It’s not quite as essential as bats, balls, and gloves, but the tradition of the “walk-up” song is still a signature and crowd-pleasing part of professional baseball. Wouldn’t we all like to have a 15-second clip of some anthemic song play triumphantly as we arrive at our desks, coffee cup in one hand, file folders in the other? Nah? Guess it’s not quite the same as stepping up to home plate.

Opening Day at Nats Park debuted not only the 2013 Nationals starting lineup but also the starters’ picks for walk-up songs, because each player chooses his own anthems, usually three, which rotate through the game and the season. The selections can change, of course, but we believe what each player starts out with is a window into his attitude about himself at the moment.

We asked the Nationals for the number one choices of the starting lineup for opening day, and they obliged with the full list. We then got The Tommy Show’s Tommy McFly on the phone to provide expert analysis. He started by praising the diversity of the list, which has everything from Moby to Metallica to Gloria Estefan and Lauryn Hill.

McFly points out it’s overall a “rock-y roster, not poppy dancing,” and laments (as many of us do) the departure of Michael Morse to Seattle—Morse regularly walked up to A-Ha’s “Take On Me.” Gone but not forgotten, apparently, because the song played during the seventh-inning stretch on opening day and may become a fixture, says McFly.

Breaking it down, here are the players, the title and artist of their walk-up songs, and McFly’s instant analysis of the selection.

Ross Detwiler: “Craving Lucy” by Therapy

“Great rock-y song. Fifteen really pumped up seconds.”

Stephen Strasburg: “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes

“Anthemic.”

Jordan Zimmermann: “Hell on Wheels” by Brantley Gilbert

“You can’t go wrong with this.”

Tyler Clippard: “Ready or Not” by the Fugees

“Ready or not, you know he’s going to crack the ball out of the park. A great song. You could pick out Lauryn Hill’s voice anywhere.”

Zach Duke: “2x4” by Metallica

“It’s what you need. It is rock.”

Ryan Mattheus: “Firework” by Katy Perry

“A fresh artist, the poppiest song on the roster this year. The softer side of the pump-up songs, but one families are going to know and love.”

Craig Stammen: “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor

“Old-school, a throwback. Everyone from a 4-year-old to a 94-year-old will know this song.”

Drew Storen: “Bad Company” by Five Finger Death Punch

“The name pretty much says it all. There’s a clean and a not-so-clean version. They grab the cleanest 15 seconds, but it still has a charge and a feel to it.”

Roger Bernadina: “The System” by Popcaan

“This has a great feeling to it when it’s 158 degrees in the middle of August and people are diving for the shade. This will really get the crowd going.”

Bryce Harper: “Flower” by Moby

“It has a cool instrumental behind it. You can just see the crowd going crazy as he walks up with this and his swagger. The song just fits him.”

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There was nothing not to like about opening day at Nats Park, even the chilly wind and light sprinkles that arrived in the later innings. The world felt just a little brighter and better because regular season baseball was back on deck in DC, Stephen Strasburg was on the mound, and Bryce Harper hit two spectacular home runs in his first two at-bats, leading the team to a 2-0 win over the Miami Marlins. It was Harper’s first opening day as a major leaguer, as last year he got brought up after the season began.

The fans showed up in record numbers—a reported 45,274—creating the appearance of a crimson wash across the stands thanks to red hats, shirts, and jackets. They started filling the stadium early, after the gates opened at 10:30. By noon it was a full-on party atmosphere, and the crowd included a young Cleveland Park couple celebrating their wedding earlier at the DC courthouse.

Once the program got down to business, there were speeches and awards and hoopla about last season, when the Nats won the National League East championship. A centerpiece of opening day was the unveiling of a new sign proclaiming the honor. There was also a moment of silence for the victims of the Sandy Hook school shootings; a Medal of Honor recipient, former Staff Sgt. Clint Romesha, threw out the first pitch; and a giant American flag was unfurled in the outfield.

It was sunny and breezy for most of the game. The fans went wild for both of Harper’s homers. We took photos from the moment we arrived until we departed, and the only thing missing is the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, and the smell of the hot dogs and beer. The next chance to see the Nationals is Wednesday at 7 or Thursday at 4, for the second and third installments in the three-game series with the Marlins.

First of all, this is not an April Fool’s joke. It’s a homage to the Nationals’ newest Racing President, William Howard Taft, who makes his debut Monday at the opening-day game against the Miami Marlins. And while this isn’t a joke list, there is one faux fact included. Let us know which one you think it is in the comments.

• When Taft lost the presidency to Woodrow Wilson in 1912, it was the worst defeat suffered by an incumbent President. He got only eight electoral votes.
• Taft is the only US President to also join the Supreme Court. He was Chief Justice, the nation’s tenth, from 1921 to 1930.
• At Yale, he was a member of the secret society Skull and Bones, which was cofounded by his father.
• His religion: Unitarian.
• Taft was just shy of six feet tall. During his presidency his weight peaked at about 340 pounds. After leaving office, he lost 80 pounds.
• Taft’s weight was always an issue. At Yale his nickname was the “Big Lub,” but he was also an accomplished wrestler.
• He once got stuck in a White House bathtub and had to be pulled out by staff.
• When he traveled to the Panama Canal by ship, the captain of the USS North Carolina requested an oversize bathtub for him.
• As Chief Justice he had the unique distinction of swearing in presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, a first for a former President.
• Two states were admitted to the Union during his presidency: New Mexico and Arizona.
• President Taft appointed six justices to the Supreme Court, the same as appointed by Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln, and just shy of George Washington and Franklin Roosevelt.
• He was a Republican, succeeding Teddy Roosevelt. They were once friends but became fierce political enemies.
• Taft came from a prominent political family in Cincinnati, Ohio, with ties to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Utah.
• The current governor of Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee, is a Taft family descendant.
• Taft died on March 8, 1930, five weeks after retiring from the Supreme Court. He is the first President, and the only President other than JFK, to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Spot the fake fact? Let us know in the comments.

Washington welcomes its baseball team back to Nationals Park on Monday with an opening day game against the Miami Marlins. My colleague, and pronounced Phillies fan, Harry Jaffe excepted, most baseball experts are predicting a strong season for the reigning National League East division champions. One reason: The lineup includes some of the sport’s brightest stars, namely Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, and Wilson Ramos, plus new additions Rafael Soriano and Denard Span.

There are still stadium tickets available, but they are standing room only. All advance seat tickets are sold out. The SRO tickets are $20 at the box office or online. An additional 400 grandstand seats, at $15 apiece, will be available at the main box office starting at 10:30 AM on game day.

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First Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on February 25. He was pictured standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, bat over his shoulders, US Capitol in the background. 

This week pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg stares from SI’s regional cover with the headline “Mr. October” and this subhead: “The Nationals Will Break Through and Win the World Series.”

Expectations are high!

Fans are pumped!

Opening day on April 1 has been sold out for weeks.

But I fear the Nationals are doomed—headed into a season of mishaps, mediocrity, and dashed expectations. Predictions too often foretell frustration. Worse, showing up on the cover of Sports Illustrated is often the kiss of death.

They call it the SI jinx.

Ask Albert Pujols. Last year at this time, the slugger gazed menacingly from SI’s baseball preview cover. The caption read: “The game’s greatest slugger starts over with the Angels.” Pujols then failed to hit a home run for the first 28 games of the season. He went on to hit 30 home runs, which is more than respectable, but his .285 batting average was the lowest of his career.

In the middle of last season, the Dodgers were the hottest team in the majors. Sports Illustrated put outfielder Matt Kemp and part-owner Magic Johnson on the May 23 cover. The Dodgers lost their next three series and 8 of the next 11 games. Kemp’s minor injury hampered him through the season, though he racked up impressive numbers.

To preview last year’s World Series, Sports Illustrated featured Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera with the bold headline: “Fear His Awesomeness.” Cabrera went 3 for 13 at the plate during the fall classic. The San Francisco Giants swept the Tigers in four games.

And these are examples of the SI jinx in baseball alone.

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With spring just around the corner it’s time to introduce a new local sport: surfing the Potomac. Yes, surfing. 

It’s the next phase of paddleboarding that’s been taken up by local enthusiasts who use boards specially designed for river surfing. “It’s a booming sport,” says a practitioner, DC lawyer Wayne Cohen, who adds that the Potomac is “fantastic, as good as anywhere in the country for river surfing.”

Where do enthusiasts go to surf? Certainly not on the calm river waters favored by conventional paddleboarders. Because life isn’t dangerous enough, they go upriver—above Old Angler’s Inn, near Mather Gorge and along the Billy Goat Trail—where water races through the rocky gorges. Cohen says he’s been surfing on the Potomac consistently since October. “We’ve been doing it every single month,” he says. “The appetite people have for this is amazing. Just recently there were 50 people on the Billy Goat Trail, watching us surf, with their cameras out. They said it was the craziest thing they’d ever seen.”

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NFL star Fred Davis stood trial in Washington today, more than two years into a legal soap opera that has involved everything from an alleged celebrity "madam/pimpette" to a tight-end lawyer.

An attorney for Makini R. Chaka asked a DC Superior Court judge to grant her more than $350,000 in punitive damages from Davis, who she claimed assaulted her at Josephine Nightclub and Lounge in DC in 2011. Davis allegedly dumped juice on Chaka and threw the empty pitcher at her head, injuring her lip. Davis admits only throwing the juice on Chaka, and said he did so after she tossed a drink on him. "I was assaulted first," Davis insisted.

Chaka is demanding compensation for medical bills, emotional distress, and property damage. "My boots, which were suede, were damaged by the acid in the juice," said Chaka, a 34-year-old Baltimore woman. 

Chaka has identified herself as a "celebrity broker," who arranges parties for athletes and celebrities. Her clients have included rapper Snoop Dogg and several Baltimore Ravens players, she has said. She testified that she has lost clients as a result of the negative attention surrounding the incident.

"Fred Davis ruined my entire business," a tearful Chaka said today. "I lost everything."

Chaka claimed she earned between $60,000 and $70,000 a year from her celebrity business in 2010. But her 2011 earnings were only $20,000 as a result of the negative publicity she garnered through her trouble with Davis. "No one wanted to do business with me," she testified. She had to take a day job as a secretary in order to avoid being "homeless," Chaka testified.

Chaka’s lawyer is also asking for a court order requiring Davis to "remain at least a football field away" from Chaka.

An attorney for Davis, who played five seasons for the Washington Redskins but recently became a free agent, called Chaka’s request for $350,000 "totally egregious."

"The most she is entitled to is a drycleaning bill," Davis lawyer said, adding that Chaka was trying to "extort money from Mr. Davis." 

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The Washington Nationals’ opening-day game is one month away. It is set for Monday, April 1, at 1:05 PM against the Miami Marlins. Individual tickets—for opening day and other home games—went on sale Thursday. They range in price from $5 to $300 and “are almost sold out and going quickly,” according to a team spokesperson.

The Nats are mum about what’s planned for the first 2013 home game for the NL East champs. For example, will Stephen Strasburg take the mound? Who will throw out the opening pitch? This much we know: The new racing president, William Howard Taft (known around Nats Park as “Bill”), will make his debut, trying to beat Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Teddy Roosevelt.

Chris Pontius is the team’s top scorer. Photograph of Pontius by Tony Quinn/dcunited.com.

DC United, despite plenty of successful seasons, hasn’t seen the influx of casual fan support that other local teams have during similar periods of success. Let’s fix that. Here’s what you should know as another hopeful season kicks off March 2.

Dwayne De Rosario. The linchpin of United’s attack missed most of last fall’s playoffs after suffering an injury. The 2011 league MVP is ready to make another run at the Cup.

“Gladiador.”The talented 20-year-old forward, Rafael Teixeira de Souza, just joined United on a season-long loan from his club in Brazil. And he has a cool nickname.

Bill Hamid. When you don’t have a stellar defensive-back line, a reliable keeper becomes that much more important. Hamid’s work in goal keeps the team competitive.

Perry Kitchen. The 2011 Rookie of the Year finalist has established himself as a stalwart defender in United’s midfield.

Major League Soccer. The top league in the US is heading into its 18th season. In that time, DC United has won four MLS Cups and four Supporters’ Shields (awarded to the league’s best regular-season team).

Ben Olsen. The player turned coach is be-loved among fans. One year after finishing his 12-year DC United playing career, he was named full-time coach. He has since led a dramatic turnaround, guiding the team from the bottom of the standings to the playoffs in a few years.

Chris Pontius. The team’s top goal scorer and lone representative on the MLS Best XI (All-Pro team). Not to be confused with the guy of the same name from the movie Jackass.

RFK Stadium. It’s still standing, barely, and will be United’s home for at least a couple more years. So get out there and bounce around a few times before it’s gone.

Striker. Arguably the greatest topic of concern among United fans is the man atop the formation. As we head into the season, that man remains Lionard Pajoy. In his short time in Washington, he hasn’t shown himself to be much of a goal scorer, but he can help facilitate for the playmakers behind him.

Talon. Yes, United is another local team with an eagle mascot. But hey, nobody has ever accused Talon, or any other eagle, of being racially offensive.

Tifo. If you think being a soccer fan means hooliganism, you’ve been misinformed. It’s all about arts and crafts. Tifo, an Italian word, refers to grand displays of support, often in the form of huge banners.

Ultras. This is the special breed of soccer fan that adds so much to the atmosphere of a match. United has several such groups, each characterized by its songs, chants, and displays of tifo.

This article appears in the March 2013 issue of The Washingtonian.

Forget gun control. Never mind a grand fiscal bargain. In March, there’s only one urgent national question facing Washingtonians that really, truly matters: How can President Obama help us win our NCAA men’s-basketball office pool?

Call it Baracketology: For the last half decade, Obama has made his March Madness bracket picks public. Some years, he has shown a winning touch (correctly picking 29 of 32 first-round games in 2011); other years, not so much (incorrectly picking the entire Final Four in 2010).

What can the rest of us learn from our commander in chief? After crunching the numbers, we identified four key lessons.

1. Be Conservative

Obama may be a Democrat, but he’s hardly a bracket liberal. In predicting a tournament renowned for its downright progressive upsets (when number-15 seed Lehigh knocked off number-2 seed Duke last year, it was college basketball’s answer to the 99 percent rising up against the 1 percent), the President prefers a cautious approach. To wit: Over five seasons, Obama has picked just one team seeded below number 3 (number-4 Pitt in 2008) to reach the Final Four. He also has predicted an average of 10.6 total upsets per bracket, roughly one game in which the higher seed loses per six games played. The President is similarly conservative in the wild and woolly 32-game first round, picking an average of only 6.4 upsets per year.

Turns out this is a wise approach.

Since 1985, the tournament has averaged just 8.1 first-round upsets. Moreover, only seven schools seeded below number 12 ever have made it to the Sweet Sixteen, while more than 70 percent of the Elite Eight has been composed of teams seeded between numbers 1 and 3. The upshot? Play it safe with the bulk of your bracket—particularly in the early rounds—and don’t bet on small-school underdogs to make deep runs. Practice Obama’s audacity of nope.

2. Don’t Be Too Conservative

If you want to win your pool, you’ll still have to pick a few early surprises. And you need to get them right. After all, Obama hasn’t posted a solid 74-percent first-round winning-pick percentage over five seasons by simply selecting higher seeds to win every game—favored teams won only 73 percent of their first-round games over the same span. The President was particularly prescient in 2011, hitting on five of his six upset picks and going 29-32 in the first round, a mark that reportedly would have placed him in the top 1 percent of the tens of thousands of fans who participated in a Yahoo online bracket contest.

In the pool-points-rich Elite Eight and beyond, however, you’re better off breaking with Obama’s play-it-safe strategy. On one hand, high seeds have a better chance of advancing; on the other, everyone else in your pool is likely picking the same handful of schools to reach the Final Four and the same 1-2 top teams to win it all. Make the same selections and the best you can do is tie your competitors. So look at the later rounds as an arbitrage opportunity: Double down on an undervalued high seed—such as number-3 seed and eventual national champion UConn in 2011—and give yourself a higher probability of winning your pool if your pick comes through.

Remember Obama’s scorching 2011 first-round performance? None of his Final Four picks—number-1 seeds Duke, Kansas, Pitt, and Ohio State—panned out. His bracket was utterly busted. Meanwhile, number-4 seed Kentucky reached the Final Four, while UConn and number-8 seed Butler (the previous year’s national runner-up) played in the championship game. Less presidential prudence would have gone a long way.

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