"I got it!"

In most team sports, communication between teammates is so important that it can affect the outcome of the game.  In volleyball, for example, players are constantly yelling to each other in order to determine who is going to set, pass, or get the ball over the net.  It is common to hear players yelling "Mine!" or "I got it!", or "Mía!", which is what I'm used to hearing in Spanish (I bet you Roberto Clemente yelled "Mía" more than once in his career).  In baseball, it is extremely important (especially for outfielders) to communicate when trying to catch a fly ball.  Once a player "calls it," other players need to back off and let that player catch the ball.  Otherwise, you end up with two or three guys running into each other and getting all tangled up, while the ball is falling and the guy who hit it is running around the bases.  In the tenth inning of last night's game between the Nationals and Marlins (sorry to keep talking about the Nats, but it was the only game on TV last night), Danny Espinosa called Donnie Murphy's fly ball, but bazillionnaire Jayson Werth got greedy and decided to go for the ball himself.  That miscommunication caused the ball to drop, and since the bases were loaded, a runner scored and the Marlins won the game.  The Nationals are now 1-3, and I hope Mr. Werth feels like absolute crap for being such an idiot.  This is why a recent study showed that Washington, DC baseball fans are the most depressed (really, someone did actually do a study on this!).  On the bright side, both the Yankees and Phillies lost last night, and that's enough to not make me need a Zoloft.

On the other side of the beltway, the Orioles are off to their best start since 1998, with a record of 4-0.  I know it's a long season (162 games in all), but it's nice to see a usually-in-last-place team full of young guys (plus Vladimir Guerrero) get off to a good start.  Let's hope Brian Roberts can stay injury-free and concussion-free, and that their young pitching staff doesn't fizzle out.  Now if they could only stop playing "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" during the seventh-inning stretch, I may actually go to a game or two at Camden Yards this year.