On the Tragic Nationals

I've taken my eight-year-old son to a bunch of Nationals (16-45) games, and he's never seen them win once. I worry that this will cause him to stop liking baseball (though he's had a good season on the Northwest Little League AA Red Sox, where his batting average is, as best as I can tell, .915).

In the Post today, John Feinstein asks the obvious question: Why are the Nats holding on to Manager Manny Acta? It's a question I've asked many times myself. Here's Feinstein:

There are plenty of reasons to keep Acta, a couple of reasons to fire him.

The reasons to keep him are evident every day. He's a class act; he's a bright, young baseball guy managing a young team. His players like him, and they show up every day and really try to play for him, albeit not very well. If Acta is fired now, you can bet he's going to get another managing job down the road, and there's a very good chance he'll be a success.

So why fire him? Because sometimes in sports you have to make change for the sake of change. One can almost feel the "here we go again" sense the players have in the late innings night after night. Most nights they know there are two guarantees: It's going to rain, and they're going to find some way to lose either by bullpen implosion or some horrible defensive gaffe.