Washington D.C. Sports--Washington Nationals baseball

Washington D.C. has four professional sports teams, the Washington Redskins football team, the Washington Nationals baseball team, the Washington Wizards Basketball team, and the Washington Capitals hockey team.

The Washington Nationals are in the Eastern Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are based in Washington, D.C., USA. They moved into an all new Nationals Park in 2008.

The 2008 season proved to be disastrous as their record was 59-102, being the worst record in the major leagues. Disappointing for the first year in a new facility.

The Nationals released three players as free agents in October, they are Chad Cordero, closer, Ryan Wagner, reliever, and infielder, Pete Orr. All 3 players were plagued with injuries in the 2008 season.

The team recently hired more coaching staff for the 2009 season. They are first base coach Marquis Grissom, third base coach Pat Listach and bench coach Jim Riggleman. They also promoted hitting coach Rick Eckstein of the Syracuse, N.Y. class AAA team to Washington while manager Randy Knorr from the Class A Potomac (Woodbridge, VA) was named the bullpen coach. Randy St. Claire is the only holdover from last season. This is a move that will hopefully give the team new energy as these coaches have a good combination of youth and experience.

Manager Manny Acta and general manager Jim Bowden have confidence that these leaders will pull the team out of the basement in 2009.

Only Riggleman has any major league coaching experience, while Eckstein and Knorr seem to have a good coaching reputation within the system, having coached many Nationals minor league players.