Viera, Fla. ? The Nationals are getting a little worried. People keep quizzing them about their new Washington D.C. home. And they keep flunking.

“Somebody asked (reliever) T.J. Tucker to name the owner of the Washington Wizards. They gave him a choice of four names,” said catcher Brian Schneider. “The name he picked off the list was the grandfather on ‘The Simpsons.”‘

Schneider then asks quietly, “Who is the owner of the Wizards?”

Turner doesn’t get the booby prize. An imaginative TV crew showed 6-foot-11 Jon Rauch a picture of D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams, complete with his trademark bow tie, and asked the Nats’ pitcher who he thought the person was.

“I have no idea,” said Rauch.

Take a guess.

Rauch bent over, studied the picture seriously then said, “Pee Wee Herman?”

Told that the photo was the man who had helped liberate his team from Montreal and was trying to build them a new $550 million stadium, the towering pitcher, known for his enormous tattoos, looked horrified and said, “Oh, I’m really sorry.”

This ritual of “Getting To Know You” between the Nationals and their new city goes both ways. The town doesn’t know much about its new team, either. This is going to take some time and effort. Another symbolic step was taken on Thursday when the Nats had their first actual practice. Five fields were full of Nats running the same classic spring drills as 71 years of Senators.

Perhaps the most awaited National has been Joey Eischen, a 34-year-old reliever who is as vital to the Nats’ plans as he is unknown in Washington. The hard truth may be that the Nats don’t have a single left-handed pitcher of major league quality in the entire organization. Except Eischen, who is a manic, zany, late-inning competitor who, in Manager Frank Robinson’s words, “will take the ball six nights in a row and then try to convince you that he’s not tired.”

In ’02 and ’03, Eischen had a 2.19 ERA in 129 appearances, almost all of them in late-inning, game-on-the-line situations against the opponent’s best left-handed hitters.

What’s the shaved-headed, tattooed with six-pack-abs Eischen like? That is, when he’s not playing the role of locker room disc jockey, deciding whether Latin, rap, rock or punk suits the club’s emotional needs?

“Joey’s about as left-handed as they get,” said starter Jon Patterson, as if that were the definitive treatise.

If Eischen is all the way back from his elbow surgery 11 months ago, the whole Nats bullpen, which is deep but desperately lacking balance, could suddenly be quite good.

However, let’s not get carried away.

For example, no Nat (with 400 at-bats) hit .300 last year. Only one pitcher won more than seven games and he was 11-15. As for the bullpen, no Washington reliever even had 15 saves. The team’s closest thing to a closer is Chad Cordero, 22, who symbolizes the team’s blend of promise for the future, but need for prudence in the present.

Last summer the College World Series was on the TV in the clubhouse.

“Who turned that on? Who the hell watches the College World Series?” Schneider recalled yelling.

Cordero had to ‘fess up.

“Sorry,” he said. “I was in it last year.”