M.L.

Just a week ago, when young Lannan was mastering the Barroid in San Francisco, Frank Robinson stopped by the press box to have a chat with Bob and Don. Frank was in town representing Emperor Selig as one of his dark minions, you see. So Bob says to Frank, he says, "Watching the Nats this year, has anyone really surprised you?" And Frank goes, yeah, Dmitri Young really turned his career around blah blah blah. Pick your cliche things to say about the Nats, Dmitri, the starters, and the bullpen; Frank said it all. One game at a time and all that.

But then Frank is like, oh, yeah, and Ryan Church really seems to be having a breakout year. Who knew he could be a useful starting outfielder?

Well, Frank, pretty much everyone else on the planet knew that. One might have expected that a guy who freakin managed Ryan Church every day for two years might not be surprised to discover that the kid can be a useful player after all. But then again, one might have expected that a big-league manager wouldn't get pissed off at a player one time in the kid's second month in the majors and treat him like stinky, half-day-old dog poo for the next two years just because the manager would rather hold personal grudges forever than help young ballplayers develop or, you know, win ballgames.

It seemed like the Nats were going to need divine intervention to salvage anything from their three nights in the desert, so appropriately when they were down by three with two on in the eighth, the Nats went to Church on Sunday and received the sacrament of the game-tying home run. That was Majority Leader hitting right there, and a well-deserved "Screw you, Frank" from the perfectly adequate left fielder Mr. Robinson tried to run out of baseball.

The triple and the miracle throw in the ninth by Z-Man, and the Chief's gutsy reenactment of that scene where the shaft of blinding, divine light shines down on young Arthur as he approaches the sword in the stone made this one of the closest calls of the season, but Frank's comments from Monday night must be avenged.

Delegate Count: Cowboy Randy 12, Z-man 9, Dmitri 6, F-Lo 5, Big Fella 5, Chief 4, Power Austin 4, Church 4, Officer Schneider 3, Belliard 2.