Now it turns out, thankfully, that baseball-starved fans of the Washington Nationals won’t have to miss Saturday’s Grapefruit League opener after all — at least not those who have access to the MLB-TV cable network.
The Nats’ game against the New York Mets in Port Lucie, Fla., will be shown on MLB, starting at 12:10 p.m. As a bonus, ace Stephen Strasburg will start on the mound for Washington, probably going two or three innings.
Earlier this week, the game was not listed by either MLB or MASN, the Nats’ flagship channel. The latter outlet, owned by Baltimore Orioles boss Peter Angelos, will carry six spring training games, starting with a Feb. 28 night game against the Mets.
Saturday’s opener will not be broadcast, but radio play-by-play guys Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler will work Sunday’s game against the Miami Marlins on 106.7-FM.
Given the Nats’ 98-64 record and NL East championship last season, plus those sky’s-the-limit hopes for 2013, local interest is running higher than ever before. It’s good if belated news that we’ll be able to tune in from the start.
