Acta Update: No News Is No News

John Feinstein wades into the pool this morning with “Whether or Not This Is Final Acta, Nats Need to Change Script“. Clever, huh?

Anyway.

The article’s a decent way to pass a couple of minutes, but there’s a comment from lawberns that sums up a lot of my frustration with the Nats:

Do the Nationals ever try to steal? Do they sacrifice, or hit-and-run? Do they even tag up on a long fly to get a runner into scoring position? When they fall behind, where’s the scratch-and-claw, the “let’s get a run any way we can” philosophy? There’s no fire; there’s no fun! I was at a (losing) game last weekend where our starter was getting hammered early — no infielder ever came over to him, patted him on the rear, encouraged him, relaxed him; they just let him hang himself. In fact, the fielders’ body language was awful; no one seemed to care and you felt that instead of a team the Nats have become an every man for himself club. I’m sorry, but that flows down from the head man. Acta may be “a class act,” but he appears unable or unwilling to inspire or motivate the Nats, and this team needs that most of all if they’re ever going to turn it around!

Bingo. Take risks. Play with flair. Give the fans something to talk about. You’re failing horribly right now. Stop playing conservatively and at least start failing in interesting ways.