Gio Gonzalez Loses Cy Young, Eats Pizza

Sadly, Gio Gonzalez did not take home the NL Cy Young award despite being the only pitcher in the playoffs, and the pitcher with the most wins.  R.A. Dickey took home the award.  If he didn't throw a knuckleball, would he still have won?

Gio Gonzalez did something very Gio Gonzalez for his Cy Young awards show night.  He went spiked hair, beard, and t-shirt.  He also went down to a pizza place in the Florida town (Hialeah) where he grew up and broadcasted live from there.  He tweeted the following, and you could see the booths behind him while he talked on MLB TV.

Meanwhile RA Dickey wore a tie...

Gio once tweeted "home sweet home" at the Di Piazza pizza place.  Is it someone in his family?  Is it just his favorite spot growing up?

Anyways, R.A. Dickey won..Gio lost..but he had pizza and Dickey looked like maybe he'd be eating some tofu.

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.

Bryce Harper Wins ROY, Happy To Be With Jackie Robinson And ... Mike Piazza

Here is an excerpt from the MLB award show interview with Bryce Harper.  Bryce said:

"Just being able to be in the names of Jackie Robinson & Mike Piazza and all the guys that won it, its an honor..."

Haha this picture makes me laugh.  It doesn't seem to make sense to me...

I find it funny that Mike Piazza comes up in Bryce's mind.  Not Willie Mays, not Frank Robinson, not Willie McCovey, not Pete Rose, not Johnny Bench.  Mike Piazza.

Is it safe to assume since Bryce was a catcher, Piazza may have been his favorite player growing up? Piazza won the NL ROY in 1993, when Harper was 1 years old.  But he was in his prime when Bryce was developing into a baseball player and catcher.

Catchers also won in 2008 (Geovany Soto) and 2010 (Buster Posey)

Bryce Harper Reacts To Winning National League Rookie Of The Year (ROY)

Bryce finished off a historic season with taking home the National League Rookie of the Year award.  If someone was my new baseball writer we would cover this in depth.  Instead all we have is a GIF of Bryce going from frown to smile in 1 second:

National League Shuts Out American League

National League 8, American League 0

If the Washington Nationals can somehow manage to make it into the World Series, they will have homefield advantage.  That is something most Nats fans would never have even contemplated in seasons prior.  An All-Star game that could potentially help the Nationals win the World Series.

The National League shut down the American League and their offense lit up Verlander for a 5 run first to help bring home an 8-0 win and a huge advantage for one team in the NL.  That makes 3 wins in a row for the NL, a league who has taken advantage of their All-Star wins with 2 W.S. Championships in a row.  Can the NL make it a 3rd?



The Nationals failed to yield the winning pitcher for the first time in 3 All-Star games (Capps, Clippard), but Gio Gonzalez pitched a 1-2-3 3rd inning and Strasburg didn't allow a run to score in the 4th, giving Kansas City a good look at 2 of the best pitchers on an elite pitching staff.

Bryce Harper had an interesting night.  Sporting Gold Under Armour cleats, Harper worked a walk in his first at bat.  Harper made a good base-running decision by tagging up on a deep fly ball by the next batter (instead of going halfway) to get to 2nd base.  However, Harper found himself caught in a rundown after a base-running error on a grounder to short.

Later in the game, Harper lost a fly-ball in the lights/sky and it fell behind him as he made a puzzled expression. (See It Here in Animated Gif Form)

Harper got a 2nd at-bat and he struck out.  It was an interesting and not very special first All-Star Game for the Chosen One, but it appears at age 19 he will have several chances in the future to create some exciting All-Star moments.


Overall it was a refreshing change or pace to witness some Washington baseball players being featured in an All-Star Game and hopefully it is a sign of things to come for this young franchise.