Washington Nationals Countdown to Spring Training: 10 Days

The off-season is almost over. Less than three weeks until Washington Nationals pitchers and catchers report to Viera. To celebrate this fact, we here at DistrictOnDeck will commence a countdown of sorts pointing out interesting facts about numbers.

18 Days
17 Days
16 Days
15 Days
14 Days
13 Days
12 Days
11 Days

If yesterday we talked about Ryan Zimmerman and the number 11, today we need to talk about the number 10 and the two players who have had that number retired with the Montreal Expos: Rusty Staub and Andre Dawson.

I am too young to have any memories of Staub as a player, and my only actual memories of Dawson are of him playing with the Chicago Cubs, however both made impacts beyond what they did on the field and numbers they put up. Dawson is in the Hall of Fame, mainly for the peak of his career that occurred with the Expos and Staub, despite only playing parts of four seasons with the Expos, is one of the most recognizable players to ever wear the uniform and one of the more well-known stars due to two factors: his orange hair which earned him his “Le Grand Orange” nickname and he was the first superstar the Expos had when they first started as an expansion team in 1969.

September 19, 2012; Washington, D.C., USA; Washington Nationals right fielder Corey Brown (10) scores in the eighth inning as Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Matt Treanor (18) does not get the throw in time at Nationals Park. The Dodgers defeated the Nationals 7 – 6. Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports

Today’s stat is the most games with at least two home runs. Five players have hit multiple home runs in a game at least 10 times led by Vladimir Guerrero and Gary Carter who have done it 19 times. Dawson is next with 18 times. The other two have done it exactly 10 times: Zimmerman and Tim Wallach. Staub makes an appearance lower down on the list having done it five times.

Another one: Since moving to Washington, 10 pitchers have thrown at least 10 strikeouts in a game once. That list is dominated by Stephen Strasburg, doing it eight times. Jordan Zimmermann, John Patterson and Gio Gonzalez have done it three times each, Esteban Loaiza and Edwin Jackson have done it twice. The players who have done it once each are Tim Redding, Odalis Perez, John Lannan and Jason Bergmann.

Players to wear 10 with the Nationals: Royce Clayton, Brandon Harper, Ronnie Belliard, Tom Foley, Brian Bixler, Corey Brown