Saturday, April 2, 2011

Nationals tradition of misspelling continues with Lannan error

We have reached the point in Washington Nationals history where we must accept that anything the organization does might be misspelled.

Fans documented at least two such occurrences at Nationals Park on Friday, comically adding to the Nats' growing legacy of spelling failure. Hey, you've got to base a tradition on something.

The prominent victim this time was left-hander John Lannan, though that's not what the team called him during introductions on opening day. Meh. Lannon, Lannan ? whatever. My second favorite part of the photo is the sad body language of the catcher. It's as if he's thinking the world considers his team to be a joke, even before the first pitch of the season has been thrown.

Kudos to Philliesfan99@Flickr for being camera-ready. In case you're wondering if it's a creative Photoshopping, or a particular scoreboard going rogue, it is not.

Here's a second view including the offended party in the shot, as Lannon Lannan greets his teammates at the fowl foul line. Hey, he's only been with the team since 2007.

But there was another misspelling to come.

The other mistake (that we know of), in which the team doesn't appear to be at fault, was made on a banner commissioned by the D.C. Sports Hall of Fame that says "Honoriing" instead of, well, "Honoring." (They did spell "Arnold 'Red' Auerbach" without issue, it should be noted.)

The question: Ever since the great "Natinals" uniform debacle of 2009 ? which was the fault of jersey manufacturers at Majestic and not the team ? have we trained ourselves to be more vigilant spell checkers at Nats games?

Other clubs have misspelled player names, or even cities. The Nats just seem to be ... unluckier. Like, when someone misspelled Teddy Roosevelt's name ("Rossevelt"!) on a bobblehead doll. It's not like he's a famous president.

And here's a side note on which to chew: John Lannan was the starting pitcher for the infamous "Natinals" game. Coincidence? Yes, but it's more fun to pretend it's not.

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