LOVERRO: Opening weekend was an infuriating glimpse of promise wasted

OPINION:

When Bryce Harper walked up to the plate for the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday to face his old team, there was substantial booing from the opening day crowd at Nationals Park.

Which brought criticism from some observers, who wondered if maybe, since it’s been seven years since Harper’s departure from Washington following the 2018 season, it was time to give it a rest.

Which led me to wonder why anyone would question the reaction. After all, it was the most definitive sign that day that Nationals fans were in the ballpark and interested.

They would be drowned out by the Phillies fans who stood and cheered for Harper after he hit a seventh-inning home run on the way to a 7-3 Phillies win.

Fans need heroes and villains to ignite passion. There have been few heroes for Nationals fans to cheer for of late, so you want to take away one of the few villains that they even bother to care about? If you don’t get that, you’re either numb or, I guess, a sports media member.

After all, the franchise owners are not on the field.

The Nationals are celebrating their 20th year in Washington, and it appears little has changed since the Lerner family took over early in the team’s second season here and soon after team President Stan Kasten was going on Philadelphia sports talk radio inviting fans to come on down.

Now, it’s a standing invitation.

Philadelphia fans invaded the ballpark for Washington’s opening weekend of baseball, and they went back to Broad Street happy, for the most part, as the Phillies took two of three in the series.

Phillies fans were aware it was opening day in the District. Nationals fans may have been caught off guard.

The Nationals were invisible this winter, with barely any evidence there was a baseball team here. There was no fan festival nor any kind of caravan or event during the offseason to generate interest in this coming year.

Granted, most teams have not held such happenings recently, but the Nationals are in a fight for relevance in this town. They’ve been in that fight since they came from Montreal, something the owners, the Lerner family, have never seemed to grasp. They’ve shown no interest in creative or aggressive marketing to at least offer up a sign of life in this market. Heck, now they barely spend enough to field a baseball team and sources said they are near the bottom of spending in nearly every department.

They claim privately that they are losing $100 million a year operating this franchise. This while baseball is enjoying record revenues — $12.1 billion.

According to the most recent Forbes franchise valuations, only the New York Mets, with $268 million in losses, are losing more money per year than the $100 million in losses claimed by the Nationals owners.

Then again, the Mets have more than four times the active payroll this season that Washington has, according to Spotrac. There were no figures for income or losses reported for the Nationals in the Forbes story.

The Lerners surrendered the entire poisonous era of Dan Snyder’s football fiasco, failing to at least fight for inches of attention beyond the necessary functions, and now, guess what? The football team, with superstar quarterback Jayden Daniels, is on fire.

Then again, the Commanders have new owners.

The Nationals’ northern neighbors and likely soon-to-be ex-MASN partners, the Orioles, held a winter caravan featuring many of their players.

Then again, the Orioles have new owners.

The bright spot for Nationals fans is opening weekend should have been the young starting pitching. MacKenzie Gore was brilliant on opening day, giving up just one hit and no runs while striking out 13 over 6 1/3 innings. Even with the shadows of a 4 p.m. start, it was a great performance, joining Hall of Famer Bob Gibson as the only pitchers to have 13 strikeouts and no walks in a scoreless opening day start.

The next day, Jake Ervin was effective, giving up two runs on five hits in two innings. Sunday, Mitchell Parker had the Phillies confused, as the left-hander pitched 6 1/3 shutout innings.

But Washington only came away with a 5-1 win Sunday, as the Nationals bullpen gave up 15 runs in the two losses. And reliever Brad Lord, in his debut, loaded the bases Sunday before Kyle Finnegan came up to close out the victory.

If you’re a Nationals fan, you should find those starting performances encouraging — and infuriating at the same time.

It’s a small sample, yes, but a measure of perhaps how competitive this team might have been with a little more commitment from the Lerners.

The Nationals’ front office wanted to sign free-agent slugging first baseman Christian Walker this winter but were rebuffed by ownership. General Manager Mike Rizzo, desperate to add some power to a lineup that finished 25th last year in run production, pivoted and traded for first baseman Nathaniel Lowe from the Texas Rangers, who delivered a two-run homer in Sunday’s win.

In order to do that, Rizzo gave up reliever Robert Garcia, who may have been Washington’s best arm in the bullpen before you got to Finnegan. Last season, Garcia set career highs in wins (three), games (72), innings (59 2/3), holds (13) and strikeouts (75). He ranked among Nationals relievers in strikeouts per nine (1st, 11.31), strikeouts (2nd, 75) and innings (4th, 59 2/3).

They could have used him last weekend.

Washington will hold 20th-anniversary festivities this weekend, featuring replica World Series rings and other giveaways as part of their season-long calendar of events commemorating the anniversary. They play the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Wise scheduling. It’s 2,270 miles from Phoenix. I’m guessing there won’t be a visiting fan takeover.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.