Nationals' radio broadcasters link up for ‘Virtual Opening Day’

If in February, you had asked Washington Nationals radio broadcasters Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler what they were going to be doing on April 14, their answer would have been to be broadcasting the game between the World Series champions and the Mariners from Seattle.

Instead, Slowes and Jageler were each home with headsets on while National Press Club President Michael Freedman interviewed them via video link in an event billed as “Virtual Opening Day."

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Social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic has closed the Club until at least April 27 and postponed the start of the baseball season until at least the middle of May.

“Every day I am reminded where I could have been or should have been if none of this had happened,” Slowes said, noting that his phone was still giving him daily notifications of the game schedule. “Every day you are reminded that is a completely different way of living. Watching the news seeing what those on the front lines are doing and you sit back and say, ‘OK I’m good with what we are doing right now.’”

The Nationals won the 2019 World Series after being 19-31 on May 24. Freedman, a longtime season-ticket holder, reminded the virtual audience of Slowes’s quote at the Championship Parade, “haven’t we all felt like we were 19-31 at some point.”

“Baseball is a season of streaks, peaks and valleys,” Slowes replied but “with all of the injuries [the Nationals] had … you didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

The perseverance of the Nationals was also typified by what Manager Davey Martinez’s father reportedly told him, Slowes remembered, “Just win today.”

Jageler said he has started using the mantra, “Go 1-0 Today” as a theme for his life as well. “You can’t look at what should be, you have to look at what is,” he said. “You have to go 1-0 today.”

This was harder to do on March 26 and April 2, Opening Day and the day scheduled as the home opener, Jageler said, noting those were “tough” days; as was April 4, the day the players were set to receive their championship rings.

“The culmination of the celebration of winning that championship is when that banner goes up in your home stadium or the players have those rings,” Slowes said. “Right now, the Nationals still have not been able to complete the celebration of winning that championship. That is the only piece that is missing. When that day comes, again Washington D.C. will be celebrating.”

When baseball begins, it might be played without fans in the stands and maybe only in Florida and/or Arizona. The lack of fans would become part of the story, Slowes and Jageler said, reminiscing about games where the stadium sounds have been part of the action. For example, Jageler said, how quiet Dodger Stadium became after Howie Kendrick hit a Grand Slam in the tenth inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

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