call informing him of his promotion to the big leagues for the first time. "Here it was, the happiest day of my life, and a huge hurricane is coming down straight on us," Bergmann said. "It was the best and worst of times, that's really what it was."
The day after he left, Bergmann's apartment was consumed by two or three feet of water. The mold claimed everything else. "I lost everything," Bergmann said.
Bergmann said the similarities between Gustav and Katrina are "eerie," but this time he is here and his mother-in-law has evacuated Metairie, La.
Not Quite Ready
In early August, General Manager Jim Bowden said yesterday, the Nationals had considered promoting top prospect Jordan Zimmermann from Class AA Harrisburg and placing him in their starting rotation. But right around that time, Zimmermann, 22, Washington's second-round draft pick in 2007, encountered biceps tendinitis. That minor injury -- coupled with the innings the right-hander already had pitched this season, in which he finished 10-3 with a 2.89 ERA -- prompted the Nationals to put Zimmermann's major league debut on hold.
Zimmermann will not be called up this month, Bowden said. And as a result, the team can delay adding him to the 40-man roster.
"We shut him down," Bowden said. "And you know, he'll be in big league camp next spring and he'll have a chance to make our rotation out of spring training. But we felt that [ending his season now] was best because of the innings, the biceps tendinitis and the fact that we didn't have to put him on the roster."
