Two interesting notes from the Nats

Two interesting notes from last night's Washington Nationals game, a rather mundane 3-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on the road. The first one sports related, Nationals catcher Ivan Rodriguez became only the fifth catcher ever to reach 300 homers with his second dinger of the season. He joined a very short list featuring Johnny Bench, Yogi Berra, Carlton Fisk and probable juicer Mike Piazza. All of them, save for Piazza, are in the Hall of Fame.

The other note from the game was political. A small group of fans in left field caused a delay the first inning by draping a sign addressed to Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick over the outfield wall to protest the new immigration law in Arizona. A law, it should be noted, that the libertarians at the Clarion Content strongly oppose. Government should not have the power of racial profiling. Plate umpire Angel Hernandez halted the game when he saw the large sign that read: "Mr. Kendrick ... Stop the hate. Say no to SB1070." It is unclear why he felt compelled to do so. The Diamondbacks and their owner sent a security guard to pull the sign off of the wall. Ironically, Hernandez, widely considered one of the very worst umpires in baseball, is Cuban.