All of the dignitaries were out at Nats Park for the home opener, including “Mr. National” himself, Ryan Zimmerman, who chatted with Grant & Danny when they were broadcasting live from field level!
Zim saw many Opening Days at Nats Park, and now, as a front office executive, it has a whole different feeling, but he still remembers what it was like to line up for those intros.
“It’s great; it's the home opener, but the first week is where you have a couple of opening days, and it's kind of that fun little kid feeling where a new season is upon you and whatever happened last year doesn't really matter, whether that was good or bad,” Zimmerman said. “You work your butt off all winter to get ready for this, and by the time spring training is done, all the guys in there too would tell you they're ready to go, so it's a fun day.”
And, this week brings multiple chances to remember how lucky you are.
“I don't think it's nerves, but everyone would ask me if you always have kind of the butterflies in your stomach for the introductions and the running out of the field, and I always said when or if you didn't get that, it was kind of time to go home, because it should mean something to you,” Zimmerman said. “You're a big league ball player, and I think when you lose sight of how hard it is to actually be here, you don't want to take it for granted. I think that was the most special thing about opening day every year; you get a chance to play Major League Baseball, and I think a lot of the kids in here are getting that feeling for the first time, and more to come are going to get that feeling soon. So it's an exciting time.”
Of course, after Opening Day, every team is either 0-1 and cooked or 1-0 and primed for the parade, an overreaction that calms down 24-48 hours later, usually (unless you’re maybe the Nats’ home opener opponents, the Pirates, who came in 4-0).
For the players, though it’s 1 of 162, and No. 2 doesn’t slow down if No. 1 wasn’t good.
“You're gonna go oh-fer like 30 more times, or I was talking with (Kyle) Finnegan the other day and he goes, ‘it's still better and I started last year,’ and then he went like 40 innings where he gave up like two runs or something crazy like that,” Zimmerman said. “That’s the beauty of it and what makes this game so great and so terrible - we play so many games that you have to stay level, whether you do great or not. You gotta learn how to learn from it, both good and bad, and move on.”
But, Zimmerman is so far impressed with the Nats’ bevvy of young talent, all of whom he feels are ‘for their age, very high baseball IQ and high character people’ with a chance to be stars.
“There are 8 to 10 of them that have a chance to be good players, and we all know not all 8 to 10 of them are going to be good players, but if four or five of them can become good players in the next year or so and play together, whether it's down the minor leagues or here, and learn how to build that core that we had from basically 2012 to 2020, then I think you have a chance to do something pretty cool.”
Oh, and about that Opening Day difference? Grant was just watching Zim’s ’08 Nats Park debut where he hit a walk-off homer, so yeah, things may not always go your way, but hold onto them as special memories when they do, especially if the day is already special.
“That’s 100 percent (near the top); I was never really a good opening day player, and I don't know my stats, but I feel like I never did that great on opening day, so that one was obviously special,” Zim said. “But I’ve said it before: I think us getting this stadium was really the beginning of the organization. RFK was great, and obviously, DC sports fans are passionate and RFK holds a special place in lots of peoples’ memories from childhood, but it wasn't a baseball stadium. The first couple of years there were fine, and I’m not saying anything bad about RFK, but having our own stadium, a place for our fans to come, and then obviously how it's been built up around it… opening the stadium that night, having a place for us to call home, which it’s crazy to think that it was that long ago, but that was the beginning of our organization. To be able to do what I did on that night was something I'll never forget.”
As Zim said goodbye, Grant went into his memories of that night, which you can listen to (along with all of what Zimmerman had to say) above!