“It is now the Nationals who rule the town and bring the city together.” — Fred Wertheimer, one of the nation’s leading campaign finance and ethics reformers. And, a Nationals fan. via The Wall Street Journal.
Dear Washington Nationals Fans,
This one is for you.
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All of you.
You, the lifelong Nationals fan who is just 15 years old (or younger) so “lifelong fan” is not some throw-away term, but really, truly what you have been since your – and the Nationals’ – embryonic days.
You, the Canadian who saw the Montreal Expos, before they were the Nationals, play in Olympic Stadium and were lucky enough not to be killed when the stadium roof and concrete support beams started to give way in small and not-so-small chunks.
You, the Washingtonian who truly is “long-suffering” as you knew and loved those other Washington teams. The Senators who became the Minnesota Twins. And, the other Senators, who became the Texas Rangers.
You, my friend Colleen – who is the very best kind of Nationals fan, the one who enjoys the moment without making me feel bad about the Baltimore Orioles 108-loss season.
You, who danced with “Mad Max” Scherzer, when he, for once, didn’t seem mad at all.
And, the rest of you, too, who rooted for the Washington Nationals in October because a) the culture of the Houston Astros front office is toxic and there was no way in hell you were going to root for them, b) you always root for the underdog and there was no one more underdogged than the Nationals, or c) everyone else was doing it, so you thought you ought to do it, too.
All of you.
Washington can be an ugly place and you’ve been through a lot of ugly lately.
You deserve a little World Series joy.
(Many of you have told me how wonderful life has become with the victory, how indescribable the joy. Then you go on to describe it to me. Which, now that you think about it, doesn’t make much sense, does it?)
Am I jealous? Of course, I am.
It’s like looking through a bakery store window … and right there is one warm and delicious apple fritter. The last one. Still there. And, you’re so hungry. But, you go to pull the door, to get that last apple fritter, and it’s 5:00 p.m. and the door is locked and the sign is jiggling from where it was flipped to “Closed” just two seconds ago.
That. That is what it feels like. I am consumed by apple-fritterless envy.
But, I’m going high today.
Congratulations, Washington Nationals fans.
I’m glad for you. I really am.
And, not just because the Houston Astros … and their toxic front office … are dead to me. Although that’s part of it. But, that’s not all of it.
I’m glad for you because you persevered through a horrendous start, through a challenging season, and you showed that you were better than 29 other baseball teams. And, more fun, too.
Before the post-season began, MLB Network analyst Bill “Call Me Crazy” Ripken (brother of another player of some note) said the Nationals would win the World Series.
Good enough for Bill Ripken? Good enough for me.
No need to recap the seven games. You watched ‘em all, right? (Oh, to have been born in the days before stadium lights when games would start in the afternoon and be done by dinnertime, not after midnight.)
So, my observations today are about you guys. You Nats Fans …
That Baby Shark Thing.
Yes, Baby Shark is cute. Adorable cute.
I was especially pleased to hear that, on occasion, manager Davey Martinez would put utility guy Gerardo Parra in as a pinch hitter in the hopes that his “Baby Shark” walk-up song would re-energize the fans when Nats Park was growing too quiet and sad.
To make fan participation part of a manager’s strategy is kind of cool.
Fun Fact: Sharks can have up to 100 babies – aka pups – in a single birth. Shark moms do not care for their pups. Once they’re born, baby sharks are motherless and on their own. Many baby sharks will kill their siblings.
Gerardo’s “Baby Shark”? Adorable.
via Creative Commons
Actual baby sharks? A horror show.
But, here’s the thing … there seems to be this belief among some Nats fans that Baby Shark is something extraordinary and new.
Good lord, people … it was the Nationals – YOUR Nationals – that sang along to A-Ha’s “Take On Me” whenever Michael Morse came to bat just a few seasons ago.
Have you forgotten already?
And, while baby sharks are nice and all (except for that “they kill each other” thing), I’m thinking the Angels’ Rally Monkey out-cutes a Baby Shark.
(I am not saying Rally Monkeys will get you to the World Series. Clearly, they won’t. But, you gotta admit, they’re cute.)
Look, as long as you’re not singing “Sweet Caroline” and pretending it has something profound to do with baseball, I’m good.
That Booing Thing.
Baseball reflects us. It is our game and it is a mirror to who we are as a culture, as a nation, as a people. The evolution of baseball is an evolution of us.
In a generation or two, someone somewhere will note that Nationals fans booed President Trump during Game 5. That someone somewhere won’t be able to tell you who won the game, but that won’t matter. The important thing will be that a stadium filled with boos when they saw the President.
(I don’t care what you think of this … good or bad. Really, I don’t. And, I doubt that you care what I think of this. I am merely saying here, history will remember.)
I do need to clear one thing up though.
Nationals fans seem to think they dreamed up booing the President. That no baseball fans had ever thought of that before.
President Herbert Hoover
This is where I get to – appropriately – use a stupid and tired cliché.
Hold my beer.
President Herbert Hoover was booed while attending a World Series game in Philadelphia in October 1930.
And, again in Philadelphia at a World Series game in October 1931.
(I know. Leave it to Philly fans.)
Embed from Getty Images(President Hoover at the non-booing 1929 World Series.)
The boos, some reporters noted, were part of a greater chant of “We want beer” directed at the President.
Prohibition. Remember?
Some reporters thought it inappropriate to include political news – and boos (and booze) – in their stories. Some tried the wink-wink approach:
One Philadelphia reporter explained in 1931: “Baseball fans are prone to boo anyone and anybody on the least provocation. In this case I do not think they meant any disrespect to the president but were merely shouting disapproval at some suggestion that was being made to them.”
Another sportswriter, noting that Babe Ruth was at the 1931 game – as a spectator – wrote that the Babe remarked: “They shouldn’t boo when President Hoover leaves the park; they should cheer.”
Touché.
That “Root-Root-Root For The Home Team” Thing.
You’ve already heard this, but the Washington Nationals became the first team to win a World Series by winning all of its series games on the road.
Not only has this made me question everything about home-field advantage and the lyrics to “Take Me Out To The Ballgame,” it has sort of made me question you.
Maybe you Nats fans aren’t helping all that much after all.
Nah, I’m sure that’s not it.
You Nats fans are all right. A little annoying at times – not Yankees-fan annoying – but you know, a little “stop with all the drama people, you need to calm down” annoying.
Enjoy the afterglow.
In just 135 days we get to start all over again.
BabySharkfully Yours, The Baseball Bloggess
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The Baseball Bloggess 
Till looking for a replay of 1966 (with a different outcome), Bloggess
v
It will take patience. Like 2022, 2023, 2024 patience. It’s going to take the Orioles some time. But, they’ll be there. So, please encourage your Dodgers to stick around. I’m going to root for another ’66 sweep, though. :)
While seemingly “dogging it” for the first part of the season, the Nats showed their true ability (& a bit of magic) when it mattered. I am always happy when it goes 7, anything to make the Void until mid-Feb. shorter. I also congratulate the fans, although, much like I witnessed in ‘87 in MN, there is an element of the “precious”, who treat a WS appearance much like any other bandwagon “what’s happening now” event.
I guess that can happen anywhere not named New York.
I’m looking for ways to survive until Spring Training.
It was a fun 7-game series … except for the late endings. I got a little blow back on Facebook from a Nats fan who called me “insufferable” because of this post (or now that I think of it, I think he was saying I’m just “insufferable” generally). And, I was being nice! (I wonder if he’ll call Howie Kendrick “insufferable” when he signs with Tampa Bay?)
Great job, Bloggess. Not a Nationalse fan myself, but it was a nail-bitinng series to the last game. Time flies, and spring training will come again before we know it. Thanks for a wonderful wrap up.
Thank you, Gloria! It was a fun series all the way around! :)
Hoover precedent aside, the way Nats fans greeted Trump and his grinning band of flunkies was reason enough to root for the Nats (but only for a week).
Yup! Have a good off-season Ken … and, hey, Carlos Beltran! It seems a little crazy, but a little crazy might just be what the Mets need.
Unfortunately Beltran just brings back memories of watching a called third strike to end game 7 of the NL championship series in 2006.
I couldn’t root for either of these teams but did watch game 7, because, game 7.
As a Tiger fan, I want to shake Scherzer and Sanchez and scream “Why couldn’t you do this for US?” and of course then be arrested and heavily fined.
Booing Trump is always a good thing. He had to show up at a Talibama footbore game to prop up his ego after that. They love him down there in Roy Moore Land.
Baby Shark is cute, and the people in the shark costumes. Hey, you’re reading a comment from someone who loved Hampster Dance. And the Rally Monkey, one of which still hangs from one of the globe lights over my bathroom mirror. (My grannie was an Angels fan.)
Hampster Dance! I had forgotten all about Hampster Dance! (I just went on YouTube to listen to the song and I had to wait for a Mike Bloomberg 2020 commercial to stream before I could listen. And, I thought, Bloomberg has so much money that he can target a niche demographic of someone who wants to hear Hampster Dance? I don’t even know what to make of that.)
Personally I didn’t watch much of the WS. Didn’t care for either team. My first intro to the baby shark was a Nationals series later in the season. Just as catchy as the Cubs song. Whatever unites and works, gets a thumbs up from me. Bring on 2020!
Happy Thanksgiving, Sharon … I came around on the Nationals, especially after all of the reports about the toxic front office and clubhouse in Houston. And, I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the unfolding sign stealing scandal unfold there. (I know full well, of course, that every team probably does something similar. Still … I think it’s a just comeuppance for them!)
Good article, Bloggess! Since I had no dog in this fight (being a Reds and Angels fan), I told my wife I would root for whatever team won the Washington vs. Milwaukee Wild Card Game. I didn’t realize I’d be rooting for the winning team. Next year, Reds vs. Orioles in the World Series! I think you can get 1,000,000 to 1 odds if you bet on it right now!
Reds vs Orioles? I like that! Yesterday, my blog had a wave of page views to a story I wrote this summer about the Reds’ Edd Roush taking a nap in the outfield during a game. I was a little surprised to see all the views to a story I posted 5 months ago … then I saw they were all coming from a Reds forum … and a discussion about comical moments in Reds history.
https://thebaseballbloggess.com/2019/06/08/edd-roush-takes-a-nap-in-the-outfield/
And, I went and read through the thread and it really showed me how passionate and smart Reds fans are … and how connected they are to the team’s rich history. And, I think that’s pretty awesome.
Another masterpiece on your part. Interesting note on Hoover. Somehow this history buff and baseball aficionado had missed that one. I loved Ruth’s comment. As a Braves fan, I’m saddened that they weren’t in the WS, but relieved that they already have re-signed Nick Markakis and Darren O’Day.
Thank you, Michael. For a player who was considered something of a rube, Babe Ruth had a rich history of pretty smart one-liners, didn’t he? :)
Any team smart enough to keep Nick Markakis is aces in my book. And, Darren O’Day, too … it’s like Orioles’ South down there! :)
Congrats to the Nationals! I’m so pumped and happy for them. Isn’t it amazing how they never won a playoff series and then won three (or four if we count that Wild Card game as a series) all in one year!?! Crazy. I’m excited to say I’m taking my family to D.C. next Summer and we’ll be attending games at both Nationals Park and Camden Yards. #Pumped!
Thanks,
Reid
Camden Yards has Nats Park topped in overall look and feel and intimacy. But, the crowds have thinned in Baltimore so it doesn’t have the buzz it did when the games sold out every night. Nats Park will be hopping next summer I’m sure. I know you and your family will have a blast!
Finally found time to read and reflect on baseball, which I miss already. Maybe you won’t get that fritter next season, but here’s to hoping you get in the bakery door in 2020. Speaking of rooting for the underdogs, because of you, my ears always perk up at “Orioles” now. And I smile.
I was at a Univ of Virginia basketball game yesterday and there was a kid sitting behind me with an Orioles logo on his shorts. (OK, first things first … it was barely — barely — 50 degrees out with gusty winds and this kid is in shorts and I am layered up like an eskimo.) But, I saw that O’s logo and felt this bond with this kid of a strange, shared, weary grief. Then Virginia won the game and I thought, “Well, at least I don’t have to fire up the Orioles grief machine for a couple more months.” Happy Thanksgiving, Wendy to you and your family!
Hey okay, I know we didn’t have a team for a long time, but I consider myself a lifelong fan. My grandfather took my grandmother on their first date to a game in the 1933 series. My dad watched the Senators every year and only saw them at .500 once. I didn’t have a team in DC as a child, so I had to root for the Orioles (which was its own circle of hell I might add). The first day we got a team, I flew back from New Orleans and went to the home opener. I paid the iron price for world series tickets and took my dad, myself and my son. We’re lifelong fans if anyone is.