Orioles vs. Nationals – Friday April 3rd 3:30 pm By Norfolk Tides / Norfolk Tides The Norfolk Tides have announced that Harbor Park will host the Baltimore Orioles and Washington Nationals in a Major League exhibition game on Friday, April 3 at 3:30 p.m. Ticket prices and sale date for the game will be announced …
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WASHINGTON — The Nationals had it all on Sunday night, as they christened new Nationals Park. They had a sellout crowd, President George W. Bush threw out the ceremonial first pitch, and the Nats topped it off with a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Braves.
Leave it to the franchise player, Ryan Zimmerman, to send the crowd home happy. In the bottom of the ninth inning, he hit Peter Moylan’s 1-0 pitch over the left-center-field wall for the victory. It was the fourth walk-off home run of Zimmerman’s career.
Zimmerman, 23, is entering his third season as a starter for the Nationals. In 2006, he hit .287 with 47 doubles, 20 home runs and 110 RBI in 2006, finishing second in the National League Rookie of the Year voting. Last season he batted .266 with 43 doubles, 24 home runs and 91 RBI.
Zimmerman established the ziMS foundation in 2006, to support research and awareness of multiple sclerosis, a condition his mother Cheryl was diagnosed with in 1995.
Zimmerman’s work with the foundation is the reason he is a candidate for the Roberto Clemente Award, which recognizes the player who best exemplifies the game of baseball, sportsmanship, community involvement and the individual’s contribution to his team. It is named in honor of the former Pirates outfielder whose spirit and goodwill will always be remembered. Clemente died in a plane crash while attempting to transport relief supplies to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua on Dec. 31, 1972. The winner will be announced during the World Series.
Two springs ago, when the Washington Nationals were preparing to return baseball to the nation’s capital for the first time in a generation, Ryan Zimmerman was a 20-year-old junior at the University of Virginia. He had signed some autographs — “maybe a few, for the Virginia baseball program and that kind of thing” — but he was an unknown.
On Monday, Zimmerman will be the Nationals’ starting third baseman as the club opens its third season here. He has attended parties with Scarlett Johansson and Tom Cruise, gets paid merely for signing a batting glove, will pen a column in a local paper and will, if he so desires, soon be able to pick up the phone and order a Ryan Zimmerman pizza.
VIERA, Fla., March 12 — Ryan Zimmerman stood on third base Monday afternoon at Space Coast Stadium, his second double of the day behind him. David Wright, who already had a hit of his own, walked over. The pair fell into conversation, just as they had during batting practice, just as they do from time to time in the offseason, just as they did seven years ago when they played alongside each other as teenagers.
Ryan Zimmerman appears on Washington Post Live.
Nats’ Zimmerman Finds Strength in His Mother’s Struggle By Barry Svrluga Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, January 18, 2006 VIRGINIA BEACH — Drive past the Home Depot and Hell’s Point Golf Club, where Ryan Zimmerman worked as a cart boy, cleaning up the balls from the range, and follow the beach grass to the edge …