Davey Johnson Wants To Choke Ryan Mattheus

Davey Johnson was on 106.7 the Fan with the Sports Junkies this morning and dropped this great quote when asked about how he felt when he heard pitcher Ryan Mattheus broke his pitching hand punching a locker after a loss.

"I want to choke him to death"

LOL.  I guess Davey was sort of joking.  Anyway, here is what we think that situation would look like:

Davey Johnson Plays Catch

Just a few days after being shown on television getting some pushups in, the Washington Nationals 70 year old manager was out on the field at Nats Park before the Nats took on the Reds on Friday night tossing the ball around with the guys.  No word on whether or not Davey will be inserting himself into the field to shake up the lineup.  GIF follows.

Davey Johnson Doing Infinite Pushups

 
During the outro segment of a game after the Washington Nationals lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, MASN used some random footage of the Nationals manager Davey Johnson in the dugout.  Earlier in the night, Johnson was caught doing push ups on camera. Due to his age (70), the story eventually worked its way to the National level being featured on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption.

Davey didn't seem to happy about this becoming a story, telling the Sports Junkies of 106.7 the Fan that cameramen need to get a life (paraphrased).  Following is the Gif of Davey's pushups.

Hey Wha Happened To The Nats? Let's See What Skip Says!

You don't need a Fred Willard catch phrase to figure out what is happening to the Washington Nationals.  Just check the score up above in the column labeled E.  Three more errors for the Nats yesterday. And while none of these errors technically led to runs, it shows the mindset of the Nats who have 18 errors in 18 games.  An error a day keeps the championship away. Let's see what Davey Johnson had to say.

Bryce Harper's Flu Game, The Legend Grows

OK.  Maybe this imagery is a bit of exaggeration.  Game 15 of a 162 game season vs Game 5 of an NBA Finals are not really even close to comparable.  But Bryce Harper's performance on Wednesday night is not something to ignore.  It was a great performance, by an up and coming player, who was not 100% healthy.

Harper fought through his flu-like symptoms and mid-game puking to have one of the top hitting performances of his young career.  The legend of Bryce Harper grows.

Skip Says: I Thought He Was Going To Die

"Harper out there, I thought he was gonna die every time he went up there"

Davey Johnson on Bryce Harper's flu condition.  He then joked that he would give Harper the next day off, a day with no game scheduled.

FP Santangelo referred to Harper as a Zombie, which is where the pic comes from.

Skip Says: Bryce Harper's Flu State

"He looked like he was about to die, but he was ready to go hit…He was pale as a ghost"

Davey Johnson on why he didn't use Bryce Harper in Tuesday night's
loss to the Miami Marlins.  Bryce had the flu

Davey Johnson Song, No Letup In My Lineup

Bob Carpenter has been mentioning the past few games a quote that he received from Davey Johnson.  According to Bob, the Nats skipper said that there was "No Letup" in the lineup.  Of course, Carp took that quote and turned it into something a little more fun.

Nats Notes: The Nationals Middle Infield Starts Slow

The Nationals are off to a 3-0 start and are currently the only undefeated team left in Major League Baseball.  The pitching staff has been wonderful, the bullpen solid, the defense staunch, and the offense not so terrible.

However, lost in some of the excitement has been the slow start of the Washington Nationals middle infield, their 6th and 7th spot in the lineup, Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa.

The two are a combined 1-21 with 6 strikeouts.  They have been on base only 3 times (a walk and an infield hustle single by Desmond, and an error to get Espinosa on base).

It is hard to remember that far back, but Ian Desmond was actually the Nats opening day leadoff hitter to start the 2012 season.  He batted in the opening slot for almost 40 games.  The Silver Slugger award winner had a hit in 7 of his first 8 games in 2012, starting the season off hot with 14 hits in those opening contests.

Espinosa was 3rd in the Majors with 189 K's last season (you can count em' thats all 189)

Espinosa had a hit in 9 of the first 13 games in 2012 including an nice little 6 game hitting streak in there.  After that he crashed. By May he was hitting under .200 for the season.  But Davey Johnson stuck with him and by the end of the season his average was up to .247.  (He also was third in the MLB in strikeouts with 189.)

Ian Desmond should be fine.  The guy won the Silver Slugger last year and had a breakout season.  As for Espinosa, Davey Johnson will stick with him again...but this season he knows that he's got a reliable guy named Steve Lombardozzi waiting in the wings...

Davey Johnson Pulls Kid Out Of Crowd To Meet Bryce Harper

"Do you know how lucky you are!"

That's what Davey Johnson said to a little kid after the Nationals manager (or scary old man as the kid was most likely thinking) brought him over to meet Bryce Harper at Spring Training.  I want Davey to carry me over to see Bryce too!

Here's video from a fan:




Awesome day for that little guy...

2012 Memories: Davey Johnson's Ejection

Davey Johnson's Ejection

Davey Johnson is a relatively cool and calm manager.  He isn't afraid to leave the dugout and give the umpires an earful, but most of the time it ends with Johnson walking back to the dugout.  In 2011, the Nats manager was ejected just one time, and didn't top that number in 2012.

But after a close play at first during a September 14th 5-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves, Davey lost his cool and went on a yelling rampage giving the first base umpire a piece of his mind and picking up his only ejection of the season.

The call occurred with the Nationals in the field on an infield grounder hit by the Braves.  The umpire called the runner safe on the play at first claiming that Nats firstbaseman Adam LaRoche's foot came off the bag.  After the replay was shown it was more than clear that the umpire was incorrect.  Enter Davey Johnson.

Davey Johnson Says World Series Or Bust, Reacts To Winning Manager Of The Year

Again, no baseball writer, not much to say here.  Let's just look at the wonderful GIF of Davey Johnson reacting to winning the National League Manager of the Year after leading the Nats to the best record in baseball.

"World Series Or Bust" - Davey Johnson

That's two days in a row for the Nats with Bryce winning the NL Rookie of the Year the day before.  Bryce had a similarly awkward but funny reaction (See it Here)

The funniest part of these MLB shows is the Cincinnati Reds beat writer.  He was interviewed each day for each award, and he had the Reds player/manager running away with the awards.  Homer.

Davey Johnson Screams At Umpire, Davey Johnson Gets Ejected

During Saturday's game between the Braves and Nationals, the first base umpire made a horrible call on a play at first base.  The umpire called a Braves runner safe claiming that Adam LaRoche's foot came off the bag on the play at first.

Edwin Jackson was visibly disturbed by the call and Davey Johnson came out and screamed at the umpire until he was ejected.  The next Braves batter Jason Heyward hit a homer to tie the game.  Here is what Davey looked like while he screamed:

Nats Brawl Phase 3: You Do NOT Put Your Hands On Michael Morse, Or You Will See What Beast Mode Is

As the benches cleared and the brawl heated up, Michael Morse took exception to the Cubs catcher Steve Clevenger who was swinging at anything that moved.  Morse was like "F NO, YOU DON"T F WITH BEAST MODE" and Davey Johnson took a few hits from the Beast trying to hold him back.  Gif After Jump.

Nationals Team Meeting, Davey Johnson: Win One For The Old Man

Davey Johnson, All American...

On Wednesday night during the Nationals vs Marlins broadcast, the announce team reported that the Nats had a special team meeting on Wednesday afternoon.  Davey had his own "win one for the Gipper" speech.  Kristina Akra quoted the Nats skipper as saying:

"Would you just win one for this old man so I can sleep at night!"

FP said the tone of the meeting was "hilarious" and "genius".  While not a big secret meeting guy, DJ had to do something to try to fire up the squad.  He chose a relaxing and calming way instead of screaming at the guys.  The fake Indians manager from Major League would be ashamed.

Strasburg Humidity Sweating Gate, Not A Thing

On Tuesday night against the Miami Marlins, Stephen Strasburg had one of the worst outings of his career giving up 7 runs (5 earned) on 9 hits in a 5 inning loss.  After the game, a reporter, or maybe 2 different reporters, were fishing for a story about Strasburg not liking the humidity, and the weather and temperature affecting his game.

The Nationals, both Davey Johnson and Strasburg, ignored the questions.

PART 1:  TRYING TO GET DAVEY

Dopey Question #1:  (Video 2:00 In)

"Stras I know has had some tough times in the heat.  I know he sweats a lot.  Today it looked like he was really sweating pitching inside [the indoor stadium]"

Davey Johnson answered by changing the subject, talking about things that ACTUALLY affected Strasburg.  Nats 1, Reporter 0.

PART 2:  TRYING TO GET STRASSY

Dopey Question #2:  (Video 0:30 In)

"Did the, uh, humidity bother you?"

This question was asked IMMEDIATELY after Strasburg said "No Excuses".  The timing and stupidity of the question got Strasburg fired up.  Strasburg responded saying "Is there air conditioning in here?" translation, "are you a f'ing moron?"  But the reporter didn't quit.

"Pretty sticky nonetheless"

Strasburg's answer:  "We've got humidity in DC"

2 Dumb Fishing Questions, 2 Perfect Answers.  I wonder if they still tried to write that story today?


Earlier in the season, Strasburg was removed after 3 innings from a late 120 degree June game against the Braves due to heat related fatigue.  Davey Johnson told the media that the heat had gotten to Strasburg causing him to be dehydrated, feel dizzy, and turn extremely pale.  Some of Strassy's quotes from the post-game: (video here)

At the time it was somewhat of a story because some people were arguing that the Nationals made excuses any time that Strasburg had a hiccup.  Excuses like the conditions weren't perfect (heat, pitcher's mound).

These reporters who wanted to make a story out of the weather in Florida which according to the box score was a BURNING HOT 79 degrees and inside an air conditioned stadium.  Maybe they should stick to fishing in the ocean, cuz the Nats ain't biting.

Bryce Harper Smashes Thing, Davey Tries To Prevent Bryce From Killing Himself

Some interesting quotes from the Press Conference following the Nats 4-1 loss to the Phillies on Sunday afternoon when asked if Bryce was OK.  Here's what Davey Johnson said:

"I've got 2 bench players.  I gotta double switch. and I actually told Randy [Knorr] I said tell the kid I have 1 player left and I'm double switching with him so he doesn't kill himself down there"

"He didn't get to him right away, He was destroying helmets in the runway, (laughs) so..."

"I said 'Randy will you get to him, will you please get to him'"

"I don't care if it was Babe Ruth, I have one player left and I gotta have as many batters stay in the game as possible"

Davey Gets Angry, Natitude Is Running Wild

On Monday night following the Nationals win over the Giants, a reporter brought up a previous game where the team didn't play aggressive when they were winning, and then asked why this game they were playing aggressive when they were winning.

The question came off a bit like the guy was asking why they were running up the score, and it got Davey fired up.  Davey answered in an aggravated way and his blood was boiling as he stared at the reporter.

Your Davey Natitude Explosion in quotes.  Get em'!

"I never want my team to ever quit competing, and I don't expect the other team we are playing to quit competing"

"It's a losing attitude when you take things for granted"

"Think we're gonna quit competing, they're sadly mistaken"

"They can come after me, but my players aren't gonna quit competing"

Davey Johnson: Jordan Zimmerman, He's A Bear Out There Ya Know?

On Thursday night during Davey Johnson's post-game news conference, the Washington Nationals manager talked about one of the stars of the game Jordan Zimmerman.  Zim pitched 6 innings, struck out a career high 11 (tied), and gave up just 3 hits in the shutout victory.  Davey said the following:

"He's a bear out there Ya Know"

Oh we know...Zimmerbear!

Davey Johnson, New Exhibit At National Zoo

Apparently tonight during the game between the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros, Davey Johnson is being kept in a cage.  So: